Galahs, Trigg bushland, Fuji S-100fs at 400mm hand held, 2007  © PJ Croft 2013

I was driving on Marmion Avenue on Thursday when I saw what looked like a newspaper page fluttering in the centre of the road. I was nearly going to drive over it until I realised it was a galah that had just been hit by the 4WD in front of me. The poor bird was lying on its side flapping its wings, dazed. I managed to avoid it and tried to think how I could stop, but I couldn’t.

That sort of thing really upsets me. The older I get, the less I can tolerate cruelty to animals, or animals in pain or terror. I cannot watch those ABC clips of the cattle being slaughtered in Indonesia and now Madagascar.

I felt sad that night and I had a dream, but it wasn’t a bird, it was a sheep lying on the road with its legs trussed together so it couldn’t get up. I went and tried to comfort it, but I can’t remember what else happened.

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Speaking of dishwashers, I can’t get mine to go. It has a warning LED on – Salt. Apparently you have to add salt in the base tank, about 2Kg when you use it first time from new. Evidently it needs more now. But you try and buy “dishwasher salt”. Not available, not in supermarkets, not even from an appliance shop.

I’ve ended up with 2x 1KG bags of rock salt. We’ll see what happens. But getting it into the tank is going to be fun – you’re supposed to have a special wide mouth funnel that comes with the washer from new, but I didn’t get it with the house. The tank is full to the brim with water. I’ll get there. Why salt?

UPDATE 4.30pm: I added a 1Kg bag of salt without any trouble with a cutoff funnel. Still the Salt warning LED was on. I added the second bag, which overflowed the container a bit, and hey presto, no more warning light. It was all systems go. So now I’ve done my first ever dishwasher load and although it took a long time (2h 40mins) the result is superb. Better than I can do in the sink, because the rinse aid leaves everything mark free and sparkling. I think I can get used to this. As they say, It uses far less water than a sink wash. Good stuff.

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Similarly, the taps in this house are terrible. Spiky handles with sharp edges. I want to replace them but the handles have a “concealed fixing” that you need a special tool for. Did it come with the house? I haven’t found it. Can you buy one? Nope.

And the very stylish bowl shaped basins have a non-removable plug. Rotate it and pull it up and it’s open. Rotate it a bit and it falls closed. But they’re black with gunk and don’t seal properly. Can you buy replacements? Nope. Can you tell me how to get it out? Work from underneath, removing the waste pipe, and you may need to cut the seal where the basin meets the bench top and lift it out. Then you can unscrew the plug assembly from the bottom. What?! This was a plumber’s advice in the hardware shop. It looks as if that’s the only thing I can do.

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I bought another new digital camera yesterday, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70. It’s a fixed lens with an SLR styled body, but its claim to fame is that the zoom goes from super-wide 20mm to super-tele 1200mm at the long end. This is an amazing 60x ratio.

Here’s the widest view.

20mm

20mmHere’s the longest zoom, 1200mm, handheld of course.

1200mm handheld

1200mm handheld.

All the lake shots were taken from the same position. This is not the greatest picture quality camera, just a take everywhere camera to have fun with.

This is Butler, near my place. I’d just walked to the newsagent to buy the papers.

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I went to the rugby club last night for the first time in about 5 months. It was to check out whether it could be used as a venue for our 50th anniversary NSHS reunion in October next year. The answer was yes, no problem, although the cost to hire is $550 plus $20 for cleaning afterwards. I shall report to the committee tomorrow.

All I had to drink was two low alcohol schooners and a LLB over two hours.

Ain't that nice? It's a fractal I found on the web.

Brrrr! This has been the hardest year of my life and I was saying to the doctor last week, “Holy smoke, what else can go wrong. What’s next?”

Well, how about another kidney stone? On the left this time. No blood, just a strong ache and some very sharp pain for nearly three hours this morning that had me getting the bag out ready to go to hospital. But it’s faded away now (3pm), so I’m left to wonder, has it gone through, or is it still to come? It’s a fearsome thought.

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BUTLER
This suburb name was chosen by the City of Wanneroo in 1979. The name honours John Butler who is the first recorded explorer of the area (1834). Butler settled in the Claremont area, and Butler’s Swamp, now renamed Lake Claremont, was named after him.

I wondered where it came from.

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Coool tiles. My whole living area and passages are large smooth off-white tiles and in this weather, it’s great, nice and cool to walk on.

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I still haven’t used the dishwasher since I’ve been here, but today I opened it up and had a good look for the first time. I found a knife belonging to the previous owners. She works one day a week at the pharmacy  across the road (yes, she’s a graduate pharmacist), so I’ll give it to her on Sunday.

Funny, I always wanted a dishwasher, but now that I’ve got one, I don’t use it. Duh.

This is my new kitchen cabinet. This house has a b … awful kitchen, not that it bothers me very much, I hardly ever cook. But the shelves and cabinets are too high and there’s not enough of them.

So at last with this I have somewhere to put all my crockery and glassware. I hope to get glass doors to go on the front, but nothing yet. Beautiful high gloss white lower doors. IKEA Besta. Yes, I know the shelf spacing is out. To be fixed.

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I saw the doc last week and he agreed that I can go off the Lyrica to see if it will stop my tremors. I can hardly write normally or hold screws and a screwdriver (but I do eventually). The question is, will the shoulder pain come back? I have an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon on the 28th.

Update: the tremors haven’t stopped, they’ve got worse if anything, but the shoulder pain, although noticeable, is OK.

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Do you know you can buy a cabin on an ocean liner and cruise the world permanently? Just as if it were a flat or unit. Some are only about US$275,000 for permanent ownership (owner ship, yeah). They’re small, but bigger than a cabin, with a double bedroom, bathroom with shower and bath, kitchen and lounge/dining. Fully furnished and with no ongoing maintenance fees. You don’t get a balcony for that price, though. That’ll cost you about US$1m.

Just dreaming.

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It’s been a day of LOUD music from somewhere around here, I suspect the pub. It started about 11am and thankfully finished at about 3.30pm. Just boom box bass stuff.

Then about 3pm I heard a loud thud on my bedroom window. I thought it was a soccer ball or a rolled up heavy newspaper, but I think now it may have been a bird hitting the glass. It’s covered in mirror film, so it could well be. It was lucky it didn’t break.

The Angel of the North. 
It's next to the A1 motorway in England. 
I saw it twice while I was there, 
once on the motorway going north
and again from the train going south.
This is not my picture, btw.

Bother! Yesterday I summoned the energy to go to the beach stairs for the first time in a coupla months, only to find them cordoned off with a sign saying “Closed due to a washaway.” So I did a cliff top walk instead, only to find another beach access point closed off as well, without a reason.

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Oh well, I went and walked around Bunnings instead, to buy new rubbers for my sink plugs, which are stainless steel, like strainer baskets. “No Sir, you can’t buy the rubber seals. You have to buy the whole plug.” OK, they’re only $4.95, but what a waste.

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My shoulder pain is a lot better, perhaps due to the drug Lyrica that I’m on, but the side effect is hand tremor. I don’t know for sure, but it only seems to since I started it. It makes it hard to hold small screws and hold the screwdriver steady. I’ll ask the doc. I have an appt with the orthopaedic surgeon on the 28th, so we’ll see what he says.

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My sleep is very erratic these days and I’m hearing a few odd noises, like scuttling sounds, with a small rattle of the micro-venetian blind occasionally. Today I heard a click, exactly like one of my sliding door latches. A bit worried, I went out to the kitchen, but all was well, except that the latch was in the locked position. Huh? How would it be this way if the door is open? (I’m talking about daytime, not during the night.)

I think I have mice in the ceiling too. There’s one small mouse running across the floor occasionally. They’ve only shown up since Minnie’s been gone, and neighbourhood cats as well (they wear collars).

I won’t rush into it, but I could weaken and get another dog. This is too hard.

I had lunch today with seven other guys from Northam High School days. There was one I didn’t remember – he was a year behind us and in those days that was a canyon. One was in a wheelchair with MS but all the others are still in good health (assuming I am).

But the flies! They came free but we were in an outside area and we were constantly shooing and waving. Change of season I suppose.

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The medication for my shoulder pain seems to be working. I awoke this morning on my left side, which has been too painful to sleep on for the past month, so it must be better now. Still aching a bit today, but nothing like last week.

But the side effects of the medication are not nice. “Feeling drunk” is right. My balance is affected and I tend to want to veer right. I’ve nearly fallen a few times – but I didn’t. Also I’ve developed a tremor in my fingers and some involuntary arm movement (jerks) . This was confirmed by a friend who’s also been on the same medication. I hope it wears off.

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Jeez I miss Minnie. It’s been nearly 8 weeks now and it hasn’t got any easier.

Urrrrgghhh! It’s just one darn thing after another. For the past week I’ve been fighting pain in my left shoulder, going up my neck and down into the shoulder joint and the upper arm. I saw the doctor on Thursday and she says I’ve got C6 neuropathy. A nerve is being pinched in the C6 spinal joint. There’s a bit of numbness in my left arm and thumb too.

I had a CAT scan yesterday and will know the result on Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, I’m dosing up on Panadiene Extra every 4 hrs and trying to stay immobile, as the pain does go away if I can keep it still for a while.

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One good thing about living up here is that you can get an appointment at the scanning place quick smart – no crowds, no waiting. The nearest is at Currambine, about 10 mins drive away. “Yes, sir, when would you like to come in?”

Funny – I get to 66 without ever having a scan done, and now I’ve had an MRI and a CAT scan within 3 weeks of each other.

I knew it. The correct way to pronounce bruschetta.

“But we monolingual Brits have less right to pass judgment. We have the worst language skills in Europe. Many of us can’t even properly pronounce the food we eat (bruschetta is “bru-SKET-a”. We should stop saying “bru-shet-a” if we don’t want to drive Italians crazy).” (From The Guardian today).

I’ve been asking around this year and most people say bru-shet-a, but I’m sticking to my guns. It’s bru-sket-a.

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Phew. One of the side effects of the new medication I’m on is fatigue. I can verify that. It’s supposed to wear off but I’m not up to the full dose yet. Some weeks to go. Doin’ a lot of sleeping.

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Well, how about that. Just after I wrote that, the phone rang and it was Perth Clinic asking how I’m getting on. I mentioned the fatigue and they asked me to make an appointment with the doctor at the clinic, which I’ve done. Neat.

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I’m back home after a much longer spell in hospital than I expected. But I don’t mind – it was like a holiday, except that we had to make our own beds, change our own sheets and do our own laundry.

The experience was very good. Lots of people to talk to, both professionals and other patients. I got a hell of a lot out of the therapy sessions. Excellent instruction. I was sorry to leave and got some very nice feedback – very ego boosting. First names only in the hospital, so no way to catch up with the other patients, unfortunately. The occupational therapist even said if you see her outside the hospital, she won’t acknowledge you. What goes on inside stays inside.

I had a small kidney stone in the first week. Lots of blood, but not too much pain, thank goodness. I was nearly going to call an ambulance at 2am one morning, but the pain suddenly faded away and didn’t reoccur.

I also had a brain MRI. That’s an unusual experience, and not for the claustrophobic. There’s not much room in that tunnel. Lots of low frequency rhythmic drumming and vibration. Unfortunately, they didn’t find the juke box that I know is in there. I get tunes going around in my head all day, every day, 6IX type tunes.

Back to a very quiet house, with no Minnie to greet me. It’s a bit hard to get used to.

Yesterday, Minnie went to sleep, permanently. My heart is broken, but it had to be done. She had no quality of life any more and she was weighing so heavily on my mind as to badly affect me. Yesterday was, I think, the hardest day of my life.

Minnie est mort. RIP my daughter.