Monday, August 1

It's been some time. Hi! I'm still alive, although I feel as if I've been run over by a train or something. I still don't think I had the flu but whatever it was, it knocked me right out. Most people to whom I've spoken who have been sick have said the same thing. It takes at least a fortnight to think about being better and up to a month to really feel better. I'm now into the third week. I've developed a chest infection and an ear infection from the original virus and still have to dose myself up night and morning to avoid choking on a coughing fit. I don't feel as if my nose is clogged, but I've had to turn up my hearing aids so there must be something there.

Added to all this is the fact that my husband is home at the moment. Work sent himm home because he hurt his leg. He doesn't want to be home, wants to work, hadn't taken any time off. All he needs is someone to do some lifting one week out of four. He knows of several other jobs in his department at his level which he could do and is well qualified for. In fact he's been asked by two grouups to work for thaeir department. However, this all has to go through the rehab manager who really doesn't seem to know what she is doing. She doesn't even know about these jobs and told him it was her job to find him work, not his. I'm going crazy with him here all the time. Lots of hot drinks and "what's for lunch?" when breakfast things are hardly in the dishwasher.

New baby Finn appears to be doing well, although I've only seen him the once. Other grandchildren are well too. It would be nice to get out and see them, but I'm taking things easy. I think I'm past the "germy" stage but still get very tired. I've just done a load of washing, have towels and sheets still to do and need to put fresh sheets on my bed. It's just after 10:00 am and I think that will be about my effort for the day. Pathetic, isn't it.

Food? Not much of it. I really don't feel like eating and haven't had much. I've made myself a fresh orange juice each morning for breakfast and had a banana. Very small meals otherwise. My clothes certainly feel as if I've gone down, but I haven't weighed myself. Absolutely no exercise unless I can count going down and up the stairs, once in morning and at night. LOL Much more than that and I cough madly.

This is developing into a pity party. Will go now.

Thursday, August 18th

Hmmm. Basically three weeks! So what happened? I've been pretty busy for a while, but that's really no excuse. Heaps of stress and unpleasantness at home which have made me feel very down although things are not too bad at the moment. And it's only this last couple of days that I could say I was really beginning to feel better from being wiped out by a virus nearly five weeks ago. Very powerful with lots of lingering side effects.My husband was away in the country from last Friday till late Tuesday, so I did what I wanted to or felt like doing. Somehow that didn't include the computer.

On Friday a week ago,my friend and I went to the movies. We both badly needed some stress relief. I was right out of the loop as to what was on. Occasionally I slip out and go by myself to the cinema in Burwood, but can't do that with my husband here all day. We saw Weddding Crashers which was not quite what either of us was expecting. It was quite funny in spots but very predictable in others. Language was rather ripe and really, that began to pall after a while. Lots and lots of bare flesh too. However, it was time out and we had a nice lunch afterwards. I was starving as I hadn't slept well the previous evening and had eaten breakfast early. Stuck to a simple sandwich and coffee, despite being hungry.

Last Saturday was freezing here and friend and I went to another friend's place at Bowral. Lovely day for driving, very clear and sunny. House at Bowral is on the northern side of the hill, protected from the wind and it was beautiful there. We met more friends down there and both of us were quite relaxed by the time we left. Not much to eat, basically plain rolls and some salad. It was a good couple of days after a very tense week.

Spotlight staff were unpacking their Christmas stock last week! For goodness sake, Christmas decorations on the shelves in mid-August? A bit much. However, today I took advantage of KMart's 20% off children's toys and bought things for all the grandchildren for Christmas. I still need a few more bits and pieces for the older two, but will get them some books and stationery.

Food rolls on. Nothing much to report there and I try to be sensible in choices. Not always possible or desired, but I do try. I'm still finding red meat quite unpleasant. I had two tiny bites, and I mean tiny, about the size of my thumbnail of roast lamb last week. I could not finish the second piece without feeling as if I would choke on it,or worse. Lots of other foods for protein,so I don't worry about that.

Monday, August 29th

I've been spending most of my spare time fiddling with my new camera. I bought a very small, bottom of the range, 2 megapixel Canon several years ago. I figured it would do me, because I often don't have a good relationship with cameras. However, I've used this one lots after I finally tried it out, and was becoming frustrated with its limitations. 2 megapixels is not much and although I bought a 64k memory card, I still had to use half resolution to fit a reasonable number of images on to it. I also had problems with the flash and the camera was particularly sensitive to light, even using the flash. Grey days weren't much to its liking and inside shots were generally hopeless. It also had only a digital zoom which distorted the picture. The manual wasn't well written and for someone like me with little technical knowledge about photography, it was hard to understand.

I've been using the money from my part time, intermittent work to buy knitting supplies but saved up dome money and decided a new camera would be nice. My son said he could get an Olympus for a very good price and that anything above what I had saved would be his birthday present to me. This has a 10x optical zoom. He'd just bought one to replace his previous Olympus which was almost ten years old. He also promised reasonable storage facilities.

When he went to buy it, the store with the good price was out of stock. He bought the next model up, an Olypus C-765 UltraZoom. The manual is well set out and easy to understand. The controls work well and all follow the same logic. Flash opens up and closes easily and when closed is definitely off. I've used it in all sorts of light and it works. Even used the night setting without a flash and had it turn out reasonably. 4 megapixels make for nice sharp pictures, much more so than the Canon gave. Zoom function is fantastic. We went down to the river and I took some pictures of the Gladesville bridge arch with/without zoom. Picture clarity is good and bridge looks as if I was standing under it, instead of quite a way away. And the memory card? A genuine Olympus card so I can do fancy panoramic shots and other different things. At full resolution, this gigabyte card will hold well over 1000 pictures. I won't have to worry about running out of space and needing to download before I can take some more.

Then I had another surprise. I asked him how much I owed him. I had $600 which I had set aside for it. He ummed and aahed and said he'd work it out. I found out he'd even wangled some money (amount unknown to me) from my husband. When Sarah, his wife returned from Sri Lanka, I figured she would find out for me. She insisted that I owed nothing! I've now asked three times and been told to forget it. So I have my camera and the money too. I originally only decided to buy the camera now because I thought she might get it in Singapore or Hong Kong. I certainly didn't even think about a present. I feel very blessed.

Overall, we've had a fairly mild winter and my freesias have bloomed earlier than usual. Nights have been chilly, but the days have the feel of spring. I'm even beginning to feel that spring is nearly here myself. I've finally cast off the last dregs of the virus I had and this morning almost went for a walk. Note the "almost." I'll get there soon. I'm tired of reporting the stress around here, but it doesn't disappear, at least most of the time. Walking helps, as does knitting which has a meditative aspect to it. These freesias are in a pot on the deck. More are about to bloom. The banksia rose and the jasmine are also out and I see some cliveas with buds too.

We had afternooon tea here on my birthday. I'd originally planned to go to Wahroonga Park for it. Great play area for the littlies and good coffee nearby. However, it rained on the morning of my birthday. Not much but it was too wet for the park, so everyone came here. It really was only coffee and cake, but the cake was there for several more days and I had a piece each day. Orange and poppyseed, no creamy stuff, and it was moist and stayed fresh. I should have sent it home with one of the boys. To top it off, two familes stayed for dinner and bought pizza from Mario's down the road. It's one of the things they miss about having moved away from here. He makes wonderful pizza. Pizza and cake on the one day. Haven't had pizza since last summer.

Since then, which was a week ago, I've been somewhat more careful. Except for last saturday when we went up the Blue Mountains. One son is housesitting up there and we had BBQ for lunch. Although I really cannot stomach meat any more these days, I can still eat bacon, sausages etc. I think it's the texture, it just makes me gag nowadays. I had a piece of chicken and a thin sausage and also had some bread, really fresh. A tiny piece of cherry strudel and a beer. It wan't really a vast amount to eat, even with the large serve of salad, but I'm not used to meat at all now. I didn't have any dinner but about 9:00pm had a couple of yellow kiwifruit. Even the next morning I wasn't really hungry but had a small breakfast. I could almost feel the meat, still sitting in my stomach. Not pleasant.

Lots of housework planned for today, so I'll hang out the first load of washing and get on with it.

Thursday, September 8th

I'm still testing out my new camera. Here's a couple of flowers in my yard. The cliveas are a bit deeper in colour than shown and fortunately, I've clipped the happy wanderer vine photo so you can't see the rest of the ivy which covers the fence from next door. It comes over my side to look for the sun and more light. I've fought it for years, along with a waxy vine which grows like wildfire and has thick, sinuous stems which have to be cut not broked. They grow from tubers underground and the vine has lots, literally thousands, of tiny nodules on the stem. Knock one off and another vine grows, even on the concrete.

Certainly today, spring is here and the grass is riz. I was hanging out washing and noticing the clover and the bees. Will have to get it cut at the weekend. I used to do it, but my shoulders have been sore for at least a week, and I'm not getting the mower out.

The photos are still big, even though I've scaled them down. I'm having trouble gettng the size right. The new camera is 4 megapixels and the old was 2 megapixels, but cut down to half so I could get a reasonable number on the card. I'm always amazed when I turn it on, just how many I can fit on the card at full resolution. About 1100 pictures and the viewscreen counts down for me.

The spring weather is warm today and a big change from Sunday. I was out all day on the North Shore of Sydney. It was wet and quite cold, only 12° where I was. It makes it easier to be inspired about food, weight loss etc. Unfortunately, the spring feeling hasn't yet extended quite as far as spring cleaning, and the vacuuming is waiting for me when I finish here. My mind is even suggesting that I go for a walk at dawn. Now that would be revolutionary. Body is not yet co-operating with the mind on that matter!

Life's been busy. I was out every day last week for most of the day and some evenings as well. Then I was also out all day both weekend days. I was pleased when Monday rolled around and I was at home with only the washing to occupy me. One evening I went to a performance at NIDA which is now allied with the Uni of NSW. Beautiful theatre and lots of pictures of past students, now famous. This was a dance/movement recital given as a Master's thesis performance by the friend of one of my friends. I enjoyed it, although I really don't know much about dance. It wasn't a late finish and the bar was open afterwards. I had nothing.

I've been enjoying spelt bread which gives a fairly dense bread with a nutty flavour. I make it once a week when a group of us has dinner here. Usually just a soup or basic casserole and the bread. Spelt flour can be bought from health shop. It's an ancient grain, and those with intolerances to wheat can often eat it, even though it is still a form of wheat. I discovered that my local Italian bakery sells spelt products- sometimes small rolls,sometimes larger loaves. I bought two of these and cut each one into three and froze them. This gives about the equivalent of a roll. I've been having them with tuna and salad at lunch. I've noticed that I don't get the sleepy feeling in the early afternoon which I often get after normal bread or rolls.

I had work yesterday, the first since I was sick. I thought I might have been on the outer since turning down an offer when I wasn't well, but apparently they haven't been testing. Consultant rang me this morning and offered me more work of a different kind at the Swan's game tomorrow night. Didn't really want night work and transport is a bit of an issue, so turned the consultant down. He's replacing another guy who knew the sort of work I want. This one needs to be trained,I think.

Again more work for our major transport group here. It's perfectly obvious why transport is so poor. The incompetence goes right down the line. Some of those applying for positions are quite good, others would be dangerous driving a scooter, let alone anything in public transport. Still, the work is easy and the money reasonable. I will say I had a small pastry at morning tea. Breakfast had been a long time before. I live quite close to the city. However the train timetable has now been changed and the last train I can catch which will get me to work in the city at 9:00am is at 8:13, for what should be a ride of just under twenty minutes. The trains are now slower than many years ago when as a child,I used to go with my grandmother to the city from the same station as I now use. I was two minutes late. The new timetable has dropped the number of trains and given them longer to get to their destination. This is to increase the number being on time! As if! I wonder if the Minister for Transport really thinks that the public is so gullible as to swallow this line of thought. To add to the insult, the 8:13 was only six carriages long, not eight, and was absolutely packed.

OK, a bit off topic there but I'd had a very early breakfast and the pastry was made in-house at the conference centre and was about a bite only.

Tonight's dinner is with the group again and is kumara and leek soup with fresh bread. Smells good and the bread is actually ready early enough to allow it to cool, so I can slice it easily. I made curry last night. Put lamb fillet in my husband's dish and kept mine purely vegetable. I was tired after working so just used powder instead of a curry paste or my own blend of spices as usual. There were about seven different veges in mine and I served it with some mashed cauliflower as a change from rice. The cauliflower was OK and certainly a change, but to mash it it has to be cooked more than I would normally do. I'm not a fan of mushy vegetables. I like mine crunchy. I remember MIL once cooking cabbage in the pressure cooker! YUK.

Better go vacuum before friends arrive.

Sunday afternoon, 11th September

Poor little Finn, pictured here only a few hours old, has had a rough trot. Somehow he caught a cold, perhaps from being taken inside preschool when his big sister was dropped or picked up there. It got much worse and developed into a nasty ear infection and then a very nasty and serious chest infection. He has been very ill, worryingly so, but is finally on the mend. He's almost seven weeks old now. I need to update my pictures and must get a newer one of him.

Absolutely beautiful weather here this weekend. Yesterday I went to the wedding of a girl whom I've known for about 12-13 years. It was at St Philip's at Eastwood, which is a fairly old church. Lovely stained glass. It was hot enough to need fans on inside. Rachel looked absolutely beautiful. She's tall, very slim and always elegant. Dress was a halter top. Beaded, then very slim, no white meringues for her, and just a hint of a train at the back, also beaded. I've known the other girls in the bridal party for the same time. One of them had her second baby six weeks ago, but you could not have told from the dress. I think she'd been doing some serious gym work and is feeding little Sophie. However. she looked great too. Rachel is very cool, calm and collected. nothing ever seems to upset her. She's just finished a Ph.D while planning the wedding at the same time. However, as she walked down the aisle, her bouquet was trembling. She was holding the bouquet with both hands in an effort to control the tremour in her hands. All went well and the ceremony was lovely. I met up later with other friends whom I seem to to see only at weddings etc. It was a good afternon.

Warm and sunny again today. I went to the city as usual to catch a bus back to church. After waiting at Town Hall bus stop for a while, I was finally informed there were no buses till 1:30 pm because of the marathons being run. A policeman was on point duty at Town Hall intersection and about two cars got through down George Street at a time between groups of runners. I was already later than usual because of the new timetable on the trains and there ws no way I was going to be anywhere near on time. I contemplated ringing friends and getting them to pick me up. Then I had anothr look at the traffic. Westwards stretched as far as I could see back to Central and to the Quay was no better. The othe intersections were the same and at two cars through at a time, it was pointless to ask for help.

I decided to have coffee. Nothing open except Woolworths and I wouldn't try coffee there. Went into the Queen Victoria building to find much the same thing. I gave up and came home. I was upset at missing seeing some special friends and came home. I resisted the temptation to have brunch at the café near the station but haven't really been great, even at home. I've picked on and off at food all day. Nothing really bad, because I don't buy fancy biscuits, chocolates etc. However, I know I really needed a proper lunch and haven't had that. I think I'll have some leftover soup tonight and perhaps that will help. It's the start of a new week and the start of spring. I might find some inspiration there if I have a good look.

A lovely day here but very chilly in the wind. Nothing like the warmth of last weekend. It's been good for walking although chilly, as I said. We even had some rain over the weekend. Quite a bit on Friday evening and some more since. However, not enough. I've done quite a bit of walking this week, not all of it planned but incidental to life. Still activity.

Spring vegetables are in the shops. Yesterday I bought really fresh beans and some yummy peas and a couple of bunches of asparagus. Also two punnets of beautiful strawberries which actually have some flavour as well as good looks. The peas are young and sweet and easily shelled. I'm actually eating some of them raw, a childhood favourite of mine. In the days before frozen peas, my mother made me whistle as I shelled them, I could sing and eat them simultaneously, but whistling and eating raw peas together didn't work. Yesterday I made stock from the carcase of a roast chicken and added a lot of vegetables. Potato, onion,celery were all cooked up and blended. Then I added a tin of creamed corn, a pile of sliced mushrooms, quite a bit of a large leek thinly sliced and a handful of parsley. This used up some bits and pieces in the fridge and made great soup. I've served up a couple of containers of it for work lunches and I had a huge bowl of it, two rice thins, some peas and some strawberries for lunch. Tonight's dinner will be some pasta with some tuna stirred through and a salad with lots and lots of rocket in it.

The woman next door saw me knitting yesterday and asked what I did. I showed her the socks I was wearing and she was thrilled. She's just taken to knitting this year and has made a couple of pairs. However, she had wanted some advice and didn't know where to go. I'm no expert but have made many more pairs than she has. She used to be a nurse with a very responsible position. Now her little boy is almost two and I think she knits at night for relaxation. I'm currently having a bit of a knitting bludge. I went on a long train trip at the beginning of the week and knitted for a long time with my arm on the windowsill of the train. I didn't realise how much strain it was putting on my shoulderre till the next couple of days when I could hardly move my arm. So I'm taking it easy and have only a scarf and a sock on the go, apart from a shawl which is basically there for occasional knitting. I'm doing what was called a "pink ribbon scarf" for breast cancer. This will be part of a birthday present for my sister who is a cancer survivor of eight years now. This is done in Patons Velveteen which is a sort of chenille. It's sort of OK to knit, unlike those dreadful feathers yarns or the cheap acrylics which hurt my hands. Across the ends pink ribbon is woven through the knitting. There is also a pattern for socks which is very pretty, but I don't have either time or pink wool for those. Always Christmas, I suppose. It's hard to find solid colour sock wool. I bought a lot from Elann in Canada but no pink. Even with quick postage it was cheaper than stuff out here. If any one wants a look at the pink ribbon socks, here's a link. The pattern is a PDF file, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to down load it. The free reader for Acrobat is available from here. It's a very useful program to have and I use it very often for files and documents.

Wednesday 28th September

I've had a busy time lately. Wedding, babysitting and quite a bit of work. I spent all last Saturday babysitting, stayed the night and also spent some of Sunday babysitting. This had been arranged well in advance so I knew about it. Took my knitting but did almost none of it. However it made my week hectic as I was busy last week with various things I could not put off and also this week has been filled with work, longish hours at that. I came home yesterday and started some knitting but had to undo it four times as I made stupid mistakes through tiredness.

It was all I could do to get dinner on Monday night. The day had been long and there were top brass observers in. While we follow instructions at any time, we had to be very active in observing everything. Usually we each get a break through the sessions. This time we all stood - all day with an exception of 30 minutes for lunch. The groups were large and we actually had a couple of burly security guards in as the tests were marked on the spot and each needed to be passed to progress. A couple of guys had been a bit stroppy last week about their results. Better safe than sorry, I supppose. One more day's work this week, and I am looking forward to sleeping in on Friday.

The picture shows a new technique of knitting. Scarves going in different directions have been around a while and usually require picking up stitches to start a new direction. Someone with more visual ability than I have and the knowledge of being able to translate that into mathematics and then stitches, worked out a way of knitting which does not require picking up stitches. The picture shows the first scarf I did like this. It's really easy although it looks complicated. I love the deep wine colour and the blue together. I think it's like stained glass, although the band called it Dark Opal.

At least while I have been working, I have not been eating. Lunch is supplied and is usually small sandwiches or wraps and some fruit. On the other hand, I don't get to drink as much as I do at home and I feel quite dehydrated when I leave. Drinking leads to needing to leave the room and that hasn't been possible. Even my eyes feel dry and my lips too.

Tonight I made a pie with some turkey breast and a lot of vegetables, curried and some pastry on top. I didn't do rice or potato but just broccoli and a big salad. My husband says he's lost 8 kg. I can't see where it's come from, so perhaps he's found it again.