Flashback Circa 1976

My sister tracked down and shared with me a photo from our childhood.

Checkout me rocking my Safari suit and she rocking her polka dots.

Are we cute or what?

Let the Picture Tell the Story

Let’s just say it’s been a pretty relaxing/lazy weekend…

Fat, lazy, and spoilt...

Safe Travels Dad

Last evening May 16th 2009, at 6.40pm my Father passed away after battling Cancer for nearly 3 years.

He’s now at peace.

Dad, you touched so many lives in such a positive way, I’m honored to be your son.

Travel safe Dad.  I miss you.

Brace Face, Metal Mouth

Well, today I had my braces fitted at the age of 36.  My second childhood has commenced. 

Only 29 months, 3 weeks and 7 days to go until they come off, and while it’s not even been a full day yet, they can’t come off fast enough for me.

I’m already sick of picking food out of them.  Damn tedious!

Otherwise, they’re ok.  If you look closely at the bottom braces in the photo you can see an opaque substance around them, that’s wax.  Wax is my new friend.  It makes all the sharp corners nice and smooth and stops them rubbing on the insides of my mouth.  Loving that!

Well, it’s been a big day, and I’m plain tuckered out.

Nitey nite!

A New Year, A New Nose

Here we go, it’s been 12 days in the making, but here’s the entry (finally!) of my exploits to turn my nose into a functional rather than purely decorative body part.

The short story.  Unbeknownst to me, I had a deviated septum.  I had no idea, and only became aware of it when my Doctor mentioned it during my annual physical examination.  Essentially, I was unable to breathe through the right side of my nose.  The deviation/blockage being so severe as to almost completely obstruct it.
As I said though, I was never aware of it.  I’ve had it so long (possibly always) that I didn’t know any different, and since I was relatively inactive, it was never a problem.  That was until I increased my physical activity.

The idea of surgery completely freaked me out, as I’d never been to hospital before, other than to visit someone, or to have an x-ray taken.  So the idea of actually having a general anesthetic and surgery made me delay for almost a full 12 months seeing the Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Doctor I was referred to.

Jokingly the evening before my appointment for this referral I said to Mark, “if I’m going to be on the table to have my breathing fixed, I might just tweak my nose a little while I’m there”.
Mark being Mark, the ever supportive and complimentary partner replied “You should, you have a fat nose”.

Famous last words for him.  I did mention it to the Doctor while I was there and the procedure isn’t a cheap one.  Even with a discount for already being in the surgery and anaesthetized.

Anyway, the day of the referral, I met the ENT Surgeon and was examined.  Guess how excited I was to discover part of the examination included having nearly 50cm of optical cable fed through my nose, and down my throat.
He warned me it wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience, despite having my nose numbed.  Fortunately I think he built me up to expect the worst.  It was certainly unusual, but it wasn’t horrible.  The only part I didn’t like was that I couldn’t see what he was seeing. 😉

The examination confirmed my personal Doctors opinion that my septum was deviated, and that surgery would be required to rectify it.  At this point I asked about cosmetic surgery, primarily to fix my nose from being crooked.
I suspect although am not certain, that I broke my nose in my early teens when I fell breaking my front teeth.  At the time though I was in so much discomfort from my teeth that my nose was never checked.
At this point the surgeon I was seeing brought in another surgeon one who specialises in Rhinoplasty surgery.
This was Dr Samuel Lee, and as he’s skilled in both Septoplasty and Rhinoplasty surgery, rather than having two surgeons, he performed both procedures.

I met with him again in December to reassess my requirements and discuss the surgery before scheduling the actual date.

The actual day of my surgery was Thursday January 9.  I had the option of having it performed on just before Christmas but opted against spending Christmas and New Year recuperating.

In the lead up to the surgery I’d had the opportunity to speak to several people who had already experienced it, and all of them told me I’d wonder why I’d waited so long once it was all over, and that I had nothing to worry about.  Truth be told, it wasn’t really the surgery I was nervous about.  It was the anesthetic.  I’m a bit of a control freak, the idea of not being in control of my own consciousness scared me a little.  Everyone I spoke to said I had nothing to worry about, and that I should discuss any concerns on the day with the Anesthetist, which I did, and also with my surgeon.  All of which put my mind at rest.

Booking surgery is interesting, you can schedule a day, but you can’t schedule a time, you don’t actually find out when you’re being operated on until the day before.  When you do get your time, you also get reminded that as of midnight the night before you’re not to eat or drink anything, not even water.  Also for the 10 days leading up to the surgery I was advised to avoid all vitamins and mineral supplements, and any drugs or prescriptions that I may have been taking.
Fortunately, aside from a daily antihistamine tablet, and vitamins, the only drug I’d been taking was an anti-inflammatory for a back injury, which had fortunately healed to a state sufficient that I not need them anymore.

Being a diligent first time surgery goer, I followed every instruction to the letter.  To further make my life easier, I made sure the house was clean, groceries stocked, laundry all washed, dried, sorted, folded, ironed, put away etc., and thanks to my friend Lisa, also got the guest room fully set up so should I need to, I could sleep in there.

My friend Lisa drove me to the hospital on the day, and my other friend Shelly met me there as she knew I was nervous.  The procedure itself is performed on an outpatient basis, but since it’s surgery, you’re obviously not allowed to drive yourself home.  So it was the lovely Lisa who played chauffeur for the day, while the pair of them played hand holders and support team.  They got to see me in my lovely hospital garb, and take photos of me in them, very pretty.  Were there as the nursing team hooked me up to my I.V. fluids, and even when the Anesthetist Kevin came in to introduce himself.  He did tell me his name; Dr (something with 200 consonants and about as many vowels), but told me I could call him Kevin.  So Kevin it was.
The whole team, my own; Lisa and Shelly, the nurses, Kevin, and my surgeon were all fantastic and put my mind at ease, to a point where I was even laughing.  I told Kevin I was nervous about the anesthetic, and a bit of a control freak, so therefore nervous about being not in control of my own consciousness.  Such a nice man, he laughed, and said if I liked he’d let me anesthetize myself.  Of course, I laughed and told him if I was doing it myself I wanted a discount.

When it was finally time to go into surgery, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, I said my goodbyes to the girls and gave them, and got in return a big hug, and a “see you soon”.

Oh, let me interject here.  The morning of my surgery, since I didn’t need the car, and wasn’t due at the hospital until nearly 11am I decided to sleep in.  Mark, and remember, he’s caring (refer to the fat nose comment), had the following exchange with me.

Mark:  Craig, I’m leaving.
Me:  Mmmm (Remember I was still asleep)
Mark:  See ya.

Lisa sent him a text message, or so she thought telling him later that he should wish me luck for the surgery.  Unfortunately she sent it to me not Mark.  He got the message eventually, not realising that I knew he’d been put up to it by Lisa.  I replied to his text with “Thanks Lisa”. 😉

Back to the surgery.

I was walked into the Surgical Theatre by a nurse, who introduced me to everyone, before helping me climb up onto the operating table.  A table shaped a little like a crucifix, I’m assuming so your arms can be tied down.  I’m just assuming though.  Once up on the table I was “tucked” in by the nurse with a nice warm blanket, and then Kevin entered the room and asked me how I was doing.  At this stage I was pretty comfortable, and had been chatting to the nurse about Australia.  Clever girls, not only were they legitimately interested in Australia, but the conversation also put me more at ease.  At this point Kevin told me to take deep breaths from the oxygen mask that was being put over my face.
”Oxygen”.  It didn’t taste like oxygen, I was told twice to take really DEEP breaths.  By the second breath my scalp was tingling, but the third…  Well the third for me never happened, the next thing I knew was that I was in the recovery room.

Waking up wasn’t as bad as I’d expected, but my nose felt like it was on fire, well my nostrils anyway.  My attendant nurse was lovely.  She asked me what my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10, this was a scale that we’d established before the surgery.  My reply was a solid 3, perhaps a 3.5.  So not too bad at all.  It was at that stage that the discomfort rapidly went away, and since I didn’t swallow any tablets I’m pretty sure something was added to my IV.

Then I fell in love.  My nurse, who’s name I sadly don’t remember, asked me if I’d like some ice chips to suck on, as I was overheated from the blankets and hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since before midnight.   Ice has never tasted so good in my life.  I’m not quite sure how long I was in recovery for, but I know that the surgery started around midday, and Lisa met me in recovery around 4.42pm where she took a photo of me, on my request.  So I’m guessing surgery took a good 4 hours.

The only real discomfort I had at this stage was that of a full bladder.  I highly recommend IV fluids to anyone if they’re interested in hydrating themselves, they’re brilliant, I felt great, and my skin was all nice and plump and hydrated *laugh*, but my bladder was bursting.

I asked the nurse if I could use the bathroom, she said I could either use a bottle or I could wait.  I opted to wait.  Apparently the nurse noted at this stage that my blood pressure started rising, so noted that I really needed to go to the bathroom a little more urgently than I was letting on.  She was correct, I just didn’t want to use the bottle.

In the end I conceded, and the bottle was brought.  Along with a giggling nurse who mentioned “I don’t need to see it, I’ve seen hundreds, so unless it’s particularly impressive I’m going to pull the curtains”.
I couldn’t help but laugh, and was very much relieved that the curtains would be pulled.  Not that it mattered, I couldn’t go anyway.  After a few minutes a voice through the curtain asked if I was done, to which I replied “No, stage fright”.
The nurse giggled again and then turned on the taps in the nearby sink to "help me”.  Hehe!
Still no luck.  I just couldn’t go lying in a bed.  I asked if I could at least stand and lean against the bed for balance, apparently by this stage I was sufficiently coherent for this to be possible.  Thank the gods!  Sweet relief!

Comfort restored, it was back into bed, and back to sipping fluids, at this stage they were pretty much all frozen, so I had to take small bites and chew them up to ingest them.  The nurse promised me an apple juice which I got later when I was moved from the recovery room bed to a reclining chair in the original private seated ward the day started in, and got my apple juice finally.  Two of them.  Apple juice has never tasted so good.

In later discussions (several of them, as I was kind of drugged out of my mind still) the surgeon informed me that the deviation in my nose was quite severe, and that the original Rhinoplasty had become a necessity, as they identified that my nose had been quite badly broken sometime in the past (I’m thinking the fall during high school) and that they’d had to perform a cartilage graft to rebuild the right side of my nose, after breaking, straightening and resetting my nose.  All performed by doing an Open Rhinoplasty.  The photo is not of me, I found it online.  But I do have the same cut on my nose and even now, 12 days later the tip is still swollen and slightly numb.  Not surprising given how it’s opened up for access like the hood of a car.

Much of the rest of the day was a blur.  Lisa drove me home with my new nose, nose case, and internal splints, where I was met by Mark and Shelly.  Mark had bought me a bunch of roses and a Get Well balloon and I got to commence the regimen of taking painkillers, and antibiotics for the next week and a bit.  Heavy duty narcotics every 3 hours for over a week.  So while I was pain free, I was most definitely not in any state to be able to “operate heavy machinery”.

Once instated on the couch, it was time for dinner, cooked by Lisa, a lovely Shepherd’s Pie.  Shelly cut it up for me so I wouldn’t have any trouble eating it.  So helpful. 🙂

It was very tasty, right up until, during and after where I fell asleep in it.  *laugh*

The very next morning I was back in the Surgeon’s office for a check up, he was happy with everything, and explained the process again.  I honestly don’t recall a great deal, as I was still pretty much stoned out of my mind from the previous day.

The following days included me cleaning my nose out daily using Hydrogen Peroxide solution, cotton buds, and a torch because it was too dark in the bathroom.  This was the fun part of the whole process.  As gross as it may sound, there’s something really satisfying about the sizzling noise hydrogen peroxide makes when it comes into contact with blood, and then being able to actively mine from your nose all the clots and secretions.  Lovely!

Oh, I forgot, through the first couple of days I got to wear a bandage under my nose, as it bleeds quite freely during the first day.  It’s a bit like a hand rolled tampon held in place under your nose by an elastic band.  Pretty!  But totally functional.

So, drugs every three hours, with the routine being that every time my alarm on my phone went off, I’d reset it for 3 hours time, take  my tablets, and then lapse back into pain free oblivion.  To describe the feeling, it’s like having your brain turned into a gelatinous mass, then wrapped in cotton wool, and still trying to use it.  Not too effective, but not overly unpleasant either.  The only side effect I hated more than anything was that the painkillers I was given can cause itching.  My god did they ever.  My nose was fine, the itching was borderline unbearable.  Fortunately it passed after 4 days.

6 days later I went and saw my Surgeon again, and had the nose cast, external stitches, and the internal splints removed.  For your viewing enjoyment I had this videoed.  I can’t quite explain the sensation of having these splints removed.  But let’s just say it’s mighty unusual.  You can feel it slightly behind your eyes, that’s how it feels, way up in your sinuses.  They’re a long way up, I could see them with the torch, but if you tried to reach them you’d be up past your second knuckle. *laugh*  Check out the video for yourself.  They’re strange things, pretty big too, but they’re much preferable to having internal packing.  They’re soft silicon splints with a breathing tube.  I could actually breathe better immediately after surgery using them, than I could before hand.  Which goes a long way to explaining how bad my nose was before, and how good the surgery was after.

YouTube video of me, having the nasal splints removed 6 days after surgery.  Complete with super short hair.  I cut it all off in the lead up the the surgery as I knew I wouldn’t be able to shower properly afterwards.

Having the cast off, stitches and splints out was a relief in itself, now the healing process continues.  Saline rinses, not wearing sunglasses for a month, massaging my nose, and just generally maintaining good health and resting to allow myself to heal properly.  This final information I didn’t take seriously initially, and 4 days after my surgery I did far too much, and paid the price for it, I was very, very ill afterwards, wanting to collapse, and feeling like I wanted to die.  So I took that lesson as learnt.

The swelling is subsiding faster than I expected, and I’ve been very fortunate to not have had any bruising, other than where the IV was placed in my hand.  This may be partially due to my taking Arnica as a supplement as instructed by my surgeon.  Clever man he is!

That’s about it.  Each day I see more improvements, I’ve been off the heavy duty painkillers for several days now, and a couple of Tylenol are all that’s required for my comfort.  The only discomfort left are where the incision on my nose was made, and the tip where the graft was taken, and right side where it was placed, and my front teeth are still slightly numb due to the disruption to the nerves in the area due to the surgery.  This is improving daily.

So there you have it.  I think that’s everything.  If I remember anything else I’ll add it later.

If you’re contemplating having a Septoplasty or a Rhinoplasty done, I’d recommend it, that is if you’re doing it for surgical reasons.  Although if it’s for vanity, and it makes you happy, go for it.  Mine was medical, but either way I’m happy with the results, I have a straight nose now, and can finally breathe through it.

Oh, and because I was remiss when I originally typed this entry.  Thanks also to Marilyn for visiting me and the lovely Tuscan Bread Soup she made (YUMMO!), Justin for checking I was still alive and not drowning in said soup (remember I was falling asleep in my meals – lol), and Brad for visiting too.  If I forgot anyone, I don’t think I did, thanks too.  Even Mark, despite his not being overly helpful, other than to drive me to see the surgeon.  Although in his defense, and despite his being less than helpful, he did take it fairly calmly while I was a little monstrous (drug fuelled mood), not too heinous, but it can’t have been fun either.  But, the medical staff did point out that if I was in pain, I’d be irritable, and I was. 😉

Otherwise, it was pretty much, and still is pretty smooth sailing.  All good if you ask me! 🙂

Out and about in London town… the update and ongoing adventure

Well, it’s Thursday morning around 9.12am and as I type this I’m sitting on a train heading South to Devon to visit my Great Auntie Olive who I haven’t seen for almost 15 – 20 years.  I’m fairly sure I was still in my late teens the last time she saw me.  So it’s certainly been a while.

It is kind of nice to be able to sit on a train with a table and be able to type away to your hearts content, although it’d be nice if the power points worked, and it’d be even better again if there was Internet access, oh well.  There was on the last train, the one that we caught from Edinburgh to London earlier in the week.

I have no idea where we are currently but there are lots of open green spaces to the left of the train, and some industrial ones to the right.

In other news, my sister still hasn’t had her baby, despite being almost marinated in drugs to induce the birth, so I believe that later on today she’ll undergo a c-section.  Hang in there Kato, I’m cheering for you over here in the UK, keep safe, and see you and the new “stubborn lil-monkey” soon.

Moving on…  literally and in prose.

The purpose of this entry is to further flesh out the original one: Out and about in London town…

So here goes, I’ll cast my mind back a few days, and hope I can retrieve it when I’m done.

Tuesday marked the beginning of my first day in London.  We arrived late the evening before from Edinburgh so despite being a little tired from the activities I was excited to get out and about and see what there was to be seen.

Now, I’ve always been aware that London is a European country and that there’d obviously be many thousands of tourists from all over the world, but I really wasn’t prepared for the high number of non-English speaking people I was to encounter.  Nor was I even remotely prepared for the complete lack of manners that most of them had.

You always expect when visiting tourist attractions that there’ll be “hustle and bustle” as people jostle to ensure they see the sights and experience whatever there is to be experienced, but this, in true, Marjory from Little Britain style was “SOMETHING ELSE“.  The best way to explain the feeling is to imagine you’re the ball in a pinball machine being pushed back and forward.  A very trying test for one’s patience I can assure you, and certainly a time that I wished I was able to curse in multiple languages.  *laugh*

Moving on…

To get to our destinations for the day we had to navigate the London Underground, which in reality is pretty simple, especially as it’s relatively similar to the City Loop in Melbourne where I’m from.  The only real difference is that the system here is more complex, and from my experience so far, the trains actually run on time more often than not.  The only real downside is that these stations are not really non-able bodied person friendly.  There are stairs everywhere, which as far as I’m concerned is a bonus given the extra eating we’ve been doing.

Having found the right train for our destination, the first stop for the day was:

Madam Tussauds the World famous wax museum.  Having purchased our tickets online we were excited at being able to escape having to queue for this popular attraction.  We couldn’t have been more incorrect in our assumptions had we actually just arrived unannounced and expected to get them on the day.
It seems that hundreds of other people had also had the same idea, and the queue for the entrance was a good 100m long.  Fortunately it only took about 20 minutes to get to the ticket booth, where we had to exchange our online voucher for actual tickets.

Once inside we were “herded” (remember, I said there were hundreds of people), towards the elevators, which delivered us to the first floor and a wall of flashing lights and images of Paparazzi with recorded  Paparazzi’esque quotes being played raucously to imitate the experience of “Celebrity meets Tabloid Press”.  If my short experience of how bloody tedious and annoying it was is anything to go by, I’m happy for someone else to deal with fame.  It’s brash, noisy, and outright annoying.  Which I guess was the point.

Before I go on though, my random interjection statement for the day is, I’m exceedingly happy right now, my cup it could be said, runneth over with “joi de vivre”, and I’d kill for a Snickers right now.

Back to the story… 😉

Once you make it past the Paparazzi you make your way into the first room where there are dozens of celebrity replicas.  Some of whom I knew, other’s…  well, not so much.  No matter, they were pretty cool, the ones I saw.

We took many photos, either posing with the figures or placing our “travelling companions” with them.  Of course we weren’t the only ones doing this, and while we did our best to be polite and wait our turn, not everyone worked with the same ethics.  People were literally pushing us out of the way, or pushing in to be photographed first, if you’re a polite person or less than assertive person, give this place a miss, you’ll not enjoy it.
I kept my cool throughout, although could be heard to snarl on more than one occasion under my breath, “if one more f’ing person pushes me I’ll tear their f’ing face off!”.  The whole experience became very old, very fast.

There was one woman in particular, who seemed to be moving in the same direction as us, and who had pushed past me several times, either standing directly in front of my camera lens, or pushing and shoving to get the shot she was after.  This happened several times until I finally allowed myself to slide to the Dark Side slightly.
This time we were standing near the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie replica’s getting ready to take a photo, when she shoved past me again, standing to my right to take a photo.  Now, keep in mind, I’m travelling and have a backpack on my shoulder, incidentally, also on my right side.
I took a deep breath, bit my tongue, and then she shoved me again.  This time I saw red, and asked Mark (on my left) to move out of the way, and said, with none to subtle glee and evil intent in my voice “Watch this”, waited for her to frame her shot, focus her camera, then lined her up with my backpack, waited a moment for her to be about to press the shutter button on her camera, then forcefully span to my left, smacking her quite thoroughly in the back, from the centre of her shoulder blades to the top of her head smack into the back of her own camera, sending her stumbling two steps forward into the display.  I even managed to smile and say “Sorry”.   Muwahahahaha!
Sometimes the world is a better place for a dose of “assisted karma”, I’m sure my account is clear for having kept the peace until then.  It must be pointed out at this time, that, that was the last time she shoved past me.  *laugh*

Unfortunately though, there were hundreds of other people waiting to push in where she’d been pushed out.  The exhibition itself is definitely worth seeing if you get a chance, the crowds are pretty heinous though, but at least now I can say I’ve seen it.

Next stop…

Piccadilly Circus, I’m not sure what I was expecting here, it certainly wasn’t a Circus, but it most definitely wasn’t a heavily lit up and bedazzled with glowing advertising major intersection.  But I saw it, photographed it, and moved on, it was kind of interesting though, from there we walked to the next destination…

Trafalgar Square, again, this wasn’t exactly what I expected either, however there was certainly more to look at than at the last destination.  Statues, plaques, and two fountains.  It was at these fountains that I stopped, reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of coins.  Coins which I made wishes on before throwing them into the water.  A wish each for my family members.  Mum and Dad, my Nan, my sister Kate, and nephew/niece to be, her husband etc.  Oh, and a big old wish for a Snickers.  This craving just can’t be quelled.  *laugh*

Then it was back onto the streets to walk around to the London Eye.

On the way though we passed Parliament House, Downing Street where the English Prime Minister resides to our next well known stop;

Big Ben and Westminster Abby.  Let me start by saying WOW!  Although Big Ben isn’t quite as large as I’d somehow imagined, the experience of seeing it in person along with Westminster Abby was somewhat surreal.  After all, this is the country where my Mum and her side of the family were born, and since she emigrated to Australia as a child, I’m the first one back (aside from my Nan) ever for a visit.  The architecture, the emotion the overall atmosphere is just something I can’t describe, except to say that I really wish I could be experiencing alongside my Mum, as I know how much she yearns to come back and visit the place of her birth.  Hopefully that’s something her and Dad can do in the near future.

The London Eye, is quite possibly one of the largest Ferris Wheel’s in the world, and if I’m correct, and please don’t quote me as I’m typing this entry without an Internet connection so can’t verify my facts, it was erected for the turn of the Millenium.
The London Eye is situated near Westminster Abby and Big Ben, and takes approximately 30 minutes to complete a rotation.  Each capsule holds roughly 20 people, and gives you an almost 360 degree birds eye view of London and it’s surrounding areas.  We’ve plenty of photos of the experience as well.

At the end of the ride it was time to head back to the Hotel, but not before stopping to take some more photos of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament House.

A short train trip via the Underground to Earls Court and we were back at the hotel for a quick rest, before heading out again to the theatre to see Wicked the musical.

Wicked the musical, is an adaptation of the book; Wicked.  It’s essentially an alternative perspective to the fabled Wizard of Oz movie, from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, who really isn’t a Witch, nor is she Wicked, she simply suffers from what is essentially bad PR.  I read the book a few months back and loved it.  The musical itself follows the book loosely, but it’s brilliant.  I’d definitely recommend it.  There were a few eye moistening songs in the score.

Well that’s it, another day up to date, and a couple more for me to catch up on.

Cheerio!

Out and about in London town…

Let me preface by saying it was a HUGE day.  From the GPS records (we’re geotagging our photos) we walked over 22km’s yesterday, and that’s not inclusive of any walking done underground navigating the train stations, or for areas where we had no satellite coverage.

So you’re going to have to excuse me for not being more thorough right now for this posting.  I will come back to it though.  Suffice to say, I’m not an Uncle just yet, and I snapped off a little over 100 (I think) photos all around London.

To give you and idea and to act as a reminder for myself for later, we saw:

Madame Tussaud’s

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

Parliament House and Downing Street

Big Ben and Westminster Abby

The London Eye

Wicked, the musical

My legs are aching now, and we’re not too far from heading out the door again for another day of sightseeing.

More to come…

Hooroo!

Germs be gone!

I’m not quite back to full health, but as of overnight I seem to have beat the worst of whatever germ/cold it was that I managed to pick up late last week.

Thank the gods!  I’ve gone through over 4 boxes of tissues since Friday, and probably half a tube of moisturiser for my poor red and scaly nose.  It’s not been pretty.

There has been a positive to it, I lost some more weight.  Quite probably in snot.  *laugh*

As promised, I uploaded a stack more photographs overnight, and they’re available via the Flickr link in my blog.

Other news…  I took the car in to be serviced at 7am this morning, and just on 5 hours later got it all back, serviced, vacuumed and washed.  It looks nice and new again.

Well that’s it.  There are more photo’s to be uploaded, so I’d best get back to them.

9 sleeps to go!

Hooroo!

By Popular Demand

Or a whole bunch of nagging…

Since I’m spending the day at home rubbing my nose raw with numerous tissues, I’ve decided to move my laptop out into the lounge room in front of the television and start transferring a stack of photos to my computer, and then start uploading them (finally, yes I know Jamie!) to my Flickr account.

It’s going to take a while, but they’ll start appearing over the next few days.

Why am I finally doing it?  Mainly because I feel pretty awful with the cold I currently have, so have canceled all Birthday plans for the day, and because it’s not that long now before I fly home for my first visit in over a year, and my Mum has asked (nagged) repeatedly that I ensure I bring copies of all of the photos I took while her and Dad were visiting me last year.

I may even start seriously looking into migrating my blog finally across to a self hosted site.  I ran out of space to upload images to my blog quite some time ago and just never got around to doing anything about it.

Additionally, thanks to some pretty groovy birthday gifts from Mark (thank you), I’m sort of geared up with camera equipment at the moment, including a GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr GPS logger, that once I learn how to use it, and set it up properly should allow me to track geographically where each photo was taken around the world.  Mark has blogged about it, as he has one also.  It’s only taken almost 2 years, but he’s finally started blogging again; Mark’s Rants…  he assures me he’s going to be more diligent with his entries this time.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  Last time he said that, he started making entries like:  “for more information, check out Craig’s blog”.  Lazy! 😉

So, I really need to start getting myself organised and start getting out and about taking photographs more often…

Until then though, I’m going to get back to the task at hand.  Photo sorting…

Thanks to everyone for sending Birthday wishes, I really appreciate them.  Happy Birthday to everyone else out there who shares a birthday with me.  If you’re one of them, leave a message, I’d love to know who else out there is a March 9 Pisces.  If you’re a March 9, 1973 child, like myself and Jason over at “Let’s Say You’re Right“, then you’re very obviously pretty fantastic as well. 😉

Cheerio!

It’s all a bit of a blur

Another day is over half way gone already.  Man the time just flies.  For someone who’s not working I tend to have few hours in a day.

Yesterday was another great day, I got to have another “coffee date” and catch up with an online friend; Russ, so finally we met face-to-face, and I got to speak to real people again.   I’m not sure whether my jittery hands were from the excitement of real person contact, or the fact that I’d consumed about 6 shots of espresso in 2 drinks.  I’m thinking it’s a combination of both.

Back to today, after getting (if I’m lucky) all of 3 hours of sleep overnight (sore point, don’t ask), I dropped Mark at work and hit the gym again this morning.  Much as I didn’t want to, it was only in the last 10 minutes of the almost 2 hours I was there that I began to enjoy it.  Mainly because I was tired.

I also had an epiphany…  If I actually stretch while I’m at the gym, immediately after exercising (rather than at home afterwards… and if I remember) that I feel pretty damn fantastic afterwards.  Still tired, and like I’ve worked out, but more limber and less tense than normal.  Guess my trainer really does know what she’s talking about. 😉

So that’s it so far, I’ve done a few chores, some grocery shopping, and will try and get a nap this afternoon to compensate for the lack of sleep and so that I don’t fall asleep during this evening’s movie…

We’re off to the midnight opening session of The Simpsons Movie thanks to the lovely Rich and his partner Jason for hooking us up with complimentary tickets.  Woohoo!  It does mean that it’s going to be a VERY late night.

I’m outta here!  Have fun!

Hooroo!