Tested

It all started early this morning when we got Jack, the oldest psychotic dog, out of bed to go to the vet.

His body has been seizing up since last Thursday, at which time Adoring Husband took him to the vet in Howard and they couldn't find any reason for it, so they sent him home and advised that if it continued, to bring him back for an x-ray and a closer look.

This morning, his legs seized up and he collapsed on the floor unable to move. He cried out in pain and I had to massage his legs until he relaxed enough to walk again.

It didn't last long and he seized up again and was in obvious pain.

Adoring Husband could not cope seeing his favourite dog in pain and was pretty messy with emotion.

He didn't know how to physically handle Jack and he was struggling, so I phoned The Motivator and asked her to open the shop - this was supposed to be her first day off in more than 3 weeks - so that I could accompany Jack and AH to the vet.

We arrived at the Howard Vet clinic to discover that they were closed.

Adoring Husband phoned the Maryborough Vets and even though they were completely booked out, they said to bring him in and leave him at their clinic so that they could check him out between consults, then we could return later to pick him up.

He was with them for four hours and not once did he seize up! Not once did he have an episode! They performed all sorts of physical tests on him, followed by blood tests which all came back clear.

Nothing indicates that there are any problems with him, but she seems to think that these episodes are seizures.

Not grand mal seizures, but seizures on the lower end of the scale.

We didn't think they looked like seizures, but what would we know?

The vet suggested that we get video footage on our phone so that we could send it through to her on Monday and that way she could see what we were trying to describe.

In the meantime, the vet offered us two options.

Option One:  Experiment with Valium to see if that relaxed him and stopped his episodes.

Option Two:  Experiment with anti-seizure medication to see if that stops his episodes.

So, against my better judgement and not really knowing what to do next to get a quick result, we took option one.

I didn't give it to him right away though. We all left the house almost as soon as we got home to attend the community Christmas party.

Later, when Primrose and I were almost home, she suggested that I get my phone ready and allow her to video Jack as we opened the door - it was a good idea because the excitement of seeing us was enough to trigger another episode.

That's when I gave him his first dose of Valium.

He was 'drunk Jack' all afternoon, very slow on his feet, sometimes staggering just a little, but he didn't have an episode until 10.30pm tonight. He can only have the valium every 8 hours. He lasted 5.5 hours. Maybe once the valium settles into his system properly, the episodes will stop. Time will tell.

I will continue to research better methods and test those as we go ... like 'stress-less' essential oil ... of which I'll place a few drops onto his bed tonight.

So that was our quite stressful day dealing with a sick dog and getting no answers from the professionals.

In the middle of all that, I did get to work to relieve The Motivator of her duties and allow her to at least get SOME time off on her day off.

While Adoring Husband was performing SES duties at the community Christmas party, Primrose and I enjoyed lamb rack with pumpkin and spinach salad and pickled cucumber for dinner. Primrose prepared a delicious fruit salad for dessert.

Now, as it approaches 11.30pm, I am signing off so that I can give Jack some more drugs and get some sleep myself.

Nite all.  

Weeks End

It's the end of the week and time for The Motivator to have some time off.

I placed some of our postcards on the tables outside the supermarket today and it actually brought some curious people to the shop. They came through the door in a slow, but steady stream, which kept us well occupied until after lunch.

The remainder of the day was spent sorting through a very large box of snap jewellery items which arrived in the mail this morning.

More than a thousand snap buttons and more than one hundred bracelets, leather straps, pendants, keyrings, brooches, bookmarks, bag hooks, glasses hooks, snap button sunglasses, silver chains and the list goes on.

We don't have anywhere near enough display trays for the buttons, nor do we have enough room in the display cabinets to show off the jewellery!

We are, however, prepared for Christmas!

I am currently watching the oldie but goodie "Jaws" movie. I swear it is still one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I've gasped and cringed and groaned so many times and it has reaffirmed my fear of swimming in our river - never again will I splash, wade or swim in our river. No sirrreeee!

Having filled my tummy with a plate full of chicken, coleslaw, garden salad and the deadly potato salad, my body is complaining painfully, so I will go sleep it off now. Potato is not my friend. I know that now. I've known it for a long time, yet I am still a glutton for punishment. Self inflicted.

But I LOVE potato!

Ugh.

Ok, gotta go. Gotta be up bright and early for work and I've gotta be on the ball!

Nite all.

  

All Wet

There is a bit of wet stuff falling out of the sky right now, and it has been that way since about lunch time.

We had a steady morning at the shop until the rains came.

I must say that it was really nice sitting in the empty shop with the rain pelting down outside and the music playing softly in the background while I researched various wholesalers.

I pottered around, cleaned some display cases, loaded a display tree with jewellery, added snap buttons to some pendants, did a little dusting, cleaned some of the silver jewellery and researched some wholesalers.

Primrose arrived at the shop on closing time and offered to buy us a coffee, which was a lovely gesture. We had closed all the blinds and brought the signs, flags and chairs inside but just as she left to get the coffees, and before we had a chance to close the door, a customer walked in!

The customer turned out to be the lady from Salvation Army where we bought our furniture for the shop! We showed her the newly covered chairs and she was impressed. She's going to find out if there are more chairs in their storage area and let us know if other chairs come in.

The rain eased long enough for Primrose and I to walk/ride home without getting too drenched.

Psychotic Dog (Jack) had to visit the vet this afternoon because he was having trouble with his hind legs and had a little screaming turn. The vet couldn't find anything wrong and suggested that it might be a slipped disc or arthritis, but issued AH with a bag full of syringes and painkillers. If Jack continues to show these symptoms, then the vet will take x-rays and he might require surgery.

I have seen no signs of these symptoms this afternoon or this evening, so I think it was a 'one off' and he probably got his claw caught in the threads of the blanket when he jumped off the chair or maybe he slept the wrong way (just like we do sometimes).

Of course the vet pumped him full of painkillers and of course he hasn't eaten anything tonight.

Meanwhile, it's now 10.30pm and I'm off to bed. I've had two very late nights in a row and I need to get some solid sleep and NOT sleep in tomorrow, like I did this morning!

Nite all.

Problematic

It seems we have an unhappy camper in town who is now posting negative comments about our business without naming our business. She believes that we are unfairly competing and taking business away from her.

In her words ... "taking my business away from me by offering the same service a short distance away"

Time to work on some damage control.

We definitely do not want to take any business away from her and in fact, we refer people to her and direct them to her shop regularly - but she doesn't know that.

The other side of the coin is that she has an established business that is quite a few years old and she also has established clientele, so if she is confident in the service that she is offering, she certainly shouldn't feel threatened by us.

Anyway, either The Motivator or I will go for a visit this week and chat with her about her concerns because we should all be supporting each other in this town, not attacking each other in this passively aggressive way.

*sigh*

We had a great day at the shop today for my first day back. We were visited by a lot of friendly customers and The Motivator was busy working on a deadline for her design business, so it was great to jump in  and enjoy the day.

I really like Annemarie, the therapist who now works on Wednesdays in our shop. I am going to have her do some Zen Shiatsu therapy on me next week ...

*A Japanese remedial healing system based on Chinese Medicine. Gentle stretches combined with firm finger pressure is applied to acupuncture points called ‘tsubos’, to alleviate tension and pain*

... I've never experienced that before, but she told me that of all the therapies that she offers, it's her favourite, so I figure she will enjoy performing it on me!

Unfortunately I missed the Burrum lady's Christmas luncheon at Woodgate today. I wasn't supposed to be back in town for it, so I didn't add my name to the list last month. From the photos on FB, it looks like it was a great day. Plenty of happy smiling faces.

Now it's approaching midnight, so I'd best get some sleep.

For anyone feeling concerned, Primrose is feeling a little better today.

Nite all.



 

Movie Date

Adoring Husband had a double date with his two wives today (private joke - though NOT as private as THAT! lol)

AH, Primrose and I all saw "Justice League" today.

I loved it.

Primrose loved it.

AH was disappointed and declared that it was a poor storyline.

My favourite superhero is Wonder Woman - hands down.

I have a new second favourite superhero - Aquaman! Check him out!

I've always had a soft spot for Batman and Ironman, but The Flash is also now on my list of faves. He's hilarious and a great character.

Adoring Husband finished putting up our Christmas lights today. We need to replace some that have decided to finish their working lives this year.

Every year we try to add something new to our collection, but we haven't found anything for this year yet.

Primrose is still recovering from her allergic reaction and while she has improved somewhat, she is still suffering from mild symptoms and is feeling quite exhausted from the ordeal.

I'm back to work tomorrow so I'd best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Drama Filled Day

So Primrose had an allergic reaction to something during the night.

We're not sure what it was that caused this allergic reaction, but she was struggling to breathe. There was serious wheezing and gasping for breath.

She kept herself busy during the day, hoping that eventually, the feeling would pass and she would be ok.

She chopped up all the fruit that we'd bought yesterday and put them into bags for smoothies.

She did her washing.

We moved her out of the back bedroom thinking that there was something in that room causing it.

While I rode to the shop to get some zucchini to add to lunch, she smashed last night's leftover baked veggies and chopped some meat to add to bubble and squeak patties, which I cooked when I returned home.

By 2.30pm, her condition had not improved and she felt the need to see a doctor, so we drove into The Bay to try the Emergency department of the hospital.

In her home town, the hospital will tend to chest pain or breathing difficulties straight away, because they are considered dangerous conditions that need attention immediately.

We walked in and Primrose walked up to the reception desk. The person there asked her to take a seat and someone would call her shortly.

Fifteen minutes later (a long time when you're struggling for breath) she was called to the desk where they asked some questions, checked her saturation levels and took her blood pressure. Then she was told to take a seat until her name was called.

90 minutes later, she was called in through 'THE' doors - the doors that everybody is praying they will get called through SOON.

30 minutes later, she was still sitting in the little room to which she had been directed, and nobody had seen her yet.

All the while, she was gasping for breath.

Eventually, Primrose stood up and told the nearest staff member that she was leaving, so suddenly a doctor appeared.

While all this was going on, there was another woman in the waiting area, who had been there for an hour before we arrived, with a broken leg! She needed x-rays and for a doctor to check her leg. She had been sitting in a great deal of pain for more than 3 hours. Finally she was called in for her x-ray, but was then sent back to the seating area to wait for a doctor to call her in. By the time she was called for the second time, she'd been there for 4 hours.

After 3 hours, we left the hospital, still with Primrose gasping for breath and with no satisfaction whatsoever.

The level of care in The Bay compared to her home town are poles apart and The Bay leaves a lot to be desired.

After dinner, we sent her to her room to rest and concentrate on her breathing. Hopefully, tomorrow, she will wake up feeling quite a bit better.

Prior to us leaving for the hospital, Adoring Husband had a struggle with a piece of apple lodged in a very uncomfortable position in his mouth and which he had great difficulty removing. I almost had to drag him into The Bay with us for a serious 'apple extraction'!!

Hopefully, it will be a peaceful night of sleep for us all.

Nite all.

Day Eighteen .. and the final day of the Selfie Road Trip

Today has been bitter sweet.

Sadly, we came to the end of our road trip.

Happily, we arrived home safe n sound to the smiling face of Adoring Husband and three excited psychotic dogs with madly wagging tails.

It took a good while to unload the car of all our dirty washing,  purchased items, suitcases,  electronic devices, SHOES, cold bag full of fresh food that we bought on the way home, pillows, CDs and other assorted paraphernalia.

THEN it took a good while to unpack our suitcases.

Primrose moved from the coldest room in the house (where the air conditioning unit seems to think we have a refrigerated cold room) to the bigger, better room where the bed should assist in healing her back.

Eighteen days of sitting in the driving position has not done her any favours.

Adoring Husband already had a lamb roast in the oven with a big tray of veggies, so all I had to worry about was making the gravy.

While we were unpacking and dinner was cooking in the oven, Adoring Husband dragged the Christmas tree and all the decorations out of the shed. He set up the tree so that we could decorate it, which we did between unpacking, washing clothes and eating dinner!

And now, as I look around the house, you would never know that we had left!

We are perfectly delighted with our fabulous road trip. We are relieved and happy to be home safe n sound. All is right with our world!

Nite all.

Day Seventeen of the Selfie Road Trip

We are very bad parents.

Poor Wilbur Herbert has been in the back seat of the car for the entire journey and I think we've taken him out for photos three or four times.

Actually, I'm not even certain that he IS in the back! It's been so long since I've laid eyes on him!

We must attempt to release him for some 'end of road trip' photos.

It's been a long day of driving today. We needed to get over the QLD border so that I could vote!

Each 100km stretch felt like 300km! We travelled from Coffs Harbour to Toowoomba, stopping in Ballandean at a little school where I voted.

The roads we travelled today are very familiar to us, so there was no need to stop except for coffee. We actually wanted a smoothie, but could NOT find a shop anywhere from Tenterfield to Stanthorpe to Warwick to Toowoomba that was open and selling smoothies. Very frustrating.

We weaved our way though some interesting looking weather between Warwick and Toowoomba but managed to only drive through a couple of light sprinkles. Even the storm that brewed above us while we waited for our takeaway restaurant meals, fizzled into a light shower.

I phoned ahead and booked a motel that I found for a great deal. A room with two queen beds in it, usually for $250 night, at the bargain price of $125. No great views and on a busy road (the noise isn't bad), with a restaurant that funnily enough isn't open on a Saturday night (go figure) but luckily had a nice restaurant across the road.

The bed feels divine and it will be an early night for both of us.

Our tummies are full and we've spent the afternoon winding down and chilling.

Tomorrow, we are aiming for Maroochydore. We are thinking of spending our final night in Maroochydore to celebrate the end of another amazing road trip. I can't remember ever laughing as much as we have this time, and over the most ridiculous things. It has been FUN.

It's going to take us a week to wash all of our dirty clothes and sort through everything that we bought and figure out who owns what.

I started out with six pairs of shoes and am returning home with twelve. Four of the new pairs were bought from Op shops and acquired for the bargain prices of $3 and $4. Brand new shoes! Very comfortable too.

We've competed for 'best bargain shopper' status and at this point there is nothing in it. We'll probably end on a tie.

We've worked hard at eating clean healthy food along the way, only straying a couple of times with GF sweets.

We've revisited some spots on the map that have now become tradition and discovered new spots that we never knew existed. Beautiful gems that we will probably revisit in the future.

We've met some strange and interesting people in our travels, almost all of them wanting to share their life story! Some shop owners who were willing to offer some good business advice as well as providing names and phone numbers that will be helpful.

Great experiences and great memories.

Not certain when the next road trip will be, but I'll look forward to it anyway.

Nite all.

Day Sixteen of the Selfie Road Trip

It's late and I'm very tired.

We came over the mountains and stopped at Wallomombi Falls Lookout hoping to capture some looming Wedge Tailed Eagle shots, but unfortunately, the eagle decided to loom on the opposite side of the gorge to where we were. I could see him in the distance, but sadly for me, he never got close enough for me to get a decent shot.

From there we drove to Ebor Falls which was flowing beautifully ...

... then over the mountains to the lovely Dorrigo. We always enjoy that drive and Dorrigo is a lovely little town. We stopped and did some window shopping - well I window shopped, while BGWLBH did some 'actual' shopping.

Bellingen was next and even though we looked forward to stopping there, the store owners have become a bit greedy and the prices have increased somewhat since our last trip. They are taking advantage of the tourist industry I guess, but feeling a bit resentful, I chose NOT to buy the one thing that I wanted, simply because I know what the price was 2 years ago.

We made it to Coffs Harbour by about 3.30pm and I had called ahead and booked a motel room for us so Siri gave us directions and we found it easily. The internet and Siri have been our saviour this trip that's for sure.

Our meal was 'to die for' at the Coffs Exies restaurant tonight. Char grilled lemon grass chicken breast with red wine jus, potato puree and broccolini. The chicken just melted in your mouth. Yum!

It's been another great day and we are worn out.

Time for me to sleep now.

Nite all

Day Fifteen of the Selfie Road Trip

We have been incredibly lucky with the weather this trip.

I don't know how many times we've watched storms looming on the horizon, in all directions, but our roads seem to take us between the storms or around them.

Today, there were a lot of storms all around us and there were warnings on the BOM website for our area, as well as on the Higgins Storm Chasing Facebook page.

The first storm hit, just as we stopped at Murrurundi for a coffee. There was a little hail in it too, but we got under cover before the hail got us. It was LOUD under the tin roof of the little shop, so we took our time over a coffee and a GF passionfruit cheesecake slice.

The remaining storms formed a wall across the horizon from East to West and we knew that we'd have to drive through them somewhere on our journey. We were so lucky to miss a lot of them, but we caught the edge of one before we reached Tamworth. It wasn't much though.

We drove through about 40 mins of rain between Tamworth and Armidale, but it was rarely heavy and it was giving the ground a good soaking.

We lost some wind turbines today.

After we left Oberon and driving over the mountains, two huge wind turbines appeared in front of us and on the right hand side of the road. They were massive and we were waiting to get closer so that we could take photos with our phones, but we went round a couple of bends and they completely disappeared!

We looked everywhere! But no sign that they were ever there.

We took the back road through the Bylong Valley and roads were dreadful in patches and perfect in other patches. There big patches of multiple potholes but only every second or third patch was poorly repaired with piles of black bitumen/tar. It made for some interesting driving and we wondered how those patches appeared in random stretches of the road.

It was quite a wealthy area and where the United Emirates have their huge horse studs. Everything is oversized and the fencing is top quality, the grass is greener, the stables bigger, the horses all sleek and shiny, the machinery all brand new and the gates into the estates large and ostentatious. There is a LOT of money in that area.

We made up stories about the people who owned each estate...

We had some owned by big Chinese Mining Companies, some by Texas Oil Barons, some by Colombian Gun runners and some by Adani, the Indian Mining Company. We made up stories about who was living there and what they did.

The remaining farmland was dry and brown and unkempt. Some vineyards had died off. Some cattle looked skinny and unhealthy. The ground was dry and dusty. The dams empty. Then suddenly around a bend was the James Estate Winery where everything inside the fences and behind the big gated entrance was lush and green and perfect.

The vines were thick with full green leaves and everything looked incredibly healthy and clean and well maintained. At the end of their property, the land became barren again.

We travelled 556kms today. It was a long day of travel with no reason to stop, except for revive breaks, because we've taken that road so many times before. Tomorrow, we have plans for Wedge Tailed Eagle spotting, so we'll take it easy with the travel and eventually head to the coast.

We arrived in Armidale so late, we decided to grab some take-away for dinner, but as we drove into town, the main streets were blocked off for night markets, so we couldn't get to the cafes and restaurants easily.

We were too tired to park the car and walk the distance to the shops, so we drove to the Servies Club and walked into their bistro wearing the same clothes we'd been driving in all day. No make up. Hair a mess. Comfy travel shoes. Looking exactly like we'd just driven 556kms!

We found ourselves a little corner in the bistro and enjoyed delicious food - Thai Beef Salad and a Honey Glazed Bacon Cutlet with salad.

Our room at the motel feels very comfortable and I think I'm ready for some sleep now as it approaches 11pm.

It's been a long day.

This spoon and fork clock is in our motel room!

Nite all.

Day Fourteen of the Selfie Road Trip

Here are a heap of photos from the last two days.

We left Sussex Inlet much earlier than our usual departure and were on the road by 9am (usually it's 10 or 11am).

Nowra was busy and bustling and stressful to get through, but we finally made it to the less busy road to take us to Kangaroo Valley.

We found a beautiful lookout near Cambewarra and drove up a very dodgy, windy narrow road to reach an amazing view, most of the photos from that are on my camera, so I'll share them at a later date. Meanwhile there is one selfie that I took with my phone that has the view behind me.

Kangaroo Valley was very disappointing. We love that area ... the mountains, the amazing trees and forest, the old buildings, the hikes, the waterfalls and the views ... but the shopping/tourist part was pretty underwhelming.

Admittedly, it was Wednesday, which is a day when most of the shops are closed, but there were only 3 shops to browse and two of them were closed, the remaining shops were cafes! Half of the cafes were closed too.

Our next stop was Bundanoon, which was lovely and I have fond memories of visiting there with Adoring Husband a few years ago. We even have a few knick knacks on our outside walls from there, but the shop where we purchased them, has since closed down.

We both enjoyed toasted turkey, cranberry and avocado sandwiches for lunch with a coffee and sat outside at the lovely tables on the sidewalk, beside planter boxes full of colourful blooms. It almost felt like Paris!

Because we liked the look of Oberon so much on the way south, we decided to find accommodation there for tonight. Probably a mistake. There were only three motels to choose from.

We chose the best one, but it has no wifi (I remembered tonight that I could use my phone hotspot to do my blog!) and you have to walk a long way from your car to your room, walking up a steep loose gravel driveway, then up a concrete ramp past the reception area to a walkway that takes you past every other room before you reach your own room.

It's also very cold in Oberon!

The RSL Club was nice, but the restaurant has a temporary menu with limited GF options and it took them 40 mins to make nachos and grilled chicken and salad. There were only two other tables of people there, so they couldn't use the 'busy' excuse. The food was very average.

We found a few Op shops and second hand stores today, which were interesting. In these next few photos, you can see some hanging beaded decorations in a shop ... we are going to make some. I have  containers full of beads from when I was making jewellery and today I bought a few inexpensive decorative silver bits and pieces to recreate what you see in the photos.

The crafty person used silver teapots, silver plates and jugs, old lamps and the heart to hang strings of old jewellery and beads. They looked fabulous!

The big teal circle was a 900mm disc of painted resin which was soooooo stunning - the photo just doesn't do it justice - and it cost $500. I took the artist's details so that I could contact her in the future to possibly buy it for the shop. It would look divine on the wall and is very similar to our logo!

Anyway, I'm very tired. Time to sleep.

Nite all.