Hello again everyone.
I hope everything is going well for you all.
Jan's sister has not been going so well: she has been having chemotherapy prior to having surgery, and it has made her very sick. She ended up in hospital at the end of the month, and in CCU (the Coronary Care Unit) with a heart murmur and palpitations. However, once the stopped the chemo, she seems to have started coming right again. It is all a pretty horrible process. Better than the alternative though... we hope she will be out of hospital soon.
Although Tan has been so sick, the process has been smoothed by Tina having been over there for a few weeks. She has been sending regular updates, and helping Tan to ask the right questions. I know myself it is hard to even be bothered to ask when you feel rotten, and I am sure that with what Tan is going through that she feels a damn sight worse than I ever have.
My Mother had an angiogram this month, and they found everything is ticketty-boo. This was both good and bad news. Bad news because I had hoped they might find a couple of blockages, and be able to clear them with stents, so she would recover her fitness. Good news because we have ruled out one more thing as being a problem. It is a slow process in getting to the root causes... I wish there was a fast forward button!
When my Mother got out of hospital, we went shopping. I did vicarious shopping: in other words I helped her spend her money on herself! This is the BEST kind of shopping (unless it is shopping for Fluevogs of course, which is something quite different again :-D). She is now set up with a complete winter wardrobe, with lots of layers and some very nice - and extremely reasonably priced - bits and pieces. All mix and match. All easy care (my favourite). So then I bought her a coffee, and damn the expense... al fresco on a park bench in Richmond!
Had dinner out for my birthday with Jan, Mike and Donna, and my Mother at a new Thai fusion restaurant, Miracle. I don't really rate it. My green curry was absolutely fine, but the Peking duck that Mike ordered was rubbish. Greasy, tough and grey. Jan's pork didn't inspire either.
We got invited to Sue's place to celebrate my birthday as well, which was rather nice (I had a whole weekend of birthday!). Sue had carefully prepared all things that I could eat: what a stellar woman (thank you, Tina, for teeing us up with Sue!). We lazed away the afternoon in the sun, under her lovely sun umbrella alongside the Brook Stream. For those who wished to avoid the sun there was shade, and for those who wanted to soak up the rays there wasn't. On the way home, we connected with John, Aniko and Lilla, so they came up to have coffee and to help us eat the dark chocolate mousse we had taken to Sue's and not eaten enough of.
Simon's house build has started next door, and his place is already nearing roof time. Staggering how fast they go up. He will have spectacular views right into Golden Bay, and over to Mount Arthur. Of course, his wind loading increases as well, but he has designed for that: same builder, same designer as we used. Love going local.
Jan finally finished the eucalyptus and pine seat, and we took it down to the hairpin bend and hauled it off the trailer, installing it on my birthday. He says it is my birthday present. However, I have told him that is a nice try. There are Fluevog shoes winging their way from Canada, ostensibly from him, I organised my own present, and the seat is a darn good creative bonus :-D.
Finn is growing up fast. He is now just taller than Boo, though still lighter. He is getting skinny and gangly. He remains very willing, and a real smoocher. He can high five, shake and do most other required commands, but my main difficulty with him at the moment is teaching him to walk on a loose lead. He is a bit of a puller.
I found out halfway through the month that my Griffith email had not been forwarding to my home email, even though I had set it up to forward. As a result, I found 481 emails awaiting attention. Gulp. It took me more than a day to work through them all, and I found to my horror that I had missed a reporting deadline - my annual progress report - by two weeks in the process. Bigger gulp. I emailed them straight away, and everyone seemed pretty chilled about it, but I was appalled. Needless to say, I have put reminders in my diary to ensure that I get everything together in future.
Jan is getting on OK in his new workplace, and his course is proving challenging enough to be a stretch, but not a stretch too far. His first assignment has gone in, but he hasn't yet heard back about it. Each week the lecturer does an online webinar, which he attends, and finds those very useful.
I heard back from the Australian Journal of Career Development that they would like to print my article, but have some reviewer comments for me to take in. I will need to find time to wedge in the changes, but the editor was very encouraging. Awesome: all that work might pay off.
We have consumed Babylon Berlin this month (most enjoyable) and have started season 4 of Death in Paradise. I do like Netfix!
Sam (& Jan).
So I went searching, and found a great post by Karen Ahn that went into the ph of everything, and explained what a pinch of bicarbonate of soda would do... and supplied this handy chart to show where items sat on the ph scale.
