DIARY, Wednesday, 11th December 2013

I am off the Hook!

I do not need blood pressure tablets anymore!

Well, this is a long story. It actually started the day I had my Carpal Tunnel Release operation. On that day at six o’clock in the morning I was allowed a cup of tea and a very light breakfast. Then I had to wait for more than twelve hours before I could have as much as a glass of water or a cup of tea. I was told ‘nil by mouth’ before the operation, which was to last for only a short time, maybe twenty minutes. Unfortunately I was the last one on the list. Which would have been all right, if everything had gone to plan. However there were some unforeseen delays during the day, which meant my operation was postponed for many hours. I sat in the hospital waiting room, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Finally, well into the evening, it was my turn. What a relief! A lot of precautions, needles stuck into me here, there and everywhere while I was lying on the trolley waiting to be let into the operating theatre. The anesthetist thought I was very relaxed. Then my surgeon came out to greet me. After a little while the doors opened and I was rolled into the room where the procedure was going to take place. There was some background music which I thought wasn’t soothing at all. However I didn’t complain. The surgeon must have felt that this was not my kind of music. He asked me what kind of music I liked. All I could think of saying was: Something ‘classical’. Whereupon the lovely surgeon saw to it that ‘Sound of Music’ with Julie Andrews was put on.

I had been given local anesthetics only. So I could listen to the music during the whole operation. Everything went smoothly, except as they later told me, my blood pressure went up a bit much. They advised me to see my GP (General Practitioner) about it.

To cut a long story short. I did indeed see my GP. My blood pressure went sky high that night when I saw the doctor after many hours of waiting. He did consider to put me into hospital. Luckily the blood pressure came down a bit after a little while. So the doctor let me go home. He prescribed blood pressure tablets and even valium. Peter and I did get my prescription drugs at a close by late night chemist, which delayed us getting home by another half hour. I took the blood pressure tablets as prescribed, but not the valium. I really felt relaxed enough by the time I got home and had no trouble going to sleep.

The GP had asked me to see him again the next morning so he could check on me whether I was all right. By the time I got there at 8 am, there were already eight patients in front of me. So I had to wait again. The tablets turned out not to agree with me. They made me feel sick. Eventually the doctor organised a 24 hour blood pressure test for me. This test showed that my blood pressure was up only slightly during the day, and during my sleep it was absolutely perfect.

Yesterday I did get the marvellous news that I did not have to take the tablets anymore. The doctor said to me, on a day when I felt under a real lot of pressure, I may perhaps take a valium tablet. But not to do this too often for these tablets can be addictive.

After he said all this we wished each other a Happy Christmas and I left his office in a really great mood! 🙂

Fashions on Melbourne Cup Day

Today was Melbourne Cup Day in Australia. Fashions are very important on that day. When you go to the above link you can get a bit of a glance at some of the fashions. Enjoy! 🙂

Father’s Day last Year

On Sunday, the 2nd of September 2012, Peter and I had a lovely day with our youngest daughter. This was Fathers Day here in Australia!

DSCN3532 — We took a walk to this lovely lake site.

Last Tuesday, 17th September 2013, we took a walk to this part of the lake. It rained a little bit. We mentioned to Martin, our son, who was with us, that we had been here last year on Father’s Day with daughter Caroline. On that day last year there had been glorious sunshine as can be seen on these pictures from last year.

Martin found out later, that this spot was actually on one of the two arms of Mullet Creek which both go into Lake Illawarra.

DSCN3533 — Peter took this picture of Caroline and me on Father’s Day in 2012

DSCN3525 — Along this footpath we walked back to where the car was parked

DSCN3547 — At Forest Grove we were being served beautifully brewed tea which was being kept hot with tea-lights.

Peter on Father’s Day 2012

Sea Cliff Bridge, Monday, 16th September

We had dared to leave the car to take a walk across the bridge. It did not rain very much, just a drizzle. Three people, one man and two women, came along the footpath of the bridge from the opposite direction. They stopped at this spot where some beautiful fresh flowers had been left. People leave flowers near the road where an accidental death has occurred, do they not? In this instance when we spotted the flowers we were thinking maybe someone had committed suicide by jumping off the bridge into the ocean underneath. This bridge seems to be an ideal spot for people wanting to jump. We had seen ‘Help Signs’ along the bridge where suicidal people are encouraged to use ‘Lifeline’. When I passed the three people who had stopped near the flowers, the man turned around and looked at me. I asked him whether he knew what had happened, whether someone had jumped. He answered. it had been an accident on a motorbike. Happened only two days ago on Saturday. He explained his 39 year old son had been speeding and was thrown out of the curve on the road of the bridge. Of course this man looked very distressed telling me this story and I said how sorry I was. Later on I told our son and Peter about it. Our son Martin, who had been driving us, said there would probably be some marks on the road where that motor-bike rider had been thrown out of the curve. And true enough when we looked for these marks on our way back, we could see them. They were still there despite the rain.

Martin and L had been visiting us from Sunday till Tuesday. Martin had rented a car at the airport. On that Monday he drove us first to the Bridge and then to Bulli Beach where we had a look at the Tourist Park. It was getting close to lunch-time. So we had some hot drinks and some fair dinkum Aussie food at the Tourist Park Coffee Shop.

We had a wonderful long weekend with our visitors. Our two daughters came to visit with their partners. On Sunday we went out for lunch, on Tuesday we had a home cooked meal with sauerkraut which everyone liked. The weather was terrible. Especially on Monday it was turning into a huge downpour all afternoon and right through the night. We were lucky that very early in the morning we had managed to go to Dapto’s open air solar heated pool. L swam 20 laps and Martin ‘only’ 12. He said he was a bit out of practice. I also had a lovely swim. Peter did not want to go to the pool. That meant he had a chance to sleep in a bit.

On Tuesday we went for some beautiful walks along the lake. The rain had eased off, just a bit of a drizzle from time to time. No sunshine whatsoever. Still we enjoyed our walks. Only Tuesday afternoon, when Martin and L had to leave for the airport, the sun finally came out to brighten the day.

Grandma Monika

Our daughter Monika became a grandma when Lucas was born on the 18th of July 2012. Monika was very, very happy that she had become a grandma at last.

Our younger daughter, Caroline, is in the front, Monika, holding Lucas, sitting on the Sofa.

This picture was taken on Easter Sunday, 31st March, 2013.

This is Lucas with his mum, Ebony.

This is the dad of Lucas, Monika's son. — This is Ryan, the dad of Lucas, Monika’s son.

At the table, our ‘sons-in-law’.

This is Lucas with his auntie Natasha, eldest daughter of Monika.

Great-grandma or maybe super-grandma? It's lovely to feel the baby's skin! — Great-grandma or maybe super-grandma? It’s lovely to feel the baby’s skin!

Black Forest Cake

Finally I am able to show you our lovely Black Forest Cake that we had for Easter Sunday. Peter said this morning something about our router being quite old and the modem being even older. So he went today, bought a new modem/router, all in one, connected it and voila, now we can upload pictures again. What a relief!

So for good measure I include now some more pictures from Easter Sunday.

Little Lucas, our baby great-grandson, was allowed a taste of that delicious Black Forest Cake. He loved it and later on licked the spoon! He also loved to drink out of his bottle.

We all love little Lucas very much.

For breakfast I had hard boiled egg with a garnish of salmon.

Here are a few more of Easter Sunday’s pictures which I only just found in the files when I looked a bit more. There is a picture with Grandma Monika in the background holding little Lucas. In one of the other photos you see Ryan, the dad of Lucas. The brother of Ryan is at the table too but cannot be seen properly. Sorry, Troy, that I didn’t catch you properly.

Bulli Beach Pictures

Finally I was able to upload this picture which I took last Sunday (Palm Sunday) at Bulli Beach.
Thank you WordPress for advising me to try again. I think with the rest of the pictures I have to wait because there’s a major delay again.

Sunday at Bulli Beach

Last Sunday, which was Palm Sunday, the weather was perfect for the beach. I’m glad we decided to go there.

We have a number of beaches to choose from in our area. I said to Peter: “Let’s go to Bulli Beach. We can have a cup of coffee there.” Peter agreed.

The day before, on Saturday, I had felt really awful because of a gum infection. I went to see a doctor who prescribed for me some antibiotics. So on Sunday I felt already very much better. I had been able to walk to the church early in the morning for the 7,30 Palm Sunday Mass. I encouraged Peter to do his running while I was at church. I insisted I was all right walking. Still, it was good he could drive me home then after Mass.

Soon after lunch on Sunday we took off for our twenty minute drive to the beach. The weather was still perfect. We parked near the Bulli Beach Tourist Park. I thought: Wouldn’t it be good to stay there for a few days! Our stay in one of the cabins at the Tourist Park in October of 2010 is still vivid in my memory. We had contemplated then that we would do this again soon. It seems, so far we just haven’t been able to make time for it!

Anyhow, we enjoyed our afternoon session at the beach on that Sunday before Easter. We strolled around, taking pictures here and there. In some of the pictures you can see a perfectly blue sky over the beach and the ocean. Where the life-savers were there were still quite a few people enjoying the water. But where we were the beach looked pretty deserted.

I made it as far as the edge of the beach sitting down in the sand. There was hardly any breeze. It was probably a bit under thirty degrees Celsius. Just perfect! Peter didn’t feel like going right into the water. But he took his shoes off and tried out the water with his toes. He told me the water felt quite warm at this time of the year.

Then a bit later we had our coffee at the Tourist Park Cafe. We even had a bit of cake to go with it.

What do I anticipate?

Here’s our Buddha. He seems to be happy enough in this wilderness area near our house. Being the 5th Sunday of Lent today, I should have attended Mass. However so far I didn’t go out at all yet. This afternoon we’re off to neighbouring Warrawong to watch Steven Spielberg’s Movie about LINCOLN.

So far so good. I am very happy that I am very much pain-free today. Tomorrow I’ll have to see the doctor about the test results. I anticipate the blood-test is going to show that I am okay.

What else do I anticipate? Well, I anticipate that I’ll probably live for another five or ten years. I also anticipate that I might perhaps even be able to venture on another overseas trip when I am in my eighties!

For next month I anticipate that we’re going to see the family over Easter and that Peter and I are going to enjoy our planned trip to Victoria. The beautiful warm summer weather will be gone by then. However I am looking forward to see a bit of the country side and then be spending a few days with family in Melbourne.

Merrylands West/Parramatta

After having been to the house on Friday, Peter and I went there again on Monday. David’s family had gone to the house once more on Sunday. So there wasn’t much to do for us anymore when we appeared on Monday. But it was a trip that went for well over 200 km because we also traveled to Parramatta to take some equipment to a health support department who had looked after Gaby. We thought it was only right to return the equipment which they usually pick up themselves. However it had been left in the house for all these months since Gaby died. So it was about time that we returned it. There’s still Gaby’s hoist left in the house. Before the renovators attack the building the health support people are going to contact the owners, the Department of Housing. Thereafter they may arrange that Gaby’s hoist, that’s still attached to the ceiling of her bedroom, can be dismantled. We told them, the house is empty now. Nobody lives there anymore.

Most of the stuff, that was still lying around on Monday, Peter could get rid of at a local opportunity shop. He had to travel there several times because we have only a small car. I occupied myself taking photos and sorting out a few things. For lunch we went to Central Park just around the corner. We have beautiful memories of this park from times long gone. We spent time there with Gaby and David and the whole family for picnics on special occasions. Gaby was even allowed to take her companion dog into the park!

Yesterday, Monday, we did get caught in the traffic. Leaving our place at 8,30 in the morning, we came to a snail’s pace after about an hour. The delay was caused by a minor traffic accident in a suburb where all the major traffic has to pass through. We were delayed by close to 30 minutes. Driving home soon after 2,30 in the afternoon we had again a bit of a delay but in a totally different suburb: One lane had been closed off because of some road work. There were quite a few workers around seemingly very eagerly doing their job. From where we live it takes us around 90 minutes to get to the Western suburbs of Sydney, but only on days when the traffic goes smoothly. Yesterday we had a two hour trip there and also a two hour trip back. By 4,30 we were back home. It felt really good to be back after having been away for eight hours!

When we had been meeting Gaby in Merrylands or Parramatta, this had meant usually a nine hour trip for us: Three hours each way by train, and seeing Gaby for about three hours. We were usually quite exhausted after a trip like this even though we could do a bit of napping on the train. Peter wrote about it here.

Last Friday, when we drove to Merrylands West together with our daughter Monika, Peter had to drive through pouring rain. On top of it there was for a short distance a bit of fog. Despite his deteriorating eye-sight, Peter managed the driving through rain and fog surprisingly well. But night-time driving he tries to avoid these days. We hardly ever go out at night-time anymore.

It practically rained all day on Friday. Still, we managed to do whatever we had to do on Friday. Yesterday, Monday, we were lucky: It didn’t rain at all.

Over the weekend we had lovely visitors: Saturday afternoon one of our grandsons did bring his family along. Baby Lucas has grown a real lot. On Sunday our youngest daughter came by train from Sydney and spent the day with us. She came on her own because Matthew had to work. We hadn’t seen them yet since they had arrived back from their holiday trip to Singapore. Caroline showed us heaps of photos they took during their one week stay in Singapore. The pictures showed us that they must have had a really good time.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we’re off by train to the inner city of Sydney to meet a friend and to see our dentist in the afternoon.

David’s brothers and nephew did a great job carting the more bulky pieces away to the rubbish tip. They had to do this several times. On Sunday David’s sisters did go to the house as well clearing heaps of stuff away. Monika, Peter and I had our hands full too for a lot of the time on that Friday. A friend of Gaby’s turned up in the afternoon. He’s a very cheerful fellow. All of us had a good time resonating about past memories of the house with Gaby and friends.

Our visitors on the following day: 2nd March. Autumn had arrived with cooler weather.

7 months old Lucas with Peter, his great-granddad

This grows at the back of our house. Birds love it!

He's looking for something to eat — He’s looking for something to eat