I haven't really been avoiding you

I've just had a lot happening inside my head lately. Things have been getting more than a little on top of me one way & another. The weather hasn't helped. When I quit work, one of the guys in Auckland that I know gave me a whole heap of stuff. Among it was one of his company work shirts, with the remark that it was my new fishing shirt, because it's UV resistant. We went fishing a week or two back. I hauled it out of the wardrobe & came to the realisation that I hadn't actually used it or been out fishing since i quit work. Not good. We have now been out a couple of times. Not much in the way of fish, but we enjoyed ourselves.

Another problem is lack of social contact for me. We have come to a bit of a hiatus in our travels & I miss socialising. To remedy that, I have started volunteer driving to take patients from our medical center to Waikato Hospital. have done two trips for them so far.

Meantime, I'm getting back into actually achieving something every day at home. So far so good. Pretty soon, I'm gonna have to bite the bullet & actually start concreting. Herself goes to waikato hospital on Friday for hopefully what will be the last in the series of feeding tubes for a good 12 months or so. now all we got to do is get her wonky knee sorted out..

Old Dan's Records.

I recently did a bit of what for me was a very clever little bit of horse trading. The details aren't important, but for me, its a win win situation. I have ended up with a lot more space in my garage & a kickass stereo system. I've been busy the last couple of days sorting it all out & installing it to my satisfaction. Its absolutely fantastic. I wont bore you with all the details, but I now have Wharfedale speakers at one end of the lounge & my good old trusty Fishers at the other end. TV & DVD all run back through it as well..

One of the things I had to do to run extra speaker wiring was shift one of the stacks of LP's that I have on the shelves. Its fatal to do that with me. It wasn't long before I was siting there thinking, "Hey, I haven't heard that one in a long time... Or this one. " See , these days I have such a good collection of CD's & they are so easy to play that I haven't given my vinyl much though. So there was "Gord's Gold" sitting there. Gordon Lightfoot. So me being a glutton for punishment I HAD to put it on. Herself is away at patchwork, so I can play it how I like... LOUD.

The only problem with playing Lightfoot is the memories he brings back. Some of the tracks bring back memories going right back to when my first marriage broke up. Good memories of a friend that I now have no idea where he is. he was a good friend at a tough time & he used to know Gordon. We used to sit in the cabin of his yacht & I would play & sing & he would sit there with a far away look on his face. He would tell me how much I reminded him of Gordon & how well we would get on.

One of the tracks on this album herself & I had played at our wedding. Its a very appropriate song for us now. We had no idea of the implications in it at the time. The track is Rainy Day People. Here it is..

A few of my Favourite things

Don't expect all the raindrops on mittens & hound dogs on kittens garbage that Julie andrews sings about in The Sound of Music. For the record, it is my proud boast that I have never actually SEEN that movie. Sorry, but Julie Andrews just don't spin my wheels somehow. Even the picture above isn't actually one of my favourite things. I'm more your basic hunter gatherer type. I'd rather go out & kill something to eat rather than wait for it to grow.

However, the look on Herself's face when she found out that I had installed the above picture as her desktop wallpaper was definitely right up there on my list of favourite things though. So is the taste of fresh snapper. I had almost forgotten that one. We got out fishing on Wednesday. It wasn't till I got back that I realised that we hadn't actually been out since I quit work. Thats way too long. It wasn't the best of days & we only caught 5 snapper, but that was enough for two nice meals for us. Sadly, Herself can't eat battered fish any more, but I had a bright idea & she enjoyed her fish. I pan fried it & served it with a lovely (even though I say it myself) caper sauce. Turned out nice it did.

The picture at the top of the page ? That's Herselfs favourite clematis out the front of our house. It is really looking rather beautiful at the moment even if you can't eat it.

Keerist its CCCCCCold !!!!!

Old man Winter has snuck up & smacked us round the ear for one last (hopefully) time it would seem. Ever since my son arrived from Southern Climes, the weather has been crap. We were intending to be down south by this stage, but I'm glad we're not. Im even glad that our trip to Hastings is out of the way as Jack Frosts icy fingers have insinuated themselves far enough North to close the Napier Taupo Highway as well as the Desert Road & a heap of other alternatives as well.

Once again, we have given in & lit the fire. It IS bloody cold here, as you can see by the attached pics. Both Tigs & Misty burrowed their way under their respective blankets for the afternoon as you can see by the attached photo's.
















Meanwhile, I carry on polishing the boat. Damn its going to look good when it finally gets on the water.....

Progress (I guess)

We had yet another outing to Waikato Hospital today. Its gotten so that the staff at Day patient Clinic know us by name. All we have to do now is show up & the rest happens. Herself had to go & have another endoscopy so that her plumbing could be rearranged & so that the ologist in charge of her case could see why the Micki Button wasn't a howling success. For those of you that don't know, an endoscopy is when you are mildly sedated,(to at least the point of insensibility) a plumbing device not unlike a length of garden hose with a light a little clamp on it is passed down the throat into the stomach. In Jude's case today, the light was turned on so that the ologist could see what the problem was, her current fitting removed from the outside, a wire fed in through the hole which was grabbed by the clamp & pulled back up through the throat. The new bit was then pulled down & through the hole with the mushroom sitting neatly against the wall of the stomach on the inside.

The reason that the Micki was hurting her was that it was protruding through far enough that it was touching the opposite wall of the stomach. The inside wall of the stomach is quite touchy about things like this & was continually trying to get rid of it the only way it knew, ie, swallowing it. Tired & scratchy I think would describe it. Anyway, the new fitting is in & at least there is an improvement in it as the fitting that holds it in place on the outside has a right angle bend in it, which makes it a lot less conspicuous than the original one. The Ologist has also managed to source out a new & improved Micki Button. Instead of having about an inch of tube & a latex balloon on the inside, this one has the same mushroom fitting that she has now. Even better is the fact that she doesnt have to have another endoscopy to fit it. This gubbins is fed into a metal tube which straightens out the mushroom, fed in from the outside & the tube removed leaving the mushroom in place on the inside.. White man's magic to the nth degree.

OTHER NEWS....

We be both busting our asses to get out fishing, but the weather isn't co operating. In fact, we actually gave in & lit the fire last night. Its not only us hanging out. One of the Ginger Ninja's saw me getting the boat out to take it in for a service & thought we were off & decided she was coming as well. This is a water safe cat seen licking its chops in anticipation of a feed of nice fresh fish...


That's her story anyway & I suspect she will stick to it........