leisurely livin'....

yay - i'm on holidays for 2 weeks... i tell you what, last friday the working day seemed to take forever to end - it seems like i applied for these holidays so very long ago and they didn't feel like they were ever going to get here... but finally it was time to forget about work and think about relaxing and enjoying the next couple of weeks... leading up to the holidays though i did catch up with larry the librarian on my day off last monday - we spent a lovely couple of hours chatting, smoking, sharing food and a bottle of vino... a very enjoyable time...

saturday i had irene and the malmsbury mob down for a visit - they had to come down to drop off my wee louie who's staying with me for 10 days, so there'll be a lot of strolling the streets in the next week and a bit... i had thought about getting up to malmsbury for a few days but it's just not going to happen - my brother would come and stay with allie and shadow, but it's way too much to expect someone else to clean up after my old incontinent girl - and he just doesn't get the idea of getting her outside as soon as she starts moving about - he's not 'attuned' to her and forgets she's blind and deaf too - and there is a lot of picking up and carrying involved in living with a blind, deaf and incontinent dog - it's just too hard for someone else to deal with (and for me 'kids' to deal with someone else!)... so home is very much my 'holiday destination' for the next fortnight...

having visitors meant i missed the grand final though - having grown up in st kilda i can't help but have a soft spot for the sainters - me mum, me brother and me, we all followed the saints - me dad was the odd one out, with north melbourne being his team...

st kilda formed in 1873 and was originally a  victorian football association team... with widespread player dissatisfaction with the association, they shifted support to the newly formed victorian football league, becoming one of the foundation clubs of the vfl in 1897 (which became the afl in 1990)...

footy was the be-all end-all where sport was concerned for working class folk here in victoria in the 50s and 60s - it definitely took precedence at school - we (the whole school) were all packed off on footy days to watch the boys play - basketball, the 'girls' school sport, came a very poor second (just the teams went to these matches - no cheering fan club for us!) - and NO, it wasn't called netball then - i was a goalie and we played basketball (and it was still basketball up until i left school in 1970!!!) so the name-change didn't happen in victoria (centre of my universe, but i'm not sure about the rest of australia) until some time during the 70s when american national league basketball became popular in 'the colonies' after showcasing the talents of the harlem globetrotters  in exhibition games - i was lucky enough to see them a couple of times - they were amazing - totally mesmerising!!!

in 1911 footy made the move from amateur status to a 'professional sport' with the league setting a limit of 30 'bob' per week to be paid to some players (but few teams actually introduced this remuneration until years later) - this had risen (for some) to around 3 'quid' by the 50s... there was plenty of loyalty and a lot of action on the field - for many there was nothing more exciting than watching a melee (okay, all in brawl - of course that often 'provoked' more brawling amongst the more 'exuberant' spectators) - there was no such thing as the blood rule then (nor any oh&s)!!!!... it's definitely changed over the years - it's better for player health and conditions these days but there's way too much money involved... the culture is really fucked with many players seeing themselves (as do some fans) as demi-gods with entitlement to do as they like, to get away with atrocious - often criminal and often sexually abusive - behaviour... it's a sport for fuck sake - unfortunately really big money became involved and that changes everything...

i'm not a big footy fan now, but i will watch the saints playing when they're on telly - it's a sentimental thing - and because i didn't get to see the game on saturday i don't mind that it was a draw, because now  i'll be able to watch the grand final next weekend - and having won only one grand final in over a century of playing (that win over collingwood in 1966 by 1 point - that's barry breen about to kick the winning point - i was 11 and remember it vividly!) - what would be sweeter than another grand final victory over the much hated 'pies'??? GO SAINTERS!!!!

i've brought heaps of books and dvds home for the holidays - so i've got plenty of leisure activities to fill in my 'leisure time'... i made a start today - me and the gang (louie and allie on either side of me with shadow on the knee!!) watched 4 episodes of the 3rd season of true blood - now that's not a series you can just watch 1 episode of i've found - i'll probably finish that in the next couple of days - and i've got some interesting books to read and talking books to listen to - so my next couple of weeks are looking good - really relaxing...

oooh, i might even get some blogging done...

one of 'those' weeks...

well, me mum's 'cold' did turn out to be pneumonia!! we had to race her into hospital last sunday because she couldn't breathe... we got to emergency about 1 pm and left her in what we hoped were capable hands 7-odd hours later...

'they' did just want us to sit in the waiting room until she could be seen, but after convincing the triage nurse that she needed oxygen we got her onto a trolley albeit in the corridor but it was at least on the right side of the doors!!! the corridor turned out to be a busy area, but she was soon moved into a cubicle and onto a proper bed where she stayed most of the night for monitoring and was then moved to the acute medical unit where she spent the next few days...

going to the emergency department with a chronically ill person can be a problem though... they treat the obvious symptoms but we had a time and a half getting them to understand the chronic nature of the renal failure she's dealing with which can be impacted by the medication they were giving her... and then they were quite prepared to send her home once she could breathe properly - until the treating doctor finally took in "she only has 14% kidney function"... that's when she was told she'd be staying overnight and seeing a renal doctor... and that's when it was decided she would need to be observed for most of the week... she wasn't happy at having to stay there!!!

i can understand her hesitation at the thought of hospital - last time she had pneumonia she was given the wrong medication that almost killed her... then she had 'keyhole' surgery on her gallbladder which was where the kidney problem originated - they 'nicked' her kidney which has caused her renal failure... nah, she doesn't have a good time when she goes into hospital - nor does she have any confidence in 'them'!!!! and of course, there was a major incident when they gave her a steroid to help her lungs, which made her blood sugar level skyrocket to 19 millimoles per litre - the average for most people is somewhere between 4 and 8 - so that was dangerously high - they had to give her insulin to stabilise her but there was a real possibility of her falling into a diabetic coma - lucky they didn't just send her home with that medication!!!

the staff were lovely though... oooh, i should qualify that - the nursing staff and allied services staff along with the junior medical staff were wonderful - not so the senior teaching doctor (the alfred is a major "tertiary referral teaching hospital") that was dealing with her 'case' - he was such an arrogant prick (even the nurses agreed with that) - does that come with the 'territory' - the 'better than' attitude - the specialist 'i get paid a lot therefore i'm better' syndrome?? he very rarely acknowledged her and when he did actually speak TO her he treated her like a child, as though she couldn't possibly understand (or be interested in) anything about her own health - oh, he didn't acknowledge the family might be interested either but just spoke in 'doctor-ese' to the junior staff as though none of us were present - definitely no bedisde manner there!!!!

anyway she's home now and starting to feel 'fighting fit' (well, as much as a chronically ill older person can!!!) and we've finally been able to talk her into home help, which has been arranged by the hospital and will continue through council and community services and will be ongoing to enable her to stay living independently - and that's a fear a lot of older infirm people live with - the fear of losing their independence, their home, their friends...

okay, i think a fitting end to this post would be some more pictures of me mum... she was between 14 and 16 when these were taken so it was around 1945...

funny the things we don't know about our parents... i never knew she could ride a horse until i saw this photo (and asked her whether this was just a 'posed' shot or whether she could actually ride!!!) - this would have been at either the relo's in healesville or romsey...

and i can tell from the stance and lack of smile that she wasn't impressed when this one was being taken... and for some reason i think of 'little bo peep' whenever i look at this photo!!!

and this one is with me nan (and by the looks of it possibly me nan's birthday with a card sitting in front of her!)

there used to be a wonderful cafe (or was that tea-room, restaurant, or eatery) in collins street where time seemed to have 'stood still' - you went down a very steep wooden staircase to enter into a bygone era, but i can't remember it's name now - i can tell by the decor that's where this picture was taken - it seems many generations of melburnians enjoyed this little gem over the decades - probably just 'the norm' in dining in me mum's era but it was definitely a little bit of 'old world charm' in my more modern world!!

blogged out and work weary...

i spent a bit of time on saturday refining a new parenting blog we're 'unveiling' at our in-service day on wednesday... i took care of the aesthetics and Sailor Lil took care of the written content - i must say i'm quite proud of the way it looks and extremely thankful that Lil's a 'wordsmith'... more on that next week...

but consequently having spent all day friday and (i won't say how much of my) saturday on it i found it hard to do some personal blogging - i was a tad 'blogged out' - i had intended to spend some time writing last night, but i was way too tired after working at albert park - i can't believe how busy it was - the unallocated list seemed never-ending, the returns kept coming thick and fast and the phone kept ringing ("sorry, we're totally booked out today) - i never want to see a dvd again - you get sore hands and arms opening and closing those bloody cases (let alone what all that bending over searching does to your back)!!! it was pretty much the same last sunday...

i saw my mother today, she needed a few things and wasn't feeling well enough to go down the street - she's having a lot more downs than ups at the moment... at times she's black and blue all over - as she describes it "i look like i've been 10 rounds with muhammad ali" - that's her chronic kidney disease - kidneys are deteriorating and have problems removing waste from blood...

i thought i'd share a couple of pictures of her - it was 1950, her 21st birthday...

and i was sent these amazing pics  - i just have to share them - they tell an amazing tale...

Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada's Hudson Bay...

The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in.

the polar bear appeared to want company, and returned every night for a week to play with the dogs.

a gentle giant - unfortunately an endangered species - such a magnificent creature - the dog's beautiful too...

the wee baby Finn is here!!!

It wasn't an easy birth - but after problems and intervention he's arrived... he's beautiful... everyone's in love... kudos to Sailor Lil 'n Cap'n Chris... he looks like a real sweetie... he has a good set of lungs apparently... Lil's milk came in today so she's a happy (and, no doubt, more comfortable) woman, Finn's an even happier wee babe, and Chris is ecstatic... all are doin' well... but I'll bet emotionally overwhelmed at the moment!!!

... click here to read more at BabyNamesPedia.com

bet you want to see more pictures of him - and the proud parents...

just a quick post tonight - had to share Lil's happiness with the world!!!!