Show Time!

Guess what I did yesterday?!

Yep, I went to the Perth Royal Show.

I LOVE the show. I remember going as a little kid and being so excited, it was my favourite day of the year! Anyway, all those memories seem to flood back as soon as I enter the gates...even as an adult. One of my most vivid childhood memories is sitting on my Dads lap on a rollercoaster ride(I think it was called the Wild Mouse) and screaming at the top of my lungs. Every time we flew around a corner or dropped over an edge he pretty much had to grab me and act as my seatbelt because i left his lap! I loved it though. Funnily enough, Dad and I went on the 'Python Loop' rollercoater yesterday (I didn't sit on his lap tho!) and the Ghost train and the bumper cars. He's 67 years old and loves it as much as I do!

I also went on a bloody kiddie ride with my 4 year-old nephew and felt so queazy afterwards.... rollercoasters are fine, but anything that spins and wooshes...eeeww. He loved it and so did all the other toddlers that were on it... I kind of staggered off the ride pretending it was fine, but really I felt like I had an impressive hangover. My brother thought it was hilarious and bought me a coffee as compensation.

My sister went to the show too...but somehow I didn't see her there. Every time we made contact we were on opposite sides of the showground. She refuses to go to sideshow alley (did she have a similar rollercoaster experience as a toddler and its scarred her for life??) so she basically hung out at the machinery and animals.

This year I had to leave the show early to pick up husband. Next year I am going for the WHOLE day.... and I'm going to drag my sister onto the rollercoaster with me. he he.

running, sitting and tennis balls.

Boo!

I'm back. Well only because I'm on nightshift and the bloody work computer won't grant me access to Facebook, so i'm back to blogger land. I've missed my blog!

* * * * * *

I love jogging. I've been jogging a fair bit lately & generally i do 5 - 10km 4 times a week. I still go at snails pace (husband says I shuffle - bless him) but hey, I'm only racing myself so I can only win (huh?). Today i went for my usual 'easy' 5km and felt like i had concrete blocks attached to my legs. Big concrete blocks, like the ones that fall on people at building sites and their intestines squish out. Every single step was a bloody challenge, i tried all my usual diversions - focus on the next roadsign/tree/house, change my song, change my pace, change my breathing... change my undies (kidding). It was a looong painful 5km, and I wish i had a jogging buddy other than my Garmin forerunner 405 (which i LOVE) but it doesnt chat to me when the going gets tough. Husband keeps talking about joining me, (and talking, and talking) His current status: No-joiner.

* * * * * *
I'm trying to teach Murphy-dog how to sit still so i can clip his toenails. My God...what a task that is.
I'm still at the stage of getting him to sit still for 10 seconds while i gently just touch his paw without him freaking out. (i don't think we've actually made any progress yet!) It's only day 3... but the internet instructions say it should only take a week. Maybe it would only take a week if i didn't have such a bloody retarded dog. He actually growls at me when i touch his paws (thinks he's tough) but then gets mega excited by the treats i have, launches himself off his bed to try and snatch the entire packet to scoff down - and my training begins back at square one, just trying to get the idiot to sit STILL. Ugh. I'm thinking my less than average IQ dog might need a tad longer, and i might need some Valium.

* * * * * *
I'm currently on a wheat-free & milk-free diet (except yoghurt). I think i have irritable bowel syndrome (with the rest of the world) and get this 'thing' at random times i call 'tennis ball bum'... because it feels like i have a tennis ball up my arse... and its horrible. I'm not kidding. Too much information? too bad. I'm over it and i used to be embarrassed about it, but hey, all those close to me have heard my woes and laughed at my expense (with minimal sympathy shown i must add) so i've no shame any more! Anyway, the diet is somewhat challenging, Wheat seems to be in E V E R Y T H I N G that tastes nice. Ever tasted wheat-free biscuits? Nasty. The bread is okay as long as you put something tasty on it, the pasta is kind of weird but okay. Anyway its just a trial to see if it makes any difference to my symptoms. Anything to avoid having a camera up my butt, I do not want any scope or camera-like devices up my orifices unless absolutely necessary.

Okay now that I've talked about Running, sitting and tennis (!) I'm off to do some work.
Oh how i've missed blogging and sharing my personal info with the world.
x

In short

FAT...
I've decided my eating has gotten out of control (It's only taken me 2 years to figure that out - no speed records have been set using this brain). My clothes have been getting tighter n tighter (even in my new fat clothes) and funnily enough the scales have been going up n up.
So I'm giving 'Weight Watchers online' a whirl -to try and get my head around portion sizes again. I was eating more than husband and shovelling so much crap into my mouth without thinking, so i figured this might help me think about how much i should be eating in a day and to find a balance again.
Fingers crossed, I'm over feeling porky.
(Oink)

MOUSE...
I just looked up and saw a mouse staring at me from the kitchen bench above the stove. I quickly pulled all the spice jars off the bench, grabbed a plastic bowl and planned to corner it & catch it under the bowl. That was a great idea ... until the bloody thing lurched and jumped from the bench straight at me!! I squealed...ducked... (cursed myself for being so pathetic) and it went straight over my head, plopped on the floor behind me and scurried under the stove.
I didn't want to kill him - he was kinda cute, i was planning on 'relocating' him (like to the neighbours... ). Hmmm, now I'll have to come up with another plan.
He's a tough mouse... he survived a 6ft leap! Impressive.

MARATHON...
Since I'm on a health kick, I've been thinking about exercise and ways to get motivated.
I've decided (drumroll please...) I'm going to try and do a half marathon.
Haaarrr.
Cough, choke **splutter**
I'm serious. I'm going to train up slowly and aim for the City to Surf 1/2 Marathon in August (2009 is the first year they'll be adding that distance) so I have 9 months to train!

A girls gotta have a goal. (even if it is far-fetched)

Cleaner - mugshot

I have a second job - cleaning the Police Station.

Sounds boring, but I love it.... it gives me a bit of extra play-money and it really is quite simple.... I spend a few hours a week cleaning, with my iPod blaring through my headphones, singing my favourite tunes in time with my dusting-motions, and I get PAID for it. Bonus.

The Police station here is old...very old. It hadn't been cleaned for a long while before I started doing it. I've been dusting cupboards, organising shelves, sneezing from the dust, throwing out junk, sneezing more from the dust and discovering fun things! Check this out... one of those crim-name-board thingy's! I saw it and just couldn't help myself.

Hee hee hee. Love it!

I would've liked to do the side profile shot too.... but it was a bit tricky on self timer.

(PS: not really born in 00 - just trickin y'all)

Goodbye Senior

Its been a strange and emotional month. In summary...

Diesel died.

He got so sick and eventually we opted to euthanase him. It was the hardest decision ever, my heart still breaks thinking about not having him here.

The picture above is in the car park at the vet, kind of weird to take a photo, but I'm glad I did now. We both cuddled him in the car, he was so quiet and peaceful - like he knew what was happening, even when he was on the table in the vet, he just lay down and didn't even flinch when the vet inserted the needle. We cuddled him till the end. It was strange, that morning husband woke me up, he was upset and said 'I think it's time to take Diez'. Secretly I had pondered that thought many times in the previous 2 weeks, wondering if we were being selfish keeping him around, wondering how it would end - if he'd improve or get better. In the days after he died I was a complete wreck. I cried solidly for 2 days... I had no idea it would leave such a horrible empty feeling of heart-break. I felt weird too because I've recently had close friends lose their parents for goodness sake, and I was in a mess because of my dog.

It was a ridiculous comparison, and in a way it made me hide my emotions (misery) unless I was around the one other person who truly understood (and would've been feeling worse than me) - and that was Wayne.

Ho Humm...so unfortunately we were a miserable pair for a few weeks, which - mixed with a new town, new jobs and both missing our friends in Leo, made it very difficult to feel settled and happy in our new home. Only now am I starting to feel positive about our move here.

I've wanted to blog for ages - but this attempt to write about Diez has always left me in tears and unable to finish, and I felt I needed to write about him because it had such a big impact on me.

I Love you and miss you Diez.

xx

Anyone there??

Yeehaar, we're in our new home, we've unpacked (except for my art room) and if I never see another bloody box again in my life-time I'll be ecstatic.

We arrived to our new little town just over a week ago, it rained on and off for the first 4 days... and it was cold. We soon sourced ourselves a good stash of fire wood and learnt how to light a mighty fine fire to keep our butts warm... made me feel like a real country bum'kin.

So how do I like it so far?? One word to describe it at the moment ... Q U I E T ! It just seems so darn peaceful it's almost eerie. It's not like Leo was particulalry noisy or anything, but here you never seem to hear anyone else, rarely a car goes by, no one walks past, even the streets are really quiet when you you go into town. Does anyone else live here?? Coooo- eeeeee. The noisiest thing is the birds, they go mad every morning at 6am, and the 'wow listen to the beatiful birds cheeping' novelty wore off in about 3 minutes. Now it's more like 'The birds suck ... I'm trying to sleeeep'.

Our little pink-brick (stylish) house is actually great. We've somehow squeezed all our belongings into it and apart from not having a dining table (will need to get a cubby-house sized one in the near future) we're all settled and organised. My sis came to visit and waved her domestic wand over my shambles of a pantry... its amazing, I can actually find what I'm looking for now.... go figure. Next I'll have her wave that wand over my wardrobe and linen closet. hee hee.

I have my first day at work tomorrow, so I'm praying it's not crap - since everything else seems to have gone smoothly so far. Maybe that will be the glitch? Hopefully not, I'm trying to think positive. It'll be fine... it'll be fine... it'll be fiiiiinnne..... just fiiiine.

* * * * * *

My new car is AWESOME. When we picked it up they had put a huge ribbon on it! I was so excited I just wanted to go for a drive, but no.... I had to sit through 90 freakin minutes of paperwork, demonstrations, introductions to the service department (who cares bout them?) and more paperwork before I finally got to drive her! I was almost started to twitch in anticipation. Anyway it was all worth it in the end, it is an amazing car to drive and I love her.

Deez and I went on a road trip in the mini to the Vet last week (2 hour round trip). I put sheets and blankets in the back seat for him to lay on - we had a great time!

Moving officially sucks

Wow, a heap has happened since I last blogged.

Diez is still sick, but after further tests and visits to the big Perth Vet hospital he seems better and like he will slowly continue to improve (fingers crossed). Silly old sucker has cost us a fortune, he's a gold-plated dog.

Husband and I have officially moved from Leo. The packing up and cleaning sucked BIG TIME, it was a relief to finally walk out the door of the house knowing it was all done. Now we have to unpack everything at the other end...ugh.

It was very sad to leave good friends behind, but I have had a great past four years and have made some life long friends from my days in Leo.
I had a fantastic going away party with all my favourite Leo girls, it was a blast! JB was the hostess (with the mostest) and I could not have had more fun. We sang (badly) danced (badly), chatted and yahoo'd till 4am! My gawd... I'm far too old for that now, it nearly killed me. It rendered the next day a complete and utter write off for me. Despite my best attempts, every time I got up to try and achieve something my head pounded until i was forced to crawl back into bed. I was pathetic. It was kinda worth it though, I haven't had such a fun drunk-night for ages. However I do 'sketchily' recall getting pushed to the ground & sprayed with Champagne at one stage, and I also have vague memories of losing my pants and hiding in bushes while the girls searched for me to take photos of my large white behind in my undies. That was nasty. The pics were nastier, lucky the camera didn't seize (wish it had tho).

Husband & I are in Perth now for a few days before moving to Q'ding. Its been a great time to relax and chill after the last few hectic weeks.

Guess what happens tomorrow???
I get my NEW CAR! Yeehaar. We drove there today and saw her in the showroom... I know its mine because it has my custom number plates on it! I was so excited I was bouncing around like a complete tosser, she had a sign on the windscreen saying 'Sorry, I'm spoken for - please consider this when browsing'.
Ha! Get your dirty mitts off - she's MINE.
I can't wait.... eeeekkkk!

Over n out x

Dear old Diez...

Poor old Diez is still not so great.

After my last post he got a lot worse and I was driving to Kal to pick husband up from the airport so took him back to the vet. This time I saw a different vet who was very thorough, she started an assessment from scratch and gave me quite a poor prognosis. I knew in my heart anyway that he was looking pretty awful, I really thought he would die that day. He was having difficulty breathing, he had a really high temperature and was really quiet. I left him at the vet for a barrage of tests and went to collect Wayne from the airport - As soon as I saw Wayne I burst into tears .... it seemed so much to deal with on my own and the few days before hand had been awful... I was a mess!

Anyway, the tests basically showed he had a raging infection but they weren't really sure of the exact focus, so we took him home on industrial strength doses of antibiotics, with the plan of returning in a few days if he hadn't improved. I left for Bali two days later and husband took over while I was away. I felt incredibly guilty leaving them - both husband and Diez.

Diez wound up having surgery to explore what was causing the swelling and infection in his throat. Post op Wayne said he looked a bit better for a few days, but now seems to be on a bit of a patchy down hill slide, although sometimes he has times where he wags his tail and will even get up and wander around sniffing things like he used to. Most of the time he lays on his bed looking quite sad and thats the heart breaking bit.

The vets are baffled and think its perhaps a combination of problems - a bad infection which has now progressed to Kidney failure - he's no spring chicken so his Kidney function was already a bit marginal and the infection has most likely exacerbated this.

The Vets in Kal (Robyn and Lauren) have been awesome.
They sound like they genuinely care and have been so understanding through our tears and questions. Today I spoke to Robyn at length about being stressed over the decision to Euthanize Diez. Are we being selfish by keeping him alive?? I want to do things for his best interest - not ours. She was fantastic and said we would just 'know' if and when the time was right, not to stress about it, but to spend our time with him loving him and continuing to give him the best care we can.

I know it's probably hard for most people to understand how upset and emotional I am about this, and to be honest I'm a bit confused myself at my reaction, but to Wayne and I our dogs have never just been 'dogs'... they are our family, our furry slobbering children, we are a team of four and I want it to stay that way.

Diesel update

I don't want to count my chickens... but I think Diez is a wee bit better.
He actually wagged his tail a couple of times today (not at me tho...but at JB and KDF when they visited him on his death-bed. He's sick of the sight of me smothering him so I get no tail-wagging) He's also been walking (limping) around a bit more tonight. I had to pretty much hand feed him dinner but he looks better than he did this time last night.
Hang in there old buddy.

Dieza

I think my beautiful old Diesel-dog might be dying.
He’s so sick, he can hardly walk and it’s breaking my heart.
I don’t know what to do.
I drove him to the vet yesterday in Kal and she said it was ‘an infection’ and his arthritis playing up, she prescribed him some antibiotics and anti inflammatories.
Today he has gotten worse, tonight worse again. I’m sleeping on the mattress on the floor next to him but I can’t stop crying and cuddling him.
I just want to take his pain away and make him all better.

Hang in there Diez because I love you.