Blue Monkey Jammies

A Christmas Greeting from Annie and her girls

2007-12-23T23:20:00.001+11:00

Geez, it is a longgggg time since I've updated here on Annie's behalf. There hasn't been much need though as she's not really improved since the last posting. Annie asked me some time ago to make sure I got on here and posted her 'Merry Christmas' to you all so here I am, but first to how she's doing.

Most of you have been keeping in very regular contact so will know all this already but here's a little summary for the rest.

Let's see.

Her spine is now C4 to C7 affected. It's been discovered that her spinal column is (not so) slowly collapsing in on itself, with the lesion now taking up a significant amount of space. This affects her brain's ability to send signals down throughout the limbs.

Most days now she doesn't have enough function in her arms and hands to do the kind of daily things we take for granted like eating with a knife and fork, dressing ourselves, driving a car and of course, typing on our blogs! She often doesn't have enough function in her right leg to walk and on her best days, is forced to rely heavily on a cane just to stay upright.

There's been several hospital stays since the last posting and the prognosis is kinda disheartening. If she ends up in a chair, which looks highly likely sooner rather than later, she will be paralysed from the chin down. That means she won't be able to swallow or breathe on her own. A pretty heavy thing to think about while you're raising two kiddies on your own, but you wouldn't know it when you're around her.

I flew in to see her a couple of weeks back and luckily it was a better day for her. Although, she had only just gotten home from doing her groceries and was white and sweating from the pain when I arrived (unannounced), she joked that I should grab a chance at her making me a coffee while she had enough 'hand' to stir it in and then to carry the cup. And she was much more concerned with how I was doing than talking about herself.

Anyway, I won't say anymore. Annie really does prefer to keep the specifics to herself and it's Christmas after all. Not the time she'd want anyone worrying for her sake.

As for me, I can't help it. I hear her when I call every couple of days and see her when I can visit and personally, it's very worrying. She's had to frequently fight to keep her kids and fight to keep her job and she ended up having 2/3 of her work contract taken away from her in the end.

On the upside, her kids did brilliantly in their respective recitals and now her oldest is off to high school next year. Her brother and father have both been deathly ill but her father at least is now improving.

She also lost an extremely close friend to a sudden heart attack very recently. He was 41 so it was a complete shock and she's taken it very hard.

Oh and before I finish up, I have to give a shout out to Nat who's just returned from many months trekking through the US, the UK, France, Spain, Morrocco and even the Sahara! Welcome back and thanks for calling and emailing Annie and her girls while you were away. They loved it!!

Oh and thanks to Dr D. who did a little bit of txting and replying to the emails while I was away. You better have gotten that birthday txt off on time Doc. It was the most important one!!!

Now. Annie hopes you all have a marvellous Christmas and a simply spectacular New Year. And so do I... her pathetic excuse for a secretary.

Cheers,

H*M (Heat Miser)

P.S. Annie isn't coming online at all anymore so leaving her messages on Yahoo etc won't reach her. An email is best or a telephone call is better. And I must apologise, I am woefully behind in replying to those of you who've sent emails. There's just been so many. Well that's my excuse anyway!

A very quick update on Annie

2007-08-28T22:57:00.000+10:00

I thought it was about time I put my secretary hat back on and post an update on how Annie is doing. Firstly though, I have to pass on Annie's thanks for all the emails, e-cards and snail mail cards she's received from you all since I posted her 'be back soon' note. There have quite literally been hundreds and, while we've fallen a little behind in replying to them all, you will have replies as soon as possible.

In particular, deep bows of appreciation must be made to those readers who have offered to start donation drives on their quite substantial blogs. Annie was brought to tears when she read your suggestions that several of you raise money to assist her in coping with her not inconsequential costs. I knew when I read them that she would probably decline with thanks and so she has, suggesting that a cheesecake drive would be better! It's been an amazing thing to see so much offered up by readers of the jammies. You're a great bunch to care so much for the well being of someone most of you have never met in person.

And to answer a couple of recurring questions...

1. The comments are closed on these posts because, as you know, Annie likes to reply to all comments she receives and didn't want to have commenters left without a reply while she's not able to come online.
2. She hasn't been reading blogs for some weeks... in fact there are over 400 posts in her bloglines alone, waiting for her to read. She'll get to them when she can or if not, I'll be printing them off for her to read at some point.
3. I don't have the passwords to her IM accounts so any 'offlines' left there may not get through... just so you know.

On to the update (finally).

Annie doesn't want me to go into alot of detail here, since most of you have been checking in on her several times a week so already know where she's at with all of this. I'm sure you'd agree how disheartening it is that the bad days well and truly outnumber the good ones now.

The main piece of news is, since the last posting, we almost lost Annie for the second time this year due to a blood pressure emergency that brought about internal bleeding whilst she was under general anesthetic for an MRI. She makes it sound like a small thing, however I have it on very good authority that it was really serious and could quite literally have gone either way. The threat of a stroke is now almost as constant as full paralysis. They knock her out for every MRI so as to keep the pain inflicted on her during the procedure to a minimum and so that they can position her as needed. It's risky but necessary.

Also, she was recently pushed down the last couple of steps of an escalator by two young dickheads who, after kicking her walking stick away from her, called her a 'crippled spastic' before running off. Unfortunately she was alone when this happened but several passers-by saw and heard the incident and came to her aid and one called a friend for her and explained what happened so she could be collected rather than having to drive herself home.

At the time of posting, she has 5 out of 7 days per week taken up with various specialist appointments now, as well as the extra-curricular activities of her kiddies and helping some of her friends cope with dreadful experiences they're currently having. One was assaulted at work one night, another lost his 4 year old son to a drowning accident, and still another couple were in a car accident. And all since the last posting. Personally, it worries me that she continually drops everything to help others rather than concentrating on herself. Especially since I've noticed that it's not always reciprocated. But it's her choice and not something I'd change about her.

Anyhoo, that's more than enough from me so I'll wrap it up here.

Annie misses reading your blogs a great deal and asks that you please all take excellent care of each other.

She sends her love.

Cheers,

H*M (Heat Miser - STILL the Worst Secretary On The Planet)

Annie will be...

2007-08-02T16:18:00.000+10:00

Real life and her unfortunately worsening condition (blogged about previously), have conspired to make regular posting an impossibility for now. (Not that she was all that reliable in the posting department in the first place, as she'll be the first to tell you!)

There's really no way to imagine how difficult it must be for someone with her particular case to be coping with it all and caring for her two kiddies on her own. As her doctors describe progressively bleaker scenarios, she's always ready with a quip or two in her own brand of self-deprecating, dark humour.

Her situation quite often means she's bed-ridden for several days in a row. Or 'floor-ridden' as she joked to me once, referring to one of many weekends when she went down in the kitchen, paralysed, but out of reach of a phone and as she says, had to camp out with the cat on the kitchen floor for nearly 37 hours without help until she was discovered.

To go through this alone? I don't know how she does it. It certainly makes me appreciate how fortunate I am not being unwell and alone. She's constantly saying that there are people/friends of hers much worse off than she though and tries to maintain a sense of humour about it all.

She asks me to thank everyone for their emails of concern and support. Even though the jammies here only gets roughly 300 unique hits a day, it's the 2 dozen or so emails she receives each week from readers and friends of her blog that really make her day.

There's also a couple of blogs to thank, bloggers who listed the jammies on their 'Best Thursday 13's Ever' List a couple of weeks ago, however I've lost the links she gave me to list here. (Some pathetic secretary I am eh?). I know there were four... one of them was called Full Plate, but that's about it.

Annie reads every one of your emails and replies when she can type, or I type them for her, so if you want to write, she will definately see it.

She sends warm, squishy hugs to all.

Cheers,
H*M (Heat Miser - Worst Secretary On The Planet)

It's a bouncing baby Thursday Thirteen!!!

2007-06-28T10:05:00.000+10:00

Yes.I.Have.Succumbed.

Now don't get all snoopy dance excited on me. Given my ~~exemplary~~ erratic posting timetable here at the jammies, it may well turn into a 'Every Thursday That I Remember Thirteen' or a 'It's the 17th Thursday of the Year Thirteen'.

So, you know, don't get your hopes up.

Here goes....

Thirteen Really Dangerous Things

Running with scissors.

Running while eating.

Running while eating a pair of scissors.

Asking somebody on the other side of the room to throw you a pair of scissors.

Running out of the room screaming and across a busy road without looking because you've got a pair of scissors in your eye.

Picking your nose with a pencil.

Picking your nose with a pencil while running across a slippery floor.

Picking your nose with a pencil while riding in a car travelling down a really bumpy road.

Baked beans.

Playing with matches.

Playing with matches after eating a whole can of baked beans.

Trampolines.

Jumping on a trampoline after eating a whole can of baked beans while picking your nose with a pencil and scratching your ear with scissors.

The purpose of this meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

thursday thirteen

Richard Attenborough I'm NOT!

2007-06-23T10:25:00.000+10:00

A little while ago, I arrived home from physiotherapy to find the Liquid Amber tree in our front yard simply brimming with Rainbow Lorikeets. They were chowing down on all the seed pods and since the tree itself is all nekked now for winter, their glorious plumage was really striking.

So I ~~raced~~ hobbled inside and grabbed the trusty digicam to get some pics. There was a distinct 'wow this is kinda cool' factor along with a 'the kids are gonna love this' aspect that needed to be preserved.

The fact that it had stopped raining long enough to look skyward without drowning didn't hurt either.

Here's some of them dining at Cafe de la Liquid Amber.

Here's another one.

Here's the tree as seen whilst I was slipping in the muddy quagmire that my front yard has become due to all the rain.

Here's the muddy quagmire.

I'll spare you a shot of my muddy arse. That's something no-one should EVER have to see as anyone who's met my arse will confirm.

Blogging enthusiasm nipped in the bud!!!

2007-06-21T17:01:00.000+10:00

Well, that'll teach me to leap onto Blogger with multiple, graphically enhanced posts ready for my ~~two billion~~ three readers.

The server that stores my blog graphics has... well basically, shat itself, leaving my blog looking more like ~~crapola~~ a big old mess than it did before.

So I'm now over my urge to post. Maybe later.

[...] (insert server name there) sux!!!

Kthanxbai.

*(Edit: Special squishy hugs to H*M who came to the rescue by sitting here and uploading the core graphics to another server while I ranted about my current server in fluent expletive. It still looks bleh I know, but hey, Heroes is on tonight so it ain't getting fixed now till much later!)

*(Edit {again}: After an hour of being left on hold, a recorded response has informed me that there is an inordinate amount of callers and that they're 'looking into the problem'. Then I was cut off. I suggest that the recorded response was company talk for 'looking into our navals for lint extraction purposes while our customers all run around pulling their hair out!' aaargh!!! I need cheesecake. RIGHT.NOW.)

Front steps... How I loathe thee!

2007-05-26T08:14:00.000+10:00

The joys of what happened to me earlier this year continue.

I have two small steps at the front of my house and every day I have no idea if I will navigate them successfully or not.

Sometimes hilarity ensues and I end up teetering, waving my arms about as I almost topple into the unsuspecting, but clearly cowering, gardenia.

Sometimes I take them quick, looking something like a wooden boy with his leg joints all out of whack.

Most of the time I regret never training the cat to retrieve the mail and the dogs to drive my girls to school.

This is just two steps people! Two small, not high at all, steps!!

There are six steps to the backyard. I take a packed lunch, some flares and a rubber dinghy with me when I have to navigate those.

Next week I have a 'walking test' at the docs. I have to walk 50 metres within a certain time frame without looking like the Lord of the Dance on crack.

Right now I've got about 20 metres down before it all goes haywire.

They want to issue me with a cane you see, and I've been fighting it, knowing that the urge to clock someone and having the tool to do so might well be a bad thing in my hands.

Plus I know I'd have to train the dogs not to snatch it away from me, thinking it was a fetch toy and I'd rather spend that time training them to drive the kids to school.

Don't Leave Earth Without It!

2007-05-20T08:29:00.000+10:00

My MedicAlert emblems have FINALLY arrived! Can I hear a yay? YAYYYYYYYY!

Now, I haven't been cowering in the house, afraid to go abroad without them, at all. On the contrary. But I do feel so much better now that they're here. Especially upon reading the packaging they came in.

See the first line?

It's comforting to know that the next time I'm holidaying on Neptune or shopping on Saturn, I'll be ok if I fall down and go boom.

You know. Since the emblems are 'universally recognised' and all.

Now, Repeat After Me

2007-05-18T06:57:00.000+10:00

I hope all the mother's out there had a lovely Mother's Day last Sunday.

As my girls spend every weekend with their father, I have to undergo intense but usually fruitless negotiations, to have them for the whole of Mother's Day, instead of the 20 minutes late at night when they've been brought back home. By that stage they are so asleep they don't even remember that I AM their mother, let alone where they are.

It's been seven years of the same process. Pleasant, amiable inquiries about the possibility of getting them back early for that one day, followed by entirely entertaining thoughts on various ways to serve certain parts of his anatomy barbequed when he says no.

This year was different. This year he was going to be busy on Sunday so the girls were returned on Saturday night.

Imagine my delight when I was awoken on Sunday morning with breakfast in bed. The table leg of one of my occasional tables coming at my eyeball. They'd forgotten that part about waking me up first, thus allowing me to sit up.

On the table was a bowl with half a dozen Froot Loops swimming in several litres of milk... and a cookie. It was the best breakfast I'd ever seen.

Later on, we were watching a movie as I shared some Smarties with them. Part of my Mother's Day booty.

Thinking they were being a little ungrateful for the boon of Smartie sharing, I suggested they say thankyou.

Me: 'Thanks Mum, for sharing your Smarties'

Them (still concentrating on the movie and not at all on me): 'Thanks Mum for smelling our farties'

I asked for it really. Didn't I?

And the 2007 Worst Mother of the Year Award goes to...

2007-05-12T04:47:00.000+10:00

... me. That's who.

Last Thursday, my youngest, received an award from her school. A very distinguished award that was the result of three years of outstanding acts of school citizenship and monumentous efforts in all areas of her school work.

This is also commonly known as sucking up to her teachers. But is a big deal as it's uncommon for students to achieve this award in the lowly third grade. I can vouch for her sucking up skills. They are quite remarkable.

That evening as we were getting out of the car, she was showing her sister the fantabulous certificate, framed complete with a photograph of herself.

She'd already moved her seat forward to let her sister out and her sister was leaning over the top of the seat to gaze admiringly at the certificate.

Here's what happened next...

As it was raining, we needed to hurry inside with all the bags etc. Youngest jumped out and ran inside with a 'can you grab my bag Mum' tossed over her shoulder. She obviously didn't want to get her framed, laminated and totally rain-proof certificate, wet.

I jumped out, and as I'm not rain-proof, got very wet grabbing the bags and with a 'make sure you lock the door kiddo' tossed over my shoulder at my eldest, scurried for the door and went inside.

Several minutes passed and my eldest chicklet did not appear. So I went to the door and shouted out for her to stop muck-arseing about and get inside. Now I admit here that we did hear some noise coming from the car and both my youngest and I decided that she was infact mucking about and ignored it.

Several more minutes passed so I marched out there quite prepared to give her a piece of my mind for holding us up when it turns out that when Youngest had jumped out of the car, the car seat and clicked back into place, trapping Eldest's head.

Are you laughing? Was that a guffaw? Because if it was, you're not alone. I guffawed. I admit it.

The sight of my eldest, (who's almost as tall as me now and at eleven years of age that's pretty damn tall), with her head caught between the top of the car seat and the roof of the car was kinda funny.

What makes matters worse is that it was tempting to leave her there. It would've made for a nice quiet evening.

Fear not.. I did help her out in the end by releasing the catch on the car seat but not before suggesting to her that doing so might make her head pop off all together.

She didn't think it was funny at the time but now? Now she thinks it's hilarious.

There's nothing like good service

2007-05-06T04:30:00.000+10:00

Several weeks ago, I was handed a sheaf of forms by one of my doctors, Dr McArsehole actually. He told me it was highly recommended that I go onto the MedicAlert system and get a bracelet or necklace with medical bits engraved on the back.

That way, if I fell down and went boom, people would know what to do straight away to make sure that I would live to fall down and go boom, another day.

stylin' huh?

Personally, I wanted it to read "must infuse with cheesecake STAT!" but I was over-ruled.

Notice at the beginning of this post, I said several weeks ago. They still haven't arrived. Lucky I haven't fallen down and gone boom so far, huh?

Honestly, it took less time to get tags for my cat!

Man Glued To Rhino Buttocks

2007-04-28T03:27:00.000+10:00

A little something from the Darwin Awards. Hey... I was up early. WAY early. Too early to think of my usual not-intelligent-in-any-way kind of post, but not so early that I couldn't use a search engine. Read on McDuff.

A Vermont native found himself in a difficult position yesterday while touring the Eagle's Rock African Safari Zoo with a group of thespians from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Henry went to extremes to demonstrate the power of Crazy Glue, one of America's many marvels, to the Russians. To prove the effectiveness of Crazy Glue, he rubbed several ounces of the adhesive onto the palms of his hands and jokingly placed them on the buttocks of a passing rhino.

The rhinoceros, a resident of the zoo for the past thirteen years, was not initially startled, as it has been part of the petting exhibit since its arrival as a baby. However, once it became aware of being involuntarily stuck to Henry, it began to panic and charge wildly about the petting area with Henry as an unwitting passenger.

"Sally the Rhino hadn't been feeling well. She was constipated, and had just been given a laxative when the American played his juvenile prank, " said caretaker James Douglass.

During Sally's tirade, a shed wall was gored, two fences destroyed, and a number of small animals escaped. Three pygmy goats and one duck were stomped to death. During the stampede and subsequent capture, Sally began to feel the effects of the laxative, showering Henry repeatedly with over 30 gallons of rhinoceros diarrhea.

A team of medics and zoo caretakers were needed to remove his hands from Sally's buttocks. "It was tricky. We had to calm her down while shielding our faces from the pelting rhino dung. I guess you could say that Henry was in it up to his neck."

"Once she was under control, three people with shovels were working to keep an air passage open for him. We were eventually able to tranquilize Sally and apply a solvent to remove his hands from her rear," said Douglass. "I don't think he'll be playing with Crazy Glue for awhile."

Meanwhile, the amused Russians were impressed with the power of the adhesive. "I'm going to buy some for my children, but of course they can't take it to the zoo," commented Vladimir Zolnikov, leader of the troupe.

Henry did not die, nor was there any reproductive injury, so he can only qualify for a Darwin Award if you are persuaded by the fact that nobody would date a man who smelled of rhino dung.

Thus ends this blatant post for the sake of posting.

I'm going back to bed!

Who invented lungs anyway?

2007-04-27T00:39:00.000+10:00

A recent checkup at the Doc's has revealed the cost of my newly crapped out pulmonary system.

"Because of the damage, you really can't afford to get a cold this winter", says she.

Who is she kidding? I have two kids and while they are semi-adorable, they will be-friend, bring home and snuggle up to any and all orphaned germs roaming the school yard.

I guess my only alternative is to get about in one of these 'fabulous' numbers...

Aren't they simply ummm ... Craptacular!!!!

Yup. I'm doomed.

Note: I know you're all seething with jealousy at the thought of me sporting one of these. Well maybe not so much seething as searching for those loony bin committal forms for me but I swear, these are a really real product and are really really available to buy. You know... in case you're nuts enough to want one.

But it's ummm... Pink!

2007-04-22T08:21:00.000+10:00

There comes a time in every parent's life when they gaze fondly at their eldest child, the fruit of their loins, their hopes and dreams for the future, and think to themselves...

"It's because I ate all that coconut ice while I was pregnant, isn't it."

This was one of those times.

And she starts (gulp) High School next year.

I shouldn't be worried, should I?

SHOULD I????

I'm nailing her windows shut now... just in case.

Here's the arse in Hi-ate-arse.

2007-04-20T15:33:00.000+10:00

Only back 5 minutes and already with the questions. I feel like a newly evicted Survivor contestant. Patience dear ones, patience.

So... 3 months ago this was me...

It's a crap photo I know. But I really felt like crap so may as well look the part.

In early January, my right side decided it was having a hiatus of it's own and stopped working.

7 different doctors stuck various size needles and pins in my arm and leg over 2 days to try and see what was wrong.

Obviously the sticking of needles and pins is a highly scientific method known only to a few. Possibly passed down by inquisitors and torturers of old. I suspected leeches would be next however they decided to leap into the here and now and utilize some spiffy magnetic imaging.

This nasty beastie was discovered via MRI...

One cranky arse lesion that was trying to be fresh with my spine and my spine was having none of it. So squished spine + squished nerve roots = many, MANY days on Morphine. And... paralysis down the right side.

Here's the highlights of what followed:-

2 pulmonary embolisms. The first of which nearly took me out of the game as it turns out and was caused by, (as put by one of the 7 doctors hereafter labelled McArsehole), me 'just lying there and not getting up and walking around'.

Guess he forgot why he admitted me in the first place. I forgave him quickly though. Poor fellow... he asked a quadraplegic in the bed opposite me to stand up so he could take her blood pressure. Not exactly confidence inspiring!

The emboli meant they couldn't go in and fix the problem. The 1st embolism felt like the entire cast of The Biggest Loser were sitting on my chest however another one of the 7 doctors, (hereafter labelled McNasty), said it was probably nothing more than an anxiety attack.

That is until he tried that fab medical imaging thingy again and oops! "You have a clot the size of Africa in your lung". Listening To Your Patients 101 clearly isn't taught in halls of medical learning anymore.

So... 3 weeks in one hospital, 2 weeks in a physical rehab hospital and 6 weeks of home care later and I'm back. Ok so I walk a little like Quasimodo now and should be ringing a bell and shouting 'Bring Out Ya Dead!' everywhere I go but I'm still here.

I have to give uber-thanks to Nat of Rock the Kazbah for completely turning her life upside down to come stay with us and look after me for my first 2 weeks home.

Sloppy kisses also go to the very thoughtful Anne-Nicole & Sean, Dad & Linda and Dr D. for taking me out and about whilst I wasn't allowed to drive and relieving my hideous cabin fever.

Thanks also to L & B of Burnt Offerings for the mention in their blog. Thank you. Your prayers were appreciated.

My driver's licence was, ahem, downgraded to a Learner Driver's Permit! Which while humiliating in the extreme, could well explain the lower road incidents report for that period. But I'm back on the road now too so watch your butts!

Hmmm... I've just realised how chunky I've drawn my neck in that poor excuse for a diagram.

Should've just hired Mr Squiggle instead.

Hiatus

2007-04-19T19:46:00.000+10:00

I guess that's what you could call it. Hiatus.

Or is that Hi-ate-arse? Who knows but as this blog was recently listed as extinct, the latent conservationist in me was prompted to act.

You see, there was this weird and totally unaccounted for anomaly called 'real life' that interfered with my previously exemplary posting record. (Or is that imaginary posting record?)

'Real life' I've discovered, has a pesky habit of leaping up and biting you in the arse. But more on that later.

Part of the blame does go to this however...

So... thanks for all the 'Where the *#%& are you??' emails of concern kiddies.

I'm back now. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen.

Happy Easter Boys and Girls!

2006-04-14T07:36:00.000+10:00

Yeah, yeah. So I dug this up from the bowels of the Blue Monkey Jammies archives but so what?

It's relevant... it's now... it's topical... and... not altogether lacking in humour appropriate to the obligatory over-consumption of chocolate bunnies consistent with the Easter holiday.

So 'fess up people! Who starts with the ears? Who starts with the butt (freaks!)? Or who smashes choc bunnies into a bazillion bits to eat them?

Criminal elements of Sydney beware!!!

2006-04-08T15:23:00.000+10:00

Oh yes. This is a bona-fide warning to any and all crooked-type crooks who may have the inkling, the urge, nay even the impulse to access our residence for nefarious purposes by other than conventional means in the future.

For yea, though we've walked through the valley of trashed belongings, we will fear no thief-type thieves. For on this day we have installed a totally organic, truly merciless security system.

Behold the system in action!
(Warning: photograph depicted is of a graphic nature and may alarm small children)

Robber-type robbers worldwide are shuddering in their ankle socks even now. And the apprehended monkey pictured? Well... he'll live... just.

THIEVING BASTARDS!!!!!

2006-03-24T02:57:00.000+11:00

I'm posting this through my mobile so not sure if it will work. Our home was broken into and robbed Wednesday morning. My girls and I are safe, (more or less) and they didn't hurt the cat. Although right now I'm wishing he was a 75 kilo german shepherd instead of the 7 kilo lump he is. Please all take care of yourselves and your loved ones and I'll be back once I get our house back together. Thankyou. Annie

Hot, wet and wait... another early morning??!!!

2006-02-11T23:41:00.000+11:00

There must be someone I can write to about this whole start things so freakin early in the morning that it requires one to get up even freakin earlier thing!!

Except of course, anyone one would write to in this case, has office hours of 10am to 4pm so that whole early start thing? Not affecting them so much.

And yet, as I sit here resplendant in my blue monkey jammies, after a day spent at beautiful Darling Harbour in Sydney for the annual dragon boat races to celebrate CNY... it's not all residual early morning angst.

Yes I am a little tired... read: oh lawd just kill me now!
Yes my voice is a little hoarse... read: (nothing.. I can't speak at all!)
And yes, my skin is somewhat tingling by the aftermath of a day in the sun... read: (singing) Rudolph the red-nosed Annie-deer!

But seriously dear listener, today was thoroughly enjoyable. What with the thrill of the races, the mystical allure of the ceremonies surrounding the dragons, the cacophony of drums and cheering masses, the presence of so many sculpted Adoni... with their glistening pectorals and rippling biceps.. the way the water cascades across all that manly and... ahem sorry.. drooled on myself a little there. Just a mo'.

There... all better.

Someone recently asked me. "Why do you want to watch littls monks paddling around in boats?' They couldn't understand why I religiously attend every year.

Foolish girl. With eye candy like this...

...who even notices the boats?

Me!! That's who. And all the better to admire those fine upper bodies my dear.

Roadtrip! (...kinda)

2006-02-02T02:43:00.000+11:00

Now it all started with a call from L & B, inviting me to join them on a jaunt out to the wilds of Bathurst for the local farmer's market. Which, by the way, was really L & B-speak for: 'Have to get the k's up on the work car so we can get a new one!'.

'Yeah, great, love to!', says I. 'What time do you want me over?'

'We want to leave early so be here at 6:15am', says B (with glee).

Bugger!! 6:15am!!!!, thought I, but said 'ok sure see you then'.

Saturday morning dawns. I open my eyes to discover that, while I'm totally on schedule for getting my butt over to L & B's on time, I can barely move.

You see I'd worked the day before and 9 hours on one's feet, without even a knee-bend for a break does unpleasant things to the body. My legs ached, my back was in spasm... even my eyelashes were disputing the need to get out of bed at all, nevermind at such an un-godly hour!

So I had to 'slither' out of bed, landing on the floorboards with a dull thud, and drag myself into an upright position using the door frame. All the while cursing aloud, that I'd passed up on the opportunity to get Nana's electronic bendy-bed thingy that would've sat me up on it's own with the push of a button.

The whole shower-get ready-get going process is best left without description. Suffice to say, I was an hour late getting to L & B's.

Bathurst is a fairly sleepy town being way (and I do mean WAY!) over on the other side of the Blue Mountains from here. It's quite lovely, however there are only two reasons I'd ever move there...

1. They have an ice-cream parlour named after me!

Almost reason enough!

And 2. Delicious peaches, plums and nectarines (although some were a little freaky looking!)

Underdeveloped twin or just happy to see me... You be the judge!

And the reason I wouldn't?

It'd be too damn far to drive for a decent tiramisu!!

3 and a bit hours later... Hello Bathurst!

God save the Queen!

2006-01-27T19:35:00.000+11:00

She's looking a little frazzled as she glances up at us from our currency lately.

Firstly... how a AUS$5.00 note used to look....

... and how the AUS$5.00 note, that crossed my palm this morning, looked...

Somebody definitely had too much time on their hands.

Move along, nothing to see here.

2006-01-20T22:58:00.000+11:00

Kookaburras laughed at me when I opened the back door this morning.

That set the tone for the rest of the day.

'Nuff said.

P.S. To those who kindly took the time to write and send an email pointing out their confusion that there weren't any naked pictures of Matt Damon to be found on this blog...

Well yeah! That was kinda the point. Mkay? Thanks.

It's a new carrrrrrrr!!!

2006-01-16T23:49:00.000+11:00

Yes it's true dear listener. It IS a new car. Well new to me anyway.

But first.. a moment's silence for The Pea (my OLD little green car) who has been (not)very reluctantly put out to pasture.

And now... I must go wahoo.

WAHOOOOOOOOO!!

No more shall I be the subject of ridicule and scorn as I motor along in a automobile smaller than Barbie's Dream Car.

No more shall I cringe at the sight of the automotive leprosy plagueing The Pea's skin, the scars from a pedestrian-ectomy, or the rips in the seatcovers after some brainless male, (oops I mean person), got into The Pea with screwdrivers in their backpocket.

Pea.. I loved ya but... BUH BYE!

As my Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday/Merry Christmas present, The Egg (our much MUCH newer, much MUCH cooler, not so little, white car) totally rocks!

Hmmm just noticed a downside. No more presents for a year?

Oh well... WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Damn, I knew it!

2006-01-13T03:53:00.000+11:00

I am so doomed!

Oh well. Hopefully it will be a level of hell with a view and broadband access!