Gaming interlude

I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas again from the beginning, while we wait for Grand Theft Auto 5 to be released.

I’d got up to killing Jizzy in San Fiero. Two attempts had failed so I googled hints. One suggested blowing out the tyres of his car to slow him down so that pursuit was easier. I tried that, but shooting out tyres attracted the unwanted attention of the cops, as well as the bodyguards at the entrance to the club. The cops got in the way while I was chasing Jizzy, while the bodyguards had fun shooting the life out of Carl. Another suggestion was to destroy Jizzy’s car so that he had to use a pizza delivery bike to make his getaway. I tried attaching a bomb to the car but the bodyguards started shooting. So I sneaked up on them with a silencer and got them out of the way first. Then I could blow up the car in relative peace. Jizzy took the pizza bike and it was easy to knock him over and kill him. Job done, although it took a few attempts!

Now onto the other missions.

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4-day weekend

Saturday

I joined a garden tour of five gardens owned by staff from work: 3 suburban gardens in town, a rural garden; and another suburban garden in another town. My main reason for going, apart from curiosity, was the hope that it might inspire me in my garden. The weather held out and it got quite hot in the afternoon. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday. We finished up at a garden centre and some of us purchased some plants on sale. The plan worked. I drove home with plants and cuttings intending to plant them, if not in the ground, into pots, that very afternoon. Well, I first had to weed a whole bed in order to plant. All up, I spent about 2 hours in the garden that afternoon and reflected that my ‘garden’ really needs a good tidy up. The trouble with gardening is that you end up with a huge (in my case) pile of refuse, which added to the already huge pile (and I haven’t even started on the dead tree and bush).

Sunday

I finally moved the leftover wood chip pile and used it as mulch on the newly planted bed. I was cutting away some branches and clearing more weeds and grass at the front of the property when H got home. We did some grocery shopping and then she decided to cut back the plants along the driveway, which she found annoying, rubbing against her car. I ended up carting the resulting rubbish away (she got carried away) and ended up with another 4 or 5 barrow loads of branches, etc.

Monday

A day off work. The weather had deteriorated, so I applied the last coat of paint to the hallway. Now I just have the doors in the hallway to do. Tidied up inside in readiness for the arrival of older daughter, C, and her boyfriend, W. H’s boyfriend, L arrived earlier and joined us for a meal which I cooked (amazingly). C and W arrived late in the evening. It was good to see her (after an absence of 7 months). We exchanged gifts (to her for her birthday on Friday; from her – alcohol and snacks). While H did some editing for her work, the rest of us played a game of Settlers of Catan while eating some very nice banana cake topped with coconut cream and strawberries (made by H earlier in the day).

Tuesday

Another day off work. It was sunny again. H had to go to a meeting in the morning but on her return she made breakfast. So we had a late, leisurely breakfast of pancakes, (free range) bacon and coconut cream mixed with berries, accompanied by some sparkling wine with berries in the glasses. Very nice. We wanted to go for a walk so we headed up the valley and went on a 2 hour bush walk (the Fern walk) which went uphill. Lovely views at the top and not too strenuous-going (I’m not used to hills and am quite unfit). We returned, tired and hungry. Most had a nap and then we fired up the barbecue after making salads and getting the meat ready. L was very good at cooking the meat – it all came out tender and tasty. We had lamb chops (home-killed lamb), marinated lamb kebabs, chorizo sausages, potato salad (made by me) and a spinach and red cabbage salad made by H. Beer and cocktails accompanied the meal. We had a lot of leftovers which H and I ate yesterday. C and W then headed back to Wellington in order to catch the Cook Strait ferry the following morning.

A very productive and enjoyable four days.

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Ongoing

Haven’t posted in a while. Nothing to report.

In complete honesty, I feel no different than I did before the op, except I don’t feel so tired. I can stay up until 11pm, no problem, now. The surgeon asked me whether I felt a few of the symptoms I’d felt before, eg depression, tiredness, etc, etc (can’t remember them now). But it had only been less than a week compared with several months, so naturally the answer was no. I thought my irritability would lessen – perhaps it has, but I still get grumpy. Perhaps I’m just a naturally grumpy person. I try not to let things affect me but there’ll always be stupid drivers and things that frustrate me.

Talking of frustration, I had originally intended travelling to Melbourne in November but the delay in the ultrasound meant a one month delay for the op and so November was a write-off. The period I now want to travel to Melbourne (late December, early January) is horrendously expensive ($1000 return – twice the price). H is heading to Melbourne in mid- to late-January so that period is out for me (no room). In mid-February I’m heading to Brisbane for a conference. That leaves end of February. Sigh. Quite pissed off about it really. Never mind.

Yet to finish painting the hallway – it takes a few hours to do one coat and I’ve only done 2 so far. One more should do it.

Will update after the weekend, probably.

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Good day

The weather today is absolutely magnificent – a rare cloudless day with not a breath of wind (or maybe a very slight breeze but not enough to turn the wind turbines).

I drove into town this morning to get a Warrant of Fitness for the car – it passed, no problem.  Next stop a hardware shop to get more paint for the bathroom and the selected colour for the hallway.  There seem to be plenty of staff in Mitre 10 even for a weekday morning but none around when I wanted to get the coloured paint.  I got the white for the bathroom and left, heading next to buy some free range eggs, meat and cheese.  Next stop a bank to get out some cash to pay the plumber for the counter installation, then petrol, then the other hardware store where I got some help and paint cheaper than I thought.

H was on the way to a photography job when I got back home.  I had lunch and then H’s father rang from Australia, wanting to speak to his daughter, of course, and surprised that I was home.  Never mind.  H arrived just after I put the phone down after listening to him tell me what H should be doing.  “You just missed your father” I said.  “Good.” she said.

While she was having lunch with her friend she’d brought back, I washed my car.  It’s been a while!

Hemmed a couple of shower curtains which were too long, while listening to Chicane, with Jasmine flaked out on top of the rest of the curtains.  Very pleasant day, with a beer outside, reading another Agatha Christie.

Now I just need to visit friend to pay for the plumbing, and a pleasant meal with perhaps another beer.  (H is currently at the local park with friends.) Perhaps I should count this as my birthday, instead of last Friday which was a write-off.

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Post-op

Well, I suppose I should update this blog.  Having an operation puts a serious dent into my redocorating and spring-cleaning.  It’s upset the flow.

H dropped me off at 7am at the hospital Thursday morning and stayed with me until it was time for me to strip and change into the hospital gown and surgical socks.  I felt a little like a factory product, ready to be processed.  First the waiting room of people also having an op that day – mostly elderly women.  Then a wait in another room to answer the same questions I’d been asked before.  Then the change and into another room to wait with fellow victims similarly in fashionable dress.  Finally onto a bed and a wait for the deed.  I got the first bed and was up first.  I felt remarkably calm as I was wheeled into the operating theatre.  As the man injected into my hand saying “you’re falling asleep now” I lay there looking at the ceiling thinking “no I’m not” and then voom, I was out.

All done by mid-morning and I was wheeled, groggy, to the ward with two other women and another arrived shortly after I did.  They’d had different operations and two of them had the indignity of having to cart round bottles of pus and blood draining from their wounds whenever they got up to go to the toilet.  I was spared that, thankfully.  I slept most of the day.  H visited and I struggled to keep awake.  The only meal I got, in the evening, was some sort of meat pie, overcooked broccoli and mashed potato, which I suspect was of the powdered variety, all luke warm.

I spent one night in hospital and it was a sleepless one.  There was no actual door to the room we were in, so we heard all voices, snoring, farting, and various noises of doors closing and beeping machinery throughout, as well as nurses/doctors coming to take blood pressure and blood every couple of hours.  None of them bothered to whisper or silence any machines.

I was ok’d to go home at 10.15 but it was about noon by the time I got the paperwork, etc, done.  I did get a breakfast of porridge, fruit and jelly.  I didn’t eat the bread and jam.  The cup of tea tasted like milo.  As soon as I got home, I went to bed and slept for a couple of hours.

I haven’t felt like doing anything since except read books or watch TV, which is natural, I suppose.  I feel fine except there is still some pain.  I had the stitches out today but the wound still looks bruised and ugly.   At least it doesn’t look as ugly as the hideous dressing that the nurse put on when I left the hospital.

I hope both the pain and bruising has gone by the time I go back to work on Monday.   I would have liked to have made use of this time off work, but alas, the mood has passed and I’ll need to make new lists and find the motivation again.  Even taking a daily photo has been a struggle.

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