Jaanie's (health) blog

Blogger no more...

2009-04-03T10:38:00.007+10:30

Ok, so after quite a few years, I've decided that I'm not going to blog on here anymore. Why? Just because I get bored and like change, so I've gone over to:

healthyjaan.tumblr.com

I'll still keep this alive as it's got all my old posts from overseas and whatnot, but I won't be updating it anymore.

:)

Love love love.

Busy busy busy

2009-03-11T09:45:00.003+10:30

Haven't forgotten to write another entry - I've just been stupid busy moving house.
That should all be over very soon... then more words for you to read.
Oh, I will mention I had a clinic last week, and my lung function went up to 68%, which is pretty decent since I was feeling like right shite.
So go lungs. :)
But until proper blog, check this - I saw her for the first time supporting Bob Log III with Jackson Firebird last week.
Amazing.

I don't usually do this...

2009-02-26T00:32:00.003+10:30

but here is a bloody nice picture of a bloody nice singer that you should all check out.

Her name is Ingrid Michaelson.

That is all.

Proper blog coming soon...

Pending cure for cf??

2009-02-24T10:22:00.008+10:30

I got sent this link from the CF association, and while in the past I've been careful not to get too excited over these kinds of things, actually I'm still doing the same thing. BUT, you never know - I've known that the only realistic possibility of a cure involves gene therapy, and that's what this is about, so hey, could be a bit of alright news. :)

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/17_schaffer.shtml

I'll do a proper update soon. Just thought I'd share this.

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #2

2009-02-10T09:40:00.004+10:30

My grand plan to keep this going throughout the tour has failed miserably. It was too hot, I didn't have internet connection, I was too lazy, blah blah blah. Let's see how we go with the recap. Excuse the largeness of this entry...

Mildura. Yes, awesome. I'm remembering. It was warm. Very warm. So warm in fact that our original plan to drive there on the Wednesday so we could get an extra day and night before the show fell through as we didn't want the poor car to drive in that heat, so we left the next morning. Although, after suffering through Adelaide's hottest day in 70 years (and later Melbourne's hottest day on record, but we'll get to that one later) 43 degrees in Mildura really wasn't too bad. We kept cool in Hudak's Baker and the river, as well as being moved inside for the gig at the Sandbar. We were originally going to play on the outdoor stage, but it was too freaking hot. It was a great show though - the crowd were really receptive to all of us, had a brilliant pub meal and got to see Jackson Firebird in all their glory in their hometown.

Loxton. It is another riverland town like Mildura, about 2 and a bit hours out of Adelaide. We didn't leave Mildura till the late afternoon as we didn't really want to be driving in the middle of the day in the heat (was still in mid 40's). We had anticipated that the Loxton show could be a complete hit or miss in regards to crowd. The Big Day Out was on that night in Adelaide, so a lot of the youngen's would have gone there for that, and the with the heat, we assumed a lot of people would either be down by the river or at home under their AC. In saying that though, by the end of the night, quite a respectable crowd had turned up, and were all really enthusiastic. That night ended up being the biggest to date. All of the bands were put up in this house at the back of the hotel, so after the show we all went there to start on the rider that had been provided. Won't go into too much detail as to the activities of the night, but rest assured they included: drunk people sitting in a circle playing guitars and singing the blues, funny (and embarrassing) stories about each other, drunk photo's and a late night/early morning swim in the pool that had strictly and specifically been forbidden to band members staying in the house. Brilliant.

Rads! The night after Loxton was our home show of Adelaide. We had been looking forward to this for a little while, not that we weren't looking forward to the other shows, but you know, home town, lots of friends, blah blah. Again, another bloody hot day. But I think we were all getting used to it. Personally, this was probably the most fun show of the tour. The crowd were incredible, absolutely lapping up every band, and it was so great to share the night with so many friends, and give them a glimpse as to how much fun the last couple of weeks had been. We got Lochie to guest on a few tracks on bass, and they were PHAT. At 2am, Lochie and I decided that it was Maccas time, so we went for a quick bite to eat only to come back and find that the Grace Emily had closed. We missed the end of the party. Dayum.

Since there was a few days till we had to be in Melbourne, we thought it a good opportunity to take The Mischief boys down to the farm on Yorke Peninsula. Freaking amazing. When we left Rads it was 40 something degrees, but down at Yorkes it was 27. AWESOME! I could only stay for one night, as I had to work the next day at Alpha, but here's a funny story - my shift started at 4, so I had to leave around 1:30 to make sure I got there on time. I tried ringing my sister to see if she could fill in for me as I wanted to stay down on the farm for a bit longer with the guys, but couldn't get a hold of her. My mobile had run out of battery so I couldn't ring anyone else. Got back home, drove to work only to find a sign on the door that said "Closed due to weather". At home, I recharged my phone to find a message from the boss saying not to come in today. Hilarious. Not as hilarious as what happened to the boys though. Or is that tragic? Their Tarago decided to overheat and explode while they were down at Yorkes, which meant they had to cancel their show in Melbourne the following night. Definitely not a good thing... Long story short, we left the following day for Melbs, with the Tarago at a mechanics that had boats he was working on.

Melbourne. We arrived at The Brunswick Hotel on Thursday night a bit after 8pm, which didn't leave us much time to bring all the gear in and start setting up. It was all a bit manic. The show itself was great fun, but not as many people came that we thought would, not that that ever gets to any of us. There was a friend who I hadn't seen in at least 10 years that came, which definitely made the night worth while. As well as another friend who had moved to Melbs quite a few months ago, so all in all it was a great night. After the show, many drinks were consumed, exchanging of merch, lots of hugs, and stupid photo's a plenty were taken as it was the last time we would all be together on this tour. We got a 3am dinner of Macca's (much to Cookie's disgust) and got to the hotel where we found that we weren't on the booking list. Standing around in a hotel lobby arguing with the guy at the desk at half 3 in the morning when you have to leave for the 8 hour drive back to Rads the next day isn't fun. But in the end we got the room, had a good sleep, and left back home around lunch.

We had another show with The Mischief on the Saturday in Melbourne, but we decided to go back home for a night to see our really good mate John Woods play his final show, along with launching the band's EP. I was so out of it that the whole night is a bit of a blur. It was ridiculously hot and sweaty, but so good to see this part of his life end the way it did. Very glad we made the drive back for it. But next morning we flew back to Melbs into the hottest day on record there - 47 degrees. It really was a bit ridiculous - I felt my eyelids burning. We walked around St Kilda for most of the afternoon before our show at Pure Pop Records - a brilliant record store that is also licensed and has a little stage area out the back of the shop. It was hot, we were sweaty, I broke 3 strings, but it was an incredible show. The Mischief played a killer set, and Blowy had to leave straight after to catch a plane only to find out that it had been cancelled. No wedding for him to attend... (not his own - that would just be silly).

We spent that night getting a brilliant dinner and walking around trying to find a pub that wasn't swarming with people. We found ourselves on a tram heading back into the city, which we then proceeded to walk around for an hour trying to find a specific pub. We did, but weren't allowed in as some of us were wearing thongs (flip flops, whatever). Finally we found an awesome little place, where we sat down, drank and played Shithead (brilliant card game). Got 4 hours sleep and flew back home the next day.

That's it. Spent yesterday on the couch dozing while the cricket was on. Still needing to catch up on some sleep, but over this next week that shouldn't be too hard. Looks like I'll be playing a couple of shows with another good friend of mine Ange for the Fringe and Flinders Uni O'Ball, so really looking forward to that. And then of course there are the Fringe shows with Cookie Baker, which will be bloody amazing. If you are interested in attending that one, you should book tix ASAP as they will no doubtedly sell out fast. Until next time...

Rating: 6.2 (the tour finally started to catch up with me over the last couple of days - should recover no wuckas)

What I'm listening to: Jackson Firebird - Bottle Bin EP

It is warm...

2009-01-28T23:36:00.002+10:30

Today reached 45.7C, which made it the hottest day in 70 years.
This means Mildura and the surrounding areas are going to be even hotter, which is where we're driving to tomorrow.
I'm going to have a 6am swim.

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #1

2009-01-27T23:28:00.007+10:30

So Sydney sexies The Mischief, Mildura men Jackson Firebird, and Radelaidian rockers (HA!) Cookie Baker (and her collective) got together and thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of a tour with each other. Why? Mainly because we just want to see each other play. But in order to sound a bit more profesh, all thought the cross-genre idea would work amazingly well. And so far it has.

We left on a 40 degree day, the first we've had this summer I think, but luckily we had Cookie's dad's twin cab Holden Rodeo. How I love that car... First stop - Mildura. We didn't want to overdo ourselves on the first day of driving, so we did the 4 hour drive to Mildy quite late in the afternoon and made sure to have a good night's sleep. The following day, we knew we needed to sample the fine baked cuisine, so we stopped at Hudak's Bakery for lunch. We didn't end up leaving Mildy till after 2, so instead of seeing how far we could drive, we made it to Wagga Wagga (about 7 hours out of Sydney) and decided it was a good place to stay. Luckily as well because Cookie seemed to have a bit of a bout of heat stroke. Not much fun. Next morning, bright and early, and none feeling the ill affects of the day before, we headed north towards the Central Coast. Bloody lovely drive that is... and once you start hitting the forests, it really is amazing.

So first stop of the tour was a place called Wyong. Since none of the bands were from the area, we really didn't expect to pull a big crowd. We were right in doing so. However, it became almost a rehearsal to see how the gigs would go, and a chance for all of us to refreshen our live experiences of each other. It turned out to be an amazing gig. Sound was great, everyone played really well, and we all got to hang, chat and do Ross faces at each other (for explanation of what 'Ross faces' are, ask me in person - really can't be bothered writing it all down).

>

We spent a couple of nights at the wonderful Miss Sarah Humphreys lovely abode. What a getaway that place is... Surrounded by forests, birds, and the sound of nature. I almost forgot what we were doing there in the first place. But was then reminded when we had to make the drive to Wollongong (which I will now refer to as the Gong).

Pulling into the Gong, we were all taken aback by it's apparent chilled nature. Picture this - half 5 in the afternoon, lovely sunny day, the town is all quiet, a few people strolling casually down the road, really quite a picturesque place. Come 9pm, the locals start coming out, and it turns into one of the most hilarious, bogany, rough-around-the-edges places I've been to in quite a while. That being said, Jackson Firebird certainly won over the locals with their brand of dirty blues/rock, and we all had a good time. After we all finished playing, I was peckish so I went and bought a kebab from across the road. It was amazing. We then drove back to Sydney that night, and spent a VERY comfortable night at bass player for The Mischief's Lochie's house. Beds to die for.

The next couple of days were spent enjoying Sydney. We went to Bondi, which was awesome! I know it's prob not the best beach in the area and it's such a touristy thing to do, but you know what? I AM a tourist, so I will go there thank you very much. Also, coming from Rads where the metropolitan beaches are flat as a tack and have great white sharks nibbling at your toes, this was heaven. We went out for coffee's, dinners, lunches and the like. And then we had the Sydney show - The Mischief boys took the cake that night. Being their home show, in front of their home crowd, and being able to go home at the end of it, they pulled out all the stops. Beer chugging, audience members being tangled in leads, it had it all. When it had all finished, we tried to find a pub that we could all have one last drink in as the Jackson Firebird guys were heading back home the following morning, but not much was open, so we got New York Pizza, scoffed that down, and said our goodbyes.

The drive back didn't seem nearly as bad as the drive there. We made the 11 hour journey from Sydney to Mildura in one day, spent the night there, and did the rest the following afternoon. But before we left, we made sure to sample some more local Mildura cuisine, this time in the form of gelati. It was good. :)

So we've been back home for a few days and head off again tomorrow back to the land of Hudak's Bakery and 48 Flavour Gelati, Mildura. This time though to actually play a show there. Then we are stopping through the lovely town of Loxton before ending this leg back in Rads at the lovable Grace Emily. So all those Radelaidians who aren't going to be wimping it by sitting under an air conditioner or going to the beach, come down to the Grace on Sat the 31st for some amazing times. I promise. Amazing. Fact.

Gigs, yoga and a Gala Day

2008-11-18T23:41:00.002+10:30

The album is complete! Cookie Baker's debut album 'Gala Day' is finally recorded, mixed, mastered and in shops ready for you to purchase! How awesome is that?? Well, I'm quite excited, as this little baby has been a little while coming - a year to be more precise. There was a very joyous handing out of the finished products by Holly herself at the wonderful Grace Emily, and if nothing else, the artwork looks bloody amazing! So, if you're wandering past a JB-HiFi, may as well pop your head in and see if you can get a squizz at it. ;)

So now that the album is all finished, there's not a whole lot of Cookie Baker going on for the rest of this year, which I for one am quite happy about. We had a couple of gigs last weekend which were amazing, even if i got completely ruined by the late night shenanigans they led to. On Friday the 7th we supported Epicure at the Adelaide UniBar, a place that I hadn't been to in a number of years, but seemed as though it was stuck in the early naughties - it was LOUD, raucous, and the place was filled with smoke. Not by smokers, like it would have a few years ago, but by a smoke machine, which pretty much had the same affect on me as a room filled with cigarette puffing maniacs would. But never fear - the gig was fantastic, even if I did manage to break a string after the first song, by, get this, putting my capo on! It didn't even have the decency to snap while doing a totally awesome rock 'n roll strum. Ugh... And then I had to change it by mobile phone light on the side of the stage. But even still, I think I managed it in under 3 mins, which I was quite chuffed with. Didn't get home until around 4 the next morning however, so that pretty much killed me for the rest of the weekend. Then we had another gig on the Sunday arvo at the Wheatsheaf which was FANTASTIC, even though I felt like I had drunk copious amounts of alcohol the whole day. I couldn't focus on anything and felt so bloody vague. But the place was packed, and it was great to see so many friends there, some whom I hadn't seen for ages. So I've spent the last week or so trying to recover from that weekend.

Had clinic today, and to my surprise, my lung function is back up to 65%, after being around 60% only a couple weeks ago. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I did my first yoga session last night in about 4 months. Man was it hard... it wasn't until afterwards that I realised that I had been in an intermediate class, but that's cool - I figure if I can (almost) keep up with it from now on, it'll be a great thing to aspire to. But it felt so good to feel my body working like that again, and to feel my lungs really get a good work out. Still a ways to go before I start to feel really healthy again, but for now, it's going great. I've got another clinic at the end of December to see how I am and whether I'll need another admission before we go on tour in Jan. The last thing I want is to get sick halfway through that. That would be shite... But for now, things are awesome, and I intend to keep them that way.

We have a best friend's wedding on Saturday which we are playing at, and then our last planned gig for the year on Sunday afternoon, so I'm really looking forward to that. For those who are looking for something to do, we're playing at the Whitmore Sq Arts Fair with a couple of other AWESOME Rads bands (The Sea Thieves and Brillig) so come on down and say 'Hi'. It would make me smile anyway...

Rating: 8.3

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker - Gala Day

Clinic, Yorkes and Spring!

2008-10-13T22:12:00.005+10:30

A few things to get through, so let's not dilly-dally with pleasantries.

The biggest thing I should mention is that last weekend we went over to the Yorke Peninsula to Holly's parent's farm. Step (Holly's mum) was having a bit of a shin-dig for her 50th that she also decided to make a fundraiser for the Women's and Children's Hospital, and thought it would be a good idea to book the band to play down there. We had an absolute ball! I had dad's car, which makes the drive a hell of a lot easier when you have power steering. It especially made it easier since I had injured myself the week before. Oh yes, I fell off my bike and fractured my elbow. Good times... But anyhoo, the weekend was awesome, with picture perfect weather, lots of friends and a bit of relaxing as well. Was just a pity we couldn't stay longer than a couple of days.

On the day we came back, I was a bit slack and didn't do any of my nebs or physio, which led to me feeling a little bit poorly. I had clinic the next day, which proved that my lack of discipline caused a bit of a drop in lung function. A bit annoying... I still haven't really gotten any better, so I'm hoping that will turn around this week.

I'm loving the weather at the moment. True Adelaide spring weather. low to mid 20's, clear skies, and daylight savings started about a month early, which is wreaking havoc with my mobile, but I'm determined to stick it out and hopefully my calendar will sync up again. We did our first beach dinner on Saturday night, which was a blinding success. Definitely something we will have to keep doing regularly. We had our first bbq of the season last week as well. It's the type of weather where you just want to be out doing stuff, even if it's nothing exciting.

Things on the Cookie front are getting a bit exciting. Album is coming out on 1st of November, but for the eager beavers, you can actually pre-order a copy of the cd from https://www.just-secure.com/mixmastersrecords/order_GC.html (and that includes anywhere overseas). She is also the featured artist on the MusicSA site, which you can have a gander at http://www.musicsa.com.au/. Not too many gigs coming up as we really want to relax before the madness starts in Dec, however we are supporting Epicure at the UniBar on November the 7th, which should be a blast! Haven't seen those guys before, and I'm really liking their stuff. AND I think tix are only $15, so no real excuses not to come along. :)

I'm pretty sure that's it. Oh, the boys (cats) had their first experience in catching a bird today. I was sitting in the lounge room and heard this really awful shriek, and first thought something was wrong with one of the boys. Then i realised that they were chasing a disabled bird that couldn't fly throughout the house. I picked it up, took it outside and threw it in the air to see if it was actually broken (which it was), and then watched the boys run up to it thinking that it would be destroyed in the next 10 seconds. I was wrong... the boys just kept going up to it, sniffing it, giving it the occasional wack on the noggin, and then just watched it. When the bird realised that it was pretty safe and not going to be eaten, it went under a fence into the next door neighbours back yard. Stupid cats...

Rating: 6.0

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker - Gala Day

Long overdue...

2008-09-29T09:07:00.002+09:30

Yes, it's been over a month since I last wrote, and because of that, iCal has deleted everything that was written in it before August 30th (which is what I use to tell me what I've been doing to write here), so we'll see how I go...

As I wrote last time, the cf ball was coming up, and I'm glad to say it was bloody amazing. SO much fun! As usual, I drank my year's worth of alcohol in the one night, but happily and strangely enough, didn't get too drunk (as in passing out or throwing up drunk). Got a bit tired towards the end, but that's about it. There were around 500 people that went this year, so it's definitely getting to be quite a big affair. Next year I'm determined to get on top of things early so I can book more than one table and get a whole bunch of us there. We didn't do a whole lot afterwards - hung around the bay for a little bit, and then went back to Joelie's where we all pretty much flaked out and went to bed. Such a good night though, and I'm so happy for all my friends that came along. It means a lot to me.

As planned, after the ball I got myself admitted into hospital for a couple of weeks of iv's. Warning: major bitch sesh coming up. This had to have been one of the worst admissions I've had in a long time. Due to a code white (no free beds in the hospital) my admission day was pushed back from Monday to Thursday. I had my drip put in at 11am, and then had to wait around for my bed to become available. Come 7pm and finally I could move into my room. However, the doctor that was on the ward hadn't written me up for any antibiotics, so they didn't start my treatment until the Friday afternoon. Brilliant... then I had to move rooms. And then after a week they made me do the rest of my treatment at home, which I really don't like doing. But due to the shortage of beds and their new program of sending patients no longer in an 'acute' state, I was made to leave. By the time my iv's had finished, I didn't feel that great still, but I had had enough of the whole thing, so I didn't really care. Luckily though things picked up once I finished my treatment and as of right now things are going really well.

While I was in hospital there were a couple of really awesome gigs on. The TinPan Orange kids from Melbourne popped through Rads for a couple of shows, so Cookie and I supported them at the Grace, which was such a pleasure. Only problem was that I had pretty much had no stamina whatsoever, so after we finished playing, I was sitting on the ground completely ruined and not much company. But TinPan Orange were brilliant, so it was all worth it. :) The next weekend the Grace was having it's 10th birthday, which was an invite only event, and formal dress. Even though I was still in hospital, and didn't want to overdo anything like I had done the week before, I knew I would regret it if I didn't go. We played a small set of around 4 or 5 songs, and I sat down the whole time, just to reserve as much energy as I could. I didn't stay too long this time though, and was back in my dingy hospital room by around half 10.

I have a new job! Believe it or not, Jaan has managed to get another pretty cruisy job that fits in quite well with his continuously-needing-time-off lifestyle. It's at a post office, and quite a lot of fun. Only problem is that it's really not enough hours, so I still have to stay at Alpha, and I'm not sure if I need to still look for something else. But for now, it's a bit of extra cash, so we'll see how I go with that.

Last weekend we also went down to Victor Harbor for a few days to relax. Poor Alice was feeling very poorly for a day, so we didn't really do a whole lot, which still suited me fine. A couple of friends popped down as well for a day, and we went to Port Elliott for some lunch at the bakery there (which is the best!) and did a whole lot of walking around. It's really nice to be in touristy areas on the coast during the cooler months where you get to really enjoy the beauty of a place and see why it became a tourist spot, without stupid people everywhere.

On Saturday night just gone, Alice's brothers held a dinner party at their house. The theme was 'Paris in Spring', and there were around 30 people invited. It was bloody amazing! Everyone dressed up awesomely, and there was tonnes of wine and magnificent food. There were dining tables strewn throughout the kitchen and lounge room, candles, dim lighting, it really was something special. And the food... man o man. Peter is one helluva cook. Starters was bread, olives, pâté, and some veggies. For main course, we had potatoes, chicken in this wine sauce thing, and the meat was falling off the bones and melting in your mouth. And for dessert we had pear and almond pie. To think every single bit of this was home made, just blew me away. I hope they'll be doing another one soon...

Next weekend we're going over to Yorkes to Cookie's parent's farm for her mum's 50th. She booked us to play there with a couple of other people, so we're really looking forward to that. I'm especially excited to go as I've only been there during summer where everything is dead and brown, and I've been promised that all the fields at this time of year are green. It'll be quite lovely me thinks. Just to get away again for a couple of days will be all I need. To play some music while we're there is icing on the cake.

I think that's enough. Oh, one last point - Cookie's cd is finally finished! Mixed, mastered, everything. It sounds pretty good I must say... For those interested, release date is Nov 1st, but I think pre-orders are from Oct 1st if you're super keen. I'll post details when I get them. But yes, good times ahead!

Rating: 8.9

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker - Gala Day

Winter hibernation

2008-08-14T23:04:00.002+09:30

So with the whirlwind of interstate beauties visiting Rads over, life has returned to normal. I'm back to being a housewife while I try to find a job, Alice is working her 4 jobs trying to support me, and I'm spending many more nights at home while it's freezing and wet outside. Brilliant. No, seriously, as bad as our summer was this year, I am absolutely LOVING this winter. It's cold, it's been SO wet, it's just amazing. Our front and back lawn now resembles something like the Amazon forest, but I don't care. Better than the dust bowl we'll have once summer comes around again. But enough on the state of our flora.

As I said, not a whole lot has been going on of late. Been to a few friends' exhibitions, which have all been successful and awesome. Adelaide has some serious talent. We have had quite a few dinners with friends, which have been lovely. It was Alice's birthday, so we made sure we could just hang out together since she's so busy with her work. Unfortunately she woke up feeling quite crook, so the majority of the day was spent with us lying on the couch watching bad/awesome crime shows on Fox. Not a bad way to spend the day really. And then we went up to Coriole for a family dinner.

On the Cookie front mixing for the album is going great. 4 tracks done so far, and they sound AMAZING. This is gonna be one corker of an album. We also had the pleasure of recording a little interview and song on 'The Adelaide Show' on Nova, which was tonnes of fun. I think you can actually find it on itunes as a podcast. And a couple of shows have been booked for WA in November, so it'll be great to get out there. I've never been, so I'm quite excited.

As for health, it's not going that great. As I said last time, clinic went well, but since I wasn't feeling tops I went on some oral antibiotics for a couple of weeks. They seemed to work, but as soon as I finished them, I noticed my health declined a bit straight away, so I'm pretty sure I'll be going into hospital after the cf ball, which is next weekend. That's cool though. Especially with the shows in WA later in the year, I want to make sure things are all under control before I head off.

Rating: 6.7

What I'm listening to: Sam Buckingham - My Own Horse

Sez and The Buck hit Rads!

2008-07-23T15:35:00.003+09:30

IMG_2713
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

So this past week was yet ANOTHER one filled with totally awesome people and totally awesome good times. A good friend of mine from Sydney, Sarah Humphreys, along with her good friend Sam Buckingham, have been on a tour the last couple weeks which included a week long stint in Adelaide. I hadn't met Sam before, or even heard her stuff, but I am now a life long fan of both.

The week included quite a few shows, which just seemed to get better and better as they went on, trips to the Pancake Kitchen, Ying Chow and Cibo for gelati, as well as a couple of days of pretty much vegging out, watching bad TV and chatting.

The final show was at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, which pretty much guarantees a brilliant night. On the bill for that show were Sarah, Sam, Xavia (from local outfit BrotherSister) and Cookie Baker. It was such a special night, tinged with a bit of sadness knowing that this was the last time the girls from the east were playing in Rads for who knows how long.

I seriously doubt that I can handle so much awesomeness. The last month has really been a whirlwind of emotions, mostly amazingly good, but it's all a bit too much. I'm hoping that the coming weeks will slow down a bit and I'll be able to find my footing again.

Some other things that have been going on the past week: I had a clinic appointment on Tues, and I really wasn't looking forward to it. I still don't think I've recovered from Sydney, as I'm pretty much tired all day every day, and my chest is quite a bit clogged up. However, as it has happened before, I did my lung function and the results showed something quite a bit different - the best readings for a couple of years. So go figure... I went on some oral antibiotics anyway to see if they help me start to feel a bit better. If not, I may then just admit myself for another 2 week stint, especially since towards the end of the year things are gonna get a bit nuts with Cookie Baker stuff, so I wanna make sure I'm good for that.

I also went up the hill to record my last guitar track for the album, so that went really smoothly and sounding rad. If all goes to plan, the recording should be completed by this week! Then there's the mixing... so it won't be available for a little bit yet, but still, progress is progress.

STILL needing a job, but I'm thinking maybe the reason I haven't got anything yet is because of my health stuff, and once that clears up, some doors may open.

This weekend is the Coopers Alive event, which is a ' new initiative that aims to encourage local artists to actively participate in planning, promoting and evaluating their live performances, as well as providing an entertaining and creative showcase for all music-lovers to enjoy'. Basically it goes over 2 nights and 4 venues, with each venue hosting a different genre. We're playing at the Wheatsheaf as part of the folk 'n' roots showcase, along with The Fiddle Chicks and The Huckleberry Swedes. It's gonna be a fricken awesome night. I'm also going to the Jade Monkey the night before to see Mr Wednesday and BrotherSister. Big weekend me thinks...

Rating: 5.8

What I'm listening to: Sam Buckingham - My Own Horse

Sydney and post

2008-07-09T11:31:00.002+09:30

cookie baker @ the excelsior, surry hills
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

What an absolutely insane past couple of weeks.

The Cookie Baker train went to Sydney for a week, where amazing times were had by all. Alice left jewellery shops in a spin with her awesome designs, we saw some incredible bands, made some bloody close friends and to top it all off, played a friggen sweet show. Poor Cookie had a devil of a cold though, so her poor throat suffered greatly from the one show, but being the trooper she is, she passed with flying colours.

The one gig we had was at The Excelsior in Surry Hills, where a good friend of ours Renny Field was doing a residency for the month of June. He kindly invited us to play at the final show, along with the gorgeous Sarah Humphreys and The Falls. It really was an amazing night. It was so good to hear Renny play again, especially with his band. They are the shit. And I hadn't heard Sarah Humphreys with her band before, and it really blew me away. Lucky for us she is coming down to Rads next week for a couple of shows. Yeeha!

We also went to the cd launch of our good friends 'The Mischief'. What an awesome night. They played brilliantly, the sound was great (luckily so since the sound guy was an absolute twunt all night and I was scared the boys would have shit sound for their set), and Joelie (violin player that plays with us) even got up to do a song with them! It really was a special night and I feel quite privileged to have seen it.

The rest of our week in Sydney involved staying out late ever night drinking and hanging out, getting up early every morning to get together with everyone for coffee, a few little touristy walks, a birthday party, and some emotional high's and low's that were worthy of a B grade movie. What more could you ask for in a holiday?

On Thursday we had a gig at The Gov as part of Winter Warmers, a new thing they have going in the front bar during winter. Open fire, great food and wine, and of course great tunes. It was fantastic!! Just what we needed after such an intense week, and it was so good just to play again. Then on the weekend the lovely Joelie had her birthday party, so it was another late night of shenanigans and live karaoke. Brilliant.

We had to get up kinda early the next morning though as we were due at Mixmasters to record hand claps, clicks, random shouts and hitting things. It was also the first time I had heard any of the material since that first weekend away in September last year, and may I say, it is sounding absolutely brilliant. Even though it still has to be mixed and all that, the way it's sounding at the moment, it's only going to get better, so I'm quite pumped for it. And believe it or not, there's not a whole lot to go - mainly the strings, which if I remember correctly, are booked in for Sunday this week. Sa-weeeeet!

I'm still in need of a job, so that's a bit annoying. I've been applying for more and more places though, so I'm hopeful something will turn up. My mind is still in a race from Sydney as well, so prob best that I'm not doing too much at the moment anyway. The Sydney trip did take a bit of a toll on my health, as I had expected, so I have a clinic next week to see how much damage was done. Strangely though, as soon as we got back home, I started feeling good again, and as of right now, I really don't feel too bad at all. But we'll wait till Tuesday to see how everything is.

Rating: 7.3

What I'm listening to: The Mischief - Sixpenny Scrapbook

Busy, busy, busy

2008-06-25T08:53:00.004+09:30

very brave bunch of people
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

Damn. I was hoping to write this before I left for Sydney, but that didn't happen. So instead I'm going to have to do a quick rundown of what's been going on, before I head out and continue wandering the streets of Paddington pretending I'm a rich Sydneysider.

So in the past month I've been out quite a bit to see some bloody amazing Adelaide bands. First was The Audreys for their Adelaide leg of their tour. It was at Her Majesty's Theatre, a place I hadn't been to in forever, and forgot how gorgeous it was. It was all seated, so a bit different to their gigs of late, but it worked really well. They played awesomely, the sound was fantastic, and that's all I can think of to say. I also saw BrotherSister, another band that Ryan (drummer for Cookie) plays in. Man, these guys are incredible. There is a video floating around on youtube I think, but if nothing else, check out their Myspace to have a listen. Bloody brilliant.

A good friend of ours (and his band, The Mischief) came from Sydney last Thurs to Rads for some shows that Holly booked, which took up most of our time last week. They are the most hilarious bunch of guys, and they fit right in to our way of life. The biggest gig of theirs however was at Jive on Saturday night with a local band called Colonel Kernal and a band from Mildura called Jackson Firebird. The Mischief are amazing - I can't quite describe their style, but it's somewhere in between powerpop/country/folk. Anyway, that doesn't matter, because all that matters is that they're amazing. Jackson Firebird then came on, and it's one of the most organic, dirty rock I've ever seen. Just a drummer and guitarist, but they don't even need a bassist. Very, very good. And Colonel Kernal, well, there has been word on the street that they guys are incredible, but it's taken me until now to finally see them, even though I realised I have a couple of friends in the band (that's Adelaide for you). I'm just repeating myself here, but again, these guys are just insane. You've got jazz/rock/blues and mix in some metal and you are on your way to beginning to understand what I'm talking about.

Last week we also went over to Mildura to play at the Chef's of the Future competition. It's a week long thing they have in Mildura to find the best chef at the TAFE and surrounding areas. The food was amazing... the gig was great fun, and I got to fly on a tiny plain to get there. Not the best fun, but it's definitely made my fear of flying a little less horrible.

And then on Sunday we had our long awaited Adelaide Fringe encore show at TInCat Cafe. To have everyone together again really was something special. The afternoon show was great, and even though there were a few spots of rain, it managed to hold off for our performance. We were also blessed to have Joelie join us for these shows, who's violin playing really did add a little something that wasn't there before.

For the evening show however, the heavens were threatening to open up as we were setting up, and it was a bit stressful. It wasn't until the last minute that we decided we best be safe and move inside for the evening performance. It definitely made things a bit more squishy, but it was one of the most intimate shows I had ever done, and ended up being something really special. We (and I think the audience) had a great night, but it was tinged with a bit of sadness as Timmo was leaving for New Zealand for around 6 months. But that's cool - he'll be back and then all is well again. :)

So we're now in Sydney, staying in a bloody awesome place in Paddington, and we have our one and only show tonight at the Excelsior with Renny Field, Sarah Humphreys and The Falls. It really is going to be a bloody amazing night, and I will do my best to take lots of pics and vids. Ryan and Joelie made the trip as well, so it will be a Cookie Baker format we haven't done yet. I'm sure it will be great.

Health is alright... I realised in the taxi on the way to the airport that I forgot my hypertonic saline, which I use for physio (win for me), so I have to walk down to the hospital this morning to see if I am able to get some more. I'm sure it will be fine. So I'm going to try to take it as easy as possible, but I won't be too worried if I need an admission when we get back to Rads.

Rating: 6.2

What I'm listening to: BrotherSister - The Wundertales

Another 3 weeks, another bunch of stuff happens

2008-06-01T22:48:00.007+09:30

IMG_2003
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

Don't you just love it when you get that feelings that things are really going along awesomely and you just feel so happy? Like, even if you are just cleaning the house or doing something completely mundane, you get this sense of total satisfaction with yourself and how your life is going? Well, I've been feeling that today, so I just thought I would share how awesome it is, and if you haven't felt that yet, you should. It's good fun.

So we had the Mixmasters gig at the grace I was telling you about last time. What a bloody amazing night it was. Holly, Joelie (new violin player) and myself were at Holly's beforehand just so we could go through the songs one more time to make sure we all knew what we were doing (since this was the first gig we had with Joelie). We got there around 7:30 to catch the second half of Delia's magical set. Delia is a local girl who is just bloody amazing. I thoroughly recommend you check her out (here). The place was already packed by the time we got there, but it was only the start of things to come. So we got on stage, played through our set, which was just amazing. The crowd were super responsive, everyone was drinking, but not messy drunk, and we just had a ball. Joelie was magnificent, and there happens to be a vid of a song floating around on youtube, so have a look if you wanna see it. There was also Radelaide's leading music reviewer there, so check out his space to see what he wrote about the night.

The next week was pretty quiet apart, but the weekend was filled with shenanigans once again. On Friday night, some good friends of ours Andy and Jess invited us to the Magill RSL club for dinner. It's something they try to do regularly, and after going there, I see why. The place is full of old diggers who are bloody hilarious, and the nicest/most genuine people you have ever met. There is all this old war memorabilia around the place, 20c pool, and you get a feast for $8. Bloody bargain. After dinner, we walked back to our place and showed them Twin Peaks. We had been planning to get them to see it for a little while, and after the pilot episode, they were hooked, so we followed it with another 2 eps. We endeavour to make this a regular thing, so that's something to look forward to each week. Suckers...

Saturday night we went to another friends house for his 30th. It was a night filled with food, drinks, music and karaoke. Can't ask for much more really. One particularly funny part of the night involved a couple of the party guests (who had come dressed as police officers) went outside to confront some punk-arse teens doing burnout's across the road. Needless to say the teens crapped their pants and fled. Funny stuff.

This weekend was again filled with fun stuff, including a bloody big night last night. Tom was having a birthday 'do at his place, so we got there around 11 or so, and found ourselves leaving by 3. We found out today that Tom didn't get to bed until 8, and that the party didn't actually finish till 12 the next day. Troopers.

On another note, I really need to get another job. Alpha has pushed me down to one shift a week, which doesn't really cut it. I have had a few options, so we'll see where they go. Hopefully I'll be able to get something soon and I won't have to live off Alice's pay.

We have started getting our stuff together for our TinCat show later this month. It's gonna be a fricken sweet day, 2 shows, 7 of us on stage, and some new tunes as well. Those who are thinking of coming really better ring TinCat and book their tickets as they are selling like hot cakes and I can guarantee that there will be none left at the door on the day.

And then straight after TinCat is Sydney! And we got word today that Joelie is coming as well, so all up it will be Joelie and Cara, Alice and me, Ryry and Holly. Not a bad troop I must say.

Health is going about the same as last. Not feeling 100%, but it's not getting any worse, so I doubt that I'll get myself admitted before going to Sydney. Instead I reckon I'll keep a course of orals on me in case things start to flare up, and then if the trip affects me a bit, I'll prob just admit myself once we get back. No biggie. :)

I'm thinking that's all there is to say. Don't you hate it when your G string breaks?

Rating: 6.8

What I'm listening to: Sarah Humphreys - Teapot Trees and Love Birds...

No internet (and internet back), ugly parties, gigs, and dvd’s.

2008-05-18T16:14:00.001+09:30

with timmo
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

Due to the fact that we have no internet at home, updating my oh-so-tantalising blog is a bit hard. So I write on my computer while at home (or work) and when I get the chance to go to Mum's for some food, I hijack my sister's net at the same time. What are family's for?

So there's been parties, gigs, cold nights and sunny days. We went to an 'ugly' party, where my effort for the night was to shave my face, except for my manly moustache. Awesome. I actually haven't got rid of it yet, but it's all blended in with the rest of my facial hair now, so it's not so noticeable (and disgusting).

I had to leave that party prematurely to see one of Ryry's other band's (Mr Wednesday) play. They have been around for ages, and I don't think I've ever seen them. Well, I may have in the good ol days, but since I can't remember anything of what they sounded like, it's much easier (and almost more accurate) to say I've never seen them. Anyway, all garble aside, they were bloody amazing! The place was packed, and even though they took to the stage a bit late, no one really seemed that fussed. Can't really say too much more, other than they are awesome and I can't wait to see them again.

The night before Timmo was doing a solo show at the Worldsy, so Alice and I went down to have a beer and listen. He certainly seemed much better than he did the previous night at Kate Miller-Heidke, so much so that his face was a normal fleshy colour, and not completely white. Luckily he was on first, as I was still pretty knackered from the previous nights shenanigans. But once again, really, REALLY beautiful stuff he has. So many talented people around... makes me sick.

The next week consisted of a couple exhibitions, a birthday dinner at a Thai restaurant, and our internet getting cut off. Not because we are naughty or anything, but because I found that I could be paying less money for faster net. Who's been a schmuck? But in order to get connected again, I had to disconnect from the old provider, wait until the codes cleared off the phone like, THEN wait 5-10 business days for the new one to get connected. Ugh. By my count, Friday (yesterday) was day 4, so hopefully we have net by next week. If not, I think I may very well cry.

It's now been a week since that last paragraph and we have internet! About bloody time... I didn't end up crying, but Alice could tell something was up. All good now though. :)

Not a whole lot been going since then sadly. It has been raining all day and night, so that's been brilliant. Really cold rain as well. Not that rain is usually warm, but it just feels extra cold. Which is nice. And apparently it's going to continue all weekend. Go us. Since tonight was going to be cold and wet, Alice and I planned to have a dvd night. We saw the final episode of Scrubs, which despite being a homage to 'The Princess Bride', was a tiny bit of a let down. But I guess the whole writer's strike thing kinda screwed up the writing for the show. Anyway, bring on season 8.

Then we decided to FINALLY finish watching 'Wonderfalls', which we had started I don't even wanna think about how long ago. But it was bloody brilliant. Seriously good stuff. Thoroughly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Next on the list is 'Pushing Daisies'. We'll get to that in the next few day's I'm sure.

We have a gig tomorrow night. Mixmasters (the studio that we are recording at) is having a 5th birthday, and a whole bunch of artists that have recorded there are playing at the Grace. We're on at 8 for half an hour, and we have a new inductee to the Cookie Baker 'collective' - an AWESOME girl by the name of Joelie on violin. It's gonna be incredible.

Health is going alright. I was a bit shit a week or so ago, but I think that's clearing up now. I'm still tossing up whether I should get another admission before we go to Sydney in June. But at the rate I'm going now, I think i'll prob leave that for after we get back. Just thinking out loud really...

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: The Audreys - When The Flood Comes

Kate Miller-Heidke

2008-05-18T16:12:00.002+09:30

cookie baker & specialsecretspells
Originally uploaded by jaanus83

This was a night I had been looking forward to for quite some time. It was the first time the whole band was playing together since our Fringe performances, something that I had missed very much.

We arrived around 4 in the afternoon and before we even walked in we could hear the opera-like warm up's of Kate Miller-Heidke, and I found myself grinning like a school boy who had found the answers to the day's test. This was going to be a great night.

We saw Timmo arrive, the trooper he is, and all rushed over to see how his appendix was holding up. To think he only discharged himself from the hospital that day says something about him - extremely dedicated or extremely stupid. Luckily it was the former.

We got our gear on stage and started to plug everything in so we could make some noise. Due to the Gov's weird shape and acoustics, we were warned that sound check could be a bit of trouble. But with Brett at the helm of the sound desk, we had full confidence in him and that he would get the sound as crisp and beautiful as it should.

Sound check went along quite smoothly, apart from having to turn off the front of house speakers so we could hear our levels in the foldback on stage. We ran through the new song as a band for the first time, and went surprisingly smoothly. Well, not really surprisingly since we have some of the most talented musicians in Rads.

Once we were happy with how it all sounded, we all went back to Holly's house to get some grub and run through the new song once more, pretty much to make sure I knew what I was doing. But it was all sweet, and we enjoyed our gourmet pizza knowing that we were totally going to nail the song.

Due to the fact that the Foo Fighters were playing across the road the same night, do you think we could find any parks? Ryry decided to do the honourable thing by driving 5 blocks away, while I did the opposite and parked illegally in the carpark right in front of the door, blocking 4 other cars in. Hey, they would have been there for the show, so I doubt I would have to move out of the way until the end of the night. So it was all cool.

When we walked on stage, there were already the faithful KMH fans leaning on the stage and that extended to most of the room. It wasn't packed mind you, but there were certainly plenty of people prepared to stand and watch us until KMH took to the stage.

We started the set with 'Clean Sheets and a Bottle of Gin', just to kick things off with a bang. The crowd were surprisingly receptive and seemed to like what they were hearing. There was even a couple right at the front who were dancing away. Mind you, I have no doubt that alcohol played a part in their shenanigans. Either way, I'll take it. :)

The set was incredible, the sound was bloody awesome, and the crowd were great. We got to the last song, the newie, and played it like it was one of our oldest and most familiar. All until the very last chord, where due to me blissing out a tad too much and not really paying attention to Ryry's tempo slow-down, finished a whole beat too early. I laughed. Alot. It seems like a regular thing for me to do now - final song, final chord, mess up. Well, not mess up. As Timmo says: "There's no wrong notes in music - just bad choices".

Music coming out of the wazoo

2008-04-22T12:27:00.002+09:30

Man time flies... it's almost been a month since I last wrote, and heaps has been going on. A quick rundown...

We played another Sunday at Nepenthe Winery, which was even better than the first one. The weather was perfect, so we were outside on the lawn as opposed to under the verrandah next to the main entrance.

That next week Renny Field (Sydney singer/songwriter who we played with when we were in Syd) came down to Rads for a few days, so Wednesday night we all went down to the Grace to see him weave his magic. It was such a bloody awesome show, and each time I see him he gets better and better. Our next meeting will be in June, so I'm super stoked for that.

The following night Tim Moore (bass player for Cookie) was doing a solo show of his own at the Grace, and he kindly asked me to accompany him on the geetar for a couple tracks. Now, being as super organised as we were, we only got together for the first time on Monday of that week to run through a few songs and see what could be done. But the 2 songs we got happening were so much fun to play, and I'm extremely grateful for him asking me to play with him. Hopefully we can do it again in the near future.

Then on the weekend, Alice and I went down to Victor Harbour for a few days of rest and relaxation. We had planned this a few months ago, and have been looking forward to it for so long. The weather was perfect, which was a bit disappointing since I was counting in cold and wet, but nevermind. We went to garage sales, walks, slept in, pretty much everything you would hope to do down there, except maybe go for a swim. But it was so nice to get away, especially spend some time with Al since we have both been so busy lately.

On Thurs night the Cookie Baker collective are supporting Kate Miller-Heidke on her Adelaide leg of her tour, so all of you who can make it down to the Gov, I suggest you do so. It's going to be a fricken rad show, and I think it's only something like $20, so quite cheap really. We may be busting out a brand newy as well. It all depends on how the rehearsal goes tomorrow night. Fingers crossed!

As for health, it's been a bit up and down. I had a clinic last week, and to my surprise, my lung function was awesome. 66%, so only 2% down from when I was discharged in Feb, which was the best I've been in last 2 years. I was surprised since I really wasn't feeling that great. I still started a course of oral antibiotics to hopefully get rid of any niggling flu, so hopefully they work. I have another clinic in 2 weeks, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Not much else to tell... since Alpha got taken over by new owners, I'm down to 1 shift a week, which is pretty poor. It's still something, so I'll try not to complain too much, but money wise it's made things quite a bit tight. Nothing else to do with my time at the moment other than to become a housewife.

Oh, and one more AWESOME piece of news - we finally got a recycling bin today!!!!!! Seriously, we haven't had one since moving in, so there is this MASSIVE pile of boxes and bottles and stuff out the back that is starting to go bad, so we're all quite excited about that.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: Ingrid Michaelson - Girls and Boys

Gigs, rain and wineries.

2008-03-31T17:35:00.003+10:30

It's raining!!! Well, it has done, and it's been so bloody brilliant. I'm still finding myself completely amazed every time I hear the water hit the roof or the ground. Anyhoo, other than the cooler weather and rain, things have been going great.

We supported Angie Hart (of Frente!) at the Wheatsheaf Hotel on Friday night, and it was a bloody corker of a show! The sound was perfect (thanks Brett!) and the crowd was great! Plus, we bought a new camera during the day, and got some nice shots that night, which always makes for a great time. If you want to check out any pics, just go to my flickr site.

Then yesterday we were up at Nepenthe Wineries for the day, playing some tunes while people were popping in and out getting wine and pizzas (which by the way were bloody fantastic!). The rain would come intermittently, and the wind would stir up every now and then, but it didn't dampen anyone's spirits. Breaking a couple of strings didn't even get us down (and Holly even broke one). It was just a day full of rocking and rolling. It was a superb day, and good thing is that we get to do it all again next Sunday.

Not much else going on. I'm feeling a little bit under the weather, but hopefully that will turn around in the next day or two. Start yoga again tomorrow night, which I'm really looking forward to as it's been ages since I was there last, and when I was doing it, I really was feeling tops.

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: Sarah Humphreys - Teapot Trees and Love Birds...

Mildura and Sydney

2008-03-21T22:21:00.004+10:30

Bloody hell - what an amazing couple of weeks I have had. Hopefully I can remember all of it to tell you all...

I guess first port of call was our Fringe show. Every show ended up selling out, so you can imagine every performance was amazing just from the atmosphere alone. I can't thank everyone who came enough - you all make it the special event it was. I can tell you all that we were all quite emotional after the final show on the Sunday, especially Cookie. So much so that her voice was pretty much completely gone by the end of the show, but being the trooper she is, even gave in to the request of an encore, so what did she play? 'One More Time' by the one and only Britney. Brilliant.

There wasn't much time to get all sentimental though as on the Tuesday we had to drive the 4 hours to Mildura. By this time, there was a massive heatwave beginning in Adelaide, and Mildura is ALWAYS hotter than Ads, so we were blessed with temps between 37 and 41 for the entire week we were there. However, the heat aside, we had a bloody amazing time. We had a couple of side shows while we were there before the big final night one, and we saw some awesome acts that were part of the festival as well. But the big night was the Sunday night when we played at Music Under The Stars at the Perry Sandhills. Man, what an amazing place. Out in the middle of nowhere, they set up a stage in the midst of all these massive sand dunes, and thousands of people come, with picnic rugs in hand, and set up for the evening of music. Around 3000 people rocked up, but seriously, we were so blown away just by where we were, we didn't even notice them all while we were playing. It wasn't until we finished and walked out to where our friends were sitting that we realised the scale of the crowd. It was just insane. Then Ben Lee closed the night, and he was great! I have to admit that I haven't heard much of his stuff, and hence not the biggest fan, but I gotta take my hat off to him. He performed brilliantly, and the crowd absolutely lapped it up. And all done in acoustic mode as well, with just one other guy accompanying him on keyboard. And despite some of the negative reports I had heard about the guy, he was nothing but awesome to us. Had a few nice chats with him, and that's all I can really say about it.

So we came back to Adelaide for a few days before flying to Sydney. Cookie being the hard and tough musician she is, decided 'it would be best' to stay in a 5 star hotel for a couple nights upon arrival. Hey, I wasn't going to argue with that logic. So we made ourselves comfortable and tried to enjoy it all... ;) We played 4 shows during our week there, and they were all excellent, and all totally different. We did the first two supporting a friend of Cookie's (Renny Field) which were just amazing. He is the shit. Seriously, if he's ever in your area, you HAVE to check him out. He's actually going to the UK and Europe mid year, so just something to keep him in mind.

The last 2 gigs we did were at Balmain and Manly. The Balmain show was part of a night called 'Poptarts' which is a showcase of female songwriters, and it was here that we had the pleasure of seeing a girl by the name of Sarah Humphreys. We had met her a couple nights before as she was singing back-up's for Renny's gig, but when we realised we were both playing the same show in Balmain, we just about lost it. And I'm not kidding when I say everyone should check her out. Her album (which I bought on the night) is one of the most beautiful things I have heard in a LONG time. But yes, the whole week there was so much better than I had expected. We met some of the funniest people, and I think 80% of our time was spent laughing. And I just got a call from Cookie today that she has already booked another gig for us up there in June. Good stuff! But in the meantime, we have a couple gigs here in Ads that are going to be fun - supporting Angie Hart (of Frente! fame) at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, a couple of stints up at Nepenthe Winery, and we just got a call that we're supporting Kate Miller-Heidke at The Gov, which will be a full band show. Oooh yeah!

Well that's a quick rundown of the last two weeks. Oh, one more piece of news - Alpha Video, my place of work for the past 8 and a half years, got sold on the weekend, so come mid-april, I will officially be un-employed. Awesome... so if anyone knows of any casual jobs where they would be cool with me taking some time off every now and then (hospital and music) hit me up. :)

Healthwise I'm doing amazingly well. I definitely thought that I would be suffering a bit after the trips, but my lungs have held up fine. Hopefully that will continue.

Rating: 8.5

What I'm listening to: Sarah Humphreys - Teapot Trees and Love Birds...

Oh, and I’ve put pics up from all things the past month (Fringe show, Mildura and Sydney), so if you wanna see what things have looked like for me, check em out on my Flickr site. :)

Exciting times ahead!

2008-02-29T11:41:00.002+10:30

Not even going to try and explain why I haven't written in so long. Just not worth it. Slackness is a wonderful thing.

I'll start off with I just got out of hospital in Tuesday. I wasn't that sick when I went in, but with all these gigs we got coming up, I thought I would go in and get pumped full of drugs so that (hopefully) I don't get too sick with all the travelling.

So what gigs are these? Well, it started last night with the opening of our Fringe show. Despite a couple of sound issues when we were setting up, it all turned out awesomely, and we had SUCH a ball. Thanks to all who made it out. Really looking forward to tonight's show. I think it's been dubbed the 'parents' night. About 4 of the people in the band have their folks coming tonight. Should be awesome! I think there are still a few tickets left for Saturday night's show, so you can either call Fringetix or just go to http://tix.adelaidefringe.com.au/ticketing/EventDetails.aspx?EventGuid=bfb97430-1834-481f-916a-3fd07508eb5e to book.

So we have a break on Monday, and then on Tuesday we drive up to Mildura for a week while the Mildura-Wentworth Arts Festival is on. We are doing a couple of shows throughout that week, and then we are supporting Ben Lee on the final night of the festival in the Perry Sandhills. It's gonna be massive. So pumped for that one! Then we get back to Adelaide for a day or so and then fly off to Sydney for a week for some more shows. We're doing a couple with Renny Field Band and also one in the Blue Mountains. We then come back home and we're supporting Angie Hart at the Wheatsheaf, which is gonna be a gorgeous show, so I highly recommend people come and check that one out. I have a feeling I may need another admission when all this is over, but that's cool.

So obviously since I was just in hospital, my health is awesome at the moment. My lung function went up to 68% while i was in there, which is pretty much up towards my best since going to the hospital when I was 18. Can't really complain about that eh?

Trying to think of what else has been going on... Oh yeah, it was my birthday last week as well, and while I was in hospital for it, it could have been worse. It was quite hot while I was in, so it was nice to be in an air-conditioned building all day, and not doing much aside from lying in bed watching tv. The nurses even got me a cake. Pretty sweet... Alice has taken me on 3 of 5 mystery dates, and they have all been awesome considering it's Fringe time and there are TONNES of acts to see. We went and saw Frank Woodley on the opening night of the Fringe, then Jimeoin the following night, and the best of the Edinburgh Festival on Sunday night. The next 2 are after we get back from Mildura.

Autumn has also hit with a vengance. I always forget that when it arrives, the nights get cold straight away. No grace period at all. Days are still quite pleasant, around mid twenties, but then the nights get down to low teens. It's so annoying because during the day you are all hot and not even thinking about needing warmer clothes later in the night. Yes, it is a difficult life I lead. But I'm strong - I can push through it.

Right - I think that's about it. Sorry again for not writing for so long. Ah well. At least you've had a break from my ramblings for a while. :)

Rating: 9

What I'm listening to: Sia - Some People Have Real Problems

It's that time of the year.

2007-12-13T10:50:00.001+10:30

The weather is getting hot.
People are driving like bloody idiots.
Town is getting crowded with kids on school holidays.
It's mental.
But I'm still excited.
Even though I'm completely skint and have no money for presents (and that's what skint means Jaan), it's still gonna be great fun.

Yes, I'm a bit overdue for an update, so I'll try and remember everything that's been going on.

First, Muffin ran away. :( We had kept him inside for a few weeks after we moved, and then I decided to let him out since he was getting really antsy and it wasn't nice to see him so bored inside. He seemed to be doing quite fine for an hour or so, and then he was just gone. It's all been a bit sad really. However, Alice and I have decided that instead of getting presents for each other this year, we'll just save our money and go to the shelter and get a new kitten. So that's something to look forward to. And if Muffin decides to come back, well, he'll just have to get along with his new housemate.

Health is still going awesomely. I had a clinic a couple weeks ago (the first one since my admission earlier this year) and my lung function is back up to the best it's been in the last couple of years. So I'm pretty much the healthiest since before I went overseas, so I'm really happy about that. Although my sinuses are starting to play up again, so I'm gonna have to go and get them checked out. I can't remember if I said last time that I'm doing yoga now, but I am. It's great fun. So that.

The album is coming along really nicely (well, so I'm told since I haven't heard any of it since that first weekend). So far vocals, guitars, drums, piano and bass have been recorded. There are still the strings, backing vocals and random sounds to be done, but if the rehearsals are anything to go by, this album is gonna be fricken sweet. Due to the recording, there hasn't been many gigs to talk about. We did one at the Gov with the drummer and bass player which was SO much fun. Those guys are just amazing. Hopefully we'll do more with them in the future. Next year looks like it's going to be quite full on with music, so I'm just trying to take it as easy as possible when I'm not needed. But we have one more gig for the year, so if you're looking for something to do between Christmas and New Years, head on down to the Wheatsheaf Hotel on Friday the 28th to see Cookie Baker play with Brillig. Gonna be lotsa fun.

That's about it I think. Seen a few gigs, most notably the John Woods Band at the Gov. Those guys really are gonna go far me thinks. It's awesome. And they're playing at the Big Day Out, so that's just amazing. And even more so that I'm actually going now. :D

Rating: 8

What I'm listening to: Wallis Bird - Spoons. I can't get enough of these kids at the moment. They are a group from Ireland and they are bloody outstanding!!!!

Sorry...

2007-10-30T10:22:00.000+10:30

I know how long it's been, and quite a few things have gone on, but since I'm not in the best mood, this isn't going to contain all the little bits and pieces that have gone on.

So the recording is going REALLY well. The drums have been recorded, and it's amazing how much they lift the songs up and give them an awesome flow. I'm probably biased, but I really think this is going to be an awesome album when it's finished. There are still a few things that need to be done - strings, bass and random noises/backing vocals. I'll still keep everyone up to date when it looks like it will be out and available.

We moved house! The mould in The Fortress was the last straw, and since the landlord wouldn't fix it, we thought it wasn't worth risking health just to be in a cheap house in an awesome area. So we looked for a few weeks before we found this house, and we're very happy with it. It's got floorboards throughout, ducted AC and heating (which needs to be fixed as it's not working), 3 bedrooms, HUGE backyard and it's all very neat and tidy. We're very happy to be in a nice, proper home where we can entertain people now. Although we are paying pretty much double what we were paying before. Oh well...

The other main piece of news is that Muffin has gone awol. I decided let him out of the house after a few weeks of being indoors as he was getting VERY antsy. Things seemed to be quite fine - he was going around the yard, going into the neighbours houses, and then popping back home. But when I went to get him inside in the evening, I couldn't find him. That was Friday night - it's now Tuesday. Part of me is really trying to remain positive and thinking that he's either partying it up with the other cats in the area (it's cat city around our house), he's curled up on some old woman's lap since the weather has been so shit all weekend, or he's wandered back to our old house. But the other part of me just can't help but think something's happened to him. So, while I really don't like asking for things like this, I was wondering if you could all do what you do so well, and say a prayer, send some good vibes, or just think positive thoughts that he will be found safe and sound.

Healthwise things have been going really nicely. I'm still really clear in my lungs, and even though I haven't done alot of exercise lately since my ipod has broken, I'm feeling really good. I've also started yoga, so maybe that has something else to do with it.

Anyway, that's about it. Hope everyone's well.

Recording, dinners and gigs.

2007-09-20T10:32:00.000+09:30

Another two weeks, another update. The first thing I want to mention is that we have started recording Cookie Baker's debut album, which has already been an amazing experience. We were locked in the studio for a whole weekend, which let us get 8 of the 10 tracks down (acoustic guitars and vocals only). But already, the songs are sounding awesome and it's only going to get better. The other musicians are still to record their parts (strings, percussion, bass, backing vocals, random noises) and if all goes to plan, the cd should be out by the end of the year. I still have one song to record with Holly, and since it's going to be a bitch to get down correctly, we're setting aside a whole day for the one song. Hopefully it all goes well, and we won't have to worry about that one any more.

Last week a friend from school was back in Adelaide after being overseas for the last 3 years, so a whole bunch of us from school caught up with dinner and a few bevy's. It was so awsomely strange to see so many people from school in the same place, 7 years after we had all graduated and all doing pretty much what we love to do. We had engineers, actors, singers, musicians, and architects. Who would have thought back in school we would all be where we are today? It was a great night, and hopefully it won't be that long before we all catch up again (but most probably will be).

Since the big Festival Centre gig happened, not a whole lot of music has been going on for me (apart from the studio weekend). I'm still working 6 days a week, but it's so nice to have my nights back again, so I can spend some quality time with Alice (which usually involves us eating dinner while watching Heroes). But it's been great. And I think it's much needed as the last week or so I've noticed that my lungs are starting to be a little more gunked up, so I'm tossing up whether to go to the clinic to see how bad they are. I figured if things don't really improve in the next couple of weeks, I'll try and go in to get a tune-up, so that it (hopefully) won't take me so long to recover and get back to my best. We'll see anyways...

We have a gig tonight at the Prince Albert Hotel (on Wright St) which is going to be fantastic! The owners have sold the pub, so I'm not sure what's going to become of it, but in the past it's been host to some friggen awesome gigs. One of them being Ekoostika, the monthly acoustic night which was started by musos Cookie Baker, LeighStarDust and Tom Barnes. The first Thursday of every month this night would happen, and basically anyone who could strum an acoustic guitar and belt out a few notes would be welcome to play, and it happened to be the starting point of the brilliant Mr. John Woods. So to celebrate the end of an era with the pub changing hands, all 3 of the acts who started up Ekoostika are going to be playing tonight. It's sure gonna be lovely!

Well, I think that about brings you all up to speed. I may see you tonight, I may not.

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: Rodrigo y Gabriela

Spring is here!

2007-09-07T10:57:00.000+09:30

As much as I love the warmer weather, I am a bit worried about how bad this summer is going to be. We need more water badly! But since it doesn't look like we're going to get it, I guess there's nothing more to do but sit back, enjoy not having to have the heater on 24/7, and being able to dry our clothes on the line rather than go to the laundromat!

First, I just wanted to say a huge thanks to all those who made it to Cookie's Piano Bar gig on Sunday. It was a perfect day! The weather was absolutely stunning, the crowd was completely packed and so enthusiastic, and without a doubt the most enjoyable gig I've had the pleasure to play.

As soon as we finished playing, we popped over to Elder Park to catch the rest of The Audrey's gig as part of the ABC's 75th Anniversary, and they were outstanding as always. I wish I could have stayed a bit longer and sat on the grass listening to them, but we had to pack all the gear away. Had a little scare on the way home when Eliza-Jane decided to stop running halfway down King William St, but luckily it was just a bit of dirt on the points, so after not too long she was back and running sweetly. That night we went to FADBar to have some birthday drinks for Holly, which was a brilliant night. A few people got messy, but all in all there was lots of laughs and funky dance moves.

Since there have been no rehearsals this week, I have made the most of enjoying nights at home with Alice. It feels like forever since we have hung out, so it's been fantastic to have some home cooked meals and watch some Foxtel.

This weekend we go into the studio to start recording Cookie's debut album, which I'm really looking forward to. It's gonna have some sweet arse tunes, as well as some bloody talented people working on it. All guitars and vocals are going to be done this weekend, and the rest of the musicians will pop in over the next two months to record their parts. If all goes to plan, it should be out at the end of this year.

I had a little bit of a health scare last weekend when I felt my throat getting a bit raw and had quite a bad headache that lasted a while, but this past week of rest seems to have done it's trick, and I feel absolutely fine again. Not sure when I'll get time to get to clinic, but I should do that soon.

Not much else to tell. I'll let you all know how the recording went when we get back from the studio next week.

Rating: 7.9

Busy busy busy

2007-08-30T11:13:00.000+09:30

Ah, I suck. So sorry it's taken me so long (AGAIN!) to write another entry. It goes from having nothing to tell, to then being so busy I just don't have time to write anything. So here it goes...

First thing to mention was Alice had an exhibition at Gray St on August 12th, which was fantastic! I had the job of serving drinks, which is quite easy to do at an exhibition, as everyone just comes and picks up a cup and starts guzzling. There were so many people there, and Alice being the talented lass she is, was able to sell quite a few things. And some good news - her site will be up and running in September, so when that happens, you can all go there and have a squizz at some of her stuff!

The next thing to say is that while Alice and I were saving to head overseas next year, we had the opportunity to take all that money and spend it on something else. We did... Her name is Eliza-Jane and she is a beauty!!! She's a 1962 Holden EJ wagon, and we love her dearly. I'll put up some pics when we get some taken. We are oh so slack.

On the music side of things, this is where I've been most busy - we have been rehearsing pretty much every night with some of the other musicians that are going to be on the recording, which have been going awesomely. We have had a couple of gigs in the past couple weeks, one supporting the lovely Abbie Cardwell at the Grace Emily, which was a barrel of fun, and then one last week with BenSolo and 200 Motels, again another great show. Although there was a little kerfuffle with the licensing and they (the Grace Emily) were only allowed to have 100 people inside, when they are normally licensed to have 190. This resulted in a line-up appearing outside, and some dear friends and family weren't able to get in. A bit annoyed at that, but nevermind.

So all this rehearsing is also leading to our last gig for a few months while we take some time off to record Cookie's debut album. For all those who aren't doing anything too important on Sunday (it is Father's Day...), PLEASE come on down to the Festival Centre Piano Bar at 2pm. It's free, licensed, and it's being recorded, so make sure you bring your lovely cheery voices! On stage will be me on guitar, Holly on piano and guitar, Andrew on melodica and piano, Fluer on vibraphone, violin and snare, and Mairead on backing vocals. It's gonna be awesome! Click here for more details http://www.afct.org.au/?cat=3355&id=181552.

So my health is still going along quite strongly. Given that this flu season has been particularly nasty, I'm quite thankful I've had a relatively uneventful few months. Because I've been working 6 days a week, I haven't had time to go swimming in AGES, however I am walking to work and back, which is a fair dose of exercise. I haven't had a clinic for a while either, so I don't actually know how 'healthy' I am, but I feel alright still. I think I'll make an appointment sometime soon...

I think that's about it. Again, those of you who are in Adelaide, it would be awesome if you could make it on Sunday. I haven't seen alot of you in forever, so I'm hoping it will be a bit of a chance to catch up with some old friends.

Rating: 8.2

What I'm listening to: not much apart from Cookie Baker.

Tis been a while...

2007-08-08T10:14:00.000+09:30

hasn't it? Yeah, once again I've been terribly slack, but them's the breaks.

So what's been going on? Lemme have a think... Alice (and Lucy) had their birthday a couple weeks ago, which is something I've been looking forward to for quite a while. I had planned a secret trip to the Barossa (which sadly got spoiled at the last minute by someone at work blabbing it to Alice when she picked me up) but not to worry - it was such a great weekend! We went to a lovely 2 story, 3 bedroom cottage in Tanunda, complete with a spa and open fire. Mmm...

We didn't do a whole lot during the time we were there. We went to a few of the op-shops in the surrounding areas, and while I didn't find anything, Alice was her usual self and managed to find quite a few little gems. We did plan to do a spot of wine tasting, but to be honest, we were all too happy to go back to the cottage and do lots of nothing. So that's what we did. Had a few more spas, sat in front of the fire, watched some movies, and fell asleep. It was just what we needed.

When we arrived back home we were in house mode and felt we needed to clean up the house. It now looks quite respectable. :)

Apart from that, the only other thing I've been upto (apart from working all hours of the day) is quite a bit of music stuff with Holly. The big gig in September is steadily approaching, so we are getting ready to start rehearsals with the other musicians. Something which I'm both a little nervous but also looking forward to since it's something I haven't ever really done before. We had a gig a couple weeks ago supporting Old Man River at the Grace which was one of the best gigs I've had the pleasure of playing at!

It was a Sunday night, so the crowd was very chilled. It was a paid gig, so the people who were there wanted to watch music. And the entire crowd was silent during the performances. I haven't ever played to people that are just listening intently. It was amazing! Unfortunately due to Alice's early start the next morning, and the Grace's tendancy to accumulate quite a lot of smoke, we didn't get to stay to watch Old Man River. But I heard he was awesome.

So the rest of this week is going to be spent playing music, both getting the old material down-pat with the other musicians, as well as learning new stuff that Holly has created. :)

Alice had an exhibition at Zu Design on Friday night which went really well. She's really starting to become established here. And for those Radelaidians, her workshop, Gray St, is having an open day and then exhibition on Sunday the 12th from 6-8pm, so if you can, definitely head along! Just message me if you want more details.

Health wise, you'll be very glad to hear that things are still going swimmingly! Funnily enough, the swimming has kinda stopped for the moment as I've been working 10-6 7 days a week, which doesn't leave any time to do it. However, I have been walking to work everyday, which is a respectable half an hour walk, and that has definitely had a hand in keeping me as well as I am. I can't believe that in the midst of winter, and considering how sick I was, I've managed to keep this well for this long. I'm really hoping that things will continue on this road for a good few months still. But for now, I'm feeling great and just enjoying being able to do what I want.

I think that's about it for now. Cheers for your eyes.

Rating: 9

What I'm listening to: The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High

P.S. I can NOT believe they're putting that abominably bad show The Wedge back on tv... It's a travesty!!

Friends leaving and quiz nights.

2007-07-18T14:23:00.000+09:30

Another couple of weeks, another post.

Not a whole lot has been going on. It's still winter, it's still cold, it's still wet, and I still complain like a little biatch. Although last weekend I actually ventured out into the cold and had a bit of a social life.

Friday night we went to a quiz night that was raising money for CFSA. Quiz nights are always fun, even if it's just an excuse to eat lots of yummy food and drinks lots of alcohol. We had a great table with lots of different friends from all circles. However, the questions just didn't suit us. Not that we are dumb, but they were all science and maths questions.

Long story short, we won the wooden spoon prize. What's even more depressing (or awesome, I can't tell yet) is that we weren't trying to get that prize - we actually tried our hardest throughout the whole night to answer as many questions correctly as we could. Great.

Saturday night we went out for drinks with Pete and Truds, since they are being total twunts and moving back to London. How lame. It was good to catch up with everyone again, but being out in a smoky pub just made me more and more excited about November when the non-smoking laws will be put into place. To be able to go out somewhere and breathe without feeling like I'm sucking on an exhaust pipe will be amazing. Just like it was in Canada...

They (Pete & Truds) left this morning a little after 9, so it was a bit melancholy to think that we won't be seeing them again for at least 2 years by the time we get our poor arses over there. Meh, such is life.

Since I've been working lots of shifts, I haven't really had the time to go swimming, however I have been walking to work and back, which is a decent half an hour effort each way. At least I'm doing something. And I still feel aweosme in my chest. Althogh I really should get my arse into gear and get to the clinic to have my flu vax. Before I know it, spring will be here. Although that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing... Unless I caught the flu in the meantime. That wouldn't be cool.

Holly has a gig this Sunday night at the Grace supporting Old Man River, which I think I'll be participating on a few songs, so if you aren't doing anything, come on down and see some fine music.

Rating: 8.3

What I'm listening to: East 17 - The Platinum Collection

Oh, and on one last note - that ultra awesome ultra slim phone I had, well, the very feature that I bought it for (the slimness) has been the cause of it's demise. It fell out of my pocket into the toilet. AFTER I had used it. Yeah...

Still going strong

2007-07-01T10:31:00.000+09:30

Yeah, I know - I said I was going to try to be more vigilant with this, but meh, what ya gonna do? I'll try and do my regular recap of what's been going on, no doubt missing some vital pieces of information. Anyhoo...

So my first weekend out of hospital was spent seeing The Audreys at The Gov. Fricken awesome. These guys really are something, and they're only getting bigger and better. They showcased a couple new tunes, which down really well. I can't wait for the new cd.

The weekend after was The Vasco Era (again at The Gov). Alice, Pete and I arrived a couple hours earlier to get some dinner, which was delish, before wandering inside and grabbing ourselves a nice booth near the stage. I think I'm turning into an old man - no more do I want to go into the crowd and be pushed around and get all sweaty and having disgusting sweaty people rub up against me. It's just not fun anymore... I'd rather sit in a nice comfortable couch, with a drink, a table to put it on, and a nice vantage point to watch an awesome band play. For a more detailed picture of the night, check out my friend Suzi's awesome review here.

After the gig we went back to the Battery Kids bassist's house for a bit of a shindig. There was lots of dancing, strobe lights, people on acid and freezing temperatures. Quite a night really. Didn't get to bed until around 4:30am, which was interesting as Alice and I had to be at a breakfast at 10 the next morning. Ah well... such is life when you want to be cool.

That's about the end of the fun and exciting things that have been going on. Last Friday I received some bad news - a cf friend of mine had passed away. She had been in hospital during the whole of my admission, and things didn't look too good then. In fact, she had been in for around 4 weeks before I went in, so all up she would have been in there for at least 2 months. She had told me that up until the end of last year, her lung function was in the 80% region, and in the space of 6 months, that had gone down to around 20%, so much so that she was told she would need a transplant. She was to fly to Melbourne to meet the transplant team, but told she was too sick to fly. Luckily, the transplant team were actually in Adelaide for some meeting or something, so they were able to see her and get her on the list anyway. But obviously too much damage had already been done... A day or two after I was discharged, I got word that she had been moved into the ICU. I had sporadic reports that she was doing well, until I got the last message on Friday.

Usually with cf, things don't happen suddenly (well, not that I've experienced or seen personally anyway). The state she was in when I saw her in hospital, I would have expected her to last maybe 6 months. So the fact that passed away in that short space of time that I was out of hospital was shock enough, letalone the fact that she was healthier than me at the end of last year. But apparantly it can happen, more likely to girls than boys. I guess I've just been lucky enough so far to have not experienced it.

Her funeral was on Friday just gone, which is never a fun thing to go to. But it does give you some closure, which was definitely needed as I think everyone was still in disbelief due to the suddenness of the whole thing. There were heaps of people, ranging from family, friends, cf people, and hospital staff from both the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Children's Hospital.

Alice is doing well, although still busy as anything. She is still doing 6am starts, which doesn't give her much energy past 5pm. She is managing to get quite a bit of jewellery done still, which is a VERY good thing, both for her mind as well as her clients.

One last thing which I think you'll all be very happy to hear - I've started swimming again. It's so good to finally be doing something again, and hopefully this will keep me good for the rest of winter. I'm hoping it will also get my fitness up so I don't die in the snow. My lungs are still feeling quite strong and clear, and I'm not coughing up much at all. I'm very happy about that. :)

That's it I'm pretty sure... hopefully everyone's doing well.

Rating: 8.3

What I'm listening to: Sia - Lady Croissant

Hospital, gorgeous hospital

2007-06-17T10:57:00.000+09:30

G'day everyone! Well, it's been a while hasn't it?? As you all know, I had to go into hospital for a routine tune-up, but it ended up being longer than originally planned. I was all good and well to get out after two weeks, but on the last day, I awoke to my throat burning and feeling bone dry. Hospital isn't the healthiest place to be, so I guess my luck ran out and I caught some bug of someone. But karma was good to me - I gave it to one of the nurses who was looking after me. :)

So that throat bug thing resulted in me having to stay in for another week and a half. By the end of the admission I was well and truly ready to come home. So why don't I do home IV's I hear you ask? Well, I used do them at home, but now when I get sick, it's debilitates me much more than it used to. Here's what I mean - a few years ago, being sick meant my lung function would drop around 10%, and I would feel a bit out of breath. I'd get my drip put in, take all the antibiotics home, and within a few days I would be feeling tip-top again, but would have to run the full 10 day course of antibiotics. However, when I get sick now, I'm usually at the stage where I wake up out of breath, and I can't really do a helluva lot. Having a shower will put me in a coughing fit. So the last thing I'm going to be able to do is cook for myself, clean, let alone administrating the drugs 3 times a day. Basically, I just don't get the rest I now need when I get an infection.

The hospital on the other hand not only let's me have a good rest from everything, but it is so detached from society that it's actually an effort to try and keep updated on the goings-on of the outside world, which is just what I need to let my body shutdown and then recuperate back to good health. That's why I choose to risk catching more bugs while staying in hospital rather than do home IV's.

This admission was exceptionally good as well for a few reasons. There were another 4 cf friends that were in, which always makes time pass alot quicker. Reminiscing about old memories in the kids hospital and the camps were a regular occurrence. I also had an awesome registrar (ward doctor) who not only knew what she was doing, but actually cared for her patients. Even when her time in Ward S2 had come to an end, she would still pop back in to check up on us to see how we were doing. It was a good change from the regular idiots that have no clue what to do with you.

So my life the past month has been staying up till 4am watching Foxtel, sleeping in till lunch (no point getting up any earlier - not alot to do. In fact, when you DO get up before 11, the nurses ask what you're doing up), getting all my meals delivered to my door, having friends pop in to keep me company, all the while not paying a cent and having fun with other cf's and nurses. Not the most exciting life, but just what I needed. However by the 3rd week, I had had enough and was ready to go back home to my lovely Alice, Muffin and queen size bed (quite a combo eh??). The poor girl (Alice) has been an absolute treasure during this last admission... She's started a new job which requires her to be up at 5am, she's still working at her other job, doing as much jewellery stuff as she can, and she still managed to come in regularly to keep me company and listen to me whinge. Just awesome. :)

At the end of my second week, I had my lung function, but it wasn't that great at all - 53%, which is actually 3% less than my last one I had at clinic, when I was feeling crap. Not the best... but I imagine I would have gone down quite a few more percent from that first lung function to when I was in hospital. But since then, I haven't had another one, so I don't actually know how 'healthy' I am. I feel great though. My lungs have pretty much cleared up, and I've got alot more energy than I had before. The challenge now is to make sure I do all I can to stay this healthy. Physio can only do so much... so this week I'm going to get myself a pass to the local pool to do some laps. It's the easiest way I've found to get your fitness up from nothing, without damaging anything. Plus it's fun, not to mention how good it is for the lungs.

Enough health talk. How friggen cold is it??? Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it (to a certain extent) but since it started to get really cold when I was in hospital, I didn't get to adjust to it, so when I finally got out, I was dumbstruck just how cold it's getting at night. Even during the day for that matter! The other morning when Alice left for work at quart to 6 she found the front window of the car completely covered in ice. Awesome...

Also, the other piece of exciting news to hit the Fortress, I signed us up for Foxtel on Friday!! That's another good thing about hospital - they have a few Foxtel channels on the tv, so it makes lying in bed all day that little bit more entertaining. So now during those cold winter nights I'll have something to do while Alice is at the studio making her lovely pieces of jewellery. Which, by the way, she'll hopefully be getting her brand spankin new website up soon, so keep on the watch for that!

Things with Cookie Baker are a bit quiet at the moment since she's getting her bag of musical ingredients together for her up and coming cd. I will be making an appearance on a few tracks, so that should be something to look forward to. :)

I think that's about it... Thanks to everyone who sent me messages and stuff. It put a smile on my face.

Rating: 8.5

What I've been listening to: Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

Hospital admission

2007-05-17T08:36:00.000+09:30

Hey all

Just a quick one today - I'm getting admitted into hospital for a routine two week stay, during which I'll be pumped full of drugs that will hopefully get me feeling a bit better than I have been the last few weeks. When I was at clinic last time, my sputum showed that the bugs that are residing in my lungs are sensitive to just about every type of drug, which is great compared to the time before where they were resistant to quite a few. So I'm hoping that they'll (drugs) work really well and I'll be feeling my best in no time.

Since the hospital doesn't have internet, which I'm well pissed about, I won't be coming on here much. If I get the strength I may wander down to Rundle St to have a coffee at Cafe Buongiorno and get some free net action there. We'll see...

So yes, that's about all from me. Due to not feeling that crash hot, I haven't really been doing a whole lot since last time. Holly and I went up the hill last night to record a few more tracks for the demos we are doing at the moment, which are sounding aweosme. I can't wait till we get to record the actual album. Should be sa-weet!

Oh, I got a new phone as well. It's super slim. I like it. Alot.
Message or ring me on it so I get a nice little tingle of pleasure (from the vibrate settings of course...).

So yes - hospital for two weeks, drugs in my system, feeling good, back to my normal self. Sound like a good plan? Me thinks so...

Rating: 5.4

What I'm listening to: The Vasco Era - Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Stil! - it's awesome though)

Jaan is terrible at writing blogs...

2007-05-11T10:43:00.000+09:30

Yeah, it's taken me forever again to write down my stuff. I suck. But deal with it. :)

One main reason is that I'm really not feeling that great, and as slack as it seems, the last thing I've felt like doing is try and think about what's been going on and writing about it. Even though I've been on the computer quite alot... so that doesn't make a whole lick 'o sense, but ah well.

I had a clinic last week where I was expecting to get admitted, but my lung function was actually a bit better than what I thought it would be (55%) so they told me to stay out and try another 2 week course of Cipro (oral antibiotic). But over a week on, and it hasn't really done anything, so I'm thinking that when I go back to clinic I'll have to be admitted. That's alright though - I haven't been in for around 7 months, and it's the time of year where I would normally go in, so it's not like it's unexpected.

Anyhoo, enough gloomy health talk. So what has been going on I hear you all ask? Well, I've done a couple more gigs with the lovely Cookie Baker, which has been loads of fun (as always). We played at the Grace Emily on the 24th of April, with another awesome band who are relatively new on the scene called Nadjeska. Like I said, they are awesome. There were heaps of people there, and it was great to see so many friends, some whom I hadn't seen in a long time. We then played at the Festival Centre Markets on Sunday just gone, and at Flinders Uni yesterday, as part of a youth music festival thing there. The Flinders Uni gig was great, except for the fact that I broke a string during the first song, so I had to borrow Lord Stompy's 'manly' guitar for the rest. We also tried a new song that we had only begun working on a few days ago, and that seemed to go down quite well, which is always pleasing.

I mentioned in my last post that Alice and I had another job going on throughout the holidays, where we would go out to schools and play games with the kids. The second week was just as much fun, but just as exhausting as well, which I think is another factor in my not feeling so great. I'm glad it's over for now, as I don't think I could have handled another day running around after kids, but come next holidays, it'll be awesome to be able to do that again.

You may remember me talking about crazy (allbeit beautiful) German friend (Janka) that has been living in Adelaide the past few months. Well, the time had come for her to ditch us for smelly London, so we all (Pete, Truds, Becky, Alice, Ben and Holly) thought it would be a great idea to head on up to Coriole winery for a bbq lunch. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the wine was ever so soothing. We didn't end up leaving until 9pm, and it was a bit sad to know that would be the last time for a while where we would all be able to hang out like that. She left a few days later, but she reassures us she'll be back around November, so she better stay true to her word, or there'll be hell to pay...

From 04.25 anzac d...

Another little thing worthy of mention was a couple weeks ago, when we had around 3 days straight of wonderful rain, we found out that our house isn't quite as waterproof as houses should be. We noticed a couple of drips the first night of the downpour, but by the next day, that had turned into streams of water running down the walls, in both ours and Lucy's room, as well as drips coming down from the roof in our room. Awse. The drips landed on the bed, so we thought enough was enough, and moved our bedroom into the loungeroom. Since then, someone has come out and cleaned our gutters and downpipes, so should it rain like that again, the water should hold out a little longer, but we have decided that we'll just stay in the loungeroom. That room doesn't leak, it's big, and our old bedroom still smells mouldy (apparantly - due to my keen sense of smell, I have to rely on Alice's). So I need to try and get hold of the landlord to replace the carpets. Fun times.

I think that's all there is to tell... actually, there's something that I've forgot, but I guess it couldn't have been too important, so whatevs.

Oh, I now have a new photo site, so there is a link to the right. There's quite alot of pics there from the Yorke's drought relief gig, as well as a few more from the Coriole lunch, so have a looksee.

Rating: 5.7

What I'm listening to: The Vasco Era - Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (VERY great cd)

Crikey...

2007-04-22T11:46:00.001+09:30

blue me
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

It’s been so long since I've posted. I'm sorry for all those who have been losing sleep wondering what I've been up to, but for a change I've actually been really busy. But I’ll start from the start (isn’t that where you usually do so?)so that you can all get up to speed with the saga of what is known as Jaan's life.

The first thing worthy of note is that Alice and I went to see Dylan Moran on Friday the 30th of March. I had bought tickets as a surprise to Al, but due to my slackness in forgetting to hide them (and to her annoying habit of ALWAYS having to look at everything she finds) she found the envelope that housed them and ruined the surprise. Ah well. At least now I could get excited about it with her. Anyhoo, so we went along and it was hilarious!! I hadn’t actually seen any of his stand up stuff before, only his work on Black Books, which I LOVE, so I assumed it would be good anyway. I won’t go on trying to quote all his jokes, as no doubtly they’ll come across lame and completely un-funny. But needless to say that I haven’t laughed so long out loud in quite a while.

The next night was the final night of the Adelaide Fringe, so a whole bunch of us went to the Garden (of Unearthly Delights) to celebrate the first annual Fringe (normally it’s run every two years). Just as I had expected, there were lots of familiar faces, and it was great to catch up with everyone again. Alice had a wedding but came afterwards, all dolled up, and looking quite luffly! Didn’t have a too late night as I had to open up the shop the next day, but I made sure to enjoy it so that I had no regrets.

The Sunday afterwards I had a friend arriving from London who has been travelling around NZ and now Australia. She’s an awesome photographer who goes by the name Alexandra Bone and there’s a link to her photos on my page. Go check her out! So anyhoo, I picked her up and came back to our place for a bit of a bbq to get her settled in. bbq’s are always good… it was great having her here as I could show her around Adelaide, and learn to appreciate the city for what it really is. We made it to a few pubs, the beach, walked around the city, and on her last day we made sure to make it up to Coriole Winery for a bit of brunch. I then took her to the airport where she’s started making her way up the west coast of Oz for another couple of months. Lucky duck…

That night I went to Alex and Monica’s wedding reception (they’re the couple that got married at the end of last year in a surprise ceremony at their house). It was a really fun night, with a few close friends, lots of great food, and of course some good alkeehole. I don’t see them a helluva lot, so it was good to have a few hours to spend with them.

Then I think Easter came… this year was quite bland for me. I didn’t really get up to much in the way of celebrating Easter, and I worked quite a bit as well. I still took time to remember what it meant to me however, so it wasn’t a total waste. ☺

I’ve still been doing quite a lot of music stuffs with Holly, and last weekend a few of us packed a couple of cars and went over to Yorke Peninsula to do a gig as part of a drought relief thing that was going on. How’s this for a country gig – it was on the Warooka footy oval, on the back of a semi trailer! Can’t get much more outbacky than that. Was soo much fun! There were a few other bands playing – mostly pub rock cover bands – but I think everyone who went had a really good time.

Things had been going so great until the ride home… we just passed Port Wakefield (about an hour and half out of Adelaide) when I noticed that the engine had started making a clicking noise. I pulled over to have a look, and then realised that the car had decided to start running on 3 cylinders instead of 4. Great. We called the RAA and a guy came out and had a look, but didn’t really offer much help and said that we could try and make it (slowly) back to Adelaide. We decided to do that, and made the journey at 50kmh. It took a couple of hours to make it back home, but we were just so relieved that we actually got the car back in one piece. I've taken it to the mechanic, but we are still waiting to hear what the diagnosis is…

All last week Alice and I have been doing another job that involves us going out to schools to play some games with the kids that are there being looked after (it’s holidays at the moment). The game we took to them this week was called Belly Bumpers. Basically it’s a huge blow up tire thing that goes around their waist and they try to bump each other out of a designated area. Pretty fun! Although I forgot just how much energy kids have, and by Friday I was completely exhausted. We have it for one more week next week, and then it’s back to normal work for us.

Holly and I also went to 3D Radio on Thursday to do a bit of a sing-song and chit-chat. I have only been on radio once, so it was quite exciting to go back and do some stuff for them. We did a couple of songs and a bit of an interview (well, Holly did most of the talking). I’ll try and get a copy of it up on here soon…

And finally, what better way to spend a lovely autumn Saturday than to attend a wedding? Well, what about playing a few songs at a wedding?? That’s right – Holly and I were asked to play a few tunes at the wedding of Dana and Christian (not my sister) and it was absolutely lovely. We did a few covers during the actual ceremony, and then afterwards we made it outside to play a proper acoustic set under the veranda, with no amplification whatsoever. And as a little surprise, guess who we saw at the wedding?? All you Aussie BB fans, you might remember a little Adelaidian named Jo Ashton. Yeah, she was there. I love how small Adelaide is. We didn't get to say hi to her, but then again maybe she didn't want to say hi to us. Either way, it was loads of fun, and not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

As far as my health goes, I have been feeling a little under the weather, so last week I went to the hospital to get some Cipro (oral antibiotics). Since taking them, I've noticed a little bit of a change, but not a whole lot. I’m guessing that’s also due to me doing so much running around last week, when I really should be taking it a bit easy to get as healthy as possible. But we’ll see how this week goes. Maybe they’ll really kick in then.

Phew! I think that’s about all… I’ll try not to leave it quite so long next time. Holly and I are playing this Tuesday night at the Grace Emily, so if you are looking for something to do Anzac Day Eve, then do come along. It’s sure to be a great night! We’re also using it as a bit of a going away drinks for Janka, my German friend who has been here the last few months. She’s going back to the UK next week, so we’ll all miss her a bit. ☺

And just before I leave, I thought I would end with some awesome news I woke to this morning – a great cf friend of mine, Ben Sloan (some of you may know him) was on his way to Melbourne this morning to get his lung transplant. We’re all hoping for a speedy recovery!

Rating: 6.2

What I’ve been listening to: Sia – Lady Croissant

Thursday night and the weekend

2007-03-25T22:49:00.000+09:30

Those of you who missed coming out to the Exeter on Thursday night sure missed out on a great night. Not trying to blow my own trumpet, but it really was a fun time. The crowd was a perfect mix of friends and drunk randoms. But not too drunk that they were heckling or too obnoxious. It was just aweosme.

And the inclusion of ol Mr. Les Paul went down quite well too... I wasn't too sure before playing whether it was a good choice or not to have him there, but it worked out nicely. I now have to save up to buy an amp... Anyone selling anything cheap?

After the gig we went to the Garden for a bit of a wind down drink and hot chips. But we all hit a wall and went home not long after that. However, that was around 3 in the AM.

Not been doing a whole lot else since... worked Saturday night, which was the first time in quite a while (I've switched to opens). It was nice to work with Dana again though (my sis). It makes the evening a bit more bareable serving mingers all night. We watched O Brother... Good times.

Today I opened and then scooted around to a few different places that sell car stereos to try and find a replacement for the one that got stolen out of our car the other week. But no luck... the cheapest one at Strathfield was around $120. As if. We want cheapey's... I guess I'll have to keep searching. Also, at work this morning I had the lovely sounds of KCUR (a Kansas community radio station) coming out of my lappy at work, along with a webcam. The reason for this is I have a friend over there who hosts a radio show, and being the great friend he is, he's always able to give a shout out to Alice and myself, so that all the world can hear. It always leaves a smile on my face... What can I say - I'm a media whore!

Chest is feeling alright... still a bit tight. Haven't improved a whole lot since I last wrote. A bit annoying, but I'm still hoping that the drugs will kick in more and I'll start to feel better for it. I've also changed the order of my inhaled meds, so maybe that's why it's taking a bit longer than normal to get things feeling good again. We'll see...

Not much planned for this week. Have to get working on a few covers Holly and I are doing for a wedding in April. Hopefully we don't butcher them too badly...

Rating: 6.3

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker - Live @ Radio Adelaide

Clinic

2007-03-22T14:01:00.000+10:30

So I had clinic on Tuesday... and just like I predicted in my last blog, my pft's (lung function) was down a bit... 55% to be exact. It was 63% last time, about 2 months ago. But it's all good... I had prepared for this. If it had been under 55%, I would have started to worry a lil. But I managed to get some more meds (the ones I had been out of since last week) and I can already feel them starting to do their magic. I have another clinic in a month, so we'll see how things are then.

I have another gig tonight with Holly at the Exeter, so that should be fun. I'm guessing there's gonna be a whole heap of drunk Fringe-ites there, so any friends are more than welcome to come along so I can see a familiar face. If not, nuts to you. :)

And what's with this weather? it's hot again! I had to crank the AC today...

I have a new headband.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: Skip James

CD launches, the Garden and Womad

2007-03-14T17:19:00.001+10:30

crowd
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Cripes, it's been a while. And heaps has been happening. I hate it when this happens... I don't write as often as I should, as I get slack and can't be bothered going it, but the longer I leave it, the more I have to write, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Ah well. :) Here we go.

So 2 Saturday's ago I went to a friends cd launch, LeighStarDust, at the Jade Monkey (she is a totally awesome musician and is in my top friends so you should check her out). She had a band with her on the night (she usually plays solo) and it totally rocked the place down. It was awesome!! The cd we all went to buy had unfortunately been delayed, so we all had to write down our addresses and I was assured the other night that they will be on their way soon.

Last week the Fringe Festival opened. I had to work that night, but was able to leave a tad early to get to the festivities and have a big ol party with Alice and co. The Garden was absolutely packed, but there were so many people that we knew it didn't matter too much. I got to see some friends from school I hadn't seen in years, so that was good. Although knowing so many people there did have a drawback - it took around an hour to actually get out of there to get home, as we kept seeing friends we had to say 'Hi' to. Ah well, if that's the only thing to complain about, things are pretty good.

The on the weekend Womadelaide was on, which for those who don't know, is a world wide music organisation that puts on concerts all around the world, including here for a weekend in Adelaide. It's amazing, and it's the only one in Australia, and the biggest one in the southern hemisphere. There were bands from remote tribes in Africa, from Spain, from Ireland, but the standout for me would have to be Huun-Huur Tu from Tuva/Russia. They do what is called throat singing, and it really is something you have to see to believe. They are able to sing in up to 3 different voices at the same time, doing different melodies and harmonies. It's incredible. And to see them at 11pm on the final night in the Botanic Gardens with eerie shadows being cast by the trees, well, yeah, I can't accurately how spiritual it felt. Just awesome.

Last night we had Alice's brothers and sister over for a lovely bbq dinner cooked by yours truly, and it went down quite well, even if I do say so myself. We went to the Garden afterwards, but we were quite tired so we didn't stay too long.

Now onto my health... Things aren't bad by any means, but they aren't going tip top just at the moment. I ran out of Ventolin a few days ago, so the other inhaled meds I'm taking aren't working as well as they should be, hence my lungs are a bit clogged up. Also, since I'm not doing much exercise, that certainly isn't helping. I think I have clinic next week, so let's hope that goes well enough to keep me out for another 2 months.

I think that's it... I have quite a few more pics on my flickr site, so have a looksee.

Rating: 6.2

What I'm listening to: Robert Johnson

It's my birthday!!

2007-02-20T15:30:00.001+10:30

my present from alice
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Ahhhhh, the soothing sounds of an air conditioner. How sweet it is!! I sit here on my bed, on my birthday, watching Blue Heelers, 33 degrees outside and very happy that I decided last night to go out and buy an air con. Yes, it is a bit of money, but I couldn’t stand one more night of not being able to sleep properly. It sucks. But now it’s all good! ☺

Lots has been going on, so let’s see if I can recall all of it. I’ll start from Saturday the 10th.

I may have mentioned, I may have not, but I’ve started playing guitar with my friend Holly, who goes by the stage name Cookie Baker. Very nice stuff indeed. So for the last month or so, we’ve been doing some stuff together, including some gigs. On Saturday the 10th we were supporting an Adelaide girl called Emily Smart at Jive. It was an awesome gig! There were heaps of people, and even though they weren’t there for us, that made it quite a bit easier to play and have fun. We didn’t have a too big night because we needed to be at the Festival Centre at 10:30am the next morning for another gig.

On Sundays the Festival Centre has markets going all day, which those of you who live here should definitely check out. Really good things to buy, and all locally produced. So we played on the stage there for a couple of hours, and again, it was really great. Totally different though to the previous night. There were heaps of kids running around, and due to the high pitch of Holly’s voice, all the little girls were instantly drawn to her. There was a girl who was mentally disabled who walked up to the stage just to put her hands on the foldback speakers to feel the vibrations. It was amazing.

The following Wednesday we were supporting a Canadian girl called Ann Vriend at the Grace Emily. Again, the gig was so much fun (can you see a trend here?) and Ann was totally awesome. We had a bit of a drink afterwards with her and hung out till about 2.

The next night there was a gig on at The Archer, which was again going to be completely different to the last few we’d done. There were going to be quite a few different acts on, but luckily they were all pretty much friends of ours, so it was just like one big giant party. I had to work, so I actually missed a few of them playing, but got there around 10 to see Luke Ashby play, who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Really good stuff. It was a really short set, only about 6 songs, but for the first time I played the whole set on guitar, even playing a song that we had never done before. Was pretty fun!

On the weekend we had a wedding at McLaren Vale. Would normally be great, except that it was 40 degrees for both Saturday and Sunday. Ugh. It was a couple degrees cooler up there, but not a whole lot. The wedding itself was really nice, short, sweet, and in the gardens of a winery, so perfect setting. The reception was at the same place, so everyone just hung around, drank heaps, ate heaps, and had a merry old time. We decided around 11pm to go to Port Willunga, but we had to go to Coriole first to get the rest of our stuff. The other car went down and we said we’d meet them there. Can you believe that we drove around for 45 mins trying to find Port Willy?? I couldn’t believe it. It was nowhere to be found. Even the locals couldn’t tell us how to get there. So we got all pissed off and decided to drive back to Adelaide. It was still sooo warm – around 30 degrees at 1 in the morning – so we went to bed feeling quite unfulfilled. Never mind.

And now today I woke up to the lovely Alice brandishing a HUGE present wrapped up for me. I had no idea what it was, but I unwrapped it to see a friggen fantastic painting of us, done by her friend Tahlia. Seriously, it is so good. I’ve taken a pic and added it to my flickr site so have a looksee.

Going out to dinner tonight with mum, Dana and Alice to Rose Garden, which is a Thai restaurant. The best one in Adelaide! And then on Thurs night Holly and I are playing again at the Gilbert St Hotel, so if you’re not doing anything come along. It’s sure to be a great night.

Lungs are still going quite strong. No real change since last time, which I'm definitely not complaining about. I have a clinic in another couple of weeks so here’s hoping that all goes smoothly.

Rating: 7.1

What I’m listening to: Cookie Baker (for obvious reasons)

Exhibitions, concerts, surgeries and Germans

2007-02-08T18:24:00.001+10:30

group
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Wow, so much has gone on. Where do I begin?

I'll start with Janka. When I was in London, I caught up with a cf girl from Germany (Janka). I had been in contact with her through a cf forum and we thought it would be kinda dandy to meet up in London. We did, and I kept telling her that she had to come back to Oz (she was here a couple years ago) but to make sure to see more of Adelaide, which she pretty much skipped last time.

So, over a year later, she tells me she's coming back and coming straight to Adelaide. Pretty nifty. So I picked her up from the airport last Wednesday, and brought her back to the Fortress. Just today she found out that she's moving into a house in St Peters, so that's pretty cool. But I'm not too sure what her full-term plans are. I guess if she likes it here she'll stay till the end of her 3 month visa, but if she gets bored, nothing's to stop her from going east or somewhere else. But for the moment she's planning to stay, so for those who haven't already met her, you will no doubt soon. She also has a blog, and it's on my links section, so have a squizz. She's cool.

Alice had a few exhibitions last week also. There were two on Thursday night, but I only went to one of them, at Urban Cow, which was fantastic! There were heaps of people there, and some brilliant art from Adelaide's finest up and coming jewellers. After the opening we all went down to the Exeter to have a drink or 3. There was quite a few of us, and it was a great night out. My friend Ben who's been living in Montreal the past 2 years was in town, so it was kinda a celebratory drink before he headed back on Saturday.

Then on Friday Alice had another exhibition at Fad. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go because of the Big Day Out. Wasn't too bad, but it was so hot, and there were so many school kids running around. Good for people watching though.

I left the BDO in the afternoon to meet up with Brian Ritchie (bass player of the Violent Femmes) to get an early dinner. We went with John Sparrow (another member of the band) to a friggen awesome Argetinian steak place in Gouger St. Brian was nice enough to treat me to the nicest steak I have ever had in my life. I will have to try to save up the pennies to eat there again. Sooo good!!

After dinner, I went back to the BDO to see the end of Muse, the start of TOOL and then wander over to see the Femmes. Muse were pretty good. But because we weren't in the mosh, the sound wasn't that great, so TOOL sounded quite washed out and weak. Quite annoying really... but the Femems totally rocked the place down (as always).

Saturday Pete rang me to ask if I'd seen the news. Remember that Qantas flight that exploded after take off? Well, not quite. But an engine did catch fire, and it had to dump a whole lot of fuel over the ocean before attempting to land back in Sydney. Anyhoo, Pete rang to see if I'd heard about it, because that was the flight Ben was on. We joked how he was probably asleep and didn't even know what happened. How right we were... after the numerous emails we sent to him asking if he was still alive, he replied back with how he didn't even know what had happened, since he fell asleep, and was finding out on google in the airport. Quite funny.

That night another friend Becky was having a housewarming party thingy at her new pad, and it was bling themed. We did our best to bling it up (by donning bling necklaces) and went alot. It's a totally awesome house, but we were all completely buggered, so Alice, Janka and I left only after a couple of hours and went to bed.

Now onto poor Muffin... Last week, we noticed that he had a little scab on his back. Our neighbour John told us that he had seen a white cat and Muffin have a little 'disagreement'. Knowing Muffin, he was prob sleeping on John's verandah, minding his own business, and whitey came along and took a chunk out of his back. Stupid thing... Anyhoo, we didn't think much of it and left it to heal on it's own.

After a few days it had festered into this absis thing, so we thought he better get looked at. The vet took a look, squeezed a pint of puss out of it - much to the displeasure of Muffin - and said it needed to be operated on. Ugh... so much money. But being the good parents we are, we got him knocked out, cut up, and stitched back up like a damaged hand bag.

It doesn't end there - after a few days of him acting like a good little boy, I saw him on Monday morning licking frantically at his wound. By the time I got up to see what was going on, I saw him eating out the last of his stitches like it was his final meal on Earth. So now he had his wound all opened up and bloodied. Charming. I took him back to the vet who said he needed to be put under again to have it cleaned out and stitched back up. More money.

This time however they were kind enough to give me a cone to put on his head. Poor thing... he's not a happy chappy. But I keep telling him it's for his own good, so he's just gonna have to like it or lump it. The world can be a cruel place sometimes... especially when you have us as parents. :)

Lungs are going alright - not getting any worse, and not getting much better. But their above average, which means that I'm at a stable 'good'. I still need to up the exercise, but I've been walking a little bit every day, so I'll take that. Need to do more though...

I've put some new pics up, so have a looksee. They're fun.

This Saturday night I'm playing a few songs again with Cookie Baker at Emily Smart's cd launch at Jive. So if you aren't doing anything, come on down. It will be a great night. And then on the Sunday morning, we are playing at the Festival Centre markets thing, on the outdoors stage. The weather so far looks like it'll be a pearler, so forget your hangovers from Saturday night shenanigans and come down for some delicious tunes. :)

Rating: 7.4

What I'm listening to: Brian Ritchie - Taimu

Victor Harbour, sunshine and gigs!

2007-01-26T01:57:00.000+10:30

So I've been away yet again. First it was Yorkes, then it was Yorkes again, and then this week we went to Victor Harbour. After having to drive to Yorkes twice in a week, the hour drive to Victor was nothing! So much so that I even went back to Adelaide to pick up fishing rods (and Holly). But the rods were the priority... ;)

I got up there Sunday afternoon, and we had a lovely fondue dinner with Peter, Trudy, Maestro and Stickers. Good times. Then on Monday Dan and Magda came down for a night. We all had fun walking around the town and going to op shops. I found a lovely beanie which I can't wait for winter to crank it out. Alice (as usual) found an array of stuff that she'll prob never use... but it's fun nevertheless.

On the Tuesday morning we got up around 6am to go down to the jetty to do a spot of fishing. It was fantatsic! You would literally throw your line in and the fish would be biting at it straight away. Only problem was since they were so small, you wouldn't actually be able to hook them. They just had a great free feed. Bastards... Then that night I went fishing again, but didn't even get a nibble. There was a seal that was swimming around and eating all the fish. But that's alright - he made up for me not catching anything, and I was quite content to just stand there and watch him (I decided he was a boy).

Wednesday we went for a walk around Granite Island, which brough back lots of memories from the cf camps I went on when I was little... ahh, good times. Then we came back home and went to Peter's for a lovely webber bbq as Ben was back from Montreal for a couple of weeks. We went for a walk to the oval nearby and saw the comet that everyone has been raving about. Pretty neat.

Then tonight Holly (aka Cookie Baker) had a gig at the Gilbert St Hotel, and as a little something extra, I played 6 songs with her on guitar. Twas awesome fun!! I think this may be a semi regular thing, so I'll keep all you up to date on how that goes, and if it continues, you'll just have to come and see me rockin' out!

I think that's about it at the moment. Back to work this weekend. I need some money, so that'll be good. And it's always a little easier going back after having some time off. Health isn't the best right now - but that's because I ran out of some meds last week, and being as slack as I am, I didn't do too much physio when we were at Victor. But I've loaded up on drugs now, and I'm back home, so there's no more excuses!

Right - it's 2.13am and I'm knackered. Time for bed. I'm not cut out for this rock 'n' roll lifestyle...

Rating: 6.2

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker

Clinic and rain!

2007-01-21T00:23:00.000+10:30

Ahhh, how cool is it?? FINALLY, water is falling from the heavens. It's been long enough! For those who didn't know, we've been in a bit of a drought the last few months. This winter it didn't rain at all, and since we are the driest state in Australia, that was bad news when summer came around. Poor farmers... but even us city folk! We've had major water restrictions, and while it hasn't troubled me too much, the poor garden and lawn has been suffering. But Thursday things began to change...

It was REALLY humid, and felt like tropical weather. There were a few drops Thursday night, which felt really weird to have rain falling on you after so long without it. Then Friday the skies really opened up. It pretty much rained all day, and really heavy rain as well. I went scooting to run some errands, and man was that fun!! Splashing through puddles like a kid. Although it was quite slippery so I did take a bit of care... ;)

And again today - raining all day. The lawn and herb garden are sure soaking it up! Even Muffin is getting into the spirit splashing around in the puddles. So that's been quite fun to have all this water around after seeing nothing but bone-dry pastures on the news every night. Although, now there is extensive flooding up north of the state, so I guess no one can really win...

So I had clinic last Tuesday as well. It'd been about 2 months since my last visit, so I was kinda interested to see how I was fairing. My throat had a bit of a niggle the week before, but for once it didn't eventuate into anything else, so come Tuesday I was feeling tip-top. And another first - there were actually some cf friends in the clinic with me, so I wasn't totally bored. Beck and Kenny. Kenny lives in the sticks and I don't think I've actually seen him in person for about 2 years. But I talk to him online all the time, so we've still kept in touch. Beck I see out quite often, so nothing special there ;) But yes, after clinic we went for a celebratory drink at the Ex and then went our separate ways. But back to clinic...

As I said, I was feeling quite good, so I would have been surprised if my PFT's were down. I went in, did the test, and back the results came - 62%. Not better than last time, but more importantly, it wasn't worse. And it's still only about 10% from my best, so I'm really happy with that. The doc told me to come back in another 2 months, so we'll see where I am then. However as I'm writing this, my throat is starting to flare up again. And I've been getting quite a bit more productive over the last few days. I think the humidity has something to do with it. It always makes me cough alot.

Tomorrow after work I'm going down to Victor Harbour to Alice's Grandad's house he has there at Encounter Bay. I think it's going to be the last of the little trips away for a while, so I'll be sure to make the most of the next few days doing nothing but relaxing. :)

That's it. Thanks.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker (I'll tell you why later...)

NYE and other stuff

2007-01-09T11:10:00.001+10:30

mmm...
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Happy new year one and all! I trust you all had a good one, whatever it was you got up to. Whether it was quiet, busy, big, small, late or early. For us, it was just awesome.

A few of us (me, Al, Orr, Val, Holly, Scooter and John) went up to Holly's parent's farm near Warooka, in Yorke Peninsula, which is a few hours drive out of Adelaide. We left Sunday morning around 9am and got to Buckley's (the farm) around lunch time. It wasn't long before we unpacked our things and made the drive to Berri Bay for a swim. It was a bit cool, and since the water is quite cold, it took a while before we were psyched enough to go in. But we spent some hours walking around the rocks and fishing for crabs. Fun times!

That night we were treated to an awesome bbq by Holly's dad Rev and we all stuffed ourselves silly. However, because of the drive, the lack of sleep the night before, and the beach and sun, we were all completely knackered and all went to bed around 12:30am. Quite pathetic really. The next day was really hot so we made sure to get to Berri Bay as quickly as possible. This day was much nicer than the previous, and there were alot more people at the beach too. Lots of swimming and lying around was done by all. We were even treated to a few dolphins catching some waves in, so that was fun. However, the end of the day was ruined by a shark sighting, so we couldn't do much more swimming. How boring...

We went to Marion Bay that evening for pizzas. Very nice indeed. Although there was quite a mix up with out orders, which resulted in me and Orr having a small and a large pizza each, but we managed to fit most of it in. :)

That night we were up till all hours of the morning drinking, talking and playing cards. Was great fun. We left the next morning back for Adelaide.

Last week wasn't really spent doing anything noteworthy. Back at work, and just trying not to kill myself of the customers there. Hehe.

Then on Saturday afternoon Al and I had to drive back up to Yorke's for Scooter and John's wedding on Sunday. We got there around 9pm and had another great night at Buckley's drinking, eating, more talking and playing cards. Sunday we all had a shower (not at the same time), got into some of our finest threads, and drove down to Scooter's parents place for the wedding. Holly and I started things off with a little sing-song and then the ceremony was underway. It was awesome - only about 15 minutes, but it was all you needed. It wasn't long after that everyone started having a few bevvies before the reception.

I love bush weddings. There's not the uncomfortable formality that you can have at other weddings, and everyone is just so accomodating! Not to mention the amount of beer and and food there is to be had. Hehe. So the reception was fantastic. Sooo much food (delicious food I might add) and there was a band as well. It was annoying when we had to leave around 10pm so we could get back to Adelaide at a reasonable hour, since Alice had a meeting at 10am the next morning, and all the other guys that went with us had work. So we had to leave just when the party was getting started... but nevermind.

The drive wasn't too bad at all, since there wasn't much traffic, and we got back around 1am. All in all, a bloody brilliant weekend!

Health wise things are a bit crappier... I ran out of some meds a few days ago, and I think I may have a little niggle in my throat. I'm hoping that I can keep on top of it and it doesn't develop into something more serious. But apart from that, things seem to be going alright. I have clinic next Tuesday, so we'll see how things are going there.

This year looks to be an exciting one. I have a few friends that are coming over to Adelaide from overseas, and I'm well excited to show them around here and see what we can get up to. I'm also excited about the possibility of getting a new job... don't get me wrong - Alpha has been awesome to me over the last 8 years, and I don't want to abandon that, but I need a bit more money this year if both Al and I are to go overseas in 08. So not really sure where I'll go with that, but we'll see. Other than that, not alot else may happen. Working, saving money, working, saving more money. But I'm ok with that.

I think I've written enough now. I've put quite a few piccies up from the two trips to yorkes, so if you can be bothered, check em out. :)

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: No Doubt - The Singles

Long overdue...

2006-12-28T23:28:00.000+10:30

Yeah, I know. I've been terribly slack lately. And because of my slackness and crap memory, I'll prob leave heaps of stuff out of this entry. Nevermind. Here we go...

So I'll start with the most recent things. Christmas - it was really nice this year. It was very hectic, but I enjoyed it. I had to work Christmas Eve, but afterwards I went to my uncle's house as my dad's family celebrate Christmas eve with a big dinner. I missed on the food obviously, but it was good to catch up with my Melbournian cousins for a couple of hours. Christmas morning we (Alice, Lucy, Sam and myself) woke up quite early and all had showers and stuff before we did the presents. I can quite happily say that I was quite spoiled this year. I got an awse non-stick fry pan, very nice bathroom towels, cutlery, books, chocolates and money. Yes, I know alot of that stuff was qutie domesticated, but I guess that's just where I am in life at the moment, and I'm loving it!! I got Al a fishing rod (as well as one for myself) and a fondue set, so really my presents to her were for me also. Hehe.

After opening the pressies, Alice and I went to my mums to exchange gifts with her and Dana. We then went to breakfast at my auntie's house. That was your typical woggy affair - tonnes of food, tonnes of shouting, and a bit of arguing. I like it. I ate a little too much there, and we had to quickly leave to go to Alice's aunties for lunch. That was really nice, but I couldn't eat alot because of stupid breakfast. Hmm, this is dragging on quite a bit. Ok, quickly now. Dinner was spent at Alice's dad's house, which was very quiet and nice. I was in bed by 11:30 completely buggered, but crazy party girl Alice went across the road to party for a few hours. All in all it was a very nice day.

I'm really struggling to think of what else has been going on. The weather has been quite shitty lately. Too cold for my liking. Take Christmas day - it usually is quite warm, around the 30's, but this year the top was 20. Bloody rediculous if you ask me. But by the end of this week it's going to hear up again, which I'm really looking forward to.

Alice and I are going down to Yorke Peninsula for new years eve to Holly's parents farm, so we're really excited about having a couple of days to just laze around and do nothing. We have to come back on Tuesday, but then we have to go back the following weekend for a wedding. Not that I'm complaining about the wedding, but it's a kinda long drive for twice in a week. Oh well, such is life. :)

Health is going along alright. I ran out of meds a week or so ago, and started to get a bit more productive, which wasn't fun. But I made sure to get some more drugs, and now things have cleared up again. :)

Meh, this entry is crap. I can't be bothered trying to remember things and make this more coherent. All I can do is try to do better next time. :)

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom

Weddings, the beach, trials and fondue

2006-12-08T10:06:00.000+10:30

me and the bride and groom
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, once again I have left it too long to write, so I have heaps to tell everyone about.

We'll start with the highlight - last Sunday I was invited to a Christmas lunch with some very close friends of mine Alex and Monica. There was only a few of us, as well as their parents. After hanging around in their apartment for a little while, there was a knock at the door and a woman who none of us had met before walked in with a book in her hand. Yep, she was a celebrant. The sneaky buggers had ditched their plan of getting married in April next year and decided to spring a surprise wedding on us all.

So the ceremony was very nice indeed, with lots of bubble making its way around the room. Then of course there was the food, the REAL reason I was there ;). But it was so good to see them finally tie the know (they have been together for 7 years since high school) and it's awesome to have another couple of friends who I can say are married. It did make me think about my own situation with Alley as well... to those who know us know that marriage is something we CONSTANTLY talk about, so much to the point that it's quite rediculous as we have planned out everything, even though I haven't actually proposed yet. Eh, one day... hehe.

On Wednesday I decided to go for a bit of a scoot to the beach since it was such a nice day outside. I drove down to Brighton since I hadn't been there this year yet, and it was just awesome. I forget how good the beaches are here so close to the city. I walked out on the jetty and had a bit of a ol yarn with an old fisherman there and while we were talking we saw a dolphin swim casually past. Really nice like... although something not quite as nice is that there have been quite alot of shark sightings already. Some just metres off the shores at Brighton, Glenelg and West Beach (for those who aren't aware, they're the metropolitan beaches). But it's really made me want to go fishing again. Haven't done it for YEARS and I think it would be a really nice and relaxing thing to do this summer.

I have also started to participate in a gastro trial thing. Basically I think the jist of it is to measure how quickly someone with cf digests things. My first day involved fasting from 10pm the previous night, going in at 8:30 in the morning, drinking a glucose drink, then sitting in front of a machine for 3 hours (i had a little break every hour). After that we went to another room where I had to stay in there for another 3 hours. All the while of this sitting I had to have 10mls of blood taken every 15 mins.

Luckily I could bring in Charlotte so I could pass the time watching NCIS, Simpsons, Robot Chicken and Scrubs. AND I get paid for it. So there are 2 more days left, where I get to eat packet mash potato and then test to see how long that takes to go through my system - both with and without Creon (my pancreatic enzymes that I have to take whenever I eat).

We also hosted another dinner the other night with Peter, Trudy, Kate and Wayne. We were quite excited as we were doing fondue... mmmmmm, soooo good!!! However, as usual, it wasn't the smoothest of evenings. Wayne was the first casualty of the night, having stabbed his hand with the fondue prongs things. Quite badly actually... but it wsa his first time, so you can't blame him. Last time we did fondue I managed to do the honours... it just happens.

Anyway, so after we fixed all that, Kate had started to feel a bit queasy. She had been stung by a bee a few days before, which has really swelled up quite nicely. After being a bit sick, we thought it be best to take her to the hospital to make sure that there was nothing seriously wrong with her. After their departure, Alice, Pete, Trudy and me finished off our fondue evening with the dessert fondue.

It was an awesome evening - despite the obvious casualties that had occured. Hey, it's fondue. Something's bound to happen.

So I think that's it... since it's going to be 38 today, I think I'm gonna make another trip down to the beach. But I'll make sure to get some sunscreen this time so I don't burn up like last time. Idiot. Tonight is John Woods cd launch at the Grace Emily, so that should be a great night. He also won the dB's readers awards for best solo male artist. Woot!!

And then tomorrow night Taasha and Trsistan from The Audreys are doing an acoustic thingy at the Wheaty, so I'll try to get along to that. They also won an award for dB, as the best band. So go them.

I guess I better mention something about my health - I ran out of hypertonic saline and ventolin a few days ago, and have already noticed a slight increase of cough and productivity. So I'll make sure to get some more today, as I really don't wanna get sick again. But apart from that little niggle, I'm not feeling too bad at all. Still gotta do more exercise, but you're all used to me saying that so I won't feel too bad. ;)

Rating: 7.5

What I'm listening to: The Audreys - Between Last Night and Us

Anniversaries, gigs, cars and the beach

2006-11-26T23:42:00.000+10:30

going...
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all.

Lots has been going on, so let's see if I can remember it all and have you slightly entertained for the next 10 mins or so... (yes, this will prob be a long one).

As some of you may well know, our beloved car Uby hasn't been feeling the best of late. In fact, I think it's safe to say that she's dying. So much so that last week we decided to try and find a cheap run-a-round to replace her. On a drive to Elizabeth, she got a temperature and we had to leave her on the side of the road all night (not the best idea in Salisbury). Anyhoo, she survived another day. But on Wednesday of last week I found another car (this time not so far away) for $900. We went and checked her out, and she is a beauty!! She is a lovely silver Nissan Bluebird Series III wagon. Pretty much like an updated Uby. Her name is Supa Upa. She is awesome. :) We're hoping she'll be able to do the trips to Maclaren Vale and Victor (since they will be done quite regularly over summer).

Speak of last Wednesday, it was also the first night I had ever been to the famous curry night at the Exeter. Man, was it good!! There was quite a nice table of us (me, Al, Holly, Jess, Andy, Sarah and Daniel) and we all chowed down on some delicious curry before sitting outside enojying a lovely pint in the beautiful spring weather. I thoroughly recommend anyone who hasn't tried it to do so. It's on the top of my list for when my international friends come over here. :D

Last weekend we went to see The Audreys at the Gov for their first show after their totally awesome award at the Arias this year. And may I say, it was the best I've seen them. MUCH better than the last gig they did during their national tour. They're really taking off, so I'm hoping they'll play a few more shows before deserting lil ol Radelaide for the limelight of the big cities.

Thursday night was the 2 year anniversay for Alice and me. Aww I hear you all say. It was a lovely night. I got it off work, so we went for a drive down to Glenelg since we realised we hadn't been to the beach for almost a year, got a yiros and some chips, and sat there watching the sunset. It was actually a really nice night. It's been a while since I was able to sit with my best friend and being completely calm and away from all the hecticness of life and work. Then after that we went to the house where we were to be house-sitting until this Monday.

And finally the weather is really starting to get nice. We had a pretty warm day of about 36 on Friday and Saturday, so after I finished work at 4 on Sat, I picked up Al from work and we went down to the beach to have a bit of a dip and to get some colour. I'm determined to get to the beach at least a couple times a week this summer. It's just too good to pass up.

I've also been working alot lately. Not that I'm complaining since my goal is to save money over the next year, and obviously in order to do that I have to work. But it's just annoying having to work alot to save money. Hehe.

I think that's about it... my health isn't doing too badly, although I'm bit more clogged up since the last few days I've been a bit slack with my physio and stuff. Also, I knocked off my nebuliser pump the other day, so I had to race down to the Asthma foundation on Friday afternoon to get it before the weekend, otherwise I would have had to wait until Sunday. The CFSA was kind enough to help me though with a rebate of $200 on my new pump. Pretty ace there.

Well, it's getting late and i'm falling asleep, so I think it's time to head off. I'll write more later in the week when I've remembered what I've forgotten in this post.

Rating: 6.8

What I'm listening to: Yann Tiersen - Amelie soundtrack

The weekend and clinic

2006-11-15T00:12:00.000+10:30

Howdy all.

Time for another update in the life of Jaan. Thrilling tales they are!

So i'll start with the weekend. Didn't do a whole lot on Friday - caught up with some friends and had a drink at the Ex. The weather was awesome and we were lucky enough to get a table outside, so that was fun. Then Alice and I got take away from Danny's Thai Bistro and went back home to eat that and watch the first few episodes of 'Dead Like Me'. Very cool show indeed!

I had to open the shop on Saturday, but that night since Al had gone down to Yorkes for a wedding, I was on my lonesome, so thought I would treat myself to a gig. The Vasco Era were playing at the Gov. I first saw them last year sometime when they supported the Violent Femmes, and they were fantastic. I have seen them a couple of times after, but none this year, so I was well excited to see them again since we struck up a bit of a friendship when we first met.

Anyhoo, to my surprise I found out that a friend of mine from primary school (Joel) was in the support band, so I spent the night with him and his band mates. The Vasco Era played an awesome show, and I forgot just how energetic they are live. Joel then was talking to me about an after-party he was having at his house and how everyone was going to be there. I was quite tired and couldn't really be bothered going, but I asked where he lived, and he told me Edward St, which is literally around the corner from my house. So I thought I may as well pop in.

That pop in lasted till 4:30 in the morning when the cops decided it was time for the party to end. But it was a great night. And in true rock 'n roll style, the band was there, and EVERYONE was drinking it up something chronic. Even ol Jaanie had a couple... but luckily since I only lived half a minute walk away I didn't need to worry about drink driving. Hehe. I managed to take a couple of pics from the night, so have a look at my pics page for that.

And now to today - clinic. I only realised this morning that I had it on when I looked in my diary. This last week I had started to feel a little crappy - tired, lethargic and my cough had gotten a little bit more productive. I was really hoping I wasn't getting sick again as this is what happened when I first started getting sick a few months ago. But today things seemed to really clear up. I had my pft's (lung function) and was hoping for the best. Quite often, you go in feeling tops, and the results are shite. Other times, you go in feeling crap, and the results are better than you expected. So while I was feeling quite good, I didn't really have high hopes to have great blows.

But when I read the percentage, I was stoked - 62%. I was 55% when I was discharged about a month ago, and that was up from 35% when I was really sick. So that's pretty darn good. Especially considering I still haven't really started my routine of exercising (I'm planning on starting swimming REAL soon - honest!). So things are looking quite good indeed.

One last reminder for those who read this in time and live in the vacinity - Alice's exhibition is tomorrow night, so that's what's on the cards for me. It's at the Light Square Gallery and goes from 6 to 8. Should be a great night, so come along if you can muster it.

That's all for tonight. I'm getting very sleepy and my neb is just about finished.

Why have they stopped showing 'Scrubs' on tv in the mornings? They hadn't finished the season yet...

Rating: 8

What I'm listening to: Cake - Fashion Nugget

Update 100!

2006-11-09T09:57:00.000+10:30

Wow, can you believe that? I've spewed 100 meaningless posts from my grubby little fingers. Thanks for sticking by me all! I like it how people read my thoughts. Especially when I don't see alot of you very regularly.

So, what's been going on? Well, first thing's first - I am in love. Her name is Charlotte. She is absolutely beautiful!!! I've done things with her I never thought possible. I can't believe it took me this long to afford her. But she was well worth the price. I am talking about my lovely new MacBook Pro. :) Man, she is the bomb. You guys would love her! Hehe. Alright, enough of that. But there was a little drama when she was delivered. It was Friday morning, and because the fortress is so impenetrible, the delivery guy didn't knock on the door to get my signature to deliver it. Even though I made sure to stay home so that I could be there when she came. I went outside to find the little slip in the letter box saying that I had missed him, so I rang the company to organise when to pick it up. But they told me that it wouldn't be available until Monday morning. Oooh, I was pissed! So I had to wait all weekend knowing that my new baby was in the same town as me, and I couldn't do a thing about it.

And to top the weekend off, I had to work 11 hours on Saturday, and 10 hours on Sunday. I was well buggered... but I need the money so I'm not going to complain again.

Last week I had another ENT appointment, and that went rather well. He was very pleased with how everything looks up there, and said there isn't any swelling or infection at all. The headaches have also stopped, so it pretty much feels like it's healed 100%.

My general health is also still going strong. Although yesterday I noticed a little more persistant cough... hopefully it was just a one off thing. I'll double up the physio today to make sure. But yeah, I'm feeling great still, which is a change from a few months ago. I'm planning on starting swimming again in the coming weeks. I need to do something else, otherwise I'll just fall into the same pattern as before and prob get sick before I knew it.

So I think that's all... but one last thing before I go, I wanted to mention Alice's end of year exhibition that's been keeping her uber busy and stressed. The opening is next Wednesday, the 15th of November from 6-8 pm at the Light Square Gallery, 39 Light Square (the big arts TAFE building). So if you're in the area, please come along. She will be very appreciative, but more importantly you can look at some great artwork as well as have a free drink!

Rating: 7.8

What I'm listening to: Fuel - Sunburn

CF Ball

2006-10-31T10:05:00.000+10:30

tasty eyeball
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hey all.

Saturday night was the annual 65 Roses Ball (for cf). Our table consisted of myself, Alice, Pete, Truds, Lucy, Sam, Holly, Jo, Jess and her brother Chris. We had 4 ball virgins (Lucy, Sam, Jo and Chris) and I think I'm safe to say they had a great night. The theme this year was chocolate! So good. There were big chocolate statues of characters like Yoda, Scooby Doo, and that one eye monsters from Monsters Inc. Also, scattered on every table were heaps of Cadbury Roses. Mmm... Jess and Truds actually got a bit carried away by going to all the other tables and displays and knicking all the strawberry and pepermint flavoured ones. Damn they were tasty...

So all of us (barr Jess and Chris) met at the fortress beforehand to help each other get ready. Well, the girls anyway. Us boys were ready in no time. We're so smart... We tried to get a Des's minibus for all of us, but when I rang them and told them what time it would be needed, I was treated with a laugh and the response "Not a chance in hell". Fair enough... two cabs it was.

This year it was held at the Wine Centre. Having never been there before, I was quite impressed. It worked really. well. After arriving and getting to our tables, there was much schmoozing to be had. Surprisingly there weren't alot of people I knew there. Maybe about 5 or 6 cf's in total. But we made sure not to waste any time before we starting hitting the free alcohol. And this year I was VERY pleased to see that the beer was sponsored by Coopers. About time they put a good beer there...

Amanda Blair was hosting the night, and it was quite a shock. It felt like we were at school again. She was telling everyone off for talking and not being quiet. I liked it however. It was a good change from the past hosts who couldn't shush a room if their life depended on it. I think some of us may be in the Sunday Mail too... but we'll have to wait on that one. ;)

The 3 course meal was very tasty indeed. Entree was antipasto stuff with meats and that. Main was either a chicken dish or a beef dish. I chose beef. Damn tasty. Dessert was some chocolate cake thing, but since it had cream, I decided against it.

Halfway through the ball, they held auctions for some coolio prizes, such as signed guernsey's, getaway's at B & B's, things like that. Unlike 2 years ago, where I was stuck with winning the auction for the signed Crows footy guernsey for $550, this year, the auction items went for ALOT more. I"m talking each one at least $1000. It was incredible. While it sucked that I couldn't bid on anything, it was really good seeing how much money was being raised. There were also heaps of silent auctions, but I didn't really look at the prices of them.

So the rest of the night involved drinking stupendous amounts, dancing like there was no tomorrow, and catching up with old friends (and new). Another new feature this year was that an acutal after party had been organised. Granted, it was at the Royal, but it meant that we actually had somewhere to go to continue the drunk chats we were all enjoying so much. Slowly, people started to drift home, and when Holly and Jo said they were going to a Halloween party, I took that as my cue to head to bed myself. 3:30am, not a bad time.

I had to work on Sunday, but I was quite surprised with how well I was feeling. I had to do a bit of extra physio Sunday night to couterract the lack of physio on Saturday, but I feel like I'm back to normal again. Lungs are still quite clear, and my headaches are becoming less and less frequent. It's a lovely day today so I think I may as well go for a nice walk. Especially since I'm not working... Ooh, I think I'll go into town to have lunch with Al. Yeah, good idea Jaan.

So there are quite a few pics I put up, feel free to take a squizz. Some of them are good. Some of them not so...

Rating: 8

What I'm listening to: KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope

Update number whatever

2006-10-25T18:26:00.000+09:30

Hey all.

It's been a while, so I thought I do another wee post. Although, nothing much has been happening, so this will prob be the most boring one to date. Oh well. You're still gonna read it, aren't ya? Yeah, you know you are...

So the health thing is going pretty good. My lungs have still remained clear, which I'm even surprised at. I'm not complaining mind you, but I just would have thought I would be feeling alot worse since the op. My nose has been very clear and nice to breathe out of, and the headaches have started getting less and less extreme. Although, I'm still needing some panadeine forte every now and then just to take the edge off.

I've been working heaps. Both Saturday and Sunday I worked from 10 to 8, so I'm a bit tired from that. Ooh, funny story from work. You see, I had to open on Sunday, and the restaurant next door decided not to open, so the gates were all closed and locked. Since I didn't have a key for the padlock, I had to climb over the gate to get to the back door of the store. I started to climb it, but when I got to the top, I was a bit off balance and decided to get back down and try again. However, my pants got caught on one of the spikes, and I was left hanging there, ripped pants and all, and a very strained neck. I kept me helmet on though, so even if I did fall on my head, it wouldn't have been that bad. But the last few days I haven't been able to move my head much. It really hurts actually. But it was a funny situation so I won't whinge about it. He he.

And last night we went to Coriole for a family dinner. Was real nice. I haven't been up there in ages so it was good to get back up there again. But that's all from me. Alice is still super busy organising her end of year exhibition, so I'll remind everyone when that's on so you can all get down and have a looksee. Should be alot of good stuff there.

Rating: 7.9

What I'm listening to: Hmm, what HAVE I been listening to... Ah, I'll go with the Beach Boys. Yeah, that'll do. :)

Oh yeah, and last night, thanks to a call from Pete, I bought myself a brand spankin new MacBook Pro. Oooh yeah! I'm so excited I think I may wet my pantaloons...

Another update

2006-10-07T00:25:00.000+09:30

It's been about a week since I last wrote, and even though not alot has happened, I need something to do while I wait for the fridge to defrost, and I'm in a typing mood. Anyone ever get in those moods where you just wanna type? Or write? I like writing... but not too much because then I get writers cramp. And being a lefty means smudging when you write for an extended period of time. But it's mainly because of the fridge (why I'm typing this, not the smudges. Fridges don't cause smudges).

ANYWAY, yes. Not alot has been going on. I haven't gone back to work yet as I'm still getting quite nasty headaches every now and then, and they get really bad when I flush out my sinues. So I don't think I could handle 6 hours of serving people and stuff. However, I'm running extremely low on cash so I'll prob need to go back next week regardless of how I'm feeling. Bummer.

I went to the ENT doctor on Wednesday for a post-op check up. He took quite alot of crap out of my nose (clotted blood and stuff) and since doing that it's even clearer than it was after the op, which is nice. He said everything's healing really well, and there aren't any concerns about anything. The bone in my upper sinuses is still quite raw, but healing nicely, which is why I'm still going to be having headaches for a while. But again, nothing that wasn't expected or too serious.

As for my chest - since I'm still not able to do full blown physio yet, as the pressure is a bit too much on my nose, I can't get all the crap that's been collecting in my lungs since the op. It's still not too bad, which is surprising, but it's definitely not as great as it was before I went in. But with each day things get a little easier, so I'm still hoping that it won't get too bad that I won't be able to recover fully from it.

So tomorrow we're going bowling with Lucy which should be some fun. I'll try not to win by too much and make them feel bad... that's about all the plans I have. And back to our fridge - it's completely knackered. The stupid thing has completely frozen up on us, even on the lowest setting, so everything inside is frozen. The poor cat has had to wait until lunch time for his breakfast to defrost. The girls can't eat anything healthy because all the vegies froze and then went all gross after they defrosted. It's just crap. So hopefully we'll be getting a replacement fridge on Sunday, but until then, we pretty much have to do our shopping day by day. Yes, our lives are really exciting at the moment.

Alice is also a bit sick at the moment. Poor thing. It's holidays for her, which is usually the time where her body decides it's time to have a break from being healthy and shuts down for a bit. Nothing serious - runny nose, sore throat, a bit of pain. She should be better in a couple of days. Otherwise I don't know what I'll do - we can't have both of us whinging our heads off!

I think that's about it. Either way, I'm going. I've put up some new pics also if you wanna have a look. Nothing too exciting - just of us the other day when it was real nice outside. :)

Rating: 6.3

What I'm listening to: José González - Veneer

Back home again

2006-09-30T10:12:00.000+09:30

close up
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Woot! Finally, I'm back in the comforts of 'the fortress'. It's damn fine to be home! :)

So I went in to the Royal Adelaide Hospital to start iv's again on Wednesday last week and didn't really do a whole lot until the operation on Friday. I then went to the Memorial Hospital from the RAH and got admitted there. It was all done fairly quickly as I was meant to be admitted at 11, x-ray at 11.30 and op at 1. But since I took my sweet arse time getting ready, we didn't get there until about 11:20am, so eveything got postponed. I ended up being in theatre at 2.

So I got dressed up in the swanky clothes they provided, laid down on the table, and as per usual, due to my crappy veins, it took a couple of goes to get the drip in. Finally done, I felt the sitng of the anesthetic enter my veins, and I was off in la-la land.

Four and a half hours later, I hear the familiar sounds of the recovery room; nurses talking, machines beeping, footsteps all around me, and the lights. Such bright lights! I remember the first thing I checked when I woke up was if I had a catheder or not. You seee, the surgeon told me that this procedure can sometimes take a while, like 8 or 9 hours, and if that was the case with me, they would have to insert one to help my bladder. Definitely something I didn't want. But luckily it only took 4 and a half hours, so as I woke up, I remeber checking down there, and thinking, 'Thank God!'. It then wasn't long before I felt another familiar feeling - sick. So I leant forward and out spewed the magnificent dark red blood that had been filling up my stomach for the past few hours. Yum. I was also sweating prefusely and was extremely hot. They had to put an ice pack on my neck but that didn't really help. So put that together with throwing up, being connected to 5 billion machines, all sorts of tubes in your arms and on your chest, your nose completely packed with gauze and bolts in your head, and these compressor things on your legs to stop DVT, and I wasn't a happy chappy.

There's not much to remember from the recovery room. I was pretty out of it. I hate waking up from an anesthetic. All you want to do is to be able to function properly and be alert, but your body just doesn't want to. So annoying. I was then wheeled into the Critical Care Unit where I was to spend the whole night.

My mum and sister were there to greet me, and it wasn't long before Alice came down from work and spent the evening with me. Even though I was really out of it and pretty much just sleeping, it's so nice just to have someone there when you wake up for a minute. So comforting. I love it. But then she had to leave, and I had the whole night ahead of me. I couldn't wait.

Still connected up to all the machines, along with the compressor things on your legs, and only being able to lie on your back and move your head from side to side, doesn't leave a whole lot of room for getting comfortable to sleep. So your night consists of about half an hour naps. The night goes sooo slow. And all the time you are still feeling sick and miserable, just waiting for the next day to come.

Strangely, I remember waking up from one of my naps thinking that it could only have been 2 or 3am, but I saw the sun light coming through the curtain. Ahhh, I couldn't believe it. Such relief! It wasn't long then before I hear the familiar voice of Alice talking to the nurses and walking up to my bed. Such a good girl - 8am and there to be with me while I wake up! :)

The next hour is spent with me talking, trying to sit up, drink a bit of water, bascically doing everything I can to just feel a bit more 'with it'. I then get out of bed and walk down to the shower, trying not to fall over. Lotsa fun. The surgeon then came in, took the packing out of my nose, which wasn't as bad as last time thankfully, and said that I could go back to the RAH when I was ready.

Mum came, picked me up, dropped me back in my old room at the RAH, and I spent the next 5 hours watching footy on my bed and half falling asleep. So nice to be back.

On Tuesday they took out the pins in my head. They put two pins in your forehead to help keep the sinuses clear of infection after the op. They flush saline through them about 4 times a day. It works pretty well. Only it hurts. You know the feeling of an ice cream headache? Well, this is ten times worse and you have to take quite a few pain killers just to take the edge off. But they say it has to be done and it really keeps it cleaner, so who am I to disagree.

I think that's about it... so like I said, I got back home yesterday, and am feeling great for that. I'm still getting headaches, but they aren't as bad as they were a few days ago. I'm feeling healthy, and I can breathe perfectly through my nose, but I'm still quite lethargic and flat. But that's from the anesthetic. It'll take me a while before I get back to my normal self. It could be a week or two, or a couple of months, but it will happen eventually. I just gotta make sure that I keep up with physio and exercise in the mean time so that I can make that recovery time as quick as possible. And now that my sinuses are clear of infection and stuff, that shouldn (theoretically anyway) make my lungs a bit better. AND the weather is getting really nice, which is making me want to get out more and do stuff.

Oh, one last thing. Last night we went to see Ben Folds and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Simply stunning. I mean, if you're not a fan of Ben Folds, then obviously it wouldn't have been the best night out. But the arrangements of the orchestra was just beautiful, and along with some of his songs, well, we just loved it. We managed to snag tickets 3 rows from the front, and being seated and all, it was so nice to not have to stand up for 3 hours, being pushed by sweaty fat men, and to even be able to have a snack! But yeah, he was awesome, and had lots of funny tales to tell, as always, but being in Adelaide, which is now his second home, it had an extra intimacy feel to it. He even told us of his addresses, one being William St, where we are! Pretty cool...

I think that's enough for now. Cheers for all the words of love and support that you've been sending to Alice and I. It means alot.

Rating - 6.5

Going in tomorrow

2006-09-19T18:25:00.000+09:30

Not a long one this time. Just letting you all know that I'll be going back to the RAH tomorrow to get settled in before the op on Friday. I reckon I'll be in till Friday next week. I have no idea how the recovery will go, but I'm hoping it will go alright considering how good I'm feeling at the moment. Lungs are still fairly clear and I have heaps of energy. I think the weather has something to do with it as well...

But as for other stuff, nothing has really been going on. Working. Oh, and since yesterday was such nice weather, I decided to try and get a tan by riding my scooter all day. Lotsa fun. Didn't get any colour, but it was still fun. I went to Ikea for the first time. I know everyone pays it out, even me, but man, they have so much crap there that you could easily get suckered into buying. Luckily I only had my scooter so I couldn't actually buy anything as it wouldn't fit in my bag.

But yes, that's it. All going well I'll be back on here in a week or so. Woot!

Rating: 8

What I'm listening to: Zero 7 - The Garden

Going good so far...

2006-09-15T17:37:00.000+09:30

So things have been keeping very good since my last post. I haven't gotten any sicker, which is great since last time I started to get worse after only a week. I'm really hoping that the meds worked properly this time and that I'll stay good for a while.

Anyhoo, like I said last time, I have to go back next week to get the op on my sinuses, and I got the phone call today to say that I'll be going in to the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Wednesday. So I'll be in there till Friday, where I'll then go to the Memorial for the op, then back to the RAH on Saturday and spend the next week there. What fun. But since I'm feeling so tops, I'm hoping that the recover shouldn't take too long.

The only little piece of info is that Becky (a dear friend of mine who has been living overseas the last 2 years) surprised us with being back in Adelaide on Wednesday night. Twas quite a shock. A good one though. So another one of my friends is back in town. It's just like the old days. So much fun.

And the weather is getting soo nice. I love it! Although, it's not so great for the farmers or the water supply. If we don't get a nice downpour soon, there will be some full on water restrictions here, which won't be so much fun. Especially if we're going to have a stinking hot summer. Let's all put our collective thoughts, prayers, vibes, voodoo magic together to get some wet happening!

That's about it. I may write more before I go in, but if nothing happens, then I probably won't. Woot.

Rating: 8

What I'm listening to: KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope

Back home!

2006-09-10T21:02:00.000+09:30

gee
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hey all youse guys!!

How ya doing? Well, as for me, I'm doing bloody super! I got out of hospital on Wednesday and so far things have stayed just as great health wise. I had lung function on Tuesday and it went up to 50% from 37% the week before, which is pretty impressive. If you remember, last admission they went up a whole total of 5% in a month, so I'll take 13% in two weeks easily. :)

This hospital admission wasn't as bad as the last one... last time I wasn't getting any better, and because I was feeling so shite, I didn't want to get out and just spent all day watching tv in bed. The weather probably had something to do with it as well... those few days a week ago where the weather was perfect and sunny I went into the botanical gardens and laid down on the grass and enjoyed outsideness again. It'd been a while. It was awesome though - Alice and I played cards and listened to music, and Peter, Ben and myself listened to music, talked about how great we are, played some cards, as well as watch some cute ducklings make their way around the trees.

So basically now my lungs are clear, and I'm only coughing up a little during physio. In between physio sessions, it's pretty much a dry cough, and I can't remember the last time it was this good. The only thing left for me to do is get my fitness up. At least I can walk to the shops now without dying on the corner.

I have to go back however in 2 weeks for my sinus operation. They have to clear out all my sinuses, and it's going to be a fairly big job, so that will prob set me back a little bit. I'll have the operation at the Memorial Hospital, then go back to the Royal Adelaide for a week afterwards to have some more iv's to get me over the anesthetic.

It looks like I'm gonna be skint as well for the next month. So far, the op is going to cost me at least $600, so I'm not too happy about that. I always thought having private health insurance would actually cover you for everything, but I guess I was wrong. This is the first year that I've had to actually pay for my own insurance, so maybe that's why I was a bit surprised. The folks probably paid all this stuff in the past. Anyhoo, enough whinging. It's all good. Hopefully this should be the end of medical stuff for a while and I'll be able to run around creating havoc through summer. :)

So that's the scoop. I'll go back to work next week, which won't be too bad since I need the money and something to do during the day. We still have two extra tickets to the Ben Folds concert we need to sell, so if anyone's interested, gimme a call and we can organise something. It should be a great night!

Just want to say a huge thanks to all who sent good messages and vibes my way while I was in hospital. I must admit, I was feeling down right shit and wasn't too sure whether I would get really good again. But I did so there's not too much to worry about just yet. Alice definitely deserves a medal for all she put up with. I couldn't ask for anything more. She's a trooper!

Ben leaves back for Montreal on Monday, so I think tonight we're heading out to the Elephant Walk for some loverly deserts. He comes back in January though so there won't be enough time to miss him too much.

Enough. I've finished. :)

Rating : 8

What I'm listening to: Sparta - Wiretap Scars

P.S. there are some new piccies up if you're interested in seeing what I get upto in hostable.

Going into hospital

2006-08-22T16:08:00.000+09:30

Orright, so here's the deal. I'm feeling right shite, so I'm not going to spend too long on here.

Since my last post I've been getting worse each day, to the point where I am out of breath watching tv, and having coughing fits every 10 mins or so. Sometimes so much that I'm throwing up. Not much fun.

And my nose has also been getting worse. Increasingly congesting up, more and more snot coming out, and now I've started getting the sinus headaches. Not really surprising though after seeing the results from my CT scan. Every part of sinus you could imagine is completely blocked up. And not just by polyps - that has now led to infection and fungus. Mmm, lunch anyone? So the docs think that this could be a main cause in why I've been feeling so crap the last few months, since this sinus issue is something that has been brewing for quite some time now.

So when I had my appointment with my ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor, he was telling me that the only procedure that would get rid of most of the infection was a big one - not only do they have to scrape out all the polyps and stuff, they also have to drill two holes in my forehead so they can screw in two metal plug things to flush my sinuses with saline for a week afterwards. I'll make sure to take pics of that one. This is what I had done last time, which they said I shouldn't have to have done again. Yeah, maybe if I actually went to an appointment afterwards to keep an eye on the wee little buggers it wouldn't have got to this point... However, that's not the end of it. They have also decided to shave back all the bone in my upper sinus, so basically it'll be one big chamber, rather than little caves everywhere. It should all be good as long as they don't scrape into my brain... but this means that the op is going to take about 4 hours, rather than just half an hour (I think...). Not that I'll be conscious to be aware of it, but it just means that it's more anesthetic in my system, which means a longer recovery time.

The original plan was to do it while I was having a routine 2 week IV admission, so that the antibiotics would help me get over it. However, I got the call yesterday from the chest clinic saying that I'll be going in Wednesday (tomorrow) so when I went to book the op, they said the original date of the 31st of August had been taken up, and the next available one isn't until the 22nd of September. Such a spew... but not much I can do now. If something get's cancelled before then, I'll be going in early, but I doubt that will happen.

So now it's back to me going in tomorrow for 2 weeks of rest and antibiotics. Let's hope that this admission works a tad better than the last one - where I didn't get better for a month and they couldn't figure out what was wrong.

I'll still have my mobile on me and turned on so if you wanna send lovely text's my way shoot! I may not reply since I am a lazy bastard, but I'll be happy. :)

That's all for now. I'm out of breath typing this so I'm off.

Rating: not really much point, but what the heck! 3

What I'm listening to: The Bedridden - Live at the Crown and Anchor

P.S. I've updated some of the music I listen to section. Some new stuff. Most of them are now the myspace sites, purely for the benefit that you can hear some of the music from that site rather than their homepages... also, you can still access their homepage from their myspace page. Woot!

Weather's getting warmer, but I'm getting sicker

2006-08-11T12:56:00.000+09:30

How much does that suck? Usually with the warmer weather, I get heaps better. But as I've said before, this year is a bad one and shouldn't be compared to previous ones. So since my last post, my health has deteriorated a bit. My chest has gotten quite a lot tighter, pretty much as it was when I last got really sick. The only thing different this time is that I don't have any of the other symptoms I did before - headaches, fevers, stuff like that. So that's good. However, still feeling royally shite. I get puffed out walking to the toilet, and the other morning I woke up at 4am and coughed for about 2 hours straight. Not much fun. I'm really hanging out for another dose of IV's, but I have to wait to see when I can have my sinus surgery.

Now that I made a lovely segway, I can continue. I had my ENT appointment on Tuesday and as expected, the doc saw polyps. But before we can decide what to do, I had to have a CT scan of my sinuses to see just how badly they are blocked. I had that done later that day, but have to wait until Wednesday next week to see him again. Then hopefully we can decide what action to take. There are a couple of different procedures, so we'll make a decision then.

One last bit of news is that sadly, last week I had the unpleasant task of taking my beloved dog Mitzu to the vet to be put to sleep. He was fairly old, so he had a good run, but his time was up. He was blind, deaf, slightly senile and in his last week, he was sleeping pretty much non-stop and wouldn't eat much. It was sad, but it was the right thing to do. It's just weird going back to mums now because he was such a part of that house. It's so different to not hear him running around the corner or his nails on the floor boards. Oh well, it mostly always happens sooner or later.

So I think that's about it... Like I said before, the weather is getting nice. We are having a couple of days where it's reached 20, with perfectly clear skies. Beautiful. The nights are still chilly, but I think the worst of winter is now behind us and we have a nice hot summer to look forward to. It's about time if you ask me.

Next Thursday The Audreys are playing at the Gov, so it will be awesome to see them again. They are doing so well at the moment - they've just got back from a tour of Canada, the States, Europe and the UK. Insane. I'm not sure if it's sold out yet, but for those who are in Radelaide and can make it, definitely go check me out. My lovely friend Holly is also playing supporting them, who is an absolute pleasure to listen to also. And then the week after the Vasco Era are playing at Jive, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it. If I'm still feeling the way I am now, probably not. I don't think my lungs could handle a night out in a smoky place.

Anyhoo, I'm off to do physio and try to make myself useful at home somehow...

Rating: 4.5

What I'm listening to: nothing at the moment. ipod's been playing up.

P.S. Remember a while ago I was talking about Sia's film clip that I went to the filming of? Well, there's a copy of it to see, so have a look. It's cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VvbSOYJamA

Polyps, Muffin, Toby and Birthdays!

2006-07-27T15:35:00.000+09:30

his name is toby
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

A little bit to get through, and I have to go to work soon, so i'll try not to have too much jibberish...

So since I finished my IV's a month or so ago, my nose has increasingly been getting blocked up and more and more snotty (yum). This is because of my polyps (basically pea sized growths of skin that grow in your sinuses). When I was on IV's, I didn't really notice them because the antibiotics shrink them and I could breathe fine. But now that I've been off them, they've grown back and because of it, my left nostril is pretty much completely blocked up. Sleeping is getting more difficult, and I have the attractive look of boogers making their little appearances constantly.

I have an appointment with the ENT (ear, nose throat) doctor next week, so hopefully I can book in a time to have the operation which is needed to remove them. This totally sucks because it means I need a general anesthetic which wreaks absolute havoc with my lungs and takes me about 6-8 months to completely recover from. SO, since I need to have them out eventually, and it's only going to get worse the longer I leave it, and the longer I leave it the bigger the op will be, I decided to get it done now and even though that means another admission, the 3rd one this year, I'm ok with that.

Hmm, these sentences are really long winded and don't read very well. Tough. These are my words and I'm sticking to it. :)

Muffin is going awesome. He's still psycho, but at least he knows who we are now, and dare I say, loves us. He is the cutest cat I've ever seen, however he is the biggest wimp. The moment we leave, even if it's just to the toilet, he starts to cry like a little baby. Oh well. He stops after about 5 mins.

Toby - yes, I made a new purchase on Monday. I had the idea to get a scooter last week, since petrol prices are going up all the time, and since I don't actually own a car anymore. So I started looking, and low and behold, I saw the add for a postie bike. Well, these are WAY cooler than your average scooter, so Eros and I went to see it on Monday and I bought it on the spot. So pleased with it. The guy was asking for $1300, but I offered him $1000 to which he relunctantly said yes to, and threw in a helmet for good measure. What a nice guy. Except I had to ride it all the way back from Salisbury, and being my first real time on a bike, twas a bit scary. But soon enough I got the hang of it and was riding like a pro in no time - one handed, looking around, even having a smile on my face. Anyhoo, the bike is sweet so look out for me on the roads!!

And finally, today is Alice's birthday. And for the first time in a whlie, I had some nice ideas for pressies. Since she's always borrowing my explorers during our cold spell, I thought she deserved a pair of her very own. She also steals my dressing gown, so she is now the proud owner of one of them too. And finally, since she loves mushrooms, I thought I would get her a mushroom growing kit. How cool is that?? Fresh musshies right at your door. :)

Phew. I think that's about it. We're going bowling on Saturday night, so looking forward to that. It's the lock in thing where there are all these crazy neon lights and you can win prizes and everything. Woot!

Rating - 6.5

What I'm listening to: Zero 7 - The Garden

P.S. More pics as well. :)

We have added a new member to the family!

2006-07-14T16:37:00.000+09:30

cute
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Everybody welcome Muff (short for Muffin).

I went and picked him up today. Now, I've never been much of a cat person myself, but isn't he just adorable?? Soo cute!

Anyway, enough from me. :D

Another update from the pen (well, keyboard in this case) of Jaanie

2006-07-13T13:16:00.000+09:30

close up 2
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

So we've had a bit of rain, but not alot. I'm annoyed at that. I want our typical winter - lots of rain, not too cold, and that's about it. Maybe a thunderstorm thrown in here and there for good measure. I'm sick of this dry, crisp and freezing cold weather we've been having. And what about the poor farmers?? Poor farmers... but apparantly by the weekend there should be some more water falling from the heavens. Let's hope so.

Anyhoo, so the weather has been annoying me, but that's about all I can complain about. Things have been pretty quiet since my last post. Worked lots on the weekend, and started playing squash again regularly. That's been fun... however I cough alot while I'm playing and once I get home, which in turn gives me headaches for the rest of the day. Quite annoying. But if it's keeping me healthy, then I'm not going to complain too much. But I've now realised that the meds I'm taking at the moment have done all they're going to do, so the rest is up to me to remain healthy - which quite frankly is a tad annoying. I had just gotten used to the meds doing all the work and me getting better in the mean time, and now it's all up to me again?? Geez...

The other piece of news to tell is that (finally) I got my 3rd tattoo done yesterday. Alice and I had half designed it, and the tattoo guys did the rest when I took it in a couple of weeks ago. It took about an hour to complete, and it hurt far more than what I had expected... I mean, I have 2 other ones, but they are small and are on my arms. So I was basing the pain on those two... friends who have had tatts on their back told me that it hurt, but I didn't really believe them... Man, was I wrong. It was some of the worst pain I've ever experienced. There were a couple of points where I actually thought I wouldn't be able to complete it. But nevertheless, I stood strong (well, sat strong anyways) and it was well worth it. I love it! Now it's just a matter of deciding what I wanna do to it next...

Oh, one other bit of news is that we may be getting another housemate - of the animal kind. We have the option of bringing in a small kitten to our family, which would be sooo cool. I just have to make sure that we are allowed to have one at the house... hopefully so. It would be so awesome though to have a pet again. Not that I don't have one at the moment. Mitzu is still alive, but he lives at mums, so I don't see him that much. And he doesn't see me either - he's pretty much blind. Chuck in deafness and being cenile, he's not the most fun pet to have. Hehe. He's alright though. In fact, I think I might go and see him today...

That's about it I think. I saw on the news a few days ago that there are some people trying ot push a law so that everyone automatically becomes an organ donor. Personally, I think that is the best idea ever. Fair enough if you have a reason to not donate, be it religious or whatnot, but for all those who are just too slack to register or don't really care, then it's pretty unfair to those of us who might need a tranasplant later in life to miss out due to someone's slackness... well, that's my opinion anyway.

Alright - enough ranting!

Rating - 7.0

What I'm listening to: Zero 7 - The Garden

P.S. So as you can see, I've put more pics up. Have a squizz by clicking the "My happy snaps" link to the right.

Vineyards and good times

2006-07-06T00:55:00.000+09:30

vineyards
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all,

A very quick one here. Just got back from a deliciously awesome dinner at Coriole with Alice's mum and step dad. It was a bit cold and wet, but still beautiful nonetheless. I've uploaded quite a few pics so when you get time have a squizz.

:)

Clinic yesterday

2006-07-05T13:17:00.000+09:30

This won't be a long one, as there's not alot to tell since my last post. But yesterday I had my clinic appointment, and it didn't go too badly. My lung funcion went up to 58%, which I was a tad annoyed at. I've been feeling really good lately; my chest is really clear and I started squash on Monday, so I was expecting it to be a little higher than 58%. I was thinking more in the 60's... however, the doctor told me that since I was very sick, it will take a little longer than usual for me to get back up to my best, which makes sense. So while I wasn't that happy with the results, it's really not that bad and at least it's getting better. I can't really expect anything more than that. I have another clinic in 2 months so barring me catching another bug, it will be a while before I have anything to report from there.

The only other little bit of stuff to tell you is quite a funny story. I thought of an awesome present to get Alice for her birthday, which was tickets to Ben Folds with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. So I was all sneaky and ordered them online and whenever she said we should go I was even cleverer and said that I was pretty sure they had all sold out etc etc. Anyhoo, the other day and she asks me if she can borrow my pension card. I knew this meant that she was planning on buying something that required it, and I immediately thought of tickets to Ben Folds. However, I couldn't say anything of course in risk of blowing my surprise to her. So like a chump I held my tongue and waited to see her later in the day to see what she bought. Low and behold, when I saw her, she presented two tickets to Ben Folds. How we laughed. Great minds do think alike. At least I have a back up plan for her bday...

So now we have 4 tickest, so if anyone is interested in going, lemme know and we can give them to you (in exchange of some Australian currency of course). ;) If not, we'll just get them refunded or something. But I thought I would ask all of you since we have them, and by the time you are going to buy them from Bass, there might only be crap seats left. Plus, because we are student and pensioner, they are the cheaper tickets too.

Well, that's all. I'm off to have a shower and then get the kids (Alice, Ben and Claude) together to go and have a nice dinner at Coriole. Yum yum.

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium (still)

Thursday the twenty ninth of June, at one o one in the pm

2006-06-29T13:04:00.000+09:30

Alroight, there are some things I wanna get off my chest.

First: I'm so disappointed that we are no longer in the World Cup. I stayed up to watch the match, and up until the last 10 seconds, it was the most exciting match I had seen yet. In my mind I was all prepared to go into extra time, so I was only half watching and half eating vita-weats with salami, pickles and cheese. Then I heard the whistle. I couldn't believe it. It was over. There was no way he was gonna miss a penalty. I was just lost for words.

Now don't get me wrong - I have no problem losing. We prob wouldn't have won if it went into extra time anyway. They had only 10 players for almost half of the match, and we just couldn't penetrate their defence. All to their credit. If we had gone into extra time and Italy scored in the first minute, I would have been so proud and happy that we got that far. It was just so disappointing for it to end the way it did... so cheap, so soft, so nothing of what we had been about during the entire Cup. But oh well. Shit happens, let's just hope that this has given more to soccer in Australia, so that in 4 years we can hopefully go back and have another crack.

The second thing I wanted to talk about: I saw The Omen last night, with some free movie tickets I got for Christmas. Man, talk about a crappy film. Now, I did go in thinking that I wouldn't like it, but I didn't think it was going actually be a really bad film. I haven't seen the original for a couple of years, but I don't remember the script being that bad. And apparently this new version stuck quite true to it. Or maybe I just made that up... I can't remember. Anyway, it really made it clear to me that today's movies are all about the cinematography, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, if it's in the right context. I mean, if it's an arty movie or whatever, and the story relies on the way it's being shot, then sure, go for gold. But when it's a movie that revolves around the plot, there's no need for fancy close ups, shaky cameras, loud, stupid sound effects that are just stupid. There were so many points during it where I found myself laughing out of embarrassment to Alice. She was laughing too... The script was really poorly written - rarely do you watch a film where you can imagine the words typed up on a piece of paper, but with this one you can. So many cheesy lines... it was bordering painful. ALSO, I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it, but the where some air is injected into a drip is totally ludicrous. I've injected more into my line from time to time, and I'm still kicking and breathing.

Anyway, enough ranting. :) Apart from these two things, not a lot has been going on. I'm still working, which is alright, but I've noticed that I'm a bit more exhausted than I was previously. Nothing too bad, but enough to stop me wanting to go out and do anything. Plus the fact that at night it's fricken freezing outside. I'm seriously starting to get worried about the weather here - it's so dry and cold. No rain whatsoever. Winter should be full of wet and water. But not so far...

My chest is pretty clear still. I've finished the prednisolone, so I've had to make sure I'm really keeping up to date with all my physio and stuff. I've noticed a very slight increase in sputum when doing physio, but that's to be expected as I finished the course of steroids. I'm just hoping that I can keep on top of things from here on. I'm going to start up squash again next week, which should bring me back up even more. I have a clinic next Tuesday, and barring catching another bug, I should be alright for that. I'll let you all know how it goes (obviously).

Hmm, I think that's all I had to say. If not I'll type it up when I remember it.

Big love to you all

Rating: 6.8

What I'm listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium. Man, this is a good album. It's grown on me so much, and it's steadily becoming my fav Peppers album. :D

What's with this weather??

2006-06-16T11:09:00.000+09:30

I mean, seriously, it's cold. Really cold. I don't ever remember Adelaide being this cold. The other night it got down to 0.2C... I'm lucky I have nothing to do at 8am except keep my bed warm. But feel for Alice - she has to leave for TAFE at that time, so the poor lass is freezing her wee bum off walking to the bus stop. Stupid weather...

Anywho, enough of that. So what's been happening with me? Well, for starters I've done a couple of shifts at Alpha again. Nothing too strenuous, just a few hours on Tuesday and a few more last night. I don't think I'm able to do a full shift yet, especially at night since it gets so cold and Alpha doesn't have the best heating system... But I'm hoping in a few weeks I'll be right to get back to my normal shifts. It is good to have money again.

And as far as my health goes I'm quite happy with my progress. I don't know if it's the prednisolone, being back at home, or I've had enough time for my body to recover, but I'm still getting a bit better with each day. My chest has cleared up to the point where I don't even cough up alot during physio, and between physio sessions I pretty much have a dry cough. I can't remember the last time I felt like this.

I don't know if any of you read her blog, but Alice is now actively taking part in my physio. Instead of me just doing breathing cycles to clear my lungs, she does PD (posteral drainage), which for those who can't remember seeing me in hospital when I was a young rascal, involves me lying down, and someone (in this case Alice) thumping me on my chest and back to losen up all the gunk. Some people don't find it that effective, but I find it's working a treat. So I'll keep on doing it until either I think it's not doing alot of Alice can't be bothered... but I don't think that will happen. She is just too darn nice!

So all is good in that respect. However, I still don't have alot of fitness. Being sick for as long as I was certainly took it's toll on my body, as I still get out of breath walking down the block. But I'm continuing my little walks to try and build that up.

As far as the house goes - we've decided that we're not going to jump the gun and think about moving out... yet anyway. We've decided that we're really going to keep it clean, but on top of that, when we find out if we can extend the lease, we might fork out the money to get our room re-carpeted and re-beaded around the edges. That should help quite alot. Other than that, I don't think there's alot more we can do - any other house that we would want to rent would probably have the same problems, except it would be twice as expensive and in a twice crappy area. So really, work that out... Unless we get a unit, but there's no way us 3 want to do that. So it looks like it's Norwood for the time being. And for those who we haven't invited over yet - don't feel bad. We still love you. It's just that things haven't been that great to have company. But as things improve I'm sure you'll be getting your invite in the mail (and by mail I mean either a text or email). Good ol um-personal technology. :)

I think that's about all... so how's about them Socceroos eh? Twas a mighty fine game against Japan. I was getting very frustrated and thought all was lost towards the end, but then they pulled out 3 goals and all was well again. I wasn't going to get up to watch the Brazil game, but then I thought to myself, when will something like this happen again? We prob won't win, but we could draw, which would be totally awesome! Call it wishful thinking, but eitherway I'm going to be patriotic and set my alarm for 4am. Who's with me??

Rating: 6.3

What I'm listening to: Kate Havnevik - Melankton (I thoroughly recommend this one - I go the cd last week and haven't been able to put it down yet). Click here to check her out.

p.s. I've put a few new piccies up. Nothing exciting or interesting, but fun nonetheless :)

One week (and a coupla days) on

2006-06-12T01:08:00.000+09:30

So here I sit - 1:05am on a Monday morning (1:30am now after re-reading - oh yes, I did professional writing at uni remember) and not alot to do. The UK Grand Prix finished (and Webber crashed out in the first bloody lap), Mexico are playing Iran in the World Cup (but I can't be bothered watching it), so I thought I would post. Seems only fair...

Firstly, I have to mention some awesome news. Alice has decided to start her own blog! How awesome is that?? I think she did catch the bug from posting for me while I was in hospital. Not only that, but she's really keen to get some sort of support network/group for partners of cf's going, since there isn't alot in that area here. I think it's a great idea - it's definitely something she would be able to do really well. So to all those who think may be interested in reading (and even if you're not, go read anyway since she is just the best person ever) please go over and have a look, as well as telling anyone who you think may be interested in it. The address is http://alicepotter.blogspot.com/ She is really keen to talk to others, so even if you want to say hi or send some loving words, she'll be very glad to hear it. Of course, if you think you would like to get in contact with her in regards to cf stuff, that'd be even better.

Now onto me, since that is why you all come here after all... ;) The last week hasn't been incredibly eventful; I haven't done alot of outings or anything. We have hosted a couple of dinners which have been very lovely. The company is always good, and especially if it means that you don't have to leave your own house! We had Kate and Wayne over for some nice red chicken curry, and then last night we had Dan and Ben over for burritos. Mmm. Good stuff.

As far as my health goes, things have been on the improve. Very slightly mind you, but still getting better, and not worse. My lungs have cleared up a bit more since last time, but I think this is the best they're going to get. It's at the stage where I will cough a bit up during phyiso, but throughout the day it's pretty much a dry cough. It feels good to be able to have a nice sounding cough again. My throat however is still a bit sore, especially when I'm doing lots of coughing, such as during physio. But this is another thing that I think I'm going to have to get used to - that my throat is not going to be in pristine condition again. If I'm doing physio, I'm coughing lots which is going to irritate my throat, and if I'm talking for more than 15 mins the same affect happens. It's not too bad though - it's just adjusting which is the tough part.

There is something else that I'm not too happy to report - we're thinking that it is possible after all that it is the house that has contributed to making me sick. I'm not a happy chappy. I love this place. It's awesome. It's in the best location and it's so friggen cheap. But since it is old, there are probably some little nasties lurking around in the walls and floor. I came to this conclusion because I asked Ben and Claude whether they had noticed anything since staying here, and they both said that they are wheezing a bit, which doesn't normally happen. But Alice and I are defiant - we are going to really make an effort to keep the place spotless (vaccuuming as well) and replace things like the old curtains to see if we can't combat this. It's just too good a place to give up. A good test will be when I go back to clinic in 3 weeks to see what my lung function is...

The prednisolone doesn't seem to be having any real nasty side affects apart from my non-sleepiness. The other night I made myself go to bed at 4 am just because I thought it was the right thing to do. Not because I was tired at all... but if that's the worst, I'm not going to complain.

Aside from physio, the little walks I'm making myself do to try and improve my fitness, and eating, I'm afraid I haven't got alot to tell. I have been keeping myself busy though on the Sia forums... man, I tell you what guys, if you ever need to find a nice forum where the board memebers aren't jerks that accuse you of being an effing moron for not knowing who "the artist" collaborated with when they were in high school, check this one out. I have a link to Sia's site on the right. It is the most loving group of people I have ever met (or not met, as in this case) and make you feel very welcome. And it's very easy to get sucked into posting the most random stuff... well, if you are up till 4 am every night, you need something to do to keep yourself occupied. Yes, I am a nerd.

That's it. I think my typing is waking up Alice. I'm signing off now.

Rating: 5.8

What I'm listening to: Zero 7 - The Garden

Jaan is back in the building!

2006-06-04T23:42:00.000+09:30

being cosmopolitan
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hey all!

Yes, it's true: I'm finally out of hospital. While it was fun to start off with, after 4 weeks it kinda got a bit boring. But before I go on, I wanted to say thank you to all who sent me messages and emails. Alley made sure to relay them to me. And while we're on the subject, how good a job did she do at keeping you all in-the-know about how I'm doing?? Let's all give her a round of applause (Yeah! Woo! She's the best etc...). In fact, I think she may have even taken to the idea so much that she might even start her own blog... it might have an interesting spin on it from her perspective about things. What do you think? Let me know...

Well, I'm back at home so I guess I should get everyone up to speed. I won't go into too much detail as to what I was doing in hospital since Alice has already mentioned it. But I'll give a brief rundown... Basically the docs couldn't figure out why I was so sick so they decided to change my antibiotics for another two weeks (which meant I had to be re-admitted). But they didn't seem to do anything... so much so that they decided to put me on Prednisolone to see if that helped. It's an antiinflammatory so they concluded that it may help with my poor lung function. I think the doc said, and I quote, "We're clutching at straws" when I asked what was wrong with me. Nice and promising... but they had no other option. Every test they did came back negative and pointing to the fact that I had nothing wrong with me.

In saying that, I've noticed that my lungs have cleared up quite alot over the last month, which is very nice to not be coughing up crap all the time. But I'm still very short of breathe. To give you an idea: I get puffed out talking for longer than 5 mins, letalone going for a walk or going out. Not the best sign. But theoretically, the Prednisolone should help that a bit. At least I'm hoping anyway... So I'm home for 3 weeks on that, and then I have another clinic to see where I'm at. We won't get ahead of ourselves, but if for some reason I don't get better, then I'm pretty sure I'll have to have another admission. But I'm not too fazed by it. I've already conceded that this year isn't going to be a typical year for me. I've already gone in for iv's twice this year (which is doubled what I normally do).

Surprsingly my state of mind isn't doing too bad. When I first went in, I was feeling very crap and sorry for myself. And I have to admit that when I wasn't getting any better it was hard to try and be optimistic. But after I was re-admitted, I changed my expectations and things seemed so much easier to cope with. I stopped thinking that the iv's would miraculously make me better in a few days, which is what they normally do. I just took each day as it came, and I was much happier. In the last week I was sure I wasn't going to get much better, so I wasn't so disappointed when they put me on the steroids and said there isn't a whole lot more they can do for me. Even if it wasn't the right thing to do (consoling to the fact that I wasn't going to improve much), I definitely think that it helped me get through this admission. If I still had that same expectation, I would have been much more upset and shocked that I wasn't getting better and that I had to go home with that on my mind.

Another thing to keep in mind, as the doctor and psychologist told me, is that it's not uncommon at all for cf's to have a back to back admission; something which I had never had until now (which explains my freaking out). They said that quite often cf's will sometimes have 3 admissions in a roll and then be back to normal afterwards. It's possible that I just had a really bad strain and it will take me a bit more time and treatment than usual to get better. Also, at 23, it's really good that I only go into hospital once a year for antibiotics. Alot of other cf's go in much more, so putting that into perspective, things aren't as bad as they may seem. Even if my year consists of 3 or 4 admissions in it, that's not necessarily a bad sign if my lung function doesn't decrease overall too much. It just means that it takes a little more to keep me healthy. Afterall, my lungs and body aren't what they were when I was a teenager, so it's expected that things will decrease a little. AND let's not forget the fact that cystic fibrosis is a degenerative disease... and we all know what that means. But that doesn't mean that I've given up trying to get better. Not at all. I'm just saying, that IF I wasn't to get much better, then I think I would be able to handle it adequetly, something which I definitely wouldn't have been able to do before this admission.

But enough of that. Now that I'm back home, things are nice. We had an inspection, so for the first time since we moved in the house is looking spotless. So much so that we really want to try and keep it clean. Let's see how long that lasts... but it's going good so far. I still haven't gone back to work yet, and I feel really bad about it. I've taken so much time off. But since I still am not a helluva lot better, I don't think I would even be able to do a shift straight through. It's quite pathetic really... but I'm not going to convince myself otherwise and get sicker.

I think that's about all from me... probably something else, but I've forgotten if there is. Thanks again for all your support during this time. It makes it that much easier to cope with. But don't you worry, I'll be back.

Rating: 5

What I'm listening to: The String Quartet Tribute to System of a Down

P.S. I've put up some pics from my time in hospital. Not the most exciting, but they're new!

more news from jaan to alice to everyone else...

2006-05-29T23:46:00.000+09:30

hello again. i was at the hospital with jaan today when some of the doctors came in and said "we have no idea why you still feel sick so we might give you some prednisolone and see what that does". they think jaan might have a fungal infectional in his lungs - which is weird if they would give him pred. for it cos the internet told me that if he had a fungal infection he shouldnt take that sort of drug... - but hey. we'll see. i think the intern's exact words were "we are clutching at straws now" so that instills enormous amounts of hope in their future diagnosis. i think it will be good when we get the next lung function results back because then we can see if its cf sick (he says he still feels cf sick) or sillyness with his throat or something else...

okay, so if jaan does go on this inflamitry steriod prednisolone, it could have side effects. the most common is mood swings and "changes in behaviour" so that should be fun... i think we should all avoid him for a bit. well, at least do what he says for a while... (dont tell jaan i said that). there are also other icky side effects but ill elt everyone know them when/if they happen. and if he wants everyone to know.

but mr. jaan is happy. ive had comments from others saying its good to see him so chirpy and "himself". i like it when jaan smiles a lot, and he is at the moment. again, its the "acceptence of the feeling sick" he says that is making him happy. its hard to explain... especially when its not me who feels this way. ill let him do that on his next entry of his very own.

anyway. thats the next update. i hope everyone is well and happy.

love alice

update

2006-05-28T02:56:00.000+09:30

hello everyone, its alice again. Jaan is still in hospital and will most likely be there til the 3rd or 6th, depending on how well he goes with the aztreinum. He seems a lot happier than he has been for the past 2 or so months, so thats positive. he tells me he's getting used to feeling sick all the time and cant expect to miraculously get better in the sapce of a week like he used to. i feel like his attitude is a step forward psycologically and a step back phyically, but its not like he's not trying to get better. double negative... he IS trying. it will just take a bit longer than it used to. but its good to see a happy Jaan. im not sure what else to say. i just thought i should write something to keep the poeple who read this blog up to date. so there.

love alice

alice is taking over jaan's blog...

2006-05-23T21:13:00.000+09:30

hello again. the antibiotic is Aztreinam. its a strong one, but here's hoping that it kills whatever infection the cef didnt want to get rid of. jaan will probably be in the Royal Adelaide for about 2 weeks for the full course of the Azt (we're on abrieving terms now...) so you'll all have to talk to me for a bit. sorry. im a bad speller and my writing isnt as witty as jaans, but hey. tough luck! heh heh!

love alice

another quick update

2006-05-23T08:05:00.000+09:30

its alice again, another quick let-everyone-in-on-the-deal post. i lied about the antibiotic starting with the letter S, it starts with the letter A. again, i dont know its actual name. that might be in the next post... anyway, jaan has to do four one hour iv sessions with this new drug, 6am, 11am, 6pm, 11pm. he will find out in a couple of days whether he still has mrsa. if the test is negative again, this will be the third test where it's absent from his body, therefore he cant use any of the side bathrooms and showers. which is pretty funny because one of the bathrooms is being re-tiled so he has to use the public toilets and go without a shower for a few days - unless he comes home, which i recommended to him. but good news about not having mrsa though! ill sign off for now. bye!

love alice

hello. my name is jaan...

2006-05-22T16:04:00.000+09:30

no, its not. its alice! filling in for jaan and the writing of the blogs and the what-not. this will be a short one to fill everyone in on what's going on. jaan is back in hospital for a week or so because the doctors told him he had to. i mean, come on. 5% more in lung function? talk about annoyingly crap! so they're putting him on a new antibiotic that starts with the letter S... thats all i know. ill write another short blog soon because its fun to pretend to be jaan on his blog. "hello, im jaan..." and also i will let everyone know whats going on. yay! love alice.

my rating.... lets say 7.5... ha!

Iv's no more

2006-05-19T21:04:00.000+09:30

Well, that's not entirely true. In fact, it's none-true. I got up this morning at around 9:50am to the sound of my mobile ringing. I decided that I wasn't going to get there in time to answer it, so I left it. When I finally decided to check who called me, I remembered that I had lung function sometime in the morning. It turned out that it was at 9:20am, so I had missed it by quite some time. Oh well, shit happens.

So I got my crap together and drove to the clinic. Even though I had missed my lung function appointment, they were able to squeeze me in. I did my test, and out the results came. Not as good as I had expected... Now, we all remember that my lung function was a record low 45% when I started my antibiotics 2 weeks ago. Well, today it was a whopping 50%. 5 whole percent difference. That's all my lungs have decided to improve by. I can tell you I wasn't all that impressed. That's only 1% higher than my previous low. Pretty crap to put it frankly. So the docs decided that I am to stay on the antibiotics until Monday. It probably won't do much, but it can't do any harm.

So that has been my day. And to top it all off, my throat is now sore again. I woke up this morning with quite a tickle, and now it's sore, dry and inflamed. Woot. AND my nose has been runny all day. These aren't great signs... let's all hope I haven't caught another bug. That wouldn't be good.

Anywho, I'm feeling crap so I'm not going to write any more. One last thing - for those of you who are in Radelaide, try and get to the Exeter on Monday nights this month to hear some lovely tunes from Cookie Baker. It will be good. I promoise.

Rating: 5

One week on

2006-05-15T09:12:00.000+09:30

I came home from the hospital on Friday. As good as it is to come home, there are parts of hospital that I miss and are nice. For one, Foxtel. I forgot how great it is to wake up to Simpsons during the mornings on the weekend. So theraputic. But on a more serious note, being admitted for the week really gave me time and a place to completely tune out, rest and concentrate on getting better. Since you are in a hospital ward which is very boring and sterile, it's hard to relate to the outside world. While this may seem depressing, the distance and separation you feel from the outside world actually makes it easier to think about nothing and to completely rest, both mentally as well as physically. Being at home, you have little niggly things that are on your mind, such as keeping the house clean, cooking all your meals, just normal stuff that may not be such big issues, but when your sick, it's nice to not have to think about them all. And being in hospital means you get waited on hand and foot. Another little perk... But after a week, I was ready to come home, so here I am.

My health has definitely gotten alot better since I was admitted. My lungs have cleared up enormously, and I'm no longer having fevers and chills. I still get quite short of breath, but that's only because I don't have my fitness back. I'm pushing myself to go on small walks each day to try and build that up. Slowly but surely. This virus that I had really knocked me back. Never that much before. So it's going to take a bit of time and effort to get things back to what they were. It was actually a bit scary for a while. I'd never been that sick, and to feel like you have absolutely no control over something you once thought you did is a big challenge. I'm hoping that I dealt with it alright, but time will tell.

Aside from health stuff, not alot has been going on. I haven't really gone out or anyhting, for one because I really don't have the energy, but also because I don't want to ruin the good progress by going somewhere where there's smoke and crap like that. Oh, there are a couple of things actually. Hehe, silly Jaan and his forgetfulness...

Last weekend, Sia (a singer from Adelaide who lives in London) came down to Adelaide to shoot a film clip. She's really taken off in the States now, so I guess another single was calling out to her. There were about 30 extras, all running around in crazy costumes doing crazy things in a park in Stonyfell, and it was such a blast to be a part of. The song is Sunday, so keep an eye out for it when it gets released, and those of you from Adelaide just may see some familiar faces... So that day was very fun and interesting (from a filmmakers point of view watching them shoot the clip). That was followed by a night of catching up and drinking at the Exeter. But since I really wasn't feeling that great, I was only out for about an hour before heading back to the hospital.

The other bit of news is that my friend Ben who moved to Montreal a year ago is back in Adelaide for a few months. It's good to have him back and to have him staying at The Fortress is a nice touch as well (that's what our house is called now). Friends are nice to have. Espcially when you come to the realisation that you have no friends in your home town because they have all moved away overseas (by friends, I mean those REALLY good friends that you don't have to organise things with. You know, the ones you can just pop over, say nothing to, do nothing with and then part without feeling like you have to apologise for being boring. Not to offend the friends I have here, all of youse are awse. But everyone has those couple of people they are really close with, who are the true meaning of a best fried. Bah, nuts to you if you don't get me).

So that's about it. I have an audiology appointment today (because Tob, one of the antibiotics I'm on, has a nasty tendency to make you go a wee bit deaf), and I think that's about it. Thanks for all your comments and sms's'ss. It's nice to know peopel are thinking about you.

Rating: 5.7

What I'm listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

Details of clinic and PICC line

2006-05-04T15:53:00.000+09:30

nice and clean
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Sorry I didn't write yesterday like I said I would. Although I think George was the only one who probably noticed... Anywho, I had clinic on Tuesday and as I said before, it wasn't the best news I could have hoped for, but I wasn't really expecting anything else. I'll go through the whole clinic procedure for those who may not know what a 'clinic' is.

I made it to clinic without passing out in the car, which is always an awesome way to start the day. Got to the clinic and made my way to the scales to weigh myself (the first part of the clinic). I was 72kg - a loss of 2kg; that's in two weeks mind you. Not bad (if I was a tad on the heavy side). However, since my goal is to always gain weight, not the best thing. I haven't really had much of an appetite at all lately. The thought of any food other than cucumber, lettuce (basically water) makes me feel really queezy, so no real surprise that I had lost some weight. Also with infections and stuff, a bit of weight is going ot be lost with your body fighting it. You'll be glad to know that since then however I have got my appetite back a bit...

So lost some weight, as I expected, then I made my way to the seating area. I saw Craig, or Bones as he's called, who is an awesome cf guy who by now must be in his 40's. Great guy and good for a laugh. We discussed how there should be a lounge there for cf's while we wait the hours to see the doctor. Except I don't see it being very easy to grab a spot on since cf's aren't the most considerate people you meet - especially if they are in clinic and are feeling shite.

So I sat there for about 15 mins and then I was called into the lab where they do your lung function. Now the way they measure your lung function is quite simple - but also a bit of hard work, especially if you're having trouble breathing at the start. There's a computer, a big box with a big plastic hose coming out of it, and a mouth piece on the end of that. When ready, you take a big deep breath in, preferrably the biggest you can, then you breath out as hard as you can into the tube. Once the initial force of the breath is out, you have to keep breathing out until there is absolutely nothing left in your lungs. Then there is the obligatory coughing, spluttering, redness in the face, headaches and general crapness. Well, when you're well there isn't so much of that. But with my form lately, I'm genuine in saying that I was lucky not to pass out. There are usually 3 breaths done and the best gets the tick as the one the docs use.

So my results were as follows. 45% for the FEV1 (which is your ability to exhale air in that first second (hence the 1)). 74% for my FVC (full volume capacity). And finally 17% for my MMEF (which is your small airways). The MMEF doesn't really mean alot with cf since your lungs are screwed anyways. The one the docs mostly look at are the FEV1 and the FVC. The lower your FEV1, the more blockage you have, which is why I usually only refer to this one when I'm discussing my lung function (and a big cheers to co-chief Kenny for giving me all the definitions...).

So now that lung functions are done, I go back to the seating area and chat a little to whoever's there, but not a whole lot since I can hardley breathe from the lung function. Finally, maybe half an hour later, it's time to see the doctor. They bring you in their little room, talk about how you've been feeling, which in my case is that I can't breathe and nothing's working, and discuss what options to take from there. So since I've been sick for quite a while, and my lung function has decreased more than 10% in two weeks, it was decided that I better get admitted into hospital for 2 weeks of iv antibiotics.

My PICC line (basically a drip that is designed to last up to 12 months) was scheduled to be put Thursday (today) and so I got dropped off and went to radiology. The procedure for a PICC line is a little bit gruesome, so if you don't wanna know the details go to the next paragraph. You first take off your top, lie on the table with the arm you're getting stuck laying out to the side on a board. The doc then gets the ultrasound machine and searches your arm for a nice juicy vein. Once they find one, they get all steralized, clean your arm up all bacteria-free like, and get ready to start sticking you. The order of the steps vary from doctor to doctor, but this is what they did today (and coincidently the way I prefer it). They start with a local anaesthetic at the point where they are going to put the drip in. If you haven't had a local before, it stings like absolutely buggery, but then leaves you with a nice numb pin cushion. They then get the ultrasound on your arm again to find the vein and get a big needle to make the first hole into the vein. It's cool to watch because you can see the needle entering the vein wall on the ultrasound. Way cool. Once they get the needle in, they thread a tiny metal tube up your arm. You can't really feel it, but if you concentrate hard enough you can feel the pressure of it moving inside your arm. Now a little more local for the scapal, which is used to make the entry hole bigger. After this, they get a really big plastic needle canula thing, about 3 inches long, and push that over the tube, into the entry wound and into the vein. This part always hurts a bit. The pressure is quite tough on the arm, and the feeling of it trying to be squeezed into the small hole in the vein is quite unusual. Think of it as, well, someone trying to shove a big plastic tube deep into your arm. Often this is the part that causes the most blood. Today it was quite excessive... I couldn't actually see it, but I started to feel something very warm drip down my arm for about half a minute or so. And the blood that comes out of a PICC line is very dark red, very thick and literally oozes out. Nice. Once in, the metal tube is removed and they replace that with a plastic tube (which is the PICC line) and thread that up through the vein and all the way to your heart. The big plastic needle canula thing is taken out and you are left with a nice blue tube entering your arm and worming its way to your heart. To make sure it's in the right place, they take a live x-ray to see where it is. Lastly is the dressing which is pretty uneventful...

So there ya go. That's what the last few days have had in store for me. My arm at present isn't feeling too bad - just a very deep, dull pain in the muscle. Kinda like if someone were to punch you very hard in the middle of the muscle. I get admitted into the ward tomorrow sometime, and I'll be there until early next week. If I'm lucky enough, I'll be able to go home next week to do the remainder of my IV's at home. Let's hope that nothing is seriously wrong with me that would want them to keep me in the ward.

Rating: 4.9

What I'm listening to: Sia - Colour the Small One

Update coming your way tomorrow

2006-05-03T00:05:00.000+09:30

I wanted to write something tonight, since I had my clinic today, but I'm a bit tired to go through all the details, so I'll do that tomorrow. It's not the BEST news I could have hoped for, but I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

Sleep well.

Hopefully the worst is over

2006-04-27T11:31:00.000+09:30

Hi all. Well, since my last post, things haven't really been getting better. I'd love to say they have, but truth be told it's been staying the same, if not getting worse. I haven't worked for the past week. And what's even more annoying, it seems each day there was something else wrong. As I said last time, it started off with a very dry, sore throat. That lead to a couple of days where I wasn't able to cough easily and the mucous sarted building up in my chest.

After seeing the doctor and getting my stash of goodies, I thoguht the worst would be over and I would start to recover. I only worked till 8 on Wednesday night, and only till 7 on Thursday night because I just had absolutely no energy. I was feeling faint and my legs were shaking from walking to the till and back to the staff area. Talk about fitness! It's weird how you can be quite fit and doing heaps of exercise, but then throw in a few days of nothing and it completely disappears and leaves you pathetic. Saturday was the same story. On Sunday I had the full blown fever and temperature, chills and headaches. It wasn't pleasant. Especially since Alley seemed to have finally caught my bug and was feeling miserable with me. Imagine that sight - two sad-sacks feeling sorry for themselves whinging in bed all day. Woot.

I tried to recover as much as I possibly could on Monday and Tuesday so I might be able to work on Wednesday, but along with the fever, I was feeling really nauseous and couldn't really get out of bed. So Wednesday night had to be cancelled. Then yesterday afternoon I had the worst gut aches I've had in years. I was unable to move off the bed for about 2 hours, then it suddenly vanished. Quite strange...

So, I've come to the conclusion that I've had pretty much every symptom that can be related to a virus, so therefore I should be on the mend as of today. I'm set to work at 4, and I'm really hoping that now the only health problem I have is my lungs, and all I need to do is clear them out. That I know how to do... and since I'm not working on Friday, if I can make it through tonight, then another day to recover before Saturday should be all I need. I have another clinic on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes. If things haven't improved that much, it looks like I might need to go in for IV's again, in which case it will be the first time in about 5 years that I've had to have IV's more than once a year. Sign of the times I spose... but we'll take this one step at a time before we get ahead of ourselves.

Only other bit of news is that my friend Ben who moved to Montreal about a year ago is coming back home for his summer holidays for about 3 months. Should be good to see and hang out with him again. Good times. Oh yes, and my phone has stuffed up. I really have a bad relationship with all things electrical...

Rating: 5.0

What I'm listening to: Guster - Keep It Together

Yet ANOTHER post

2006-04-18T23:37:00.000+09:30

You must all be getting sick of these. Well, you're probably not. I mean, who could blame you really? I just had to appear modest for the masses... Anywho, so since I was feeling even more poorly today, and when I went to the shops to get some meat for lunch, I ran into Beck (a good cf buddy of mine) and she was in at the moment ('in' meaning having IV's in hospital) and saying that she had what I have (sore throat and stuff). So I thought to not chance it and rang the clinic to try and schedule an earlier appointment. I was able to have one today, so I went there and had all the normal lung function tests and stuff.

As I expected, my lung function was down 10% (form 67% to 57%), which isn't TOO bad, but still bad enough to need some extra drugs (I was 49% when I went in last time just after I got back from my trip). So for the next two weeks I'm on a course of Cipro (oral antibiotic that has some nasty side effects including joint pains, extreme photosensitivity [which is alright since it's now winter and I have no need to be out in the sun], and down right unco-ness), as well as an increased dose of inhaled Tobrimycin (another antibiotic that I have through a nebuliser).

When I was seeing the doctor, they told me that what I had was probably just a viral thing, so nothing to be too worried about. It hadn't spread to my chest yet, which is a good thing, so hopefully the antibiotics will keep that away and get me better in a couple of weeks. If however they seem to do nothing, I'll be back at clinic and most probably will need to go in for IV's again.

I think that's all to report... remember all who can watch Neighbours to do so, just so you can see a great actress who is bound to become a superstar! Now I'm going to go back to watching The Secret KGB UFO Files (who said late night tv viewing was crap?).

Rating: something below a 5

What I'm listening to: The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live at Slane Castle

What I got for Easter...

2006-04-17T16:36:00.000+09:30

An easter egg hunt (courtesy of the twins), double pay from work, rest and a stupid friggen virus. Yes, that's right. Jaan is sick. And not cf sick. Cf sick I can handle, or at least feel like I can control it a bit. But when I get what I call 'normal sick', it really flips me out. Last night I was at work, and I was coughing a bit more than usual. Then I noticed that the cough was starting to become less phlegmy (which is normally a good thing, but I knew that this wasn't one of those good things) and started becoming more and more dry and scratchy. So I was able to leave early, came home and watched Wolf Creek with Alice. The whole way through the movie I was coughing more and more and it was getting dryer and harsher. Finally woke up this morning to a very painful throat and, uh, that's it. But that's enough to make me feel annoyed. So this most likely explains tbe tiredness I've been feeling the last few weeks. My body was probably getting exhausted trying to fight off this thing, but finally gave up last night. At least I have the next two days off work to try and rest up so I'm all good again.

So apart from that, this weekend was Easter. Yay! Now it's easy to get carried away with superficial things and forget what the real meaning of Easter is: chocolate. All (lame) jokes aside, I hope everyone's weekend was safe and happy. I was awoken 10am by Lucy and Alice saying they had a surprise for me. The surprise was one of the coolest easter egg hunts I've ever been on (mostly because it was in our NEW house which I've grown very fond of). Then we had yummy hot cross buns for brekkie, watched some Scrubs, then I went off to work. And from there, well, that's at the start of the post, so I think I've said all that there is to say...

Cheers to everyone for being you. You all rock.

Rating: 4.9

What I'm listening to: Tegan & Sara - If It Was You

Insert witty and intelligent title here

2006-04-15T22:49:00.000+09:30

It's Saturday night. It's 10:30pm. It's quite cool outside. And I'm sitting here, in my room, all alone, trying to find something to do. I thought I would do something fun, but instead I am writing this. Only kidding: it's good for morale. Truth be told that not alot has been going on (surprise surprise I hear you all say). But seriously, nothing. I've been working quite alot, which is alright since I like the money. And when I'm not working, I'm making sure to do nothing.

The last month or so has been kinda weird. For some reason, I've been really tired. Well, not so much tired. I mean, yes, there is tiredness involved, but not all the time. It's more a general lethargic feeling, which is sometimes accompanied by tiredness (and when I say tiredness I mean sleepiness). Got that? I ain't repeating it. Anywho, so because of this tiredness thing, I haven't had the energy to do anything, hence the no news to tell. It's getting really annoying. I want to go and do things, but I just don't have the energy. I'll have some tests when I have clinic in a couple of weeks. I don't think it's actually anything, but I just can't figure out what it actually is. It might just be the move, the weather, working lots all rolled into one nice lethargic package. And health in general is going alright, but still not the best. I'm still quite productive during the day, and if it weren't for all the squash and walking, then I think I would really have something to worry about. But for the time being it's just holding up.

This is starting to become drivel. Again, tiredness is to blame. So I'll leave it here. Sorry for the lack of cool stuff to tell.

Rating: 5.9

What I'm listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live at Hyde Park

Rating:

Pics!!

2006-04-05T01:26:00.000+09:30

118 william st
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Woot! It's done. Pics are up. Enjoy!

Finally, Jaan has done the impossible.

2006-04-01T21:25:00.000+10:30

Alright alright, here is your lousy post! Nah, seriously, sorry for being sooo slack. I WAS going to do it yesterday, honest, but things just got too hectic and I injured myself playing squash. It was actually quite funny - I ended up running into the wall shoulder first. I laughed - after I was finished rolling around on the floor screaming my head off. Oh well. Argh, stupid computer. I just finished writing most of my post when it restarted. Those first few lines are all it decided to auto-save. I'll try my best to remember everything I wrote. It prob won't be as brilliant, but it'll have to do.

So the first bit of news is that I moved out with Alice and Lucy (her twin sis). We weren't going to move out until the middle of the year, but a friend of mine had to move out of her place and asked if we wanted to take over the lease. We weren't that keen until we heard the price (damn cheap) and the location (Norwood, just off the Parade). When we came and looked at the place, we thought, why the heck not?? And within a week of hearing about the house, we found ourselves packing all our crap and trying to get in as soon as possible. It's a corner house. You know, one of those ones that used to be a deli or shop? Like, RIGHT on the corner. Anyway, it's awesome. Our first little trial was getting the electricity connected. We rang, they said they were coming. We waited all day and all night, they didn't show. We kept ourselves busy with electronic Battleships. Awesome. We rang again, they said they were coming. We waited all day and all night, etc etc. Well, a whole 2 days later they finally came, and within a minute, everything was connected and working fabulously. I was going to take some pictures of the house to show you all, but you know, my shoulder. I promise I'll do it soon... Whlie it's great having a place in such a good location, there is a downside: it's too damn convenient! Just the other day Alley and I were walking around in the morning, and on our way back to the house, slackness set in and we thought we might as well have breakfast at a cafe. It's just too easy to do!

Crap, what else did I write about? Oh, that's right. Well, this isn't really important, but I felt like telling you all anyway; it's mainly for all the net nerds out there. With moving, came the obvious task of getting my internet reconnected. Hence why I haven't been online in a while. But I finally got it a few days ago, and man, was it worth the wait. I got the new ADSL2+ broadband, and it's friggen sweet! I downloaded an episode of the Simpsons in just over 10 minutes. How awesome is that?? It's a really good episode as well. Ricky Gervais (the Office guy) wrote it and stars in it too. Not as himself, but as an English git who falls in love with Marge. I recommend you watch it. Oh, and while I'm on the topic of of internet stuff, there's this really cool program I thought I should tell you about. It's called Skype - basically it's like a msn messenger type program, except you use a headset and use it like a phone. You can talk to anyone that has the program, all over the world, and the best part, it's free! How good is that?? All you need is a headset, or microphone. So I've been using it to talk to Ben in Montreal and Peter in London. Not bad for a free thing. And the quality is better than talking on a mobile phone. I also bought a new keyboard and mouse. And lucky me, they came with a webcam. Now I can do all those sexy webcam dances I've heard so much about. I'll have to figure out what song to do it too though. And what to wear. Any suggestions? I don't want to look like a twat...

Alright, now what else... Well, the Fringe and Festival and Womad and Clipsal has kept Adelaide the most hippest and happening place in the world for the past month, but I'm so glad it's all finshed. Now I can get back to my nightly routine of watching crap and sleeping. Oh yeah! What a great life I lead. i like it, so you can all go suck an egg.

Health wise things are going alright. I'm not 100%, or even 80%, but I seem to be keeping a hold on things. Let's just say that I'm not getting sicker. I was meant to go to clinic last week, however I kinda forgot and now it's in another few weeks. I'll make sure to go to this one and let you all know how it goes. But I'm making sure to keep up the exercise and limit the things that would make me unhealthy (smoking, drugs (the bad kind), drinking - the usual).

One last thing to tell you is that I was thinking about entering the National Transplant Games this year. Basically they're like a mini Olympics for people who have had transplants (or are awaiting a transplant). Apparantly having cf means you qualify because you are technically on the watiting list. They are being held in Geelong in September, and I had a really good time when they were held in Adelaide a year ago, so I thought I might give it another crack. But we'll have to wait and see how the money situation goes.

Crap, this has taken me over an hour and a half to write this. Mind you, I have been eating dinner and watching Red Heat as well. I know, I know. Multitasking is a wonderful thing, but let's not make a big deal out of it. I'm sure I've missed out heaps of stuff, but I can't be arsed writing any more so you'll just have to deal with it. But I'll make sure to get those pics up so you can all see our humble little castle.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: The Best of the Beach Boys

There is a post coming...

2006-03-31T00:43:00.000+10:30

Hi all. Yes, it has been a while. Too long. I've missed you all terribly. And I know that you all have missed me too. C'mon, no need to be shy. Don't deny yourself the truth. Anywho, this isn't the post that has all the details with what I've been doing. That will hopefully come tomorrow. I'm really sorry for not doing it now, it's just that I'm very tired and there's quite alot to tell you, so I'd rather do that with a clear head. I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't falled off the planet, and that I'm still alive and kicking.

Stay tuned to hear what's been going on...

Summer's coming to an end...

2006-03-07T17:58:00.000+10:30

The weather is slightly getting cooler. No more high 30's. Only mid to high 20's and maybe a low 30 or two if we're lucky. But that's alright. I was kinda getting sick of the hot sleepless nights. At least it hasn't been a crappy summer, which I was dreading after freezing my nuts off in England and Montreal. But all is good.

I have to write about mundane things such as the weather because I haven't got alot to tell, and I want to make the post seem slightly lengthy. But enough banter. As I said, not alot has been happening. I've been working quite alot, which is alright since I really want money. It is good. I like having it. I like thinking about all the things I could buy but don't. And I might need to save as much as possible because something could be a brewing that requires it more than my secret dvd cover that I stash it all in...

I've also been doing quite alot of exercise. Still riding my bike everywhere, and playing squash a couple times a week. I haven't been blading for a while, and I'm really annoyed about it. I don't want them to sit in the corner and gather dust. But I just haven't found the courage to go during the day, and since the Fringe has been on, I haven't had too many free nights to rome around the streets. In saying that though, the last few days I haven't been riding that much, and I'm paying the price. While I don't doubt that I'm getting fitter, I need to ride to get rid of all the gunk in my chest. I don't really cough up alot during a game of squash, which is where the riding comes handy. It's really the only time I cough alot up. Even more than when I do physio. So for the last week I've been feeling quite tip top, but over the last couple of days I've noticed that I've become quite clogged up again. So more riding it is.

I haven't really seen a whole lot more for Fringe. Just hanging out and seeing people. No real events. I did see Space Cowboy though, who is a dude from Australia who swallows swords and bends spoons. Pretty cool stuff. I've also seen Kate's play, Low Level Panic, and it was absolutely awesome. So impressed. I think the rest of the shows have sold out, which is great, so I don't know if it's worth me recommending it to anyone. I have another play that I'm definitely going to, Lucy's, which is called Queen. It's also been getting great reviews, so I think that should be another good one to see. It's being done at Worldsy, so if you can, get your rumps down there to check it out. Then this weekend is Womad, which means yet another big weekend. Not that I'm complaining, but it will be nice when all this is over and us humble Adelaidians can go back to living the way do; quietly but nicely. :)

So yes, I think that just about wraps it all up. Looking forwards to having Pete and Truds here next week, so I guess you'll hear from them as well as me what shenanigans we get up to. Peace out.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: VAST - Music for the People

The post you all thought was coming yesterday...

2006-02-24T13:59:00.000+10:30

Ok. So here I am. It's 2:03pm, I'm sitting at work and have just finished watching a doco called Grizzly Man. It's about a guy that used to live with grizzly bears, and eventually started to think that he was one. Then he got eaten by one. Very interesting. I thoroughly recommend you check it out when it becomes available. Anyway, so what's been happening in the life of Jaan?

Well, I guess one kinda interesting piece of news is that on Monday it was my birthday. This year was really weird - I wasn't really that excited about it and kept forgetting that it was actually coming up. Maybe that's because this was the first year that I didn't have a party planned to look forward to. But it was a great day nonetheless. Very chilled. Had lunch and dinner with Alice. I got a tent. I got an awse board game that is basically like Balderdash but with completely random useless facts. I know some of you will understand my excitedness with this game... I also got a ticket to Womad, which I'm terribly happy for since that means that I don't have to fork out the money to go (something that I'm running quite low on at the moment...).

I've also been doing lots and lots of exercise. When the weather permits, I've been blading around the place, trying to not stack it. When I can't be bothered doing that, my bike is getting a good run. And when I can arrange it, there are squash games to be had. All very good, but it has led to some other little annoyances. Since I'm doing so much exercise, my lungs are getting a bit better, which is great, but because of all the coughing, I'm getting quite persistant headaches. I'm also getting quite sore joint pains and my back is starting to play up a bit. But I guess they are just other things I have to deal with and another side affect of being healthy. But it's not going to stop me trying to get better. For the first time in ages I'm actually starting to feel good without antibiotics running through my body.

And of course there is the Fringe. Very much looking forward to that. Along with Lano and Woodley, there is this guy that I wanna see that apparantly bends spoons and stuff with his mind and reads people's thoughts. Should be great fun. The opening parade is tonight also, but as I type this it is absolutely pouring outside, so I don't know how crap that will be.

Another little bit of news I wanna let you all know about; a dear friend of mine from school, Dichen Lachman, is making her mark on Australian tv. She is the new girl on Neighbours and I strongly suggest you check her out. You won't have too much trouble picking her out - she is the absolutely stunning half Tibetan chick reaking havoc with Carl and Susan. She is also in an upcoming movie, Aquamarine, so do keep your little peep holes out for that one.

I think that just about coveres it all... probably not, but I forget things so too bad. As I mentioned before, health is going along alright. Starting to feel a bit stronger, and I hope that only continues as I get fitter.

Rating: 6.9

What I'm listening to: Triple M (I've been working ALOT)

p.s. I've added a few new pics so go and check em out. They are colourful.

New post

2006-02-23T22:39:00.000+10:30

Sorry for the slackness all. I mean, I have been slack. I'm not denying that. But also there has been NOTHING going on that I think is worth telling. But anyway, since some of you have been pestering me to tell you all the great big nothingness in my life, I will do so. But not tonight... Sorry. I just finished work, so it's kinda late, and I wanna watch a movie. So I've decided tomorrow's going to be the day where I write it all down for you to read (while I'm at work).

So this is just a teaser. Think of it as a trailer for a lame movie where they put all the good bits in to get you to watch it but when you do you realise how lame it really is and wish you just stuck to the trailer and thought the movie was actually going to be alright...

What stuff has been going on?

2006-02-07T10:49:00.000+10:30

It's been quite a while since my last post, and I have no excuse for that. Slackness has once again played its part in my life. I haven't really been doing that much though. Nevermind, I'll tell you all about my nothingness anyway.

A couple things worthy of note... the Big Day Out was on last Friday, and contrary to how I thought it would be, I actually had a pretty good day. I got the ticket as a Christmas present, and if it wasn't for that, I doubt I would have bought one. Anyway, so I went around lunchtime and spent the first couple hours at the local stage, which I was quite surprised to see people I knew in most of the bands playing there. So that was entertaining. I then spent the next few hours walking from stage to stage listening to a few songs by each band before moving on. Saw some of Sarah Blasko, who played really well. The Casio Brothers always put on a great show. The Living End played alright, not that I'm a big fan at all. But then it came time to go to the Green stage to see the end of Henry Rollins' stand up routine before The Mars Volta took to the stage. Rollins was (as usual) very entertaining and had a full crowd to hear his banter.

So he finished, I took my position near the front and before long The Mars Volta came on stage. I won't go on about the show in detail, except to say that it was the best performance I have seen from them (and this was the 5th time of doing so). The highlight though was when they played Frances the Mute, which I had never heard live before. It rocked the place down. Very nice. And the crowd was great as well. No idiots landing on other people's heads. Twas good stuff. I did wonder though why they didn't get a spot on the main stage. Weird... and because of that, their time totally clashed with Iggy, so I didn't get to see him at all. And get this - The Mars Volta played half an hour longer that Iggy! What's with that?? Ah, I don't know... But yes, that was definitely the highlight of the day. After that, I went to the main stage to see a couple of songs by The White Stripes, but left soon after. They just didn't do it for me.

So that was Friday. The day before I made another purchase to help me get fitter. I bought some rollerblades. I got the urge while in Canada and since I didn't have a bike (as it was being fixed) I thought I needed another form of transport. So I invested in some lovely ones, and while I'm still not that great, I can at least get from point A to point B without causing too much damage to myself. But gimme a couple weeks and I'll be carving up the streets something chronic!

Not alot else that I can remember off the top of my head. Since finishing my IV's I haven't been too bad. I think I might have dropped just a little in lung function, but that's because I've made a realisation about my body. It's great. Ha, no. Physio just doesn't cut it anymore to keep me healthy. It does a bit, but for me to keep on top of things, I really need to do alot more exercise (hence the blades and bike) otherwise I'll just slowly decrease back to what I was before. I figured this out because after only 2 days from being off the IV's, I was becoming more productive and coughing alot more up. It really annoyed me until I stoped whinging and made the decision to do alot more exercise. So long story short, more exercise is needed to keep healthy. I could have just said that at the start...

The rest of my time as been spent back at work (which is alot more bareable than it was before I left) and watching numerous dvd's (NCIS and Freaks and Geeks). I've also bought tickets to Lano and Woodley's show for the Fringe, and since it's their last one ever, it's going to be a bit sad. I wanted to go to heaps more shows, but I am actually broke as of right now, so I don't know how much I can afford to go and see, which totally sucks, but not alot one can do about it. I'm really just dribbling crap now, so I think it's a good time to leave it here.

I'll try and keep it more updated so there's not so much filler.

Rating: 7

What I'm listening to: System of a Down - Hypnotize

Woot, woot and double woot

2006-01-25T21:03:00.000+10:30

Today I had my lung function. It was... ooooh, I wonder what it was?? Well, before I let you know, you're all just going to have to stew for a bit while I tell you about what else I've been doing.

Ah, who am I kidding. I have been doing absolutely nothing. So back to the results. If you all remember, the lung function I had 2 weeks ago before getting admitted was 49%. Pretty crappy. But todays reading was 67%. Ooooh yeah. Can you feel that?! Huh?? My best is 72%, so technically my lungs are kicking arse. Now it's just up to me to keep them good by upping the exercise so they don't rely on the drugs.

Alrighty. I think that's about all I've been doing. Tomorrow I'm going to be a good Australian and attend a bbq or two, so I suggest all you out there do the same, or if you can't do it physically, daydream it and get told off for being away with the faries. It's worth it! The land of Oz is one of the best countries out there, so be proud of it and celebrate that fact.

Enough patriotism from me. Will be back soon with more goss from me.

Raitng: 7.7

What I'm listening to: Destiny's Child - #1's

On the mend

2006-01-23T09:06:00.000+10:30

sitting in the botanical gardens
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

I always try and think of a clever way to start, but can never seem to find one.

Ok, so now that I've got the intro out of the way, on with the post. I've been on the IV's for over a week now and I'm delighted to say that they are starting to work. My chest has cleared up quite considerably (which means that I'm not coughing up as much as I was before) and I haven't felt this clear for quite a while, so I'm pretty chuffed.

I was in the hospital for longer than expected. I thought I was only going to stay in for the weekend, but because of various tests and stuff, they kept me in till the Wednesday. That's alright. After all, I had Foxtel in there which I don't have at home. I pretty much spent my time watching tv, playing guitar, watching tv, eating, watching tv and sleeping. Oh, and trying to entertain the few guests that I had. Pretty hard to do in S2... But Alley did take me out for a walk in the Botanic Gardens which was very nice. The weather wasn't too hot when we did that. And since it's right next door to the hospital, it was an easy excursion.

So I came home and continued the relaxing. Well, there wasn't much else to do with this friggen heat. Man, do I love it though. 4 days in a row above 40. Woot! Summer is definitely here. So yes, plenty of days sitting in front of the air conditioner watching the cricket, tennis, NCIS and Scrubs. What more could you ask for??

Now that it's been over a week on the IV's I really have to start exercise so that I don't get sick as soon as I get off the antibiotics. Usually I do nothing for the 2 weeks, and then as soon as I come off them, since I have absolutely no fitness, I just come straight back down again and have to start from scratch. So this time I'm determined to do some stuff so that I'm even healthier for when I come off them. It's just a bit hard to get motivated in this heat...

So yeah, I think that's about it. I have to have my dressing for my drip changed today, so the RDNS are coming over to my house to do that. Pretty exciting. I should be getting off the IV's on Friday, so 5 more days. As I said, I'm feeling quite good, so hopefully my lung function on Wednesday shows that too. If not, well, nah, we'll just say it will.

Rating: 7.2

What I'm listening to: My stupid ipod (I don't even think it deserves the capital 'p') decided to not work at all, but I have been listening to my computer. Jeffrey Lewis - It's the Ones who's cracked that the Light Shines Through

Actual health post

2006-01-12T15:06:00.000+10:30

sick jaanie
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Most of my posts of late have not really been anything to do with my health, rather my travels abroad. So for the first time in ages, I'm pretty much devoting this entry to my health.

On Tuesday I wasn't feeling the best, pretty much like I had been feeling the last week or so, maybe a tad worse, so I thought it was time to make a clinic appointment. I was originally going to wait and see if this last course of Cipro I'm on actually did anything. But since I was feeling quite shite, I thought better of it and decided to make an appointment.

I went in and they asked if I was keen to have one the same day, to which I thought, heck, why not. I rocked up at the agreed time (3pm) and got weighed (72.55kg, a bit less than I was last time) and had my lung function. Now, I knew that I wasn't the healthiest, but it was still quite a shock to see the results of the lung funciton. It's the worst I've been EVER. 49%. My last clinic I was 68%, so it's quite a drop. I've never been under the 50% mark before, so it was a bit scary. But I'm slowly coming to terms with it now and hopefully the IV antibiotics do their thing and get me back up to 60's.

The only other thing is that because they are putting me on a drug that I haven't had since I was about 13, they decided to keep me in the hospital for the weekend to keep and eye on me and make sure my body doesn't do anything stupid when the drugs are injected. So I'm a bit pised about that. Not to worry, should only be a weekend and then I can do the rest of the IV's back at home (2 weeks worth).

So there ya all go. Since I'm not that chirpy, I apologise for the boringness of this post. Not that it's terribly exciting normally, but I feel it's extra sub-standard today. Tough cookies.

Rating: 4.9

What I'm listening to: Steve Burns - Songs for Dustmites (guy from 'Blues Clues')

Happy (belated) New Year

2006-01-05T21:58:00.000+10:30

beach fun
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Well, as I thought I would, since coming back home I have become rather slack. But oh well, go suck an egg. Let's see if I can do a brief re-cap of what's been happening...

We arrived back in Adelaide, which you all know about, and one of my first outings was to the Grace Emily to see The Audreys play, and it was friggen amazing. I tell ya what - those guys certainly know their stuff. AND they got a 3 record deal with ABC music. Pretty wick I must say. I bought their cd and it's an awesome buy. Very happy with it.

Then of course it was Christmas. That was not too bad. Usual family stuff, food, friends, more food, and of course presents. Woot! And I can't remember what took place between then and New Years, so I'll just jump straigh to there...

So Alley and I decided to accompany Holly to her parents place at York Peninsula (they have a lovely big property there about 10 mins away from Point Turton). So we drove down on a stinking 42 degree day, unpacked our stuff and headed straight for the beach. Oooh yeah! I can't remember the beach name, but it was awesome. Lotsa rips and some big waves. Good stuff! So we swam, played cricket, frisbee, all the usual stuff and headed back for a huge dinner and then the countdown. There wasn't that many of us, only Holly, me, Alice, Andy, Mahla and Leron, as well as Holly's parents and some of their friends. But it was just perfect. So after the countdown we played some batonk on the front lawn and went to bed around 3 or so.

The next morning we had a massive bbq breakfast full of goodness, but since it was quite a rainy day, we all spent it relaxing, watching dvd's, reading and sleeping. Very relaxing.

The final day it was just absolutely stunning, so we once again decided the beach was the way to go. We went to Point Turton and, well, as you can imagine, went for a swim. The rest is quite boring - we packed our stuff and headed home.

So since then, not alot has been happening. Last night Holly played at the Grace and asked me to record it, so that's what I did. There's quite a lot of new material there, and it's sounding very nice indeed. I think that's about it. No doubt I've forgotten something, but I guess that's what you get for letting me be so slack huh?

Oh, I just remembered something. Alice is having an exhibition tomorrow night at FAD, so I guess that's some news. It should be a great night and I have to serve drinks, so it gives me something to do.

Health wise I'm not doing that great, but it's not too bad either. I mean, I'll be honest, I've found it really hard to get back into the swing of doing physio regularly and I'm paying the price for it now. If I don't get better too soon, then I think I'll have to book myself in for an admission. But I'll have a clinic in the next couple of weeks and see what my lung function is to determine whether I need IV's or not. I'll definitely keep you all posted on that.

So there ya go. Another story from the life of Jaan. Don't you all wish you were me??

Rating: 5.9

What I'm listening to: Turin Brakes - Live @ The Palladium

p.s. I forgot to mention that there are a tonne of new pics, so have a browse when you get some free time.

Home sweet home!

2005-12-23T18:58:00.000+10:30

home sweet home
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Hi all! Yes, it has been a while since I got back, and I have been a bit slack, so here is the 'back at home' entry.

Firstly, I have finally updated all the photos from London, Edinburgh and Thailand, so when you get time, theres something over a hundred to browse throgh. But don't feel pressured to do it...

So yes, the flight home was nothing interesting. I still hate flying, and the flight home didn't do anything to make it better. Not that it was a bad flight, just didn't do anything good for me. However, it was kinda exciting because as we flew over Alice Springs there was a huge thunderstorm next to us, so we got some nice viewing pleasure at 2 am. Arrived in Sydney at 8 am or something, with more thunderstorms all around us, and had to wait around for a few hours before the flight to Adelaide. The anticipation was starting to build...

Finally got on the plane, and lucky its only a 2 hour flight so it wasn't long before I could see the Adelaide Hills and knew I was home. I got off the plane, saw mum and Dana, they had a nice laugh at my beard, got my luggage, and headed home.

Mitzu (my dog) is still kicking, despite being over 100 years old, and displayed about 2 mins of excitement when seeing me. That's all I could ask for. Went to my room, started to unpack a little, then decided I had done enough, so I ate some food and before I knew it it was time to go into town to the Eggs to see some people with Alley.

Even though it was only Holly and Maestro, it was so good to be out with friends again. I also forgot what it's like to walk down the street and see so many people you know. Man I missed that! So had a nice time at the Eggs, then headed off to FAD, where it was more seeing people and shocking them with my biker look.

Since then, I haven't done alot really. I haven't started working yet, which is fine, but it means that I feel like I'm just kinda wandering through life again. But I'm not complaining... I'll prob start work soon enough then I'll be bitching about how I want to not work again. So we won't pay attention to that. But the weather has been soo nice, mid 30's and sunshine. Can't ask for anymore than that. I've already given the pool a try out, and it was fiine!

Last night went to the Grace and saw yet more people, and got to see The Audreys perform. Man are they good. And go them - they got a 3 record deal with ABC music, so that's just totally awesome.

And there's of course all the Christmas shopping I've been doing the last 2 days. Stupid last minute shopping... but funny story. Town is so dead (well, by normal Christmas standards anyway) and I think the reason is because everyone's going to the other malls (Marion, Tea Tree etc) so they didn't have to go to town. I thought it was amusing anyway... Shut up!

Health - well, since I wasn't doing alot in Thailand, it's not surprising that I'm not that crash hot. However, I've started another dose of Cipro (cheers for that Janka!) and am doing alot more treatment, which has made a great improvement already. So in a couple of weeks I should be as right as rain.

Phew, that was long and long overdue, but it's done now. I don't really know how updated I'll keep this now, but I'll try my hardest to let you all know what's going on in my life. I can guarantee you it won't be as exciting as the past 4 months have been, but I'll give it my best shot.

Rating: 6.5

What I'm listening to: The Audreys - Between Last Night and Us

Bye bye Bangkok

2005-12-16T16:09:00.000+10:30

Yes, as sad as it is, the time has come. Alice and I are flying out of Bangkok tonight; destination home. It's been a lovely 4 or so months keeping you all in the know of what crazy shenanigans I've been getting upto, so I thank you all those who could be bothered reading. And thanks to all those who wrote me abusive comments to help me get through those lonely nights. I will cherish them forever...

But now onto what's been happening this week. We left Koh Chang at around 9:30am to get to the ferry so we could catch our private VIP bus to Bangkok on time. Lucky we left as early as we did. The speed boat that takes 10 mins to get to the mainland took around 40 because the seas were so rough. It made for a fun ride though, especially when Alley was filming me and we hit a huge wave and she was thrown up in the air and landed back down and smashed her head on the side of the boat. Yes, it was fun. Pity she didn't actually have the record button pressed, so she didn't actually record any of it. I only got the aftermath. Oh well...

So we finally got to Bangkok around 6:30pm, but it was a strange drop off. The bus decided to stop on the side of the road on some random street and proceeded to unload all the baggage in the middle of the road. But not to worry. None of our stuff was damaged, just in case you were all wondering...

Since this was going to be our last two nights here, we decided to splurge out and get a nice fancy hotel room. When we arrived we were told that the price had gone up quite alot, more than double in fact. But we were too exhausted to care, so we still checked in and made the most of it. They also said that the price they quoted was for a standard room, but they upgraded us to the delux sweet. Better bloody have I say! Now now Jaan, let's not get stroppy. It was a very nice room. Cable TV, king size bed, robes and slippers, and a buffet breakfast for both mornings. Can't really complain about that.

Yesterday we went to the MBK center, which is this friggen huge mall. 7 floors with so much crap. One floor is just chockas with stalls selling silk scarves, chopsticks, tiny elephants, clothes, watches, just about everything. There's a floor that basically just sells mobile phones. And the floors are friggen huge. There's even a bowling alley! We treated ourselves to a couple of games last night (I won't go on about how I creamed Alley's pants [ooh, er, that sounds a bit rude]). AND there's a floor just full of DVD's, which I am about to go and have a browse through now.

Oh, and I just remembered: while I was looking at some cool mini Harley Davidson's yesterday, some guy approached me about my fabtastic beard, and asked if I was staying in Bangkok. I said I was leaving the next day and he was annoyed because they need a model for some commercial or something, and one of the requirements was a beard. Man, I could have been famous! What a spew... Oh well.

Argh, time is about up. Health - same as the last few posts. I could be doing more, but eh. Whatevs.

Rating: 5.9

What I'm listening to: Sia - Colour the Small One

Gross white men chasing young Thai women: 96 (so close to the big one o o)

P.S. For those who are going to be in the southern hemisphere area on Saturday night at around 8pm, Alley and I are having a few welcome home drinks at the Eggs (Exeter), so if you can be bothered coming down, it sure would be great to see you all eh.

Not so sunny Koh Chang

2005-12-13T14:05:00.000+10:30

What a spew. We arrived in Koh Chang last night, found out that the bungalow we wanted to stay in isn't any longer there, so we found a place, went to bed, and got up today to find that we have windy, cloudy and quite cool weather (keep in mind that Ko Chang is an island that has white sand, crystal clear blue water and palm trees everywhere). And it's the only full day we're going to be here! We have to leave tomorrow morning for Bangkok, so we are a bit pissed. But we decided that we are going to go swimming anyway, despite the coldness.

We left Ko Lanta on Saturday and spent the day on a bus and a train to get to Hua Hin (a town about half way up to Bangkok). We arrived at 4:30 in the am, and caught a cab to the hotel that our friends at Fisherman's Cottage booked for us. However, he took us to the wrong hotel, and at 4:30 in the morning, there aren't too many people around to give you directions. So we drove around for about half an hour, and then he turned down this dark side street, crossed some railway lines, and we were convinced he'd had enough of us and decided to finish us off. So we banged on the window, told him to take us to this other place we had read about in the Lonely Planet, for him to reply with "We are here". Phew! So we checked in, went up to our room, put on the AC, and watched tellie for a few hours before passing out from tiredness.

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day (prob the first one we've had since coming to Thailand) and deiced to go for a stroll down to the beach. Not bad - very busy with older people and not the nicest looking beach, but because of the head we didn't care and proceeded to splash around in the waves like 10 year olds. Fun. We also went to some markets (where I found a way cool watch), ate some dinner (where we needed to walk down the side street at 10pm, which was quite scary) and slept some more.

We were up at 6am so we could get to Bangkok at a decent hour before more bussing to Tran (where we needed to catch a ferry to Koh Chang). So we got to Bangkok and caught a cab to the Eastern Terminal, which was about half an hour away. Man, was this the craziest cab ride I've ever been in. I stupidly sat in the front, so I could see all the mayem that was unfolding. We were going down the main streets at over 90 kmh. Bloody insane. We had so many near misses that I lost count, and by the end I needed to change my pants. But the excitement didn't end there. We got to the bus station, and found out that the express bus to Trang was leaving in 15 mins. I hear you thinking "what's the big deal? 15 minutes is heaps of time". Well, yeah, normally it would have been. Except that the boot wouldn't open, and all my stuff was in it. We were quite a hit with all the officials, so at least it was entertaining. Anyway, they were trying everything to get it open, but in the end they had to just keep pulling at it until it broke the whole boot and ripped the lock out of the car. Poor guy... but we ran onto the bus at 10:59am (the bus was leaving at 11am). Good story huh?

The rest is pretty boring. Caught a speed boat to the island, just to be cooler than the others, and found a bungalow to stay in, did some shopping, and now telling you all my crazy adventures. Again, the island here is picturesque. White sandy beaches, perfect blue water, just the way you expect Thailand to be. So we'll make the most of it by doing something to make the most of it by.

Health - I haven't been doing as much as I should, so no surprise I'm not the best I could be. But I figure I'm home in a few days, so not alot to worry about. Alley is feeling quite a bit better, and she thanks all of you for your well wishes.

It's weird having a beard - everyone is staring at me. I feel like a Western girl in Morocco wearing only a bikini top and a mini skirt. The woman at the airport in Bangkok said I looked like a monkey. Not that that has anything to do with Western girls in Morocco, but it was another random fact that I thought you all needed to know.

I'm off now. I've said too much. Or not enough... I haven't decided yet.

Rating - 5.9

What I'm listening to: System of a Down - Hypnotize

Gross white men chasing young Thai women: 62

ษน ศฟืฟ รห ดพรแ ฟไหนทำ

2005-12-09T19:32:00.001+10:30

ฟะ ไฟหใ... sorry, I was trying out my Thai. The title reads "Ko Lanta is fricken awesome". Anyway, enough of me showing off. As you all now know, Alley and I are in Ko Lanta, which is an island off the coast way down south. We were originally going to leave a day earlier than we did, but we couldn't find where the bus stop was, it was hot, we were frustrated and just not in the mood. So we stayed an extra night and then made our way down the next day.

We caught a sleeper train from Bangkok to Surat Thani, which wasn't the most enjoyable experience. For me it wasn't too bad, but poor Alley wasn't feeling the best, and it just continued to get worse. Once we got to Surat Thani, we needed to catch a bus to Krabi, but that had a stop where we needed to change busses. Again, Alley wasn't in top shape... We then had to get a van to Krabi, which took a couple of hours. Once there, we had to hop on a ferry to get to Ko Lanta, where we were VERY happy to be greeted by O, one of the guys from the place we were staying at. We got showed to our hut, ate a bit of food, then pretty much slept for the remainder of the day and night.

The place we're staying at is called Fisherman's Cottage, and it's right on the beach. Sooo nice. The hut we are in is all concrete floors and walls, so it's not too warm, with a palm thatched roof and a big bed. It's taken a few nights to get used to the, shall we say, firm bed. But it's getting easier each night. But that first night - woah, not the best I've had. Since I went to sleep at around 6:30pm, I woke at 9:30pm and thought I should get some dinner. But Alley was still sleeping, and I couldn't really be bothered. Then I woke up around 2:30am and couldn't get back to sleep because I had already slept so much. I finally managed to drift off at around 5am... sorry, I got distracted but the monkey outside torturing a tiny kitty. Quite amusing. Now, where was I?

Then the next day, I thought I would give 'stupid Jaan' a go and didn't put on any sunscreen, and got completely burnt and suffered some fun heat stroke, which included feeling sick as, headaches, dizziness, and just unpleasant feeings. But I went for another swim, ate some food and have since made a full recovery despite the scorched skin on my shoulders. Since then, there's been plenty walks along the beach, loads of delicious meals (there's tiny resorts all along the beach so you just take your pick of where you want to eat), tonnes of relaxing, some physio, swimming, and typing on this stupid keyboard.

Health - well, I haven't been that diligent with treatment, so you can imagine I'm suffering a wee bit. Nothing to worry about though. Well, so me thinks anyways. I've started it up again, and hope to be in full health very soon. It's just a bit hard when there's so much relaxing to do. You wouldn't understand...

But tomorrow we are leaving here and catching a train up to Ko Chang, with a stop in some city along the way. I will write more when we get there. I've prob missed out on heaps of important info, but who cares.

Rating - 5.6

What I'm listening to: Nothing, since my Ipod ran out of power...

Gross white men chasing young Thai women - 42 (and that's only in Bangkok)

Tantalizing Thailand...

2005-12-04T15:44:00.001+10:30

My my, I'm getting so creative with my titles eh? I'm copyrighting all of them so none of youse buggers can go and claim credit for my genius work. Hmm, I think the heat is starting to affect me, and I LOVE IT!

So, as you can see, or have figured out, I have arrived in Thailand. After Peter and Trudy left me there for their roast dinner (hehe), Becky and Janka were nice enough to keep me company for another hour talking about random stuff while sipping iced tea and eating brownies. I then thought I would have to run to catch my plane, as it was only 20 mins left till the gate shut, and I still had to get through the bag checks and stuff, but my plane was delayed for about an hour (couldn't expect anything less from London could you?) and ended up sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Yeah, that was fun. And so is this entry so far...

So the flight was alright. Not too bad, not that crash hot. Watched a few movies (Batman Begins, 40 Year Old Virgin, Charlie and Chocolate Factory), listened to some music, and then hopped off the plane to a stinking hot Thailand afternoon. 32 and coudy. Fantastic! It's so good to be in a warm place again. So I got ripped off getting to the hostel because I couldn't be arsed trying to figure out how to catch a shuttle (remember, I am REALLY slack) so I paid 700 baht for a private car to take me there. I later found out that a taxi costs about 150 baht, so I was a bit pized. Anyway, after mistaking another room for my own, and locking my belongings in there, I had a nice shower, met a nice Irish girl called Catherine (I think)and had a very nice dinner in the little restaurent next to the hostel. Quite quaint.

At around 9:30pm I caught a cab to get to the airport to met Alley. After being taken to the wrong terminal, I found my to the arrivals part, and luckily, just as I was walking in, I saw her walking out of the door. Ahh, to see her face again. Ok, I'm going to stop going on about that, otherwise it will turn into a big love fest, which I'm sure you don't really want to read... but I will say that it is so unbelievably good to see her again, and I've made sure to give her hugs from all of you that requested.

So we are leaving today for Koh Lanta, which is a very nice little island just off Krabi. For those who know, you know where it is. For those who don't, one word - google. So, yes, until then we are going to walk around for a few hours, then catch the bus tonight and hopefully get there tomorrow. I have no idea if there's net there, so if not, you won't be hearing from me for about a week. If there is, well, haha, sucks to be you.

But to summarise my last week in London - pretty average. Not to say that Peter and Trudy are bad hosts or anything, but I just really don't like London. However, there were a few highlights. Mars Volta concert was on Wednesday at Birmingham. Pretty nice show. Although it took forever to get there, even more forever to find the venue, an even bigger line (which we managed to miss out on by sneaking in the front, and a late night drive home. But all in all a fun day out. Then on Thursday I met up with Janka, a German cf girl who is just totally awesome. Hung out with her during the day and had a nice Chinese dinner along with Peter, Trudy and Becky. Then yesterday caught up with her again and did an interview, packed my stuff, and hopped on a tube for 2 hours to get to the stupid airport. I think that just about covers everything...

The heat and humidity here is definitely something I have to get used to, and it's making breathing a little bit difficult, but I think I'm adjusting nicely. Give me a week on a beach and I should be peachy keen. But I think I'm going to head off now. That's enough rambling from me for today. I'll try and keep in touch with everyone, but if there's no net then tough luck.

Rating - 6.9

What I'm listening to: Buckethead - Enter the Chicken

P.S. One last word of note - it was quite disturbing at first, but now I find it quite amusing, the number of middle age white men hanging around with young Thai women. Alley and I have decided to keep a tab of the couples we see. I am now at 10. And we only started an hour ago...

Did he get to Eedinburger? Well, did he??

2005-11-26T10:31:00.000+10:30

Let's see how good you all are... let's have a vote. All those who think I am in Edinburgh now raise your hand...

Alright. Now, all those who think I didn't get good enough to go to Edinburgh, raise your hand...

Hmm, very interesting. Well, you'll have to scroll down a bit to see who was right.

Alright. Here's the answer for those who care enough to scroll. I'm sitting here, on a Friday night at 11:59pm at... Peter and Trudys! So no, I didn't get up to Edinburgh. My decision had to be made yesterday as I needed to get the bus tickets before this mornings departure. I woke up yesterday feeling a bit better, but not good enough to venture outside into the fricken freezing weather to get some stupid bus tickets. But I'm glad. Well, not really. I would have LOVED to get up there again, but it's just not worth it. I woke up today a bit better still, so I'm quite pleased to say that I'm on the mend. However, if it is the cold, then going up to Scotland would have done nothing but crap for me. So all is well.

I'm going to take it easy this weekend to make sure I'm good for Wednesday's Mars Volta concert. And then it's just waiting till Thailand on Saturday. Only 8 days now!! Woot!!! Yes, I'm just a bit excited about it all.

Apart from that, not much else to report. I did another video entry today, and it was a bit more animated than my other ones, so hopefully it'll be kinda interesting for people to watch. I still have no idea how the whole doco thing will go, but I'm going to try and put something together when I get back.

So that's it.

Raiting for today is a nice 6.3

Music I'm listening to: Rammstein - Live Aus Berlin

A quick update...

2005-11-24T11:51:00.000+10:30

I'm sitting here at 1:22am and not doing a whole lot, so I thought I would quickly write a little something to let you all know what's been going since last post. Yesterday, on my way to Becky's to film an interview, in the tube station, I started to really cough uncontrollably and decided that I was just too worn out to go there, so I turned back around and went back to Peter and Trudy's place. Once there, the coughing subsided but for some unknown reason my body really started to ache. My back was killing me, and I had some chest pains. Nothing I haven't felt before, and they usually go away after a bit. But I woke up this morning and still had the same pains. My joints and muscles are aching quite a lot and it feels as though my chest is bruised quite badly. Whenever I breathe in deeply or cough it hurts up the top. I don't really think it's anything serious, but it's bad enough to make me cancel going out for curry tonight and going to the behind the scenes of the Jonathan Ross show tomorrow. I'm just really hoping that it will clear up tomorrow so I can still make it up to Edinburgh on Friday.

I'm thinking that it's because of the cold. I haven't ever had to deal with cold weather like this for an extended amount of time. I've been to the snow heaps, but that's only lasted a week. I'm hoping it's the cold anyway and not the flu. One good thing though is that my lungs themselves still seem to be alright. I'm not coughing up anything more - its just the rest of my body seems to be playing up. If it's what I think it is, which is nothing more than my body starting to react to the cold weather, then the only remedy is for me to relax and do nothing for a couple of days. Hence, going up to Scotland probably isn't the best idea.

If I'm still crap by next week, then I'll definitely have to go try and get some more Cipro (oral antibiotics). I really don't want to be sick for Thailand. In saying that as well, since the Cipro makes me really photosensitive, if I'm taking it while in Thailand, then it'll be pretty pointless going outside because I would burn like a red-headed Scot. But we won't jump the gun - I'll see how things go tomorrow and over the weekend and then take steps from there. I'll keep you all updated.

Also worthy of mention - I've made a few modifications to my links part. I have grouped them and added a few more, so when you get time to drift mindlessly through cyberspace, check a few of them out. Fun stuff.

Rating - (lungs) 6.5 (the rest of me) 5

What I'm listening to: Led Zeppelin - Madison Square Garden concert

Back in London

2005-11-22T20:56:00.000+10:30

Yes, it has been a while. Even after a week, I still think Edinburgh was so amazing I still haven't got sick of reminiscing about it. So much so that I actually got another ticket to go there this weekend. Woot! Really looking forward to that. But now I've almost got the problem of not having enough time in London to do all the things I want, which is quite a change from originally hating the place. Don't get me wrong, I still don't really like it here, but I finally had some ideas to do some stuff and now I might not be able to do all of it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me briefly recap what's been going on the last week or so...

I got back from Edinburgh and stayed at Peter and Trudy's for one night before moving my bag to Becky's for the next 5 days. She lives in a very nice place in Hammersmith with some other lovely girls. So staying there was quite nice. The couch was extremely comfy! While there we spent a couple nights out on the town, getting late Italian dinner and wandering the streets. We also went to a birthday/going away party for one of Becky's friends that was definitely the highlight of my time over there. The bar was quite trendy, with pictures of trees in frames. Classy. The music started off with boring dance stuff, but before we knew it we had Bon Jovi and Guns 'N Roses blaring through the speakers! Just awesome! So as you can imagine there was dorky dancing a plenty to be had by me and Pete. And last night, actually, not last night, but my last night there, we went to a Thai place for dinner near her house, and man, it was friggen fantastic. The best Thai food I've had since I can remember. But I'm sure I'll be treated to something of equal niceness when I actually go there in a couple of weeks. Only 12 days to go! Oooh yeah baby!

So yes, back at Pete and Trudys. As comfy as the couch was, it's nice to have a bed again. But back to what I was saying at the start. My time here is going to be really busy now. Today is actually not going to be so hectic. I'm going to Becky's tonight to interview her, as well as get my diggie camera which I left there. So quite relaxing really. Then tomorrow I'm going to try and get some shopping done, maybe in Camden Markets again, and then have curry with Becky and a work friend of hers at Brickworks, which should be quite nice. Then on Thursday I've got the Jonathan Ross rehearsal run through, where I'll be treated to the behind the scenes stuff. Friday morning I leave for Edinburgh for the weekend. Come back Tuesday morning, Then on Wednesday night I have the Mars Volta concert. Thursday I'm going to hopefully get together with a German cf friend of mine who is coming to London for a bit. Then I leave on Saturday. Phew! See? From bitching about not having anything to do for ages to having so much in so little time, it's a bit annoying. Oh well, whatevs.

The only other thing worthy of note, well, it's not that worthy, but I want to mention it anyway, is that it's friggen cold here now. We've been having day highs of about 5 or so, and the frost in the morning is hanging around in some areas until lunch time. It's been completely clear and sunny days, which is quite nice to be out in, except for the fact that it makes it that much colder. They say there could even be snow on Friday. Now that's cold. It would be great to see some snow though. All this cold thought has really got me hanging out for some sun (warm sun) and the beach. Where am I going to get that?? Hey, wait a minute, I'm going to Thailand. Yeah, that'll do.

Health is going pretty nicely. Not too much change there. I've finished the Cipro, so it's back to just phyiso and general looking after myself. But so far nothing too bad has happened, which is very nice. Except for the polyps in my nose (basically a pea size growth that grows in the sinuses - quite common in cf). It's in my left nostril at the moment, and completely blocks the airflow there. However, I've discovered when I lie down on my right side, it miraculously clears up. So at least there is a remedy for the time being. I just have to walk around with my head cocked at a 90 degree angle. Not too bad... I'm going to get Alice to bring my nose spray to Thailand so I can try and control the growth of it there. But I'm thinking the most it will do is slow down the growth, not acutally get rid of it, and eventually I'll need to get them removed again. The only way is surgery, and it involves a general anesthetic. Now, normally that doesn't cause too much trouble. But I've had polyps removed at least 10 times, which means at least 10 anesthetics, and they really aren't the best thing for you (anesthetics). Especially if you have a lung condition. On average it takes me about 10 months to get over a general anesthetic - for my lung function to return to normal. So as you can see, I'm not that keen on getting another one since the last one I had was only a couple of years ago. But we'll just have to wait and see how that progresses...

So that's about all I think. Hope everyone is well, and I'll try and be a bit more frequent with the updates.

Rating - 6.9

What I'm listening to: Baterz - Out of Hell & Live and Well

Black pudding, haggis and whiskey - Hello Edinburgh! - Updated

2005-11-15T22:46:00.000+10:30

Well, after looking forward to going to Scotland all week, I'm glad to say that I wasn't disappointed. Man, that place rocks! So much so, that I'm hoping to get there again before I leave the UK. But let's get back to the story...

So on Thursday night I hopped on the sleeper train for Edinburgh at 11:30pm. I managed to get two seats to myself so I could squeeze into an uncomfortable sleeping position. I arrived on a crisp morning, without any rain or drizzle. so I was quite pleased with that. I was meeting Tamara at a cafe at 9:45, so I walked around the city for a few hours to pass the time. I was just so impressed with the buildings and everything there. Such an awesome looking city. After waiting around for Tamara to meet me, we went for a walk about and went back to her place. A very nice apartment next to some parklands.

For dinner, I was treated to the fine food of haggis. Man, that stuff is good! It's kinda like a really salty mince meat. Kinda. Not really, but it's all I can think of to compare it to. Anyway, mix it with mash potato and gravy, and it's one fine feed! Anyway, so after that we went to a pub and I got to meet some of her friends and we stayed there until the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday was spent sleeping in till 2pm, hanging around the house and then catching the bus to Glasgow for the night. Again, I got to meet some of Tam's friends, who were nice enough to let me crash there for the night. We went to a pub to start the night off, then went to a kidna dingy social club for some dancing. It was really funny - when we arrived there was a band playing. Now, I hear you all laughing, but hold on to your hats. I haven't even got to the funny part yet. They were quite young - prob no older than early 20's. It was kinda crap British punk rock, complete with tone deaf singer. It was really funny - here were these kids rocking their hearts out, sounding quite averagely, and the audience was a mix of old people, young people and middle age people sitting at tables talking to each other. I don't know if I'm managing to get across this image, but suffice to say it made me giggle.

After the band finished, a DJ started pumping out tunes from the 80's and 90's. It was a lot of fun. Lots of dancing. Not by me though - not because I'm too cool for such an activity. Far from it. I just wasn't really in the mood. Yep, that's it. Pretty exciting hey? Yeah, anyway...

The next morning we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and went for a walk in the park. Had a nice breakfast/lunch, and hopped on the bus back home to Edinburgh. While on the bus, Tam got a call from her friend saying that I had left something there. Then it hit me - my stupid neb. Ah dear, how appropriate. Jaan forgets something else. Then when we got off the bus, I realised I left my beanie on board. Just so typical... The neb was organised to be shipped to London by today, but it still hasn't arrived yet, so I don't know what's going on there... hopefully soon it will come.

So yesterday, since it was a Monday, I had the day to myself to explore some more of the city of Edinburgh. I walked around the old city for a couple of hours, then decided to do a spot of shopping and go up to the castle. It has a pretty impressive view of the city from up there. So I managed to get some filming done, and did some exercise in the process. The night was finished off with a fine stir fry, then a quick run out the door to the taxi to get me to the train station.

I need a shower so this next part is going to be brief. The train was delayed for about 20 mins, since my carriage didn't have any electricity for some reason. We started off for London in pitch black, except for the glow sticks used along the aisle. But then the train stopped in the middle of nowhere and we were told to make our way up the train. I was quite tired and grumpy, but then my mood lightened up suddenly when I was shown to my own private sleeper room. How cool is that?? We got to have a bed each. As we were walking through the dining cart people were getting really shitty that we were getting sleepers. He he, suckers.

So I had a nice sleep on the train, got to rainy London at 7am, and managed to find my way to Peter and Trudy's after much running around London Bridge station getting lost. Lots of fun. As I said at the start, I loved Edinburgh so much that I'm trying to get there again before I leave England. Maybe next weekend... but until then I've got the Mars Volta on the 29th, so that should be alright. But for now, I'm off to have a shower, relax and do some physio. Considering I haven't had any nebs for a couple of days and I've finished my course of Cipro, I'm not feeling too bad but I have a feeling that I'll need to keep on top of things so make sure I don't get any sicker. But so far not too bad. Not as good as I was a week ago, but no where near as bad as I was when I first arrived in London. Woot!

I also have a new goal for my remaining time in London - to try and get to as many free things as possible, which includes lots of BBC shows, like Countdown and various radio shows. It will pass the time and could be entertaining...

Rating - 6.5

It should be mentioned that I didn't actually try any black pudding or whiskey, but since they are associated with Scotland, I thought it would make for a cool title for the entry...

Yes, this is updated. You read correctly. Just thought you should all know that this morning at a bright and early 10:30am the postie came past and delivered my nicely packed neb! So none of you have to worry anymore about me not being able to breathe in the goodness of tobrimycin and pulmozyme!

A new section:
Yep I've decided to add yet another fantastic section to my already stupendiously cool blog. It's called "What I'm listening to". Basically it's another excuse for some more self indulgent goodness. Since I listen to so much stuff, I thought I would let you all know what I've been listening to, just so you can get a better idea of the sounds drifting through my ears as I wait in bus depots, train stations, sleep... whatevs. And maybe even I could introduce you guys to some really cool stuff that you may not know of...

What I'm listening to: The Bedridden - The Anthem of the Crown & Anchor

A bit of something exciting to report...

2005-11-10T09:25:00.000+10:30

I guess you're all wondering "what's this guy on about?". Well, I'll tell you. Last night, Pete and I had the privilege of going to a recording of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (thanks Ange and Karen!), who is basically England's version of Rove, but he's actually funny. Well, it started with me having to find my own way to the BBC studio's as Pete was working, so that was a bit of a journey in itself. I had to catch a train, then two tubes to get there. I won't excite you all with the details as I think you just may wet your pantaloons, but suffice to say it was exhilarating! Anyway, we got there, got our tickets and made our way to the green room for pre-show drinks. That was a bit of alright. Then we got shown to the studio and got our seats. Pretty good ones too - only about 4 rows back and centre.

Now I had no idea who was going to be on the show, but from guests he's had in the past, I was quietly confident that there would be at least SOMEONE that we would have been excited to see. And boy was I right! First up, there was Shane Ritchie, who is an actor here in a soapie. Nothing to complain about. Then came Jimmy Carr, who is a British comedian for those who don't know. Quite a funny guy. Then came the two biggest guests of the night, Cameron Diaz and our very own Toni Collette, who were there promoting their new movie which the title escapes me. I have to admit that I was a bit star struck. Ah, what the hell. I was in the same room, only about 10 metres away from some very famous people! Woot! Alright, now that's out of my system, on with the story.

They were really funny to watch, and the interview was quite laid back. Jonathan Ross somehow got on to them talking about how they can burp really well, and halfway through the interview got them to start drinking champagne to try and help those burps out. So by the end they were quite on their way to getting pised, which was very funny for all! They were on for at least half an hour, pretty much just chatting away. It was very cool.

Then to finish the night off Green Day treated us to one of their numbers. Now, while I'm only a Green Day fan of old, I'll admit that they played very well and by about halfway through the song, my feet were a tappin'. But yeah, enough of me trying to be a tv critic. It was just damn fun alright?? Get off my case!

So again, since we were production guests, we got to go to the green room for post-show drinks. Only Jimmy Carr came in to talk with some people, but that was alright. I didn't really expect the others to come wandering in. But Pete and I got a chance to talk to Karen, who's a producer on the show (she's the one who got us tickets). She was such a lovely lady, and even gave me 4 bottles of beer and a bottle of wine to take home with me. She also said to me that I could come back to the studio to have a look behind the scenes while they do a rehearsal run, which would be friggen awesome! Watching the show really got me thinking that I would love to be involved in something like that. So at the moment I've got a new goal in life to work on a tv show. Movies are fun, but this just looked much more like my cup of tea. But knowing me, this is probably just another fad I'm going through.

The only bad thing about the night was that there was absolutely NO photography of any kind. Otherwise I would have gone mad. I was quite tempted though to bring out the diggie and switch it to video... So yes, we ended up getting out of the studio around midnight, caught the tube to Chinatown and got some dinner. Then I realised on the way home I managed to lose Pete's keys, so once again typical hopeless Jaan has made an appearance. But we got home, went to bed, and today I spent doing my washing and watching tv. Hmm, that was quite a anti-climax. Who cares...

So health is still going good. I've just about finished my course of Cipro, so I'm hoping I'll keep good once I'm off them. I'm going to Scotland tomorrow night, so looking forward to spending the weekend there and catching up with Tamara, a wicked girl I met in Montreal during the Kino Kabaret. So yes, that's all from me for now. I think that's quite long enough anyway...

Raiting - 7.4

Another update from London

2005-11-07T11:20:00.000+10:30

at picadilly
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Believe it or not, but I've actually been doing some stuff (all the credit go to Pete and Truds for getting me out of the house), so I thought I would let you all know about it. Yesterday I was treated to a... well, a treat. You see, at the same time every night, without fail, there is the ceremony of the keys, which is where they lock up the place where the Crown Jewels are kept. So at 10 o'clock every night, they go through the same ceremony as they have been for the last 400 or so years. It's pretty impressive. And to make the night even more perfect, there were fireworks going off all over the place because it's Guy Forks night, which is a celebration of a guy kinda like the English Ned Kelly. So every year its celebrated by blowing lots of shit up. Heaps of fun! So imagine being in the castle, watching these guards in ye olde clothes and what-not passing the keys and locking up the huge doors, and hearing all this explosions and bangs. It really felt like it was back in war times. Very cool.

So yes, we did that. Then today we went to Hampden Court to have a walk and look around. Now, this being my first palace, I was quite impressed. I'm sure there are many more impressive ones, but I loved it. I'm also sure after seeing a few they will all lose their novelty, but for the moment, it's pretty cool stuff. So hopped on a train, drove there, walked around for a while, then came home. Wow, that sounded much dumber than I thought in my head. Anyway, I put a couple of photos up from today and when I went to that circus place.

I guess the only other thing worthy of mention is that I'm still improving in health, which I can't tell you how happy I am. However, today was a bit crapper, as I had a late night last night, and I haven't done too much physio the last couple of days. My bad. But I promise I will get back on top of it this week. So yes, lungs are getting much better and I'm not feeling nearly as crap as I was before.

The weather is also starting to get a bit colder now as well. Today was filled with clouds and drizzle. Not the most happy weather, but I guess it's what to expect from London. I'm still trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to Edinburgh, it may have to be a combination of bus and train. I don't know why I just said that, but I'm too lazy to delete it (and I am aware of the irony of it taking me more effort to type all that out rather than delete it, so don't point that out to me!).

Better head off to beddy now. Keep those emails coming. It's very nice to hear what's going on from everyone reading this thing...

Raiting - 7.3

Word verification

2005-11-04T06:28:00.000+10:30

Ey,

I'm just writing to apologise for making you all do that word verification thingy that pops up when you want to leave a comment. It's just that I'm getting so many crap comments about weiners wanting you to see their intolerable sites, it's just got too much. So sorry, but don't let that stop you all leaving your hilarious statements about the world and bananas.

Jaanie's (health) blog

Blogger no more...

Busy busy busy

I don't usually do this...

Pending cure for cf??

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #2

It is warm...

We Ain't From Round Here... Update #1

Gigs, yoga and a Gala Day

Clinic, Yorkes and Spring!

Long overdue...

Winter hibernation

Sez and The Buck hit Rads!

Sydney and post

Busy, busy, busy

Another 3 weeks, another bunch of stuff happens

No internet (and internet back), ugly parties, gigs, and dvd’s.

Kate Miller-Heidke

Music coming out of the wazoo

Gigs, rain and wineries.

Mildura and Sydney

Exciting times ahead!

It's that time of the year.

Sorry...

Recording, dinners and gigs.

Spring is here!

Busy busy busy

Tis been a while...

Friends leaving and quiz nights.

Still going strong

Hospital, gorgeous hospital

Hospital admission

Jaan is terrible at writing blogs...

Crikey...

Thursday night and the weekend

Clinic

CD launches, the Garden and Womad

It's my birthday!!

Exhibitions, concerts, surgeries and Germans

Victor Harbour, sunshine and gigs!

Clinic and rain!

NYE and other stuff

Long overdue...

Weddings, the beach, trials and fondue

Anniversaries, gigs, cars and the beach

The weekend and clinic

Update 100!

CF Ball

Update number whatever

Another update

Back home again

Going in tomorrow

Going good so far...

Back home!

Going into hospital

Weather's getting warmer, but I'm getting sicker

Polyps, Muffin, Toby and Birthdays!

We have added a new member to the family!

Another update from the pen (well, keyboard in this case) of Jaanie

Vineyards and good times

Clinic yesterday

Thursday the twenty ninth of June, at one o one in the pm

What's with this weather??

One week (and a coupla days) on

Jaan is back in the building!

more news from jaan to alice to everyone else...

update

alice is taking over jaan's blog...

another quick update

hello. my name is jaan...

Iv's no more

One week on

Details of clinic and PICC line

Update coming your way tomorrow

Hopefully the worst is over

Yet ANOTHER post

What I got for Easter...

*Insert witty and intelligent title here*

Pics!!

Finally, Jaan has done the impossible.

Insert witty and intelligent title here