My Hero Wins

Contamination of Covid vaccine 

I woke this morning at 7am, much earlier than usual, so I picked up my iPad to check on the tennis results from the previous evening - only to discover that Djokovic was currently on court!

It was 11pm in Paris and he was at the end of a tight first set so I quickly turned on my TV to watch the match.

He won the first set 7-5 but I have to say that he looked like he was struggling. Struggling to keep up with his young opponent, struggling with his breathing and struggling to find a way past his opponent.

He lost the next two sets 6-7 2-6.

At this point I almost turned the TV off.

Djokovic was not playing to his usual standard, was making a lot of unforced errors and his opponent looked sharp and in control of the match.

Djokovic looked tired and frustrated. It was almost 2am over there and I thought to myself ‘Djokovic is too old to be playing at this time of night. It’s past his bed time!’

He was down 0-2 in the fourth set and I was certain he was gone for all money.

Then his wife appeared in his box with this beaming, loving smile on her face. He said something to her in Serbian and they both laughed.

He suddenly came to life!

He was running well, hitting his shots cleanly, playing smarter and in fast time he won the next two sets 6-3 6-0. He’d played for 4.5 hours and it was after 3am when he hit the winning shot.

His speech was full of praise for his young Italian opponent, Lorenzo Musetti, and he admitted that for most of the match he had no answers to Musetti’s brilliant game play. He felt that it was pure luck that he’d been able to find success in the last two sets.

NEVER give up on Djokovic. I should have remembered that he has come from behind many, many times to break through with miraculous wins. That’s the kind of fighter he is. Never say die.

So it was 11.30am when I finally emerged from my bedroom.

I had let Harley out at 8.30am so he was well looked after and Adoring Husband cooked breakfast for he and BGWLBH.

This afternoon BGWLBH and I drove out to Farm Gate market stall and got some fresh veg and eggs. I checked that the shop toilets were presentable for tomorrow (Monday) and we did a quick shop at the supermarket.

For dinner, I prepared pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad, sweet potato and potato chips, snow peas and beans, cauliflower and broccoli and crispy skinned chicken thighs.

I’d cooked up a big batch of cauliflower and broccoli so I made a delicious creamy soup with heaps of white pepper, zymil cream, butter, nutmeg, coriander, salt and chicken stock from the freezer. I poured some in a mug and sprinkled toasted pine nuts over the top.

DE-BLOODY-LICIOUS!

It’s 11pm and I’m watching Tsitsipas vs Arnaldi play their third round match at Roland-Garros.

I won’t see the end because I’m tired and need some sleep.

Kevin Costner improves with age … if that’s possible!

Nite all.

Planning Activities

They interviewed the founder of Dubai, *Sheikh Rashid,* about the future of his country, he replied:

"My grandfather walked the camel, my father walked the camel. I walk in a Mercedes, my son goes in a Land Rover, and my grandson will go around in a Land Rver, but my great-grandson will have to walk the camel again...... ”

Why? "

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men, weak men create hard times.

Many won't understand, but we need to grow warriors, not parasites... “

All is well in our world. 

Adoring Husband is healing well and all the right things are happening.

We drove out to Bamboo Land this morning where we bought a new plant for one the big pots near the pool and a big tin of stain for the bamboo fence, so in a couple of weeks when AH is allowed to get back into an active life, he will paint the fence and plant the plant.

We had a little walk around the grounds which are looking good.

We stopped at Tin & Timber Home Decor in Torbanlea and I bought a big sage coloured duvet for the lounge - protection so that Harley can be on the lounge with me - and two small green cushions with geckos embroidered on them.

We did a little food shopping at the local supermarket and picked up our meat order from the butcher.

AH cooked some snags on the barbecue for lunch and we sat to watch the old movie “The Outlaw Josie Wales” starring Clint Eastwood. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it and I quite enjoyed it.

Apparently there is a lot of rain forecast for our area tomorrow and they’ve cancelled the Howard Markets for tomorrow morning, even though not a single drop of rain has fallen!

I got to watch Djokovic play tennis last night as well as part of De Minaur’s match so it was 3am when I turned the telly off. Needless to say, I’m feeling a bit weary tonight.

Oh I forgot to mention that AH had the 60+ staples removed from his head on Thursday, as well as the 9 stitches where they implanted his battery pack. They did such a good job, it’s difficult to see the scars on his head.

While that was happening, I spent a fortune at Tinkerbell’s on a jewellery layby of a silver cuff bracelet with laramar stones and a matching ring, both hand crafted by a talented silversmith. I’ll take pics when I get them out of layby.

Meanwhile, it’s time to sleep so that I can stay up tomorrow night to watch Djokovic again.

Nite all.

Free of Meds

Adoring Husband went out walking this morning - to the shops and back - because he needed milk for coffee and he’s not allowed to drive for a month.

He could have asked BGWLBH to drive him down there but chose not to and snuck out on his own.

I’m impressed.

He is doing very well and will be having the staples removed tomorrow.

No more drugs.

He still needs to concentrate on his speech because I’ve had to ask him to repeat himself a number of times today and he hasn’t practiced reading the script on the paperwork that the doctor provided.

We watched a great movie on Netflix today called “Fisherman’s Friends” set in Cornwall. I really loved it. I laughed and cried and cheered and grumbled.

We also watched a crap movie on Netflix called “They Live” which was released in 1988. Dreadful acting, pathetic special affects, woeful storyline, the worst editing ever and an ending that made little sense. Don’t watch it.

My parasite cleanse was going along nicely until today when I got a bit out of control and ate 8 dim sims! A friend acquired gf dim sims from the Sunny Coast and I was so excited, I gorged myself and have felt quite uncomfortable ever since!

My belly is packed tight - it’s been a long time since I ate so much in one sitting and my tummy normally fills quickly when I do eat. I don’t know what came over me and I’ve been suffering ever since.

I’ll need some activated charcoal to help clear my digestive tract!

I didn’t eat dinner tonight but made nachos for BGWLBH and soft wrapped tacos for AH.

We played trivia for an hour and AH and I followed up with the 1% Club.

Now I’m lying in bed watching the French Open Tennis.

I can’t believe it’s after 11.30pm.

Nite all.

He’s Baaaa-aaack!

No pics yet, but bald Adoring Husband arrived home at about 3pm today.

The scars on his head are at the front of his skull - I thought they would be at the back - it almost looks like he’s had a lobotomy!

The first thing I noticed was how tall he is. He’s been standing and walking with a noticeable exaggerated stoop for so long and now he’s standing tall and strong. There is a huge difference!

Instead of shuffling through the house, he’s almost strutting. Both arms are swinging by his side where his left arm used to hang straight and still when he walked.

His foot is almost straight when he walks - it used to turn inwards and when he walked it would swing in front of his good leg.

His speech is much better but he needs speech therapy and has speech exercises that he has to practice because he has become lazy, talking too fast with words running into each other and almost slurring. He needs to learn how to talk properly again.

After a 4 hour trip home, he sat up in his lounge chair watching television and talking with me, without immediately falling asleep. Unheard of!

It takes just a moment to stand up from his lounge chair, where before, it would take minutes for him to shuffle his butt forward and then rock back and forth to get the rhythm and strength to lift his body.

At dinner time he finished eating before me! Before the surgery, he would be sitting by himself at the table for at least ten to fifteen minutes after we’d finished, trying to finish his meal.

His tremor is gone. I noticed his restless foot for a few minutes while he was reclined in his chair, but when I pointed it out, he was able to stop it.

Those are the things I’ve noticed so far.

Pretty miraculous!

He took his last half a tablet tonight and will no longer take meds.

All the pain that he had in his neck and joints has gone and he no longer looks like a rickety old man.

It will be a month before he can do his normal day to day activities like driving, working, hanging washing, playing with Harley, mowing etc but BGWLBH and I have that covered.

Needless to say, at this stage, we are very happy with the results.

Tonight for dinner I did another pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad, boiled baby potatoes in their jackets and bacon wrapped chicken with garlic butter.

It’s been a big day.

Nite all.

Heading Home

Adoring Husband will be on his way home on Monday morning.

His family visited him today, which made him very happy and after tomorrow, he should be drug free. 

I know his tremor has not completely gone yet because I can hear the rustling rhythm when he holds the phone, but it comes and goes.

Today I have been nursing a Harley injury. HE injured ME!

He used my stomach as a launching pad when he heard BGWLBH come out of her bedroom this morning and I have felt very tender with possible internal bruising. It was unexpected so I was not prepared and my soft belly took the brunt of his full weight.

I spent the afternoon in bed watching the footy and dozing on and off.

For dinner I made spinach, roasted pumpkin, haloumi and pine nut salad with leftover chicken wings.

Now it’s time to sleep. We need to go to The Bay tomorrow to get all the things we couldn’t get on Friday because it was a public holiday.

We also need to be home in time for AH’s arrival.

Nite all.

Silence is Golden

 We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living.

With you, it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the children that talk the most at school. In your parties, you all try to talk at the same time. In your work, you are always having meetings in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a hundred times. And you call that ‘solving a problem’. When you are in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the space with sounds. So you talk compulsorily, even before you know what you are going to say.

White people love to discuss. They don’t even allow the other person to finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians, this looks like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I’m not going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I’ll stop listening if I don’t like what you are saying, but I won’t interrupt you.

When you finish speaking, I’ll make up my mind about what you said, but I will not tell you I don’t agree unless it is important. Otherwise, I’ll just keep quiet and I’ll go away. You have told me all I need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for the majority of white people.

People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth is always talking to us, but we should keep silent in order to hear her.

There are many voices besides ours. Many voices…

— Ella Deloria

I washed my bedding today.

Let me say that changing my bedding is equivalent to a 40 minute workout at the gym!

My bed is king sized and consists of a big heavy timber frame with a book case as a bed head. The extra deep mattress sits inside the frame so the frame hugs the bottom 2 inches of the mattress.

To remove the sheets, I have to lift the mattress up and slide it over the bottom edge of the bed by about 4 inches. This takes all of my body weight pulling in that direction and I almost bust my fufu valve every time!

I have 6 pillows - hence 6 pillow cases, 2 body pillows - hence 2 body pillow cases, a fitted sheet, a cover sheet and a light duvet.

Remaking the bed is the challenging part. 

My sheets are 100% linen so they are tough! Stretching them over the deep king mattress and tucking them in, then sliding the mattress back into place takes the strength of a Roman army.

I have two very thin, very floppy pillows (they serve a purpose) but putting them into their cases is like putting a condom onto a flaccid penis. 

I have two regular pillows that are easy to put cases on.

I have two thick memory pillows and putting the cases on them is like trying to fit in your skinny jeans after you’ve gained 4kgs. It’s a mighty struggle!

I have two body pillows *sigh* oh the struggle for a short person to slide a case onto a pillow longer than your body - sometimes feels like I’m wrestling a python. Twice.

By the time I’m done, I need to lie on my freshly made bed for 15 minutes to catch my breath and gather my strength.

That’s it for my day.

Chicken wings for dinner and footy on all afternoon and evening. 

Adoring Husband is doing very well and found out that he could have come home today!

They told him on Friday morning that he could come home on Monday but somewhere during the next 24 hrs, they decided on Saturday morning. Of course with that short notice, none of his transport options were available, so he has to spend two extra days in his hospital bed listening to the voices in his head.

At least his son and grandchildren are going to visit him tomorrow so that will be a huge bonus! He talks to them regularly on the phone but he hasn’t seen them face to face for about 4 years (I think).

Ok time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

Improving Daily

I saw a meme the other day and the message was pretty basic:

If you can’t take a minute out of your day to say hi to me, then I’m not making time for you in my life.

Period.

The end.

I get it, in theory.

If life were black and white, all good or all bad, all happy or all sad, all easy or all hard, then it would make sense to apply that logic to a friendship.

But, most of life happens within the grey – the space between black and white. And I am a grey friend.

Sometimes I am a bad friend.

Sometimes I am a good friend.

Sometimes I forget to text back my friends.

Sometimes I check in with them when it really counts.

Sometimes I mean to reach out and say hi and then before I know it, I’m crawling into bed at the end of the day, my mind filled to the brim with all the things I didn’t get done.

Sometimes I show up.

Sometimes I decide deliberately to not reach out because it’s all I can do to keep the lid on my emotions from bubbling over.

Sometimes I let that lid go and reach out anyways.

Yes, I am a grey friend – but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the people in my life.

It just means that sometimes life is more complicated than a simple meme.

More complicated than bad or good,

More complicated than right or wrong.

Sometimes life just is weird and amazing,

Messy and wonderful.

Full of grief and full of joy.

All of those things – all at the same time.

And so, friendships can be all of those things too.

Younger me didn’t get it, but older me gets it now.

Now I try to give my friends some grace about living in the grey.

Just because they don’t return a text or don’t reach out to say hi might not mean they don’t like me.

It might mean they are too busy right now.

It might mean they are struggling.

It might mean they need to take a break from peopling.

It might mean they forgot.

It might mean one of the millions of reasons that exist in the grey.

So, I’ll keep on not keeping score and trying to give the important people the benefit of life’s grey spaces, and I’ll keep hoping people do the same for me.”

Adoring Husband is healing beyond expectations and is itching to get home. Unfortunately he has to wait until Monday.

His tremor is almost gone, his body pain is gone, his speech is much clearer and he says that his inturned foot is almost back to normal. He hasn’t needed pain relief since day two.

So things are going very well!

Today was a public holiday for “show day” which was a pain in the butt because we needed stuff and the shops where we would normally get that stuff were all closed. Ugh.

Thankfully, Farm Gate, our local organic market stall was open so we could stock up on some fresh fruit and veg and eggs.

It heading towards midnight so sleep time for me.

This is the new name of the latest Covid variant … speaks for itself really.

Nite all.

Health Update

Adoring Husband is doing very well.

He’s had regular visits from the neurologist who hopes to have him off all medication in the next few weeks.

I’m very happy about that.

All going well, he’ll be home on Monday.

I’m yawning uncontrollably so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

No More Sleeps

Reporter Cuomo vaccine injured 

Adoring Husband came through the surgery very well.

We’ve spoken on the phone four times today and the Neurosurgeon phoned to explain that the surgery went according to plan and that the team was very happy.

Tonight AH is being monitored in ICU and tomorrow they’ll take him back to his private room.

They’ve put him on a drug that I’m not happy about. It has MANY side effects and when you eat protein, it stops the drug from working effectively. AH eats protein like it’s his last meal! The doctor has never told him about the protein thing and I’m willing to bet the doc doesn’t even know about it!

Ugh!

I’ve had a busy day sending and responding to texts regarding AH.

I did a load of washing and I have just realised it’s still in the machine! Woops!

I did AH’s job.

Home made Hamburgers for dinner.

It’s already after 11pm and I need sleep.

Nite all.

1 More Sleep til Surgery

To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself. ~Henry Miller

A strange old lady has moved into my house. I have no idea who she is, where she came from, or how she got in. I certainly did not invite her. All I know is that one day she wasn't there, and the next day she was.

She is a clever old lady and manages to keep out of sight for the most part, but whenever I pass a mirror, I catch a glimpse of her. And, whenever I look in the mirror to check my appearance, there she is hogging the whole thing, completely obliterating my gorgeous face and body. This is very rude! I have tried screaming at her, but she just screams back.

The least she could do is offer to pay part of the bills, but no. Every once in a while, I find a $5 bill stuck in a coat pocket or some loose change under a sofa cushion, but it is not nearly enough. And I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think she is stealing money from me. I go to the ATM and withdraw $50 and a few days later, it's all gone! I certainly don't spend money that fast, so I can only conclude the old lady is pilfering from me. You'd think she would spend some of that money to buy wrinkle cream. And money isn't the only thing I think she is stealing.

Food seems to disappear at an alarming rate-especially the good stuff like ice cream, chips, and sweets. She must have a real sweet tooth, but she'd better watch because she is really packing on the pounds. I suspect she realizes this, and to make herself feel better, she is tampering with my scale to make me think I am putting on weight, too.

For an old lady, she is quite childish. She likes to play nasty games, like going into my wardrobes when I'm not home and altering my clothes so they don't fit. And she messes with my files and papers so I can't find anything. This is particularly annoying since I am extremely neat and organized.

She has found other imaginative ways to annoy me. She gets into my mail, newspapers, and magazines before I do and blurs the print so I can't read it. And she has done something really sinister to the volume controls on my TV, radio, and telephone. Now, all I hear are mumbles and whispers. She has done other things-like make my stairs steeper, my vacuum heavier and all the knob and taps harder to turn. She even made my bed higher so that getting into and out of it is a real challenge.

Lately, she has been fooling with my groceries before I put them away, applying glue to the lids, making it almost impossible for me to open the jars. She has taken the fun out of shopping for clothes. When I try something on, she stands in front of the dressing room mirror and monopolizes it. She looks totally ridiculous in some of those outfits, plus, she keeps me from seeing how great they look on me.

Just when I thought she couldn't get any meaner, she proved me wrong. She came along when I went to get my picture taken for my driver's license, and just as the camera shutter clicked, she jumped in front of me

I hope she never finds out where you live!

Adoring Husband’s surgery is at 7.30am tomorrow (Wednesday 22nd May) and, all going well, should be completed by midday.

Today he had more tests on a range of things that you wouldn’t expect for this type of surgery. His son from the Gold Coast went to visit him, which was lovely and his neurologist, who has been on holidays, popped in to say hello before surgery.

AH was much calmer today, but sounded very tired tonight. It was a big day.

I had a quiet, relaxing day with a 2 hour zoom meeting with The Gypsy at 2pm. She read my cards which were very interesting with 8 of the Major Arcana cards being drawn. Exciting times ahead for me!

AH phoned at 8pm and that’s the last time I’ll speak to him before the surgery.

I had a dream last night that he left the hospital before surgery and was knocking on my bedroom door in the middle of the night to let me know that he was home! It woke me at 2.30am and I couldn’t get back to sleep until 5am.

So watch this space for the continuing story of DBS.

I am very tired.

Nite all.