7th March 2003

Been a quiet week and boy has it gone fast!!! Even Jared thinks it disappeared into thin air and he's only 10... So much for the old saying... "The older you get the faster it goes"

Now.... let's see.... what happened this week?????

I had my doctor in fits...
She mentioned a Pap Smear and a Mammogram.. (RIGHT!!!)
I wished her all the luck in the world!!
I have a theory on both!

First the Pap Smear..
I figure if you abstain from sex (albeit involuntarily *S*) what's the chances of cervical cancer?????????????
Since I've been deprived of this pass-time for many years and there doesn't look like there's much hope for me in the near future.....
I figure I have Buckleys' chance of ever getting it. LOL!!

Then the Mammogram...( Ha!! ) she'd be hard pressed (pardon the pun) getting ME to travel to Brisbane (3.5 hours) to put MYSELF in a position where I HAVE TO PAY to get mauled! (Grin)

My theory on this is....
It seems to me that since women began using HRT to get through menopause the incidence of breast cancer appears to have increased. Since I refused HRT when I started menopause then my chances of developing breast cancer are lessened. AND would you believe..... she agreed with me on this one!!! Apparently .... according to research carried out over the last 20 or so years, this isn't as silly as it sounds. The incidence of Breast cancer HAS increased since the use of HRT!!!!

Besides... I check for lumps.
My blood tests are all OK.. so I'm not worried.

Then... when she jabs me with the needle every week she always asked if she's hurting me.... (she's so good I don't even feel the needle going in!)
and I always reply....
"No.... Do you want it to????" ...
"Then make me laugh while you're doing it!" *S*
I think she must look forward to 'crazy' Jamie turning up every week for a natter and a laugh. My appointments last 30 minutes at least!

I think I said last month that our pets are trecking their way to Pet Heaven.. Pippa, our little Shi Tzu who is blind hasn't been well. We lost Dingo on the 11th of November last year and Doris, the white Rat died a few weeks ago.
Now... Jared's little mouse hasn't touched it's food for 2 days. It always empties the food dish... tossing the food 'hither and thither' (I like that saying *S*) as soon as I put it in the cage. Well the food is still in it's dish... untouched.
The only animal that seems to be thriving is the.....
you guessed it....
CAT FROM HELL!!!!

We still have the peach faced Cockatiel... who is still nameless but in good health *S*
But I bet if it was left to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER the bird wouldn't last long either!

Did the lawns a couple of days ago... only the ones at the front of the house, took 2 hours!! When I'd finished I had a shower and a cup of coffee. Went past Jason's computer room and he said ...
"You know....I could have done the front lawns for you..."
Yeh.. right! "tomorrow"....
So I said .. (with a smile on my face.....)
"I needed the exercise...(LIAR!!!)...... BUT there's still the area around the pool still to be done if you don't mind... I'm buggered (oops!).
His reply.... "It's done!!" *S*

I figured he meant 'consider it done'... but he actually HAD done it while I was in the shower... that's why I didn't hear the mower. I guess I shamed him into it. LOL!!!

Today I WAS going to cut back one section of overgrown garden down the side of the house that I left the last time because there was a dove's nest in it. I figured it must be gone by now so I started hacking away and heard a flutter of wings when I was only 10 minutes into it!! So THAT idea got hit on the head! Cut back the trees and bougainvillea overhanging the washing line. It was cut back last month but with the heat and humidity and the bit of rain we had... there was stacks of new growth, The bouginvillea must have grown 3 feet in 4 weeks!! The birds, (doves, finches, willy wagtails and butcher birds sit in the tree and leave deposits on the washing (GRRRRRR!!!!!).
Well... no longer!!

Lord... it seems that I just get finished tidying up the garden when I have to start all over again! By the time I get from one end to the other.. the first end has grown again! AND here in Queensland... it doesn't even slow down in winter!!!!

Jared and Jason went fishing today after Jared's golf lesson... caught some more flathead and garfish. I actually like garfish... they're small but sweet. So he's cooking dinner tomorrow night... They're off again tomorrow to catch some more.
It's nice to see them doing stuff together.

Jared's been really good this week and doing well at school. It's a great school.... the teacher was playing soccer with the kids this week and last week he was playing T-Ball with them and having the time of his life! Jared's getting spelling words twice as hard as he got before and only got one wrong this week. He's doing better with 'tables' and with his Math. The Math is a lot harder than last year but I think the teacher has the knack in explaining how to do it so that it makes it so much easier for the kids.
The teacher he had for maths last year (Mr Schulz) was like this... he tried to make Maths fun.
By the way ... the Grade 7's in his class get the same spelling words and Jared (Grade 6) beat all but one of them in their weekly test *S*

I figure spelling is so important... I hate it when I see local ads on TV with incorrect spelling. What chance do the kids have???


Tuesday 25th March

Well, a couple of weeks have passed since I wrote here last...
This current week being the saddest in living memory for me and many others... I'm sure.

My heart goes out to the families of those 'boys' and 'girls' who are serving in the Middle East. You see their faces on T.V. and can't help but think 'they're only children'... some
are still teenagers!

I cried when I saw the POW's demeaned and petrified in the Iraqui broadcast. These people are sick and I hope they pay for this. I can't imagine how the families of these service people must have felt when they saw their sons and daughters on the war broadcast. THIS IS WRONG!!

Am I wrong??.. I don't think that this war, or any other war should be televised world wide 'as it happens'. Maybe if the broadcasts weren't being sent all over the world instantaneously our service men and women might stand a chance of not being used as scapegoats.



Sunday 6th April

OK... so I'm late again *S*
What a lousy week this has been!!!

We've had storms... lots of them... fortunately not as bad as our southern counterparts. They've had a tremendous amount of storm damage and one person's life lost when a tree fell on her.

One storm last week had me running to the computer to turn it off and yes... I got it off in time, but when I went to restart....... NOTHING!!!
I guess I've had a good run... it's been 2 years since I had this system installed and this is the first hiccup.

I yelled for Jason of course... after all why should I exert myself when I have him around (grin). The bad news was I needed a reinstall... so I left HIM to it. When it was done, all my email folders were gone!!! Grrrrr!! This happened once before and Jason found them for me so................ I told him to rack his brain and try to remember where he found them the last time. He couldn't remember what the extension was for email records.. he wasn't going to get off THAT EASY!!! I remembered..
".dbx" I informed him *S*
All this took a day and a half but I got everything back, even my 'autosave' file in Paint Shop Pro which was corrupted during one storm where I didn't get to the computer in time
to turn it off.

Over the preceeding days while I was hopping around the Net I kept seeing pages on how to backup Outlook Express files. DID I PAY ATTENTION???????? NO!!!
Maybe I should have taken the hint *S* Oh well... All well that ends well... *S*

Jared has been spending a lot of time visiting his other grandmother at the weekends. His brother and half brother spend every weekend with her. She picks them up from school
every Friday afternoon and Helen (their mother) collects them on Sunday around 7pm all scrubbed, in their PJ's and ready for bed.
Isn't she a 'smart' mother?????.... she actually spends as little 'quality time' as possible with them as far as I can see.

Monday to Friday every week, she gets them up in the morning for breakfast and gets them ready for school (maybe a little over an hour), picks them up at 3:00pm.... they have a play, do their homework, have dinner, have a shower and go to bed! Then on Friday after school... it's off to Grandma's!!!!

During the holidays they go to Child Care!!

Hayden... Jared's brother even spent his Birthday at Grandma's!!
No party...no celebration!
Jared is so thankful he doesn't live with his Mum. (He'd hardly ever see her)

Jared's also been fishing with his Dad at the weekends. . There's nothing nicer than fresh fish.... doesn't smell fishy when it's cooking *S*

Jason is depressed... he misses Chantal. (enough said)

My health has been OK. My doctor went to Perth for a week.
Virgin Airlines were running a $99 each way ticket between Brisbane and Perth (before the school holidays of course) so she didn't want to pass it up.

The last day I saw her, later that afternoon I went to collect Jared from school and ended up in a long conversation with his teacher.
45 minutes later we left... We'd only gone a little way (in the car)
when I felt this 'stinging' on my left hip. It got worse and worse, in fact I was screaming with pain as I was driving along. It was like something was jabbing me with 20 needles and twisting them at the same time!! I had white slacks on.... when I stopped at the supermarket there were no marks on them... I'd been hitting my hip with my fist to try to 'kill' whatever was causing the pain. But there was nothing!!

My hip and leg hurt for a couple of days (that was on Thursday) and on Sunday I was working in the garden... my leg felt itchy, so I checked out what was causing the discomfort.... there was a blistered, red mark on my leg! Went to the bathroon to check it out in the mirror when I saw not only that mark BUT THE ONE FROM WHATEVER GOT ME ON THURSDAY TOO!! It was huge! I hadn't even noticed it when I was having a shower over the days before. In fact I'd forgotten about it as soon as the pain went away.

The welt was still there this last Thursday when I went for my weekly jab from one of the other doctors in the practice. He had a look... said it could have been a spider bite... ugh!!!!


The Paint Shop Pro classes are going really well Everyone seems to be enjoying the tutorials even with the couple of hiccups we've had... but there's been no major dramas *S*


Finally for this month....
I hope the Coalition 'gets' Saddam Hussein!!!
It's been a sad 2 weeks.

What worries me is.... I seems to have been TOO EASY so far.
I know lives have been lost either by accident, in warfare and worst of all by the Iraquis killing the POWs!! But the 'basic' ease with which the Coalition has descended on Baghdad and the way the Republican army is surrendering in the thousands makes me feel (I hope I'm wrong) that the worst is yet to come.

The Iraqui telecasts with the Minister of Information denying that the Coalition has Baghdad airport and that it is still in full control of the Iraquis makes me wonder whether Saddam IS alive or not. This man has a gigantic ego and I find it hard to believe that he
would allow this Minister to go on TV and make a fool of himself and the Iraqi army. I suspect Saddam is dead or gone and these people in charge have no idea how to 'run a war'. With all the money Saddam has, one would think he would have the best equipment for his troops, but they are all 'old fashioned'.

Either they're 'playing the fool' or they really do have something 'up their sleeves'. Like everyone else I hope this hasn't much longer to go and I pray for those in the Gulf fighting for freedom. I pray that they will all be home soon.

A few photos for March


Until next month... be safe and happy
and
BE KIND TO EACH OTHER

The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind
William James. American philosopher and psychologist, leader of Pragmatism, 1842-1910

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