Clinic and rain!

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

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...

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

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