Hospital, gorgeous hospital

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

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...

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...

From 04.25 anzac d...

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...

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