The Quatermass Experiment

I watched it tonight. If you look up the interweb thingy, you will see that the movie version gets fairly mixed reviews. Bearing in mind that it was adapted from a radio series of the same name, I thought they did very well. Obviously, if you are going to put a radio series into movie form, then you should expect a little more than usual dialogue in it. I enjoyed it. They managed to build the tension for the finale very nicely. It was interesting though to see David Tennant playing a doctor that wasn't THE Doctor. Even more interesting to see him enjoying a very un PC cigarette. Somehow though, his Scottish accent seemed a little contrived even though he was born in Scotland..

Well Happy Ho Ho's Everyone

Well, another year is grinding its inexorable way to a shuddering heaving close. Its been a difficult one to say the least of it, but at least we have closure on one issue. We now know what is wrong with Herself. We had our day with the Neurologist on Monday & a very nice chap he was too. He actually asked us if we really wanted his verdict just before Xmas. I did stop short of mentioning Bears taking dumps in afforested areas when I said of course we do. The bottom line is that herself has a motor neuron condition called Pseudo Bulbar Palsy. A very fancy way of saying that she has 3 to 4 years left to live.

The only redeeming factors are that it isn't hereditary, & that she isn't going to develop any new symptoms but the ones she already has. Those will kill her of course. Respiratory failure due to a lung infection or pneumonia most likely. Anyway, we are off to her daughters place tomorrow at sparrow fart or earlier in the morning to enjoy a wonderful family Xmas.



This is me playing Santa at our work Xmas do on Saturday. Merry Xmas to you all. Thank you for taking the time to read this stuff for another year. have a good one.

It don't come easy.

I've just had Herself come to me in tears. If you follow my blog, you will know that tomorrow is the big day for us. We finally get to see, after all this time, a neurologist, who is hopefully going to be a bit more definitive in what ails her. She came to me, I think, for reassurance as much as anything. We are both very tired, & very scared. I personally feel somewhat helpless, as I would dearly love to just wrap her up & tell her its all gonna be alright. I could say the words, but I couldn't say them with any conviction, because I don't know that. I wouldn't lie to her now. I never have yet, so I don't see why I should start now.

Herself's brother came down today to do the Xmas thing. It was nice to see him, but a little awkward for him I think. He didn't know the words to say either I don't think. I'm going to bed now, perchance to sleep, as the Bard said. I don't want to dream, I just want a few hours oblivion.

Jingle Bells

We had our work Xmas social today. Normally, it happens at our depot, an impersonal place at best with dirty concrete floors, trucks, fork hoists, assorted empty pallets & various assorted bits of freight that we somehow haven't managed to get out the door. It also usually happens on Xmas Eve & is a fairly protracted affair that doesn't end until the last of our Auckland trucks come straggling in, although I must admit that it will be sooner, rather than the way later that it has been for the last month. It's been a logistic nightmare getting all the freight down every night, & the boss & all the boys that do those runs have done well, sometimes not finishing till 2.00 in the morning. At least now, they don't have to unload their rigs like we used to. Now we have a 3 man night shift at the depot that does all that & our depot now functions 24 hours a day. We've come a long way.

So this year, our boss decided to hold the function at his home & hold it on a Saturday, which gives everyone a chance to be there & socialise in a very nice environment. The kids are very important too. At this time of year, they don't see their Dads as much as they would like, so todays do featured a bouncy castle, which was an instant hit, even though the boys tried their hardest to tip it on its side at one point, & a visit from Santa, with presents & sweets for all. Santa arrives ensconced in state on the back of the bosses toy, a wonderfully restored Ford Bonus pickup truck, painted white. Santa's arrival is my high point of the day. You see, for the last 3 years, since he started doing it in fact, I have played Santa. It's something I really enjoy doing & if I may say so, I do it well. Kids can be a tough audience & with something like Santa, you have to do it right or not at all, so I give it heaps & they love it.

My highlight of that, was when this drop dead gorgeous little 3 year old girl with beautiful straw blonde hair came up. I couldnt resist it & said to her, "Is it true that blondes have more fun?" Without any hesitation she replied, "Yeth!" Ohhh boy, is she gonna be a handful when she gets a bit older. Her dad is one of my special mates at work & quite often drops round for a chat on the weekend. Her mum is lovely as well. They moved down here from South Auckland 2 years ago & just love it. She earned a special place in my heart today by sitting next to Herself, listening carefully to what she had to say, looking to me for clarification if she couldn't understand & replying to her in a QUIET voice. Its all about dignity you see.

Meanwhile. Herselfs brother phoned. He is back from Japan & will be in Canada for Xmas.. The busy life of an Airline Pilot. He is going to come down to see us tomorrow afternoon. Also meanwhile, the count down is on for Mondays appointment with Neurology at Waikato. Its scary stuff.

Dignity

Is a particularly insightful Dylan track. I was listening closely to the lyrics & a couple of the verses really hit home. One in particular....


Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity

You see, Herself is concerned to the point of tears about losing her dignity. We talked about it last night. I told her that dignity is an inner thing & she will always carry that no matter what. In this festive season, we are socialising a bit more than usual, in circles that we don't normally move in. I have noticed, I may be overly sensitive on this, but it seems to me that folk that don't actually know Herself & what ails her, seem to think that because she has difficulty speaking that she is also deaf & possibly mentally impaired as well.

I have possibly become somewhat of a bore, as I have espoused the cause of Motor Neuron diseases & their consequences. This is probably because I didn't know much about any of them & I don't think a lot of people do. I wish I still didn't, but I do now.

We had a lovely weekend last weekend in the company of Jude's natural family, which was wonderful. Lovely people who take both of us as we are & we really enjoy their company. A nice break from the worries of life. Finally, thanks to our Doctors persistent phone calls & constant badgering, Herself finally has been given an appointment at Neurology in Waikato. Hopefully, this will lead to an MRI on the day, who knows.


So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take
To find dignity

Theres Gold in That Thar Hill.

I kid you not. This is a picture of the pay dirt heap at the Waihi Gold mine. The spoil from the mine is carried about 2 km from the open cast mine in town to the Baxter's Road site where the waste is accumulating in the form of a hill inversely proportional to the depth of the hole. When they send the gold bearing ore through, its diverted in the building that you see, up the conveyor belt at the side & on to the heap that you see. I wouldn't bother trying to flog a spoonful or two though. I think that the yield is currently about 6 parts per million or less. This is one of the interesting places that I get to visit in the course of my job..

Quote of The Day...

Or probably the week..... Maybe even the year...... " Y'know a fucking man would do that for a fucking lady." Sorry about the French, but that's the way it went. The lady concerned..... Sorry, the FEMALE concerned, was in the hospitality trade too.. Behind the counter of a bottle store. You see, our contract with regards to this particular customer is strictly door to door, so for this place its all hand unload. We have for years done this at this particular outlet, but a different female was there today & she could see no earthly reason why I shouldn't take it all through to the back of the shop to the stock room & put it on the shelves for her. The bit at the top was one of the less salty bits of the conversation with her. I behaved myself admirably. The words, "If there was a lady present I might consider it" ran through my mind, but I kept my trap shut.

I'm trying to lose weight at the moment. I blimped out a bit while I was on holiday. I have my excuses/reasons, but they don't change the fact that I topped out at just over 120kg's. So far, I'm back down to 115.2 kg's, which isn't bad going for me. Ideally, I would like to get back to under 100 kg's, but we will see how we go. Breakfasts are a problem. I dont particularly like breakfast cereals; My doctor suggested fresh fruit, but much as I enjoy fruit, I can't face it at that hour of the day. I'm a good old 4 bits of toast man. Preferably with a fresh tomato still warm from the morning sun in our garden, garnished with judicious amounts of salt & pepper. Left over stew, a small tin of spaghetti, bacon tomato & eggs, poached eggs all find their way onto the menu eventually. A good brekkie sets me up for the day.

Lunch in my prime was 4 sandwiches. I cut that to two some years ago & recently got down to one. The reason that a sammy is good is that it balances nicely on the engine cowling in the lunchbox lid between bites while you are driving. My cholesterol is up too. I refuse to eat margerine for the same reason I refuse to spread bread with used axle grease. I don't think its very good for you. So now that I have the time to stop for 10 minutes or so to eat, I have started making salads. Its very satisfying to incorporate fresh vegetables from the garden as they come to maturity. I'm looking forward at this point to fresh runner beans, Basil & our own tomatoes. I augment this with small tins of tuna & , a recent discovery, small tins of shredded chicken meat, either smoked or with mayo. I didn't enjoy lunch today. In a burst of dietary fervour, I asked Herself to get me some Tofu.. Yep, you heard right, TOFU. this to give a bit of bulk to my salads without upping the calory count too high. She responded with something called "Tofu Luncheon." With considerable misgivings, I diced some into my salad today. Misgivings, because it looks suspiciously like the roll in the fridge that I hack lumps off to feed our dog. I also found a squeezy bottle of "Lite Mayonnaise" in the pantry. "Cool," I thought. Wrong on both counts. The tofu was bland & dry. The mayo didn't taste anything like a real mayo should.

Vegetarian & diet products are OK, But I see no reason why they have to be bland & tasteless, or that far removed from real taste so as not to resemble the original at all. I have long had a mistrust of artificial sweetners & lite this & lite that & todays lunch has only served to re enforce the prejudice. You see, I like food. I like to taste what I eat. I like robust flavour. I don't particularly like chillies though. A little heat is OK, but I really don't enjoy a really savage heat. I'll go back to my original plan I think. It may take a little longer to get the weight off, but at least I'll enjoy the ride a bit more.

Oh by the way ! You know I said the tofu looked like dog roll? Well I thought, "To hell with it. If it looks like dog food, the dog should eat it. " After all, he is on a diet too, & if it stops moving long enough, he will generally eat it. Well, I put it in his bowl tonight. He looked back over his shoulder at me reproachfully with a look that was eloquent in its silence. I took pity on him, deposited it in the pedal bin & gave him some fresh meat & bikkies instead. The crunch line is that if a hungry dog won't eat it, I sure as hell aren't going to. A man must have some principles you know....

The Day the Music Died

Purists will no doubt protest at my use of that quote to talk about John Lennon. I know that the song was written about Buddy Holly, but I do seriously think that the quote is just as applicable to Lennon as it does Holly. For those of you that don't realise, it's 29 years to the day that John Lennon was shot. A sad day for music & humanity in general I think. I remember well what I was doing when it happened. Me & a Fire Brigade buddy, Bernie, were in deepest darkest Otara going about our lawful business in the way of secondary employment namely debt recovery & repossession. I forget exactly what it was that we were chasing. Either bedroom furniture or carpet springs to mind. Bernie & me used to work together evenings for things like that & cars, that need two people to take the stuff.

Anyway, there we were, surrounded by hostile natives, & trust me, NOTHING can be as hostile as Pacific Islanders when you are taking stuff out of their house that they haven't paid for. So Bernie had just taken something out to the wagon, where we had left the radio on. I'll never forget the look on his face when he came back in. He leaned against the hall wall & very softly said to me, "Someones just shot John Lennon." I think my reply mentioned the act of fornication, but I'm not sure. We stopped what we were doing for a few minutes & talked, not necessarily about lennon, but just to ground ourselves out & provide some mutual reassurance. Bernie wandered off outside again with something else that we had recovered leaving me alone with the family. One of the younger ones wandered past me & to make conversation & said, "John Lennons been shot." He looked at me all strange & said, "Who?"

That gave me pause for thought, & I gradually came to the realisation that I was part of a bygone era. Oh, at that stage most of the young ones knew of Paul Mc Cartney. It was after all, the heyday of Wings, but John Lennon ? The Beatles? Sorry, who are they ? I was there, musically speaking. At the time, music was stagnating somewhat, so it was utterly mindblowing when the Beatles started being played. Part of their success was the fact that they appealed to a broad spectrum of listeners. Grannies were quite happy to sit & rock to their music along with teenagers.

After they split & went their own ways, I must admit that I much preferred the harsher sound of Lennon. Goody Twoshoes Mc Cartney still appealed across the board. Yeah, I do enjoy the music of Wings, but Lennon singing "Stand By Me," still puts shivers in my spine & tears in my eyes. I missed a lot of the music of the early 70's. I was busy trying to build a career & a family. (Cue tears & violins) In my dotage, I seem to have grown out of the mid to late 60's music. In later years, I have developed a fondness for the more urgent sounds of bands like Led Zeppelin & others that I missed first time round. I do own Beatles albums. One of the most prized of my albums is a mint copy of The Beatles "White" album. I haven't played it it yet, & I may never do so. Its worth far too much money. I also have a fair collection of their other works as well that I very rarely play. They just don't have the substance that I need any more. They didn't last all that long anyway. The archetypical bad boys of rock, The Rolling Stones, are still basically doing it, with more or less still the original line up, only missing one of the original lineup. OK, so the packaging is showing a lot of wear, but they can still turn out a damn good concert. Surely far more successful than the Beatles ever were.

My taste in music is fairly variable, depending on my mood of the day, but I can still listen to Lennon no matter what. Sit down & listen to "Working Class Hero" sometime. I mean sit down & REALLY listen to it. We miss you John..

Dive ! Dive ! Dive!

Its a long time since I have sat down & watched a reasonable WW2 submarine movie. I think it was just about one called "Das Boot" which was excellent. Tonight, however, I sat down & watched one called "U571" which was good enough to keep me up till 11.00 pm to see the end of it. I don't think I have seen it before, but if I have, it doesn't really matter, because I don't remember it anyway. It was notable in that it had Harvey Keitel playing the gritty old chief, & John Bon Jovi playing the engineer on an American Pig Boat, who sends a boarding party to capture a German U Boat that is lying somewhere in the Atlantic, disabled. Now there is summink curious. Have you ever noticed that submarines are traditionally called "boats," while surface vessels are called "ships." Just a small aside to give you something to go "Hmmmm....." about. Anyway, it was an OK movie, with plenty of action & drama &, believe it or not, not a woman in sight.

We went to see our local Xmas Parade today. Herself really wanted to, & as our other plans didn't come to fruition, we went. She is determined to do the full Xmas thing this year & who am I to stop her. We don't know how many she has left. I'm not really a Xmas sorta person, but its nice to see Herself enjoy it.

Our GP has extracted a promise from the Neurology Department at Waikato that Herself will get an MRI scan sometime in the next two weeks. In my heart I think I know what the answer is going to be. I think we both do really.