Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Wet and Aggressive Corella challenges Magpie

Tuesday 27 March 2012

An Update and Thank you all

Thank you all so much.  I cannot tell you how much your words of support have meant.

The Smaller Portion was operated on this morning.  He had to be at the hospital at 6 this morning and was warned that tardiness would cost him his place in the queue.  This meant real suffering for someone whose preference is to spring out of bed at the crack of noon.  With the help of his sister we were there on time.  Early even.

An incredibly convoluted admission process followed.  First he had to complete two forms.  Having done so, he was told to sit down in the waiting room.  Then they called his name again and issued him with stunning hospital wear including stockings, booties and a very fetching cap.  Having donned it he was told to sit down in the waiting room.  Where we waited.  And waited.  Then he was called again and had to complete another form, have his blood pressure taken and a sample vial of his blood taken.  Then, you guessed it, he was told to return to the waiting room. 

Finally he was called again, asked more questions and told to climb onto a hospital bed.  As they wheeled him off to the theatre I asked if they could ring me when the operation was finished, and tell me the outcome.  'Maybe.'  'Perhaps it is better if you ring the Patient Enquiries number at 10.30'

Which I did.  To be told he was still in theatre and to ring back in an hour.  Which I did to get the same response.  When I rang back at 12.30 I was told that he was in Recovery and would be for at least an hour and a half.  And to ring back.  And no, I couldn't talk to anyone in Recovery.  I finally established he was in a ward just before three.  The phone rang out the first time I tried to talk to them.  The second time, the phone was answered and I was told he wasn't there.  I said he was.  'Oh, yes so he is.'  Further interrogation reveals that he has had an ileostomy.  Sadness.  Both of us hoped it wouldn't be necessary.

So his sister and I decided the hospital has stuffed us around quite enough for one day and we would go and see him.  And the rotten remote for the car refused to function and consequently the car refused to move.  I got out the teeny weeny screwdriver set and got to work.  Nothing was going to stop me.  And it didn't.

When I got to the ward and went to see him he asked me what had happened.  THE ROTTEN FESTERS HADN'T TOLD HIM.  Oh joy, oh bliss.

I have had a glass of red wine and may have another.  I have told his sister (who has been nothing but helpful and who I wish to Jericho) that there are vegetable noodles for dinner.  If she would prefer something else she is free to forage.

Thank you all once again.


Tuesday 20 March 2012

Insanity coming my way

I think for the next little while I will be largely absent from the blogosphere.  I also know that I will miss you all.  Blogging has been a safety valve for me, and is surprisingly addictive.

If the hospital does not reschedule again the Smaller Portion will have his colostomy reversed next Tuesday.  Hopefully.  His surgeon has flagged again that an ileostomy might be necessary as an interim measure.  I hope not.  I really hope not.  Not least because the Smaller Portion has assumed that it wont be.

We are told that it is a significant operation and will require an incision bigger than the first.  Regardless of the outcome, when he gets home he will be unable to drive and unable to lift anything which weighs more than one kilogram (which includes the cats).  These restrictions will be in place for about six weeks.  Fun times.

His sister said that she would like to come down.  I said that she would be of most help to us when he gets out of hospital - he does convalescence really, really badly.  So this afternoon the Smaller Portion told me that she will be arriving on Sunday, on a one-way ticket.

She is house proud.  The ambience of this house is cluttered and dusty.  We have been using the spare room as a depository for things which we don't have a home for.  Aaaaargh.  And Jazz, toad of a cat that he is, has taken to inappropriate piddling.  Cluttered, dusty and ponging of cat piss.  Joy and bliss.

I have Lifeline on Thursday (and am not prepared to give it up).  The Smaller Portion wants things to be pleasant for his sister, and does not want her to work while she is down here - 'She is coming down as a favour'.  So I have three days to work miracles.  Including shampooing the carpet.  When the three of us are in residence there will be three different diets to cater for.  More joy and bliss.

And now to add to the mixture.  We have had a lot of rain this summer.  Blessed rain.  Everything has grown and there is green all around.  The weeds have also grown very well.  Last week while starting the mammoth weed-a-thon I discovered that the wet season had caused some of the many bulbs we put in last year to rot.  Not a problem.  I love bulb catalogues (and refer to them as garden porn).  I happily went on line and ordered lots.  (Clicking on this image will enlarge it.)  I ordered 100 each of the marked collections.


Then the Smaller Portion got in on the act.   And ordered about another 400 bulbs - a lovely selection of tulips and iris and hyacinths.  The daffodils have arrived.  And need to go in the garden soon. Very soon for the ones that are sprouting.   The tulips and other bulbs should arrive next week.  I am still have signficant pain, difficulties in bending, and cannot get to the ground and back up again.  Woe, woe and thrice woe.  Sometimes I think I am loopy.  Other days I know it.

Sunday 18 March 2012

Sunday Selections # 62





Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.  

As usual I am running with a theme.  And for something completely different, it is birds again.  This little gem has been visiting us for the last few days, and we are happy to see him.  He is called the Common Bronzewing pigeon, and is apparently found in most parts of Australia but I cannot remember ever seeing him before.

I think he is truly beautiful.






The colours on his wings are particularly spectacular.



Sunday 11 March 2012

Sunday Selections





Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.  

As usual I am running with a theme.  This week I am going back (again) to Antarctica.  I am sorry if the cold views are a bit too close to home for bloggers in the Northern Hemisphere.  I fell in love with Antarctica well before I went there, and was deeper in its thrall after my visit.





















Friday 9 March 2012

Corellas yet again.

This post is for DJan, for Spectra and for me.

I love the corellas and they are visiting most days again.  I am reposting the video of the loving pair grooming in the hope that DJan will be able to see it this time.  (Warning:  please turn your sound off before viewing the video.  The television was on in the loungeroom and the sound track is completely inappropriate.)









Please turn your sound off/down here.





Monday 5 March 2012

I remember this ....

Another quote from here:



'Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.'  

This depressingly accurate quote was by Ellen Goodman, not a woman I had ever heard of.  You can find out about her here

I am so grateful to have left those days behind.

Sunday 4 March 2012

Sunday Selections





Sunday Selections, brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, is an ongoing theme where participants post previously unused photos languishing in their files. 

Anyone can join in, just post your photos under the Sunday Selections title, link back to Kim, then add your name to her Linky list at Frogpondsrock.  

As usual I am running with a theme this week.  It has been wet here.  Very wet.  By mid morning on the 1st of March we had reached our usual monthly average rainfall.  It has been raining almost constantly since.

I like the rain.  It is good for the garden, provides me with a perfect excuse not to be weeding and keeps the temperatures down.  All good things.  Just the same, it has been a touch grey and gloomy outside.

So today I am bringing you the begonias which live on our front veranda and add colour to every day.