Atilla the Hungarian

We went to meet the new Neurological Nurse at Waikato Hospital yesterday. You see, sadly, Pat Simpson has decided that its time for a change & moved to the Stroke Unit. Their major gain, our major loss. So we went to meet her replacement. His name is Atilla Herman, & yes, he is Hungarian. Even more importantly, he has 25 years experience in the field & comes across as being very competent. Certainly, he had a couple of good suggestions that he threw our way, so we counted it a productive afternoon.

I've been feeling incredibly lethargic over the last few days. It has been taking me all my time to get even the very basic things done around the place, let alone get ahead stuff. Its a vicious circle really. The worse it gets the less I feel like doing it & the less I know where to start. I did take Jude for a walk with her friend Dian this morning though. That is always good for the soul. We started at the wharf & walked as far as the supermarket along the coastal walkway that we now have. Its a wonderful asset & very well used. Lots of folk for us to pass the time of day with & a variety of dogs for Whispas to exchange sniffs with. When we got home, I decided to declare today a rest day & opted to curl up & try to snooze for the day.

I say try, because that's about what it amounted to. Every time I tried to get to sleep the phone would ring. Mostly inconsequential stuff but one of the calls was really bad news. Jude's daughter rang to say that one of her friend's husband had some incredibly bad news today. You see, he has been unwell for a number of months now with stomach pain. When we were there on the weekend, she took him to the hospital twice because the pain was that bad. They finally found out what it is & told them today. Not good news. Pancreatic cancer & less than 12 months to live. They are both in their early 40's & have 4 children, down to a 7 year old daughter. Life can be tough sometimes. pancreatic cancer is very painful & , sadly, inoperable. My heart bleeds for them.

It seems as though tragedy is the order of the day at the moment. Certainly, let us feel for the families of the 29 miners that perished at Pike River Mine. Let us also remember that coal mining is a very hazardous occupation, one that is extremely well paid & also that the men were down there because that was what they liked doing. Let us be thankful that their end was in all probability fairly quick & painless. I realise that this doesn't provide any comfort to the grieving families, but it would certainly be a lot more humane way of dying than counting your days down with your body steadily growing more & more weak & painful. Not that I would really care for either way of death.

Jude is going to Patchwork tomorrow. Hopefully, I will replace the starter cord on the line trimmer & attack the weeds along the driveway. Then there are the lawns to do & the gardens to weed, and..... and.... and... and...

All Gods Chillun's

We did an overnighter in Albany for the weekend. The reason was our two eldest grand children were having their first communion on Sunday. Now I'm not a Roman Catholic, nor ever have been. I was dragged up in a good old Presbyterian family, but these two little tackers have a nun for an aunty & go to a fairly high end Catholic school, so I guess it really was an inevitability to happen. We took the little dog with us. Aside from distinguishing herself by peeing on the carpet, (shock horror) I don't think she particularly enjoyed herself. Two male Shi Tzu's are bit over the top don't you think? She sorted them out eventually though. Our morning walk was a bit of a mixed bag though. We went a lot earlier than usual. You have to there a bit, because of the traffic. The biggest thing I noticed was how built up it all was. Nowhere at all for a little dog to look for where other dogs had posted their presence. And it was raining. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the walk in spite of it all.

I enjoyed horsing around in the pool with the kids too. Rather belatedly, I remembered how long it has been since i have had a sore back. You know, you have so much going on in your life that an old acquaintance like a sore back can just slip away unnoticed & ride off into the sunset. That is until you are horsing around in the pool with the grandy's & come up with the bright idea of getting them to stand on your shoulders & balance there while you walk around the pool. Awesome fun at the time for all of us, but I woke up this morning thinking, " I've got a sore back... Damn its a long time since I've had a sore back." I don't mind, its gone now & I really enjoy my time with those two kids. We get on really well & have a lot of fun.

Anyway, Sunday morning rolled around with all the inevitability of a downhill steamroller race. The kids looked positively edible don't you think?
Ok, so we all raced off to church & amidst lots of standing up & sitting down, strange (to me anyway) rituals & some exceptionally good music from a very competent youth orchestra & choir, we got to see our little darlings walk solemnly up the aisle with their hands clasped in front of them & partake of their first communion. Although I'm no longer a practicing christian & its been more years than I care to remember since I actually took communion, I still remember the mystical feeling it involves, so it was a very nostalgic feeling watching them. They had a very proud Grandma as well don't you think ?

Attilla the Hun

We are going to met Attilla The Hun on Wednesday. Well his name IS Attilla & he IS Hungarian, but hopefully thats where the resemblance ends. he certainly didn't threaten ritual disembowelment if we were late for our appointment, so I guess that's a plus. I should explain. Attilla is the new Clinical Nurse taking over from Pat Simpson & he has something like 25 years experience. he sounds like a really nice sort of chap & I am really looking forward to meeting him, quite aside from the fact that he is going to do a complete overhaul of Jude's case & make sure that everything is as it should be. That is really good to know.

HAPPY SOMETHING OR OTHER....

I just thought you should know.. This makes my 500th. post since I have been writing my blog. I guess that has to count for something. Thank you to all those who follow me regularly, past & present & give me the incentive to keep on writing. It means a lot.

Priceless

I'm trying to write this with a Dachshund curled up on the desk in front of me. Its not easy, as you can see.

I had a good day yesterday. I went fishing. Both our grand children in Auckland are being confirmed on Sunday, so she wanted to go to the Catholic shop & get something suitable for them.This really isn't my thing, but one of her friends who is also a reformed RC offered to take her, so it made for a nice afternoon for them both. I rounded up me new mate Kevin from the dairy down the road & we went fishing instead. This is what I came home with as well as 8 other very nice fish.


It was a bit lumpy out, but it didn't really matter, good company & some nice fish in the bin makes all the difference. I'm going to smoke it this morning, no doubt under Whispas' capable supervision. I'm going to take it up to Auckland with us as my contribution to Sunday lunch. Kind of appropriate really I think Don't you ? I had the best nights sleep last night that I have had in ages. I haven't gone fishing in a while because Jude has just been too tired for it , but bless her, she understands my need to be on the water & our home help who is also a very dear friend is happy to cover & keep an eye on her. It does us both good I think.

We can be heroes

I've finally plucked up the courage, (& the requisite cash) to go & get a partial plate made to help what is left of my top teeth tear steak & dinosaur bones to bits. Now, I naively, I've never had a denture before, expected that one would just pop the jolly old thing in to place & hey presto, all would be well & life would be rosy. Not so. First your tongue has to get used to having this bloody great slab of acrylic on the roof of its mouth. It actually takes up quite a bit of space, alters your speech patterns & everything. Dunno about eating yet as I haven't managed to chew a mouthful & swallow it yet without it feeling extremely weird. But I will get there eventually I guess. Everybody else does.

While I was doing all this, I also took Jude in to get her top plate refitted as with her weight loss it was way too big. Naturally, we had to explain what was up with Jude to explain her low tolerance to things like half a cup of goo & fingers in her mouth. The practise is run by a mother & daughter combo in company with a very cute 6 month old baby & a sassy Chihuahua. The mother lost her husband who used to run the pracice about 3 years ago to cancer under very tragic circumstances. The daughter is now qualified as a technician & Mum does the fittings.

I was rather taken aback, lost for words & very teary eyed this morning. You see, not only did they present me with my teeth, but also with a huge bunch of flowers, for being in their words, "A very brave man." Coming from them, that was a real tribute that I'm not really certain that I deserve.

Bitter Sweet

I changed my mobile phone provider from Vodafone to 2 degrees recently. Taint no biggy, nobody will be going broke or making a fortune, because I'm on prepaid & mainly just use it for text messages. Sadly, in the form of a trap for young players, I neglected to transfer my phone numbers from my SIM card to the handset. I should explain that I took the option of retaining my existing number. Much more straight forward right ? Yep, except that when you switch to two degrees, your old sim card is disabled, so I have been reloading everybody's number. If you have my cell number incidentally, please drop me a TXT so I can get your number again. Anyway, i got to the point of sorting out my Darlings cell number. There was a number on our house phone, but I wasn't sure if it was the right one, so I rang it to see. It wasn't. It was her old number. An old Telecom one that still had an answerphone message on it that she recorded when she could still talk. I've listened to it about 3 times now, just to hear her talk the way she used to. Happy & cheerful & beautifully spoken. I don't know that I should really listen to it again.

I don't often dream & I usually have difficulty remembering them, but I had one that I vividly remembered last night. I had finally lost my Darling & we were in church for her funeral. Everything was white. The floor, the walls, our clothes, even the ones that Jude was wearing, & the coffin. Then we all got up, went forward & all put the most beautiful white roses in the coffin with her. That was when I woke up, probably just as well. I told her about it this morning & we both stood & held each other & cried for quite a while. It did take me a while to get back to sleep after I had it, so I just laid there for an hour or so pondering on the meaning. I'm still not really any the wiser, just a little sadder. I had a heart to heart with Whispas about it this morning while we were out walking. She didn't really have a lot to say on the subject, just gave me one those ineffably wise looks & went off in search of a quail family in the park.

She had an appointment with the respiratory clinic today. Our specialist is a really nice guy with a really natty range of bowties that his wife apparently makes for him. We had quite a chat about Jude's VPAP machine & what could be done to make it a little more user friendly. He is going to check. That & shopping for new nighties, talking to our Hospice Waikato worker & a visit from the district nurse sort of took up most of the rest of the day. I'm hopeful that i will be able to get into some of the jobs that have been piling up. I've looked forward to retirement for a long time, looking forward to increased leisure time. I don't think I have ever been so busy in my life.

Brown Eyed Girl

Thats our Whispas. She is gradually settling in. We left her home on her own today as we both had a couple of appointments & it really was too warm a day to leave her sitting in the car. She coped OK, although we did have quite a heart to heart talk when we got home the first time. One of the things I had to do today was to go & have the first impression made for my new top plate. A different experience to say the least of it. You get this bloody great plastic thing that feels like half a shoe box full of cold runny goo shoved in your gob. The worst part is that when pressure is applied to make the mold, the excess runs out the back & settles on either side & on top of your tongue. While it is still soft, its not particularly pleasant but it soon sets. had the first wax plate this afternoon. Feels strange, but I guess I'll get used to it, especially if it means being able to chew my food better than I have been able to until now.

Having a dog is proving to be a good thing for me. It actually gives me an incentive to establish a routine. I now get all my morning chores done by about 9.00 o'clock & then take the snossidge dog for a walk. I'm finding all sorts of delightful places & people around the place that I haven't encountered before. Hopefully getting somewhat fitter is a bonus. My latest find is a delightful little park up the hill a bit complete with a family of quails that don't seem to mind being chased in a half hearted sort of way by a small dog.

I've finally got the lawns back how I like them. Tomorrow I will fire up the Mighty Atom edge trimmer & do the finishing touches. Then its weed spraying, then its weeding the vege garden & hopefully planting something edible. Oh, we have some dear friends coming to visit tomorrow afternoon. Who said retirement was a breeze....