Today’s. Arancini Zaffarino with a little side salad. A latte. And I’m big on coffee reward. And so today’s latte was free(complimentary) with a chocolate Mignon. (Profiterole with a light choc custard)
The Arancini has mint, peas & saffron rice. It’s my favourite.
Cheers, H
I guess it’s as good as time as any to mention that Australia has a lot of long weekends. Well, I don’t know what the correct number to define ‘a lot’ but we have a few. It generally puts me in a good mood because it means I get to put ‘work’ aside and some of my ‘off-grid’ routine spreads from Saturday to Monday and in this case Tuesday even. This long weekend we can thank the Queen’s Birthday. (Officially, it was way too hard to explain, why so for some crazy reason I don’t know we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday on her actual birthday and for some crazy reason we do so a second time on a weekend in June. Far be it for me to complain. BAM!)
It seems better than that, while the VU (soz, Victoria University; Osteo) students have completed their year and Tuesdays RMIT (not apologising for this one; Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Mio/Remedial) students have finished also I no longer have weekly appointments on these days for a few months. So, my Tuesdays just cleared up.
It’s a very good thing as I am usually out 5 days a week, having appointments, scheduling, dealing with people who are not always doing their jobs properly, making my very existence very challenging. So, weekends mean I can’t follow-up with people who avoid my calls or emails all week long. I’m forced to take a break and concentrate on other things.
This weekend, so far, I’ve read 2.5 comics. I know…. sad. But the 1/2 counts. I’ve also been crossing off some TV shows. Nothing worth mentioning but remind me to tell you my Hot firemen story? You heard me. You have to wait……
Saturday single girl date night actually included a film! I watched, not for the first time Memoirs of a Geisha. Including the extras. Totally worth it.
No house-hunting to report, cannot get back into it. Everything I even check out online is not actually still available. I can’t get to the openings on a Saturday morning, and they are all too much for too little or too far from where I currently reside. Meanwhile, winter has hit and I’m already seeing my breath inside my home. It’s ridiculous.
Still no sign of my new fur-baby. Can’t afford the food or kitty litter anyway, so not happy! Wednesdays pilgrimage to the supply store where I get a fix of unconditional love from Bella/Killer was exceptional yet again. She throws herself against my shoe and I get to give her lots of pats. And no vet bills, etc.
I’ve started to spread my carers over 3 different agencies. I’ve a deadline now of mid-September to say good bye and replace the irreplaceable carers I’ve been getting from my council under HACC for the last 4 years. Seems an impossible task and stubbornly I don’t wanna. But I have to.
Had a few disasters in the kitchen, my carrot cake going into the bin, and my first effort at the Chocolate self-saucing pudding. Made a second today with a little help from my carer and the right oven temperature and foil made the second effort acceptable. Don’t worry I share it so I can’t eat it. Promise.
Nothing else really to report, although I’m still on plunge coffee so not enjoying my medicine (coffee) as much and don’t know when this will change.
Glad I re-implemented my Wednesday lunches, it costs from $8-$15 so why can’t I when it gets me out, allows me lunch before 5pm, and I usually write posts for my blog, perhaps this week I’ll take a comic…. see if I can stay on a roll? I really should start posting my delicious lunches on a Wednesday. Might call it “lunch on Helen’s Punchy/Stabby day?”
Well, it’s typical that first thing Monday my carefully laid plans go to shit because of the incompetence of my services, only certain staff volunteer to work on a public holiday. They do get paid better and from my end I will be lucky to see a carer I’ve had previously, they usually get lots of difficult clients they have never had before. My carer was promised at 9am. It’s now after 1pm and I’m still waiting. Need to get my extra-long weekend back on track.
Cheers,
H
Crafty
I guess I’ve not mentioned but I come from a “Crafty family”. You can probably file this post under “funny stories”, however my mum is a very crafty lady. With respect.
Back in the 70’s she did macramé, made sheepskin hats, vests and slippers, best slippers ever! She has done the knitted woolen thing and when I was younger she even had a knitting machine.
There was a wool factory and a fabric factory in my home town, I think they are still both in production, however the ‘wog-migration’ that worked there (Uncles and Aunts included) however since the late 80’s (?) my mum has been a quilter.
I’ve been dragged to many Quilting Expos, fabric shops and warehouse. I prefer the fabric in the ‘Toile’ variety but generally when I pick something out ‘it’s the wrong one and to put it back!’
My other sister had a Tiffany lamp and leadlight faze and while at College she double-majored in printmaking and photography, eventually photography won out.
I was into painting, photography and had a few years in the late 90’s doing mosaics, but the Craft Markets are a killer.
Occasionally, when I’m out with my mum and younger sister, my mum might say a word that triggers me to start a chant.
I only know a few lines to the song, but Andrea (my sister) will chime in.
It’s not completely accurate, but it amuses me greatly.
Mum usually growls “Stop That!”
Mother
How’s your mother? I always get asked by my carers… My mum who was here for less than 24 hours, last week to smash some appointments and things.
My mum is really the only family member to support me and she also manages to be my biggest critic.
So, it’s often somewhat tongue in cheek I reply with a smart mouth “she was alive when she left and so was I”.
My mum and I have come a long way in the last ten years, in the early days of my disability, she was mid 50’s and she would come down often once a week just to take me across town to my physio and OT appointments.
Mum lives about 3 hours away in the country in a lovely isolated valley where there is NO MOBILE RECEPTION and when I go home for Christmas, mum and my younger sister cannot remember their internet password. So, for me THERE IS ALSO NO INTERNET!
Admittedly their internet is so little and so slow, it’s better to just let emails pile up. I’m less inclined to lose my mental ‘shit’ and want to kill people.
My internet is fast and reliable at home. My mum reminds me every time she visits when she claims “I just detected 400 emails”.
Yeah! She only visits for my fast internet, I don’t mess around with internet or computers when they don’t work, I have visual images of Jackson Pollack paintings. Anyway, I digress as per usual.
It is rather typical of family members when they are carers for people with brain injuries and disabilities to verbally spar with each other.
Most people with brain injuries I’m sure it’s like torture and torment because they lack the verbal skills or mental capacity to give as good as they get.
My mum probably doesn’t realise she should count herself blessed, I have a smart mouth and deliver her a sharp retort at times, despite it offending her. Because the early years I used to bite my tongue until I realised Passive/Aggressive didn’t help me.
Nothing was going to change if I couldn’t let it be known. Clearly, we have had many opportunities for a difference of opinion, on this whole topic.
But what can you do?
Hot off the Press!
Well, another busy week under the belt. It’s a zero for comics read this week. One day last week I actually walked home down my street in the dark. It’s not advisable as seeing in the dark with half the eyesight is not great! It’s getting dark by 5.30 now it’s winter!
Thursday, I had a nice country adventure with the brain injury group I’m part of. We went to Moe, a part of Victoria that seemed to get on the map (so to speak) 20 years ago for all the wrong reasons. I was pre-empting my adventure with the description of Moe as the place Bogans are from. I have a full-length post to best describe what a bogan is. You will just have to wait. It’s not great!
Often when I get together with this group of people, there are a few stand out favourites I love to spend time with and rarely get a chance to. I do love to deliver one guy my standard greeting. I did so while standing speaking to a nice mum who had bought her son along. Said son had developed his ABI from heatstroke while working in Queensland on a building site. He was wheelchair bound and it took 7 years to get Workers Compensation to cover his injury. But without batting an eye, I delivered my colleague my customary “Shut the fuck up!” And kept my conversation with the mum going. She was actually amused. Thankfully. It’s my thing, so don’t judge me. A meeting doesn’t feel complete if I don’t get to deliver these immortal words to this guy.
One of my other peeps, a woman called Anne (she won’t mind) gave her friend a smack in the moosh (mouth) during a drawing exercise and when prompted to explain her sudden outburst, she smartly retorted with “You had it coming Bitch!”
Fore-went my Saturday night single girl date night (watching a film) to do serious catch up on TV shows. I’m so far behind. Nothing super noteworthy…….. I’m currently catching up on real TV I’ve recorded in the past week. A great show from a series called “You can’t ask me that!” Where each week they cover a different topic, have people come in and answer a series of questions by anonymous people online. Unless you have a VPN you can set to Australia you won’t be able to access it. Sadly, this episode is on Centenials. Like some thought provoking shows this series will make you laugh and cry. Like the episode a few weeks back on the topic suicide.
I quit Physiotherapy last week deciding I had been crippled enough and rather didn’t appreciate being told my left thigh muscles weren’t as good as I thought! Way to make friends and influence people: Not! Nobody loves being criticised least of all me!
Brief visit Wednesday saw me visit the cat, Bella/Killer (depends who you ask) and I got another good pat. Keeping the need to visit Lost Dogs Home or pet shops at bay. No house hunting this week, it’s really slowed down with winter and having seen the other limited options.
Lastly, Jamima’s couch has finally gone out for hard rubbish collection. I kept it for 3(?) years taking up prime real estate in my lounge so she would not lose her favourite hiding place. Her safe place when the vacuum cleaner came out, children, fast cars down the driveway, thunder, noisy drilling or roadworks. You know the stuff. Jamima would find her way under the couch and into a whole in the lining underneath and settle in to be both cocooned and hammocked inside its protective hidey hole. Stinking hot weather or freezing cold it was her favourite for 16 years. Many an argument was being had with my mum as to when it was time to get rid of it and now it is gone.
The search for a new coffee carafe proved unsuccessful. A new coffee pot is imminent. Had to resort to plunger coffee.
Now, it’s after 2am Monday morning. I’m sending this now after time out. Have made some additions. And likely no time tomorrow before I head out to my first appointment.
Lastly, this is a picture for the Rumpsters fur-mum and June Buggie. Both recently departed.
In Memory
And now for another week!
Cheers,
When Does It End?
The week is over, it’s done, yet why am I not in bed asleep?
I just finished edits to upcoming posts and quit doing emails and it’s 1am. Making me think this post should be called 1am.
My mind is still buzzing and I’m in need to ‘single-task’ so I can wind down.
It will be done.
Saturday, bring it on…
Carer v Family Part 2
I often find my carers are more…. How do I say this without offending family? Well, I don’t think I can, so I’ll just tear off the bandaid shall I?
My carer left today after shopping, calling out “Love You”, to which I replied; “Love You Too”.
The only male carer I have does my Homecare (cleaning) and my shopping, two things that don’t require him to see me naked and he is a beautiful young gay “thing” who engages with me all the way around the shopping complex and we converse about anything and everything.
He has been mistaken as my son and I think some people mistake us for a flirty couple. They are rude and disrespectful, then there’s the stalker type who notice him and stalk him. I don’t see or realise until he tells me later, but they love to come up to him and offer him their phone numbers.
Seriously! Yuck! If I knew, I would give them some ‘what for’ and if that didn’t work, I would call the police on ‘000’!
If it were back in my club days, I would sort this shit out so easily.
But, anyway, my sweet young carer is going on holidays for a month now so I’ll truly miss him.
This is on the back of my mother being here for literally 24 hours to smash out some things. She left so late last night, she cranked me when she arrived home and it was after 1am.
I rang her tonight to say “thank you” and “I love you” and when she barely responded I told her I would imagine she had said it back to me.
She laughed!
It makes me so sad!
It makes me sadder still that soon, I’m going to lose all my friends. Friends that seem to care for me more than my own family.
This weekend I’ve been considering if you went to an Elvis Convention with that many in the one room would they be Elvis’s or Elvisi? I was considering this after checking out a new show. Called Big Little Lies. It’s actually a miniseries. 7 episodes, an hour each. Sometimes a short and sweet season of something that doesn’t continue can be good. If every show I watched went on forever I would need to be much choosy about what to watch. Ok, House with Hugh Laurie could have gone on forever, but it is what it is.
Big Little Lies in short is about parenting and marriages in a small close-knit but often bitchy area. Themes include domestic violence, bullying and the balance between parenting and career. At the start I was convinced, “The Butler did it!” there is NO butler, but you watch every episode wondering what this big secret is? But the first character to raise my suspicions is guilty of something, but you have to hang in there with an open mind and you finally find out in the last 10 minutes. It’s also about Nature versus Nurture. And how woman can communicate so much with a few simple glances and woman’s intuition is a powerful force. Lastly, the one character, the protective mothers saw as a husband stealing hot chick, they all hated was the one that had the independence and sense of survival instinct and came in, saved the day and took care of business for the sake of all woman-kind.
If that doesn’t sell you on 7 hours of TV I don’t know what will. Also, ladies, don’t forget domestic violence is wrong. It’s not the answer for anything.
Also, I do not get all the running! Too much running! And so many familiar faces, too many too mention but a must watch! It’s definitely the location of where I’d want to live in a completely different reality. Very picturesque.
Also got a little Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods and, Mindy Project in this week.
Yes. I’ve still been rather busy but I skipped my single girl date night film, commonly referred to as Saturday Night! To wrap up Little Big Lies.
Oh, and I should throw in Alexander Skarsgard ‘butt’ makes a brief appearance in episode 2! And no, I didn’t replay it…….if you are not familiar with Alexander think True Blood and Generation Kill. At least he is age-appropriate for a change.
If you decide I’m sounding a little pervy, what I have to say is; “I’m broken! Not dead!”
And maybe because I left the house today, Aunty Christine took me out for lunch to meet her hubby I had 2 coffees! So, I’m catch up on admin, email and even managed a second comic to the smaller pile today!
Side topic; I broke my coffee pot this week. Things will be dire by hump day if I can’t come home with a new one…….big day Thursday coming with an adventure to report on next week!
After great discussion from last Fridays Postcards Post I thought since it sounds like I’m not the only one who misses a good postcard found in the letterbox, to my trusted followers (You know who you are?) email me your address & I’ll send you a postcard.
Postcards
Everyone relax! I think I’ve discovered the method of solving the Greek economic problem. No really, hear me out, I’ve only traveled overseas once and that was 100 years ago, in 1994. I loved it. Admittedly I didn’t pay for the flights and it was a bit of a Cinderella story.
And yes, it ended in tears and heartbreak, mine. But still, I sent many, many postcards in the three months I was away and because I don’t get to travel or holiday, I confess I love a Postcard!
My request for a postcard from friends and family who have the luxury or the cash to travel usually falls on deaf ears and when I get one I’m so chuffed…
A friend recently had a six-week adventure in Europe and I asked for a postcard, I even pushed for a postcard from every capital city she visited.
I know, I offered her a cheeky smile and a snort. She did post me a postcard from Greece and she told me how hard it was to find a post box.
She’s been back a month now and still no postcard.
Last week I went to my appointment with her and reported still no postcard and then I announced “Oh my God! I’ve just solved the Greek Financial Crisis”
They should create jobs in the postal industry.
Reboot postcards and bring them back to former glory.
Your welcome!
Where’s my damn Postcards???
Last week, the last very Auntie Christine, (previously mentioned) asked me a question. ” Have you had a visitor?” Emphasis was on the word ‘visitor’ I knew what she meant and replied happily ” No, no visitors?”
She had helped me take off my bed sock from my left foot as I’ve had some trouble since my Physio mangled me two weeks ago and I’ve had trouble getting my left foot up onto my right knee.
she told me the bruise I had failed to notice looked like a hand print?
My GP once asked if I bruised easily? I didn’t know how to answer. The purest definition of bruising easily he described as you discover a bruise but don’t recall how you got it or when?
I get bruises all the time, as I presume most people with a disability would also. But I can generally tell you how I did it after the bruise appears. This one took a few days.
I think this is my hand, when I have been lifting my left leg into the car……Front passenger seat is on the left in OZ. Right leg in first…… go figure………
On the other hand, I did get a second take at seeing the film Snatched Snatched (2017 film) the Westgarth today. Palace Westgarth | Palace Cinemas Jane (not her real name) this session had twice as many people and all went smoothly. Good thing I stopped eating the popcorn when I did or my laughter would have caused me to choke to death.
Please follow the links for a look at a nice independent cinema in Melbourne, and if you haven’t gone to see Snatched with Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer get to it.
Happy Wednesday!
Hell onWheels/Life One Handed 