Blah

The four day weekend was a bit of a disappointment weather-wise. It rained and if it didn’t rain it was cold and/or cloudy and threatening rain. On days like that I don’t feel like doing anything and my list of things to do for the weekend was all outdoors stuff (like washing and vacuuming the car). Daughter was sick and got sicker so I joined her in blobbing in front of movies all weekend. I’d given her $20 to buy some Codral on the Friday, but she got worse and we ended up going to the doc’s yesterday (which cost $15 more). So $66 later and with a few meds, we headed home to watch another batch of movies.

Which movies?

The Rite (starring Anthony Hopkins) It was ok

Robot Chicken Star Wars III (a Seth Rogan movie) – was not funny

Eclipse – daughter said we had to watch it since we’d read the books. The movie was terribly dull. We were bored to tears. It also seemed so tedious after the action-packed “True Blood” I’ve been watching lately.

Men Who Stare at Goats (starring George Clooney) – odd but interesting.

Fido (starring Billy Connolly as a zombie) – this one I did enjoy

The Darjeeling Limited – I’m not a great fan of Owen Wilson but it was enjoyable enough.

Down Terrace – I should have been warned by the cover proclaiming it as hilarious or very funny or something – such claims always prove false. It was more a drama with some moments which made you laugh out of shock rather than humour. The Brits can do gritty realism and this was one of those where you almost feel like you’re a fly on the wall.

I’m sure there was another movie, but I can’t remember what it was, so exciting it must have been…

I have only two episodes of “True Blood”, series 3, left to watch. Apparently the next series is ‘brutal’ which doesn’t bode well for my favourite characters.

Anyway, back to work…

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Plan for the future or it will be the same as the present

The heading is a word of wisdom to self.  I’ve been living ‘alone’ for 21 years (with children but without partner) and in the same house for 17 of those years.  If I’m not careful I’ll be stuck in this rut forever.  It’s taken me a long time to even realise the above.  I never usually plan anything because the past has taught me that planning anything always led to disappointment.  I’d never made a plan B.

I said the above to myself as I looked around at my accumulated possessions, the general untidiness that results from hoarding objects with nowhere to put them.  I must, absolutely must, get rid of a lot of stuff.

Oldest daughter wants to move to Australia.  Younger daughter has also indicated that she would most likely move there too when it comes to starting her photography career.  (Her boyfriend also plans to move there.) There’s nowhere in NZ that she wants to live – not Wellington (ex-boyfriend is moving there), not Auckland, not Christchurch, not Dunedin, not Tauranga – where else is there, she asks?

With daughters living in Australia, there’s no longer any reason for me to stay in NZ, but it’s a huge move, considering the possessions hoarded by myself, kids, and my parents, and the huge amount of work needed doing to the house in order for anyone to be remotely interested in buying it.

A lot of work…

The alternative is to continue as I am, stuck in a rut in the same untidy, damp house in the same damp, grey town, at the same unexciting job, with no-one to share it with.  Gloomy, it looks.

Funny how I come to blog about something completely different and start on a completely different track.

Health worries – there’s another thing.  Blood tests showed I don’t have high cholesterol or sugar levels, etc, which is brilliant.  They did show, however, that not only are my hormones all over the place (that’s menopause for you) but there is elevated calcium in my blood.  Great.  Osteoporosis anyone?  The cure is an op to remove the faulty gland.  Nice.

An ultrasound also showed that I have gall bladder stones.  Wonderful.  However, I feel no pain so they are ‘silent’ stones and apparently nothing to worry about.  The ultrasound showed nothing wrong with bladder or uterus so the pain (as I always thought) is more likely to come from bowels.  I’ve been mentioning bowel problems to doctors since last year but they haven’t listened.  I wanted a colonoscopy last year but I wasn’t “eligible”.  So much for national bowel screening.  My greatest fear is cancer, which my mother died of.  Her parents also died young from cancer.  I’m determined to live well into my 80s if my body will let me.  I can do without health worries.

Just to add to the feeling that my health is crapping out, I’ve had a sore thigh and sore foot.  The foot pain is probably tendons and most likely due to bad footwear.  Yep, that’d be right.  I need to buy a complete new set of winter footwear for next year.  I’m still waiting for warm dry weather to be able to wear sandals and lighter shoes.  Then I had a spot on my face which appeared to be a changing freckle (it’s now healing.) I freaked out about skin cancer.  I feel like a hypochondriac.

Anyway, I have another doctor appointment today to discuss options.  What fun.  Can’t wait.

I’m actually quite glad that NaNoWriMo is taking my mind off everything.  Oh, and daughter finally took the computer in to be fixed.  Thanks for small mercies.

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Another weekend update

The forecast rain wasn’t as bad as I feared. There was some sun on Saturday but yesterday, Sunday, was glorious. Daughter and I went for a long walk by the river following roads made by 4-wheel drive vehicles. Thankfully we were there before most of them started arriving in the afternoon. Daughter and I took photos – hers, of course, would be far better than mine as she has the DSLR and I’ve just got my little Canon. I’m quite pleased with some of the photos I took but I haven’t had a chance to look at them properly on the computer as daughter STILL hasn’t taken the computer in to be fixed!!! Grrr!

I would take it in myself but the opening hours are the exact times I’m working and I don’t want to take any more time off – I’ve been to the doctor and labs for tests quite a bit lately and I don’t want to be absent more than I have to. There’ll be another doctor’s appointment this week or next after the latest batch of results come through. I finally went to a doctor who listened rather than assumed. I’ve been to that medical centre 4 or 5 times now with the same complaint and seen three different doctors. I’ll stick with the latest one who appears more interested in finding the cause than prescribing pills. Finally, someone who’s taking me seriously.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was very pleasant. I sat on the deck listening to the birds and watching a tui who sang from a gum tree but was guarding the kowhai tree from any other birds. Each time a bird landed on a branch of the kowhai, the tui flew over and scared it off, then it returned to the gum tree. Quite funny to watch. I read a lot (of The Lord of the Rings, and realising Peter Jackson changed a lot more of the book than I picked up the first time in the movies as I hadn’t read the book for a long time). I half-heartedly pulled out a few weeds but the ground was very wet – the front lawn was flooded from heavy downpours on Saturday morning. In the evenings, as there was nothing on TV (2 channels were playing the rugby semi-finals and the others had nothing worth watching on them) I watched a few episodes of True Blood. I had never bothered watching the series when it was on TV because I had been put off such programmes about vampires by other rather stupid series (I thought). However, daughter had been watching the series on her computer and was addicted so I gave it a go. I didn’t get interested until episode 5 of the first series. I’m now up to episode 5 of the second series. I’d better get them all watched before November when I want to write for NaNoWriMo every spare second I’ve got.

Anyway, as usual my mind is elsewhere when I’m supposed to be working. I wonder if I’ll ever find a position I truly enjoy – this doesn’t seem to be it but it pays the bills and is not stressful. Speaking of which, back to it…

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Random update

Another weekend gone and the holiday weekend is still 2 weeks away – it’s such a horrendously long time between holiday periods. My overseas trip was now 3 months ago and that seems like 6 months. The sunnier weather just makes me want to holiday instead of work.

Mind you, the Saturday just been was very wintry! It was so cold and wet I just didn’t want to do anything. I dragged out some stamps I’d been hoarding for months, if not years, and soaked them, dried them, and put them in albums. It’s amazing how long that took, actually. I have another large envelope full of stamps at work. I never got out of the habit of collecting them even if they just sit around for years. I don’t imagine the habit of a lifetime will stop anytime soon but I’ve decided I will no longer be collecting stamps of all countries. Places like Denmark and USA have rather boring stamps. And those adhesive stamps are a bastard – too difficult to get off the paper, so I’ll not be collecting them either.

Sunday was glorious – warm, sunny weather – the complete opposite to Saturday’s weather. I read a couple of books in the sunshine, listening to the tuis, made notes for my upcoming writing challenge, did washing and sundry chores. In the afternoon headed into town with daughter to buy some essentials and discovered that Steve’s Bulk Bin was closed on Sunday. Bugger. That was one of the main destinations. Bought some veges and fruit next door and a couple of items at Davis Trading. On the way back, we bought some peach juice concentrate for daughter’s idea of making iced tea. It was delicious! We won’t be buying any more Dilmah or Lipton’s Iced Tea drinks anymore. I lived on those while in KL and Singapore – they were so refreshing on a hot day. Oh, on the way out of Liquorland, I was approached by a young teenage boy and asked if I’d buy alcohol! My answer was a firm “No!” but I was astounded at the cheek. My clothing that afternoon was obviously too casual!

Back to the cloud and rain this working week. I did get out at lunchtime today for a half-hour walk and did it in 25 minutes thanks to some music on my iPod shuffle to keep me in step. It was a very pleasant walk in fact, but I was wearing the wrong footwear and my right heel rubbed on the sock in a (now) loose boot. I should bring proper walking shoes if I’m going to walk faster.

Back to work…

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Not much of a day

Well yesterday was a bit of a bastard.

Went to the car in the morning to head to work. The inside of the car stunk to high heaven. It smelled like a cross between rotting food and rotting damp. I searched high and low and couldn’t find the source of the smell – getting my nose down to floor level revealed nothing.

Got stuck behind a slow truck on the way to work after first being cut off by a car who stopped a few hundred metres down the road.

The rest of the morning seemed to go without a hitch.

For lunch I had a weak, insipid soup from a nearly expired sachet, and an apple.

While sipping this non-food, I heard Middle Eastern music and went outside to discover a tent of goodies set up by some Saudi Arabians. I lined up behind some young girls who got all the attention. You know you’re old when you get ignored. The Saudi guy was happily explaining about the different dishes from the different regions to a couple of girls in front of me. When I came in front of him he just smiled and looked to the next person. Oh well.

Went to take some photos and after a couple of crappy ones the battery went flat.

The afternoon was also without any annoyances or frustrations. However, I forgot to do two new duties that I’m supposed to take over while a colleague is away overseas. I only remembered one of them this morning, and quickly did it, but forgot the other entirely.

After work I went to the supermarket. I chose the wrong day to do so. Every other resident was there and it was a nightmare. It was bad enough to queue up for ages at the checkout without the computer system crashing. Naturally, I was in the wrong queue when it started up again. The machine in that queue refused to work, so I had to queue up at the back of another line.

On arrival at home at about 6.45pm I unpacked the groceries and put things away but made a mess of opening the rice packet and rice went all over the kitchen floor. Even after sweeping it, there was still heaps I’d missed (it was hard to see on the light-coloured lino).

It was 7.30 by the time I could eat dinner. Dinner was ok if a bit tasteless. I was disappointed with the bland sausages which had been quite expensive.

Daughter arrived home late and ate the veges and a sausage. I made the mistake of eating another leftover sausage. I’d already had a piece of chocolate and some wine, so guess what happened – at 12.15 am I got a bad bout of indigestion – one of those really painful ones. Daughter (who was only just going to bed) came to the rescue with a couple of Quick-eze.

Got up in the middle of the night to empty the bladder after dreaming of twice going to the toilet…

I hope today is better.

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Sun, food and computers

Had nothing planned for the weekend. Older daughter (C) and boyfriend were visiting. Saturday morning I read in the sun for a bit and younger daughter asked me about my novel plans (I’d finally mentioned them to her the night before). I finished reading a book called “No Plot, No Problem” written by one of the founders of the challenge and that made me feel easier about the whole thing – it’s just an exercise in creativity so I shouldn’t stress over it.

Younger daughter went off to do a photo shoot (for her project) of a woman in the village. The weather was pleasant enough. While she was away I tidied up, then she vacuumed when she returned. C and boyfriend had reached town and were in the Plaza so we headed out to meet them. C bought some cheap sunglasses as she’d forgotten hers, then we headed to a Chinese restaurant and ordered some snacks. Next stop Spotlight as both daughters wanted to buy some material. Then we all headed home and relaxed in the sunshine eating the Chinese pork buns.

Younger daughter had been invited to boyfriend’s mother’s birthday dinner so she headed off. While C cooked butter chicken for us, W had a look at the computer that we still hadn’t got to a repairer. Younger daughter had rung the business where I’d bought it from, which is now, essentially a one-woman business operating at odd hours on the other side of town. Daughter had taken the computer there only for the woman to say she had to go out on a job and would call her when she’d finished. She never called back. That’s not a great way to run a business. The alternative is another business which charges $80 an hour just to have a look at it.

Anyway, W had a look and saw that the fan wasn’t working and that the computer just didn’t turn on properly. He fiddled around and then, hey presto, it did work and stayed on instead of crashing. We had the computer on from that time until the evening and I was able to play Sims for a bit and back up some essential software onto my separate hard drive. When younger daughter returned she was a bit doubtful about the reliability of the computer. I was too, but W insisted it would be ok.

In the evening we played Settlers of Catan and drank mulled wine.

The next day younger daughter had yet another photo shoot of a family in the local park. C made a house on the Sims (the computer worked again). W went online on his new laptop. Younger daughter returned to make sushi but W had by then headed off into town to get some cash and buy yet more Chinese food snacks. Not long after he returned C and W departed for home about mid afternoon. They’re going to Fiji for a holiday at the end of this month, lucky devils.

The computer box had been sitting on the carpeted ground since W had looked at it so we decided to move it back into place. Of course, then it didn’t work. Sigh. Back to square one.

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