a dog's tale...

take a dog, a human and throw in some compassion and what do you get? a wonderful, heartwarming story - thought it was worth sharing...

"Naki’o is the first dog to be fitted with a complete set of bionic legs that work naturally to allow him to run, jump and even swim. The prosthetics were designed and fitted in a pioneering procedure by Martin Kaufmann, founder of Orthopets.

Abandoned by a family fleeing their foreclosed home and their mother dead, Naki’o and his brothers and sisters barely survived the harsh Nebraskan winter. Weakened by malnourishment, the red heeler puppy stepped into an icy puddle in the basement and got his four paws stuck in freezing water.

At just five weeks old the litter was taken to an animal rescue center. Under the shelter’s care Naki’o's paws, lost to severe frostbite, healed to rounded stumps.

Veterinary technician Christie Tomlinson was on the look out for a playmate for her Jack Russell terrier mix Poki when she came across Naki’o. Fearful of the pain that walking and playing with other dogs would cause, Naki’o resigned himself to crawling along on his belly at home and at the veterinary clinic’s doggy daycare..." read more of naki'o's story at incrediblefeatures

when all you want to do is...

... curl up and die! i am so sick of being sick - from thursday night to sunday evening i was aching, coughing, spluttering, the head was pounding, i had chills and flushes and spent most of the time in bed - yep, i just wanted a quick death to stop feeling so terrible...

this bug has been going around for ages and just keeps on keeping on... and no, it's not just me - it's affecting other colleagues too... perhaps we're suffering from sick building / sick office syndrome - 'my' office is an open-plan affair  - it's small, i mean really, really small considering there are 5 people sharing it, using computers all day, (along with other testing processors turned on more often than not) and all emitting their electromagnetic radiation (and hey, i'm 'lucky' if i sit a foot away from the back of a minimum of 2 processors!)...

the office also comes complete with air-conditioning (that fluctuates between way too hot or chilly, chilly cold - but alas necessary for 'air movement' when there are 3 young men with their 'boy hygiene' in the office - not casting aspersions here, everyone tells me this, male and female alike!), locked down windows (no fear of anyone falling out an open window here!), fluorescent lights, probably mould spores  and food crumbs in the carpet, etc. etc... we all get sick - perhaps rather than using our own sick leave anything 'flu-ey' should be covered by workers compensation - after all, we probably wouldn't be sick if we worked in a healthier environment...

according to an article Open-plan offices are making workers sick, say Australian scientists some believe we should re-think the open-plan idea and perhaps go back to the old-fashioned small office or partitioned space - wow, noise absorption and the semblance of privacy allowing concentration on your own work (some distractions are more than welcome, but sometimes you need to focus and constant noise and activity can really affect your thought processes!) - now that appeals to me!!! (funny how the majority of top-level managers in most workplaces still have a private office - no wonder they didn't 'join the exodus' to the open plan model, they would have lost their access to natural light, fresh air and personal headspace!)

déjà vu...

me mum - now and way back when...

the mother was rushed to hospital again last thursday – me brother and i are becoming ‘old hands’ at finding our way around the emergency department and the ‘rabbit warren’ of rooms that make up ward 4 at the alfred hospital…

mind you, it was no mean feat getting her from her flat in st kilda to the alfred with all the roadworks happening at the time – all the dirt and dust in the atmosphere was no doubt a contributing factor to her inability to breath – and yep, pneumonia was part of the diagnosis – along with renal failure (of course, having chronic kidney disease meant that wasn’t a shock!)

after stabilising her there’s not much else they can do for her so she came home late saturday afternoon… they did discover she has no vitamin b12 in her body though so has to have regular supplementary injections (for the rest of her life, however long that will be - no, we're under no illusions, this is the downward slide) – but as she has ‘all her faculties’ and can still ‘live independently’ the dmu (disease management unit) is looking at a plan to provide more ‘carer assistance’ for her… it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes them to draw up that plan… perhaps they’re thinking ‘independent palliative care’ – after all it’s very bleak, ‘slim pickings’ where decent facilities are concerned for poor, low income pensioners – as judy says “all they do is put you in front of a television all day – i can do that myself!”

luckily there is a real sense of community in her block of flats with most residents looking in on each other and providing meals (wanted or not) and offers of assistance (although my mother – hey, my whole family – were brought up to ‘do things for themselves’ and not ask for help) - she’s extremely appreciative of the offers but I just know she won’t take anyone up on it though – she will of course help anyone else that needs assistance but it’s just so ingrained in her to not talk about her own problems and health issues – hey, it’s even hard for her to open up to her children! one of my grandmother’s favourite quotes was “i was sad because i had no shoes until i met a man that had no feet…” when you’re brought up with the view that there’s always someone worse off than you it’s hard to put yourself first because that seems selfish… good old fucking catholic guilt – has a lot to answer for…

for a bit of a relax after all the ‘excitement’ i popped a black raspberry (my favourite fragrance) soy wax melt on, made a mull and settled back to watch a movie - “my house in umbria” – maggie smith is wonderful as the eccentric mrs delahunty – a british romance writer living in a beautiful umbrian villa… whilst on a train ride through the italian countryside there is a bomb blast in the carriage she is sharing with nine others… the devastating blast leaves only four survivors – a disparate group of people whom mrs delahunty invites back to her villa to recuperate and come to terms with their altered lives… it’s a charming movie - happy and sad in equal measure, with delightful scenery - well worth the watch…


the rest of the weekend has been spent doing this'n'that for me mum so now it's time to do my domestic crap... sorry for the unedifying post, but that's been my last few days... ohh, shit - me smoke alarm's going off - me toast must be burning!!!! (it also goes off when when it detects 'excessive' steam from the shower - now that's a pain if i'm enjoying a nice hot shower - good for water conservation though, it forces me to have quicker showers!!)

sleepless in st kilda...

sleep – a casualty of living in st kilda at the moment…they’re raising the tram lines in fitzroy street between canterbury road and the esplanade and working through the night - i can’t imagine what the noise must be like closer to the heavy machinery – the noise reaching my place is constant and annoying – that pesky beeping of trucks and the rumbling and crash banging of the earthmovers and jackhammers (even shadow isn't venturing very far from home - he sits in his courtyard with his ears twitching and his eyes enormous orbs) – and this is going to be happening for the next week… which means no public transport running to balaclava or the st kilda shopping precinct… what a bummer – it’s going to be very hard psyching myself up for work this week – i’ll be walking – hope it’s not too ‘brrrrr’ chilly… but i’m not as bad off as the elderly people in me mother’s block of flats who have mobility problems due to age - there's no transport to get them to their various hospital and doctors appointments, let alone to the shops…

my weekend has been tinged with a bit of concern for me mum though - she isn’t well at the moment – she had a malignant growth removed from her face a few weeks ago that she's only just 'coming good' from, but then on thursday she had to have her cornea reattached (a quite common outcome apparently months after a cataract operation amongst the aged) - since then she's been really unwell – seems the eye drops they use affect her kidneys badly – she suffers constant nausea and fatigue – all she can do is stay in bed (which she hates) – she was almost at the point of ringing an ambulance saturday night but persevered with her pain instead… she has a fear that if she goes to hospital she may never get back home - at 82 and suffering chronic kidney failure (and her hospital experiences over the last couple of years) it’s an understandable fear…

apart from that it’s been a lovely weekend… i had dinner cooked for me last night – an array of vegies baked in a delicious garlicky tomato sauce… good, hearty winter fare – made even tastier i’m sure by the fact that I didn’t have to cook it - i did make some garlic bread to go with it though…  (nah, this isn't a photo of what we had but it does look similar - just add beans and carrots too)...

to top that off I came across a new recipe for a lemon tart I just had to try – and it was sooo lemony delicious – and so very easy to make (and yes, this is a photo of my version!)…  it comes from the sweet treats section of veggie.wedgie  but i cheated with the base... i just made a crushed biscuit base because i didn't have the recommended oats and spelt flour - but the filling was 'by the recipe' and deeeelicious, so here's how to make the lemony yumminess...

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 400ml light coconut milk
• 2tbsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• in a pot combine agave, coconut milk and cornflour. whisk until the cornflour is completely dissolved. add lemon zest. bring to boil whisking continuously and once it starts to thicken remove from heat. add lemon juice and continue stirring for 3 minutes. Let the mixture cool completely and pour over the crust. chill until set. enjoy!!

i'm sure this recipe can be adapted with many variations - any other citrus (tangello, grapefruit, lime, orange), chocolate,  vanilla bean, caramel.... yummm, the list goes on - a definite must to repeat in the very near future...

and now it's to the kitchen and a sink of dishes... and then maybe i'll read some more of denise scott's memoir 'all that happened at number 26' - or perhaps listen to a few chapters of ruth park's 'swords and crowns and rings', centred around two young people growing up in an australian country town between 1907 and 1931 and read by deidre rubenstein, a narrator i really enjoy - it also won the miles franklin award in 1977...

what the f*@#...

be careful what you say on the streets in future, because the baillieu government is introducing a new law to parliament this week giving police the power to issue on the spot fines to people using 'indecent language'... isn't swearing part of the aussie vernacular, and if so, doesn't that make this law 'un-australian'? a tad draconian anyway don't you think...

supposedly it will be used to curb ‘obnoxious and anti-social’ behaviour – surely each cop will have their own interpretation of what that means, and what they consider ‘indecent language’ depending on their personal 'moral code' - and then there's the matter of who you are and whether they 'take a shine' to you or not...

guess baillieu and cohorts don't ever swear (yeah, sure!!)... hmmm, perhaps not what it appears though - after all, the fine will be around $230 - with swearing so much a part of our culture that should make the government a tidy little sum - looks like they're onto a real revenue raiser there... a swear tax...

lucky i'm a homebody – the way i swear (just in normal conversation!) i’d be fined often - and broke all the time (unlike just being broke some of the time now)… unfortunately life will become even more frugal soon… my rent is going up $109 a month from august – fuck, that’s the highest rent increase i’ve ever had - now that's enough to make a person need to fucking swear - after all, a 2009 study by british psychologist richard stephens found that swearing is both therapeutic and good pain relief...

on a brighter note, i may have found a new favourite author – well, favourite after reading her first novel anyway – and what a treat it was to read rosamund lupton’s  ‘sister’... it’s hard to define as any specific genre - there's an underlying psychological thriller that takes a back seat to the exploration of relationships between sisters, and between mothers and daughters - her treatment of grief and how we cope differently with it is deeply touching...

'sister' is written as if a letter - from beatrice to her sister tess, whose baby died soon after birth after 'being cured' of cystic fibrosis in utero - tess disappeared not long after and was found dead six days later – the cause being ruled suicide due to post natal psychosis according to 'the experts'... knowing her sister better than anyone, bea doesn’t believe this and sets out to find what really happened to tess and her baby… there are a number of twists and turns which kept me engrossed –  it was haunting and mesmerising - definitely a gifted wordsmith with a refreshing writing style…

i can’t wait to read her second novel 'afterwards' (although 'sister' could be a hard act to follow!) - it's due out this month (and i’ve just reserved it – the library has it on order and i'm second in the queue, yay!!!)