CF Ball

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

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

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

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