Wot we did in the weekend...

Was just pondering that it has been a busy few weeks but a bit has been achieved.

Last weekend we started by picking up our little Dexter bull Jack who has been a long time in transit but is finally here. He's a dear little lad who self loads on the float - not what you expect from a bull but I assured him that sort of behaviour would get him more girls in the long run so he should continue it. He was quite happy with his nice grassy paddock with a couple of girls next door.


After that we went into town with some kitchen plans to get quotes on them. Find it is interesting when you first walk into a kitchen showroom six salespeople accost you. Ten minutes later when you are ready to talk about it they are ignoring you standing waiting for attention as they dial another phone number. Anyway we got that sort of underway and went and bought the appliances. Which rather upset a brand new salesperson in Noel Leemings when we explained that we were interested in having these three things and we were interested in paying X for them. Deal eventually done after he had a chat to the boss.

Not much of the day left after that.

Sunday we planted 192 trees down our fencelines. That meant saving 8 for replacements just in case. Let the new bull in with his girlfriends. He proved in short order that he doesn't have a lot of regard for electric fences and he quite likes eating eucalypts. So that accounted for the last 8 saved plants and meant more hotwire needed to be strung round.

During the week some kitchen quotes came in. It was interesting to see that some people just can't get what has been explained to them three times and other people have no problems. Prices vary very widely. We are waiting on the final one where the salesperson seemed to know exactly what we wanted and was trying to source us the right sink at the right price. So hopefully decision early next week.

This weekend hasn't been much quieter. Started on Saturday morning weaning the calves and putting their mothers in with the bull. The one remaining calf who is too young to wean got a ring on his testicles, something he protested about quite vigorously and his mother got somewhat irate that we were making her baby boy yell and backed all of her not inconsiderable weight into the crush gate with some breakage ensuing. Anyway we got that done and Jack the bull is a happy lad. More fencing was put round the new tree plantings and all animals moved onto new grass. .

Went into Te Puke for some lunch and to buy some more fencing materials. Which wasn't very successful as the farm stores didn't have the right things and the lunch was extremely mediocre.

I got Roxy out for a while for a tidy up and some general handling which she tends to need as she gets a bit feral if you don't keep at her. She managed to avoid standing on me or breaking anything so it was in general successful.

Went to bed to the cheerful sound of calves bellowing.

Woke up this morning to more calf bellowing. Picked up a heap of manure, did some more fencing, played with some foals. Currrently checking out planting options for the rest of the shelter belt.

Really just SO over it

Our health system that is.

I have just requested a complete copy of my records, as I suspect that bits I read last year (and noted in my own diary) may now be missing.

Currently I am getting steadily, but very slowly worse. That's okay apparently I'm not sick enough to bother doing anything about it. Of course when I am sick enough that they have to do something to keep me alive I will be too unwell for them to do anything about it and they will shrug their collective shoulders.

There are actually three different options out there - surgery, chemo or radiation.

Somewhere along the line someone has decided surgery is not an option again. I can't find out who decided this, what qualifications they have to make this decision or whether they have even examined me - I just keep being told that is the decision. People with much more widespread cancer than mine get surgery, but I can't. No idea why. It would appear from the info that I have that surgery would be highly effective for several years at fairly reasonable cost considering.

Chemo - there are about six drugs left I could try. Three are available within the health system. Funnily enough a smart arse oncologist told me last May with absolute seriousness and his hand on his heart that there was no other chemotheraphies available for me. He's a big fat liar obviously. Same man told me that there were NEVER clinical trials done at Waikato - yet a quick search of the internet will show that there are dozens going on all the time, several with smart arse oncologists name on them. I no longer see him as I got sick of the mind games. However he still has authority over what I get to take and his call is that there may be three left but he doesn't think I should take any of them until I am critically ill. That's fine who in their right mind wants chemo. The lies and the lack of choice isn't okay though.

Radiation would take all tumours back to managable levels and get rid of my constant pain. Apparently that isn't an option either - not sure why, again no one will give me an answer. Too much radiation makes surgery very difficult but as surgery isn't an option what does it matter. We will wait again until it is life threatening.

I have declined to go through any more of this crap for six months. I am just not interested in being told that I am getting worse but I should take some paracetamol and maybe a codeine. If I don't feel significantly worse in six months I won't bother going back then either. However a thorough read of all the records might be interesting.

I have a nasty feeling that if we had just a little more money I could privately buy myself a lot longer life expectancy. Though I have a lot more intention of living than the professionals seem to think I should have.
I am forever being told that I need to accept that this isn't curable (I do, but I don't accept that it isn't controllable. And actually while I don't believe I will ever get a cure I do know that some people do so a cure is not impossible technically)
I am also often told that I am 'lucky' as I have gone statistically past the point they thought I would have (what the hell is lucky about having cancer FFS - but whatever)
They express surprise that I am still working full time too (I guess I am supposed to be sitting round getting ready to die - unfortunately I need the money)
And I need to get past the angry stage and learn acceptance. (when I die I will accept it - until then I will remain angry, particularly when I am not allowed to ask questions or have any say in my treatment)

Was also reading the other day about tumours with low malignancy potential. These are growths that are cancerous but don't tend to invade anything vital, so while they grow they don't cause a lot of harm other than leaning on other body parts. Very interesting reading - often misdiagnosed in histology as more malignant tumours, and I fit the statistics for time to recurrence, sensitivity to marker blood tests, response to chemotherapy and age. I don't fit the statistics gathered from the normal ovarian cancer at all. The interesting thing about tumours with low malignancy potential is that the mortality rate is very very low - women die with them but not because of them.

This reminds me that I was never adequately biopsied.

So maybe lifethreatening won't ever happen.

And Hay Hay Hay

It was like pulling teeth (or something) painful anyway.

Rang the local contractor in November about making hay. Yes no probs, we were on the list.

Spent November and December weeding the hay paddocks - no ragwort and hardly any dock was to survive. And it rained enough to make it grow.

In the golden weather of January we watched him make large rounds at the neighbours. We'll be next - he promised.

In mid January I rang him and got his mother - "might be an idea to get someone else" she said. I did control my temper but it was difficult.

So five phone calls later the man decided life would be simpler all round if he just came and cut our hay. So he did, finally last week.

Last time half the area we did was cut they got 132 bales. We had twice that much shut up. We got 183 bales. Which was a bit annoying until we went to pick them up. Talk about heavy! I am sure we could have got a heap more bales if he had baled them looser - that's all good though as we paid by the bale.

So no one will starve this winter.

It has rained ever since we got the stuff stacked in the shed. You have to get lucky sometimes.

And Vale

things that make me cry.

This year to date we have lost two horses

Little Chase the mini foal who came when his mother did to get in foal to Calypso. He was fine in the morning, we came home that night and found he wasn't quite well so called the vet. The vet came out and said he had a slight temperature and was slightly dehydrated. Despite antibiotics and fluids he died the next morning. What is particularly gutting is that autopsies still don't tell us why. A rapid infection is the only conclusion.

RIP little man


And goodbye too to my good friend Kiwi who has been struggling with congestive heart failure since May last year with good days and bad ones. After two bad weeks it was time to say goodbye. Run free and fast my friend

How foals grow

28 December 2007

Far out - time flies!

So what happened in the meantime?

October 14 in the early hours of the morning
Ears had a baby girl - Storm - exactly what I ordered















Followed 11 days later at the more sociable hour of 8pm by Ali's baby Karma who was nicknamed Tee in short order (short for toerag). He is a very pretty baby with the lovely
movement of both his parents














Both are greys.

We also had cows

Aurora's bull calf Ron who soon grew into a sturdy lad




























And Bonny had Amanda who may be a brunette but is really rather blond.

Cool things to do with your afternoon

There was a knock on the door about lunchtime and it was our local kiwi trust worker Dave, bearing aerials and miscellaneous gear. "Lost a kiwi?" I asked

"Found her"he said, "she's just up the road in the bush, she can't stay in there, too many dogs round, want to come and help get her out?"

Well the only answer for that is "Yes please"

He told me about this young lady as we walked up the road, she was released in May and has been on the wander ever since. There are two perfectly nice batchelors in the reserve but she doesn't want either of them, so wanders around causing domestic disharmony with the married couple kiwis and when the wives square up to her she wanders off again. This is the second time she's headed out of the reserve area, they spent all yesterday looking for her with the kiwi finder dog without being able to pin her down but this morning he got a fix on her transmitter and now only needed to catch her.

So we bush bashed round behind her so she wouldn't run off again and found her under a huge stump tucked up comfortably, despite hopes that she might have had a boyfriend in there she was alone. I got to guard the second exit from her hideyhole while Dave hauled her out. Then he let me hold her so I got up close and personal with a kiwi.

Cuddle over we packed her into a box and bashed our way out again and I left Dave to take her back to where she belongs. Maybe she'll decide to stay there sometime soon.

But Honey we agreed - No more kids

Bottle feeding babies wasn't in the plans.

But they are very cute



The downside of the upsurge in milking goats is they have to have babies to stay in milk. At least with cows someone usually wants the left over calves to raise for meat (though I have a certain fundamental disapproval of the concept of removing a newborn calf from its mother too, best I stick to beefie breeds and let them bring up their babies). Sadly there isn't a lot of demand for newborn goatlings though. So thousands of little goats every year don't get a chance to grow up. That's life and farming, I know.

These two girls came to live in a pen in the woodshed yesterday. They don't have names yet - still pondering those.

A bit of bull...

Woke up on Saturday morning to find our cattle numbers increased overnight.

Two of the neighbours bulls were in our paddock having a party, reminiscent of a police gathering in Rotorua in the 1980s, with Betsy the cow. This is an annoyance I had hoped that Betsy had more taste in boyfriends, I had other plans for her, and they didn't include gang bangs with freisan bulls of dubious quality. I suppose I need to face the fact that the cow is just a slapper.

The 'boys' didn't want to go home. In fact they got quite irritated at the suggestion. And it was a bit of a problem as it appears they jumped in and there is no convenient gate out again. Eventually they conceded they might like to go into the raceway and eat the nice grass in there, leaving Betsy in her paddock a deer fence away.

Trouble is - it's Tuesday and despite repeated messages on the owners phone they are still here. Putting them back where they belong requires moving them down the driveway, down the road and through the farmers farm gate down there, and it doesn't seem like a good thing to do with two bulls intent on staying where they are. At least not for us amateurs. In the mean time they are behaving like delinquents, opening gates and going through them onto grass we were saving for something else, leaning on the fence posts and yelling about how unreasonable life is when they get taken back out of the paddocks they shouldn't be in.

Vet is booked for Betsy next week - if they are here much longer I might book the truck to the works for these two...

It's been hell

We moved in the weekend. And it didn't go according to plan.

First the new house is filthy. The departing owners did a perfunctory clean so the floors looked bearable but the cupboards were dirty, the oven is clogged with burnt left overs (you can't see them though as the door is covered with baked on grease and as the oven doesn't seem to bake anyway it is all a bit immaterial), the windows haven't seen any form of cleaning for years by the look of it, the windowsills are all growing things, and shower is a bit dubious looking.

Then they left a bit of stuff behind - a pool table sitting slap in the middle of a garage. They have that listed on trademe at a price a bit on the excessive side, about 30 bales of mouldy hay in the other garage (apparently sold - I wonder if it was honestly advertised and whether the buyer will actually take it, I wouldn't feed it to stock and 30 bales is a lot to stick on the garden) and a dead car (also apparently sold). Not to mention some sheep and a horse. All these things they feel we should just take care of until they get round to them. There has to be some give and take we were told. Believe me there is some give and take, we gave them a heap of money and they can take their rubbish away!

Apart from that I have a stomach bug which really adds to my pleasure in life right now. And good old Telecom have gone back to the you can't have broadband story. There was broadband installed here a month ago, but now apparently it won't work. It so obviously won't work that they won't even put through a connection order. Funny since if you go into the telecom website and put the phone number in it tells you broadband is available at this location. Spent an hour and a half on the phone to two support staff on Monday night trying to sort it out. The first one was trying to be helpful and put me onto his supervisor to see if he could help. He could have but he chose not to. (why is it when I ring these places I always get the stubborn and intellectually challenged individual, either I have very bad luck or maybe it is that most of them are idiots and I haven't a hope of getting one with half a braincell as those people have resigned in disgust) We had a yelling match in the end as I stated repeatedly "there used to be broadband here" and he replied repeatedly "well it won't work it is too far from the exchange" Grrrr. In the end I said I was bored and going to hang up. He asked if I had had a problem with the first person I had spoken to and did I want to make a complaint! (I replied that the first person had been fine, it was just him I found obnoxious). Rang back the next morning and got a human being with more than two braincells and we now have the technician booked to come out. So maybe that will work, eventually.

Apart from that there are plans being sketched on stray bits of paper everywhere. Husband seems to think that we need two more bathrooms (a total of three) on the assumption that doing two at once will be almost as cheap as one... he knocked a hole in a wall about three hours after we took possession. I must admit it is a vast improvement even if it looks a bit scruffy right now.

New cow

Not the best of pictures but this is Kintala Aurora meeting Calypso.

She's a G1 Dexter in calf to a full dexter bull. Very tame little cow, you can put a halter on her and drag her round, she can be milked though we probably won't bother (though I guess it would be quite handy to hop out to the paddock and grab a cupful when you run out).

Are we up to three yet

So there is a car with a dent and a cattlebeast owner who now reckons he has no public liability cover... gave the insurance company his address and left them to sort him out. Find it extremely negligent if he doesn't have cover but completely his problem.

The idiots that killed my car some months ago and have been ranting and raving ever since sent an account for the whole repair yesterday with a note that it was overdue and legal action would be taken . Sent them back a copy of the last letter with a note that they obviously hadn't received this and I looked forward to seeing them in court with the counterclaim.

Then the trailer rolled down the hill - straight through the gate and missed the shed by inches. No damage to the trailer which is an ex ministry of works model of very solid proportions but the wooden gate no longer appears suitable for the purpose it was intended...

8 sleeps until we become the owner of the neighbours. They are moving out this weekend they say so we will probably move ourselves in the weekend after.

We moved moved the cows and the hay over there over the last week. I am totally bored with lugging hay round.

Black cow on a dark night

I was driving home yesterday - quite late as I had been in Hamilton. Was coming down our road, past the roadworks (where they are apparently turning it into a four lane highway judging from the trees they have decimated and the fences they have moved), and almost home when I spotted two bright pinpoints of light on the grass verge at cow eye height.

A bit closer and it came up in the headlights as a black bovine of some description. At that very moment its mate ran into my car.

Both cattle cleared off at some speed and I got out, couldn't see a thing in the direction they were heading and assessed the car damage - nice dent in the front left corner. Cruised up to the nearest house to tell them their cattle were on the road (with one possibly injured) but the gate was locked so I carried on home.

After some ringing round the district managed to locate the owners phone number and left a message on their answerphone. The wife rang back half an hour later, she was home alone with two small children and would ring a neighbour to sort out the wandering stock and send her husband down to see me at some point in the weekend. Feeling that we should perhaps help as we were doing little else husband and I got in the 4WD (the one with the big bullbars) and headed back down the road to help round the escapees up. We found one miscreant on the side of the road, a little black bull with blood and a scrape on his leg but otherwise looking unharmed and walked him back up the road to the owners yards where we left him. Neighbour got down to fixing the break in the fence where they escaped and we scouted the rest of the road for the other beast before concluding it had either gone back where it came from or gone bush.

Home again to discover the cat had had an argument with something - possibly a possum - and has rather a large bite mark on his leg.

Sometimes you have to wonder if living in a little apartment somewhere wouldn't be less trouble.

Karma

I blame the neighbour who leaned on the fence last Saturday night to say how superb all the horses were looking.

Or maybe it was my own fault gossiping with a friend on the phone of Saturday night saying what a good run we had had lately with no vets visits worth mentioning.

Sunday morning Kiwi - who had been hooning round happily on Saturday night - had a hugely swollen hind leg and couldn't walk. Dragged him down the paddock much against his will, hosed him, poulticed it and called the vet.

Vet scratched his head, suggested a broken bone or a bone chip as it had come up so fast but treated him for a lymph node infection which was also a possibility and should respond rapidly. It did respond a bit but after daily jabs in the neck which he took stoically he's still sore and swollen. It did appear though that the initial thought that it was in his hock was incorrect and it is in his stifle. So yesterday we debated all the options. Until we find out what the problem actually is any treatment is a stab in the dark. And the options are wide. If it is a bone chip it may heal without further trouble or it may need removing. If a break again he may just heal or may need pinning. Or it may be muscular (though they feel that it wouldn't have swelled so badly or so fast if it was muscular, but it could be a fairly severe injury) which would be basically rest. Along with what might need doing there is what we can afford to do at the moment and considerations as to how successful it is likely to be. If the option is to have him sound at a cost of several thousands we can't afford or unsound for the rest of his life I am not sure what the choice is. Realistically he is a pet and a hack, of no value much and although much loved because he is mine probably difficult to rehome if it became necessary. Put it on the Visa I guess. And of course if he is going to be in ongoing pain the only kind thing would be to have him put to sleep.

So this morning we took him over to the Matamata vets who are the horse experts to get an xray and to decide from there what is the best course of action. Coincidentally his first owner when he sold at the yearling sales to be someones dream racehorse was one of the vets there. Waiting for a call to see what the diagnosis is. Fingers very much crossed.

Update
No broken bones, he appears to have a blood clot in a vein at the top of his leg. Blood tests also indicate an infection so he's had his drugs changed. Poor boy also has a fairly significant heart murmur which may be normal for him or could be a result of the current infection. Cannot for the life of me remember if my vet has ever listened to his heart before - maybe not, they will check his old records if they can find them to see if anything was ever noted.

Further, not too happy, update 30/4/07

No improvement in Kiwi's leg. And the heart murmur is extremely bad. They are going to scan his heart tomorrow to see if they can see what is actually causing it, they suspect a badly damaged valve, but hold out very little hope of it improving or going away. Apparently he is in grave danger of having a heart attack at any time and his life expectancy isn't very long. Riding him is out of the question as it is too dangerous. Poor boy he's only 7. I'm very sad.

Final - rather late update

The heart scan turned out to be not as drastic as they thought, Kiwi has a bit of a valve problem but not as major as they had figured it would be so he is cleared to go back into work quietly. The leg finally responded to the variety of stuff they poured into him and went down. He's chilling out in the paddock - I'm using the weather as an excuse not to do anything with him, though truthfully I am a bit concerned about putting any pressure on the silly old sook incase I kill him.

Got potential?

A view of our new place

What do ya reckon?

Life is okay!

Small things give me immense satisfaction sometimes.

This morning I went into town to do a few things and noticed these little orange sticker things on about a kilometre of our gravel road. Looked rather strange, I am not even sure how they stuck them down - would be a little difficult sticking tags to a gravel road...

Coming back there were some men digging holes in the side of the road. So I stopped and asked what they were doing. And they told me they are preparing to seal that patch of road.

This will make us a kilometre more 'civilised'

And a couple of weeks ago they put some seal outside our place (giving in to the constant wingeing of residents about the dust I suspect)

Happy happy joy joy.

Things come in threes - over three days

Have had such a good three days.
On Wednesday we went to Wellington to see a specialist oncologist who told me as far as he was concerned I have a chronic disease not a terminal one. So it isn't going to kill me any time soon, needs monitoring and prompt action if something goes wrong but otherwise I should carry on as normal.

The next morning (after a really solid 12 hours sleep as we had been up so early the day before) we headed over to Masterton and picked up a very special horse.

Roxey is an orphan who's mother died at her birth in December 2005. She was handreared after attempts to get her a foster mother failed by the mare's owner Lou and returned to her owner (who had leased the mare to breed from) at three months old. Her story is on Lou's blog She hasn't had much handling since. We got Gavin Morison a Wairarapa horsebreaker out to load her on the float and she got the idea very well. (I am so impressed with Gavin - a man of few words but an incredible way with horses - if I ever get a chance to do a clinic with him I'm going to) She then travelled like an angel back to Tauranga with a few stops to give her hay and water and has settled right into the front paddock - she particularly likes the yard.

When I grew too big for my 13.2 hand pony my first hack was a clydesdale cross stationbred four year old mare about 15.1 hh. She was a one in a million mare - I used to ride her along the main road bareback and in a halter (I used to jump her bareback in a halter and without a helmet too - what was my mother thinking!) She jumped fantastically, but always refused the first jump when I took her out (then she would generally go clear) and had a slight tendency to jump out of dressage arenas which meant that when we actually had completed a test there was always a comment about lacking impulsion in the corners. Anyway I'm planning on reliving my childhood in due course and having another clydie cross mare.

Then this morning we agreed a price and shook hands on buying the neighbours property. So we are moving - two doors down the road.
We went over this afternoon to have another (more thorough) look at it. Husband is delighted to find that the garage and shed are both bigger than he thought, I have decided that the bathroom will last a little bit longer and the kitchen will also probably do for a while but the downstairs area needs work soon and our plans to put another bathroom in the basement area will be held back by the septic tank which for some unaccountable reason is at a fairly high point. I'm just pleased with the 10 acres of land, most of it flat. And the house will be gorgeous in due course.

Procrastinating

Domestic goddess I am not.

I blame my mother for this. She is house proud and tidy to the point of obsession. (Okay I exaggerate - she is house proud and tidy, I just resent her need to keep her house in order so much I call it obsessive compulsive behavior) When forced to tidy my room daily I grew up to go flatting and never tidy my room.

Actually - digressing here - I once had a flatmate that was a bit strange. And after a couple of months of sharing a house without too many issues he told me that he thought I should tidy my room. Now I always shut my bedroom door when I went out so a bit of an argument developed over what the hell he thought he was doing looking in my room anyway and he was stupid enough to admit his girlfriend usually went into my room when she was round and that she was shocked at the state I kept it in. He was promptly told that I required him to move out....

Anyway back to the original story. Tidy mother produced two rather less motivated daughters and a son who is a tidy freak but managed to marry a woman who can't find the floor in their house most of the time.

So I'm sitting here looking at the carpet. It could do with the application of a vacuum cleaner. And the kitchen sink could do with a polish. There's an ironing pile getting a little large too.

I think I might go clean a horse instead.

LOL

Neighbour is out weedeating his 'lawn' - that's the patch of grass round their house that hasn't been mowed for over two years... He's also waterblasted the fence and been over to borrow some nails to put a couple of palings back up. My intentions with that fence are to accidentally back a trailer into it and knock it over, white picket fences in rotten condition don't belong in the country in my opinion

He's 'adding value' before the valuer comes next week.

moving forwards

we are getting a valuation on the neighbours house and will further discuss price then. They agree to take full account of the value (which might be extremely high they said hopefully).

We'll see what happens.

A few more things - catch up

My sick car is still not particularly good. It is running but you couldn't call it running well. We have a stand off about who owes who how much (I think we are on the winning side at the moment) but I really wonder if I will ever have a car that goes the way my old one did back again. Very irritating.


I have an appointment with a "second opinion" surgeon/oncologist just before Easter. I am told he will be able to give me an opinion on what is the best course of treatment from here. I hope so as he is charging me quite a bit to see him - would be cheaper if I had a Community Services Card. Also informed that if I had a community services card I would be eligible for travel expenses. Isn't that lovely, my tax money is shared around so freely.

still real estate browsing and other things

There is an interesting turn of events though. We were about to put an offer in on a place about half way to nowhere with a house in danger of falling over... We probably would have done it today (it was a low offer you understand). But the neighbours who started this need to live somewhere else have now decided to sell (may have something to do with them being told the property is not readily rentable in its current condition unless the rent was very cheap) and have expressed a desire to sell to us. Sadly their price expectations are a little higher than our offer (as a Real Estate agent put it the other day "Sometimes the vendors want a property more than the buyers do and choose to keep it").

Now I'm confused... Maybe it will sort itself out in the next week or so. Perhaps we should just ignore them and go make an offer on the other place.


I got another year older today too. Sometime round 30 I hated getting older and resented every birthday. These days I'm not particularly excited about the birthday thing but the option of getting a year older is definitely preferable to not getting a year older - if you know what I mean.

Real Estate... farms and other bits of land

Husband is sighing and talking about how difficult it will be to move 3 or 4 cords of firewood and a bit over 130 bales of hay (and five horses, one cow, a fair few bags of feed, a garage full of tools, two freezers full of meat, 42 horse covers (shhhh I haven't really got that many)... etc). And we haven't even found the right place yet!

But we've been looking...

I forget between houses just how very strangely optimistic Real Estate salespeople can be

"Just been painted so should be right for 10 years" means someone has slapped a coat of paint over the old stuff that was peeling off, the new stuff is already peeling. Inside they have done the same to some walls, including a coat of colour over all the light switches and part of the carpet and also over the hole in the wall behind the door.

"would be great for horses" means it could be so steep that a goat is in danger of falling off it let alone a horse.

"good water supply" is a concrete tank circa 1950. It was probably last cleaned out about then too.

"great indoor outdoor living" means a little deck off the back door big enough to put two chairs on if you can live with the risk of the other person flinging an arm out and pushing you off the deck by accident.

And the interesting take they have on things
'is the road sealed or gravel?' you ask on the phone. 'well it isn't much on the gravel' inpection shows it is 3kms off the sealed road...

"just needs a garden" fails to mention it also just needs the drive formed some fencing to keep cows out of the house and a truckload or six of topsoil.

Still we keep looking. The exploration of obscure gravel roads is good for us.

remember

the bank that lost my application to open an account? Guess what - they found it, and without any further reference to me opened an account for me. It took exactly two months from the time I posted it.

Then they send me an email telling me I need to advise them of which branch I want an appointment with to activate this account and order an eftpos card and cheque books and things. Help! It appears I am no further ahead by doing it by mail (in fact I appear to be two months behind...)

Makes mental note never to ask for a mortgage from these people, I suspect it would mean walking on water and proving you don't need it anyway to get approval but would still take six months.

What a good horse

When I bought Kiwi I was told he didn't float, only trucked. Which was okay as we had a truck at that point.

Except we sold the truck and got a float. I wasn't really worried, because to be honest he didn't truck that well when we got him either, and he got better at that so I figured he would probably float not too badly.

It never pays to assume. This horse had a serious problem with floats obviously, he could not even put a foot on the ramp, though he could walk up the ramp of a truck (much steeper) without too many issues. He and I stood for an hour one Sunday afternoon and he wouldn't budge, in fact he refused to look at the float for quite a while (as if hoping that if he couldn't see it it wasn't there). Eventually I got two feet on the ramp and gave up on a good note as I didn't feel I had the tenacity to get any more of him on the float at that point.

So we appealed to his stomach. "Goodness Kiwi your dinner looks so yummy, it has an extra dollop of mollasses too. I left it in the float for you" After a day or two he got all four feet on the ramp. then he got all four feet in the float, and then stood still while the chain was done up and after that the ramp was closed. He learnt to back himself off again with due care and attention. He gave up having panic attacks if I gave him a shove from behind to move him a bit further forward. The other night we took him for a ride round the road and back home.

Today we took him for a half hour trip, unloaded him at a friends place, put him in their yards for an hour, loaded him back and took him home. All without the slightest bit of trouble. He responded regally to the admiration of the onlookers, gave them a "yeah, so" look. Just to make sure I loaded him up again two hours later - no problems, self loading.

So that one's trained... now to sort out the little Ali horse.

some further thoughts on moving

The neighbours still have our offer and the husband is still quite keen to sell but the wife is still resisting. But they were told they would get another hundred thousand for it if they tidied it up. Now I feel that the real estate salesperson meant give it a new kitchen and bathroom, a coat of paint and a few other things. They feel that he meant mow the lawns, fix the falling down bits of fences and spray the weeds. So I suspect that they may decide to sell in the end but they will price themselves off the market.

And we've been talking about this a bit...

So today we had a look at a bare block for sale (quite nice, about 10 acres need to find out a few more details about a few things) and tomorrow we are looking at another one. Husband does not want to move right now - he can't face moving the winter's supply of hay.

Think positive thoughts for us

I have long coveted the neighbours place, a rather dilapidated villa on a very nice piece of land. Have been itching for two years to rip out their kitchen, rearrange their bathroom, finish off their downstairs area and build a stable block in the front paddock.

This afternoon they came over to tell us they were renting it out and going elsewhere as it was too far from town for them. I made them an instant offer to buy it. Husband went slightly pale but I was spot on with the price as a Real Estate Agent had just told them that it should be marketted at 20 thousand more than I offered, so realistically I offered them the best price they are likely to get (and full price if you consider that they won't have to pay commission if they sell now to us).

The male of the partnership would have taken it, the wife won't - she wants to keep it - but over a glass of wine she told me that I would love the view from their bedroom window in the morning and what room would make a good office.

Think positive that they will accept my rather precipitous offer once they have had a think about it.

the broken car - remember 3 weeks ago!

I think my car may finally be officially fixed. This is with four further days back in the workshop after it was originally fixed, but we are probably done now. Seems to be some very poor quality control and workmanship going on in that mechanics (this is a largish supposedly reputable company BTW who managed to damage a power steering pulley, spill about a litre of oil all over the engine and engine bay and not wipe any of it up, and break the air cleaner filter housing. They have trouble saying the oil was already there since they had the motor in a million bits, but they reckoned the other things were already like that. Oops guys, the only way the power steering pulley can be damaged is to drop the motor on it's side or apply a crowbar, since you had the motor out and are more likely to have applied a crowbar than me I would suspect it might be something you did.. and if it had been an existing problem the power steering wouldn't have worked and I might have noticed)

Anyway he can adjust his attitude quickly... I'm hanging out to lodge this with a court - no longer the Small Claims court though, I'm going to take it to the District Court now and I'm going to call all the reporters in town to advise them of the time and place when I do so they can all report on what a shocker of a business this is. Have a few more extremely dirty plans up my sleeve, I don't get mad - I get even! (once upon a time I worked for a crap boss. I left in fairly short order. Over the next year I also managed to find the six best members of his remaining staff nice new jobs where I had gone to work cos the boss was much nicer and the pay was better. They managed to bring a few existing clients with them too - quite a few actually. He escaped personal bankruptcy by the skin of his teeth and is probably selling something dodgy door to door these days.)


Anyway back to the car thing. Husband has a meeting with them on Monday actually, in pretense of mediating between the idiot mechanic and the furious wife he is discussing it by himself (that is without my input) with the owner of the business, though he likes the court idea too...

I'll name and shame then unless they start getting a lot more contrite quite quickly.

I really am going to take a submachine gun to someone

Oncologist gave me some pills he thought I should take.

I thought about it and decided to take them. No big deal I thought (he gave me that impression too).

So I've taken five days worth.

And I have got steadily worse pain in all my joints. Today all of me really hurts, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists neck - every joint I have and some places I wasn't aware I had moving parts in hurt too. Today I can't sit down comfortably - which is wonderful as standing up hurts quite a bit as well and so does walking. Lying flat isn't much use either.

I had a look at the brief fact sheet that came with these pills. It's not listed as a side effect that needs urgent attention. So I get on the internet and have a quick search. It comes up just about straight away "25% of patients report some joint pain, from moderate to severe. Symptoms can be ongoing"

That's just lovely. I also found out that in cases like mine there was a positive effect in around 10% of patients. Those odds really are a bit slim.

I haven't taken them tonight.

Just something horse related

I have a little mare, Ali, who is a strange little soul. I would think she has been treated fairly roughly in a past life. Sweet girl most of the time though and quite nicely put together.

Anyway she went to visit a stallion for a fair while last year and had a lovely time. But when we picked her up they said at the stud "have you noticed Ali's head shake" which I hadn't, but then when we went down to the paddock to see her she was flicking her head flat out. They said she had been doing it a lot. Very odd. So we took her home and she stopped just about immediately. So I shrugged and put it down to a change in local herbage or something.

On Sunday she was playing "I'm a little toerag" games. Yes she was delighted to see me, she would mug my pockets to see if I had anything to eat, let me touch her all over, huff down my neck, have cuddles, no problem. But when I tried to put the halter rope round her neck she cleared off and wouldn't come near me until I put the halter down again. So after half an hour of playing silly games I walked her into the yard, pinned her in the shelter and applied the halter. Then I made a fuss of her and let her go.

The next morning I look out the window and there is Ali headflicking like crazy. Now I'm confused... she was fine, what the hell is wrong with her? I'm busy writing an email to that effect to someone for comments and suddenly it hits me... it's the halter. She never wears a halter at home normally but she wore one a lot at stud for ease of handling. The same halter she is still wearing - it's got a tag on it with her name on it so the horse transport people didn't drop her off at the wrong place (okay I'm paranoid I know but I didn't want her going to the wrong stallion).

I'm guessing the tag swinging either amuses her or irritates her.

Itching and sneezing and eyes watering

but the hay is in the shed. Neatly stacked, layered with salt and enough for the winter unless it snows or something untoward.

Always feel fairly satisfied when we have the hay sorted out. Must be the cavedweller in me, I feel happy when we are ready for winter, when the freezer is full, the pantry has a selection of cans the firewood is stacked and dry. The stock up for winter thing is so ingrained that I will have the urge to preserve things in the next month or so. I'll try to talk myself out of it. Instead I might turn some meat into ready made stews and similar and stick it back in the freezer for rapid meals on cold winter nights.

F#*&%@& health professionals

As my regular readers know I have an ongoing battle with the big C. Most of the time I am winning, or at least I am not losing ground... (I should statistically speaking be dead by now but it wasn't on my agenda so the funeral arrangements are OFF)

Anyway I have been contemplating this for a month or two or three or six. Nearly two years ago surgeons in Auckland figured I was so terminal I wasn't even worth biopsying and closed me back up. It was only the other week that they admitted that to me. Nearly two years later my only health problems are those caused by surgeons and extra heavy doses of toxic substances into my bloodstream (chemo that is, but a hard drug addiction would not necessarily be more harmful I think occasionally - and would probably be a darn sight more fun). Yes I still have cancer but not to any degree much greater than I did two years ago - and it is less than what I had initially in 2000.

In October 2005 I told them all to sod off and I wasn't having any more chemo that wasn't likely to work anyway, they could give me a ring when they wanted a new wonder drug tested. I had to tell them repeatedly to sod off over three months as they kept sending me appointments. After that I gave in and went and had a scan (had always intended to do that anyway, was just sick of it all) - and I had another one six months after that which showed some growth in the main tumor they keep monitoring. So they zapped that with some radiotheraphy and that did exactly what it was hoped it would do - reduced the thing to a quarter of it's size.

So over the last two weeks I've been scanned and inspected by the Gynacologist and the Oncologist. And right now I am furious.

There is a thickening in the scar tissue (that's where they have sliced me up the middle twice) that wasn't on the last scan. The radiologist recommends further investigation. The Gynacologist wants to biopsy and look at surgery or radiation for this new bit if it proves to be cancer. He is willing to consider giving my insides a good going over as he wonders why some of those unbiopsied bits haven't done anything and thinks it wouldn't be unreasonable to have a look at them. They may not be cancer. It is perfectly common to have cysts on your internal organs. He does however freely admit that he is not an Ovarian cancer expert, his speciality is a bit different and he has me on his patient list because he is the best there is in this area, not the best all round.

So today I get to see the Oncologist. This guy is apparently God - ask anyone who knows him. Actually I quite liked him until today, now I want to take a submachine gun to him. (would be something immensely satisfying about laying waste to a heap of hospital staff somehow). He might as well have not seen me today. He finds the biopsy idea "pointless" (his word) surgery or radiation "a waste of time" and his best recommendation is I have some more of the chemo that didn't work last time. When I said it didn't work last time he said "well there is a small chance it might this time" I was then shuffled out of the surgery and told to come back in two months - the implication was get my act together in the meantime and line up for some more systematic poisoning.

As time goes by I feel more and more that this is a slow growing cancer, and that long term control is within my grasp if someone would just do something about it (cut or zap the thing out). They are so close to figuring out cures using gene therapy (and as this is a hereditary type I am a sitter for trialling these and possibly getting a cure - there is no cure at the moment, only control). Why can't these so called experts look outside their own tunnels. There is no indication that any chemo will work, lets look outside the square.

Might be time to get a second opinion... the guy I would ideally like to see is in Christchurch, it might be worth the plane trip.

And the next time someone tries to fob me off I'm going to hit them.

Someone is trying to tell me something

About a month ago I went to open a new bank account with an institution I don't normally bank with. There is a method in that madness I sell a bit of stuff on Trademe and hate fishing through the usual bank accounts to find payments from people. Not sure why I decided on a new institution but the fees were low.

First I went into the local branch where the man behind the counter told me it would take an hour to open an account and he wouldn't be doing it today. Rather irritated as I have had mortgages approved in less than an hour so I fail to see why it would take so long for them to take some of my money!

So I sent them a wee email pointing that out and that they could be losing potential new customers all the time with an attitude like that. They replied promptly and politely. I could do it by mail if I liked. Sounded reasonable enough to me so I filled in the forms, enclosed a copy of my passport and the latest power bill and a cheque for my initial deposit and sent it off.

That was 12 January. Last week I made enquiries about the state of my account. Guess what they have lost the application, including my cheque. They suggest I stop the cheque (will cost ME $30 so I don't think so). They suggest I should go into my local branch and open an account there...

I think I will stick to the bank I know.

New Years resolutions come late

Been doing the budget. Since we spent a bit more than we made last year figured it was time to pull our heads in. This is mindblowingly boring. Glad I only manage a household, not a company or a country say. All those little incidentals add up rather fast.

Anyway - just thought I'd share that with you before I go back to the spreadsheet.

One of those weeks

Last weekend we got the broodmares back from stud, hopefully both in foal. It was a day or two that didn't go entirely to plan (but more about that later when it does resolve itself)

Then on Monday - a public holiday in this corner of the world - we went to Paeroa to pick up a cat we have acquired, another burmese, a girl named Zena. The pick up went according to plan, we had a coffee with the nice people parting with the cat put her (and her cage and her three beds, large scratching post and incidental belongings) in the car and headed towards home.

Shortly past Waihi the car stopped and refused to start again. It had lots of petrol, it had been serviced recently, it is only five years old damnit! Cellphones being the great invention that they are I called my mummy, cos that's who you always call when things go wrong, and she got in her wee car and came and picked us up - which was nice of her as she doesn't like driving very far.

So we got home, let the poor little cat out of her cage and husband got his big bloke 4WD and hired a car transporter to go and collect my car. He dropped it at his work to organise to have it repaired at the guys round the corner from there. The same guys who did the cambelt when it needed doing a year ago....

Guess what - the cambelt (the one that was replaced a year ago) is a dud. The damage is immense and there is going to be a pretty nasty argument if it isn't fixed for nothing. I am NOT happy. In fact I am so not happy about that that I really had better not say anything but the words Small Claims Court come to mind.

On the subject of courts - something else to be not happy about - husband got a letter yesterday from the Court Collections division. It said they believed he had unpaid fines. "Bullshit" he said and rang them up. A somewhat unproductive discussion took place - they insist he owes $685 from December 1996 and they can't tell him what it was for - but (get this) they have decided he does owe it and they will do everything in their power to recover this money including taking him to court for non payment of fines and attaching his wages. Have written them a terse letter explaining that since he has never received a summons, a judgement or anything like that he fails to see how he can owe this money, particularly as they are completely unable to supply any details! Watch out for him on Fair Go!

Horse was on the mend but has a swollen fetlock again this week. Along with little Ali and her swollen knee which has got worse since she has been away at stud (she has always had a slightly swollen knee) I wonder why I bother with horses.

New cat is settling in well too, beginning to terrorize the other burmese who has his nose right out of joint, has had her bum smacked for walking on the bench and is very talkative and friendly.

Post holiday blah

Nothing to say, I have the post holiday blues as reality asserts itself and my lotto ticket wasn't a winner so I have to continue to work for a living. Horse is lame (but on the mend) so I can't even go for a ride to cheer up.

Actually there is a touch more excitment in my life than that but I am not going to disclose it and ill wish it before it comes into being (reckon the odds are about 50/50 that it will so I am telling myself that it probably won't).

I know some gossip too but can't tell anyone that either cos I promised.

Don't you hate people like me?

Wot I did in my holidays - part 6 - the final you will be pleased to hear

My nine year old niece offered an opinion about tourism in France based on her visit last year. "The trouble with France" she advised us "Is that they speak French there"

She's so right. We pottered round Italy with no problems with our four words of Italian. So I've got schoolgirl french so we should be able to communicate, right? I do okay getting the train into town "Bonjour, deux Paris sil vous plait" "merci beaucoup". Then I find the next time I try it, and the next six times, that the French are having a joke at my expense. I have no expectation that I speak correct french, in fact I am sure it is appalling. I would guess that my grammer is equivilent to that of a toddler. It must be blatantly obvious to all native french speakers that I am groping for the correct phrase or word fairly regularly. So of course they go off into paragraphs of rapid fire french and roll their eyes when I look blankly back having understood about three words of the explanation. I gain a new sympathy for migrants at home trying to grasp Kiwiese (one of husbands workmates who speaks English as a second language once went to the doctor as he thought he had broken one of his "leg fingers" when he dropped something on it. An xray confirmed a broken toe). It somewhat offends me that where the Vatican museum can put signs on exhibits in four or five languages in the Louvre it is all in French and only french. Okay I can paraphrase that into English fairly reasonably for husband who picks up his regulation four words and sticks to them but what's so hard about another couple of languages? (Italian translations are delightful at times - I particularly liked the one in the hotel lift that began "Respectful guest, please do be visiting the bar").

Anyway - we find the hotel. Nice to have a decent sized bed again. This one is two singles pushed together so somewhat more spacious than the little room in Rome. There is room to park the suitcase too, the heater is on and it isn't half bad.

The Louvre is pretty amazing anyway. We do of course see the Mona Lisa though you have to sharpen your elbows to hold your own in crowds like that. Some of my favourites were the less notorious paintings though - standing back across the room you suddenly notice how amazing a painting is when viewed from a distance. So we worked our way down the hallways with an eye on the opposite wall.

We couldn't go to the top of the Eiffel tower due to high winds. I don't mind, the view was good anyway. Happily too we went early as when we came down a couple of hours later the queues to go up were stretched out for miles. We had another look after dark.

In Champes Elysees they were painting trees white for Christmas. So pretty. I am a bit worried about the passing pedestrians when the people applying the stuff are wearing respirator type masks and full protective suits though! And what about the poor trees?

So it was allright.... bits of it were even good. But it isn't too bad getting on the Eurostar to London.

It takes me 24 hours in London to realise that I am still formulating sentences in my head in French before I converse with anyone except husband. I get over it.

The shops are packed solid, and the underground is sardine like. We go do touristy things - The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, several museums (and surely there is a museum for everything in London - my favourite is the Britain at War one, though the stories of the evacuee children made me cry. Catch a Westend show - Guys and Dolls. I chose that as Patrick Swayze was in it, except he wasn't by the time we got there. Not to worry it was great anyway. It is darn chilly in London.

Am sort of happy and sad when it is time to go home. If we had known how bad the flight was going to be we would have refused to get on it and stayed where we were. The Air New Zealand flight from hell, 4 and a half hours to get a glass of water! Food choices run out by the time they get to us, horrible smelling overcooked food that I couldn't bear the smell of anyway - and believe me I am not that fussy. At 7 am New Zealand time we are watching the second sunrise of the flight when a flight attendant demands extremely rudely that we shut the blind on the window. The reason - they are not serving breakfast for another three hours and they do not want everyone woken up.
Dear whoever you are:
1 Learn to ask politely
2 I paid for this trip in a tiny seat in this cramped tin can so I can be at the mercy of idiots like you for 24 hours. I will f'ing well watch the sunrise if I want to.
3. What the hell do you think you are doing serving BREAKFAST at 10am New Zealand time? (anyway reheated noodles have never been my idea of a reasonable breakfast, though your reheated eggs are only marginally better I would not have minded having a choice instead of having the noodles dumped in front of me with a "that's all that's left")
4 Will you all get over the obsession with the blinds FFS. I am tired of hearing the blinds must be up or must be down.

So we're home. We had a good time. The Visa bill looks rather large. Next time we'll fly with another airline.

Wot I did in my holidays - part 5

We arrive in Rome in the middle of a bus strike. We didn't want to use a bus anyway but it means taxis are at a premium. We escape an unauthorised taxi who said 80 Euros to our hotel and after half an hour wait get a genuine taxi who takes us there for 17 Euros (but we tipped him the rest of the 20 in gratitude for not being ripped off).

Discover we have the smallest hotel room in captivity. It has a three quarter size bed and about a foot of space round it. Have to keep the suitcase in the bathroom. They are also a little miserly about the heat and only turn the radiators on for an hour twice a day so it is a bit chilly. Still there is a wee balcony with a view of the street, and is only a two minute walk to the metro. We get them back by making sure we eat a heap of the free breakfast and pocket ham croissants and bits and pieces for lunch. Husband who has never been near a metro before isn't sure he wants to travel by that method but I persuade him and he is a convert.

Half of Rome appears to be hiding behind scaffolding and "under restoration" but it is all good, the weather is fine, the coffee at bars is cheap (avoiding sitting at the tables) and there is a heap of things to see. Too much history really. We see the touristy things - throw our coins in the Trevi Fountain, climb the Spanish Steps, see the Colossium, the Roman Forum and the Sistine Chapel (etc). Not being Catholic I never gave much thought to the wealth of the Catholic Church. The Vatican Museum and St Peter's is mind boggling, along with other churches round the place that casually have million dollar paintings on display with barely a railing to stop you touching them. We visit the Catacombs too and wander along the Via Appia, I remember the Via Appia from Latin lessons at school so think I need to see it. And probably worth the visit too. Along the way we visit Keats grave in the pretty little cemetery for foreigners of non Catholic faith. I have no more or no less time for Keats than any other of the poets of that era but it is peaceful sitting by his grave so we sit for an hour.

After five days of emersion in history we manage an interesting metro and bus ride and catch a plane to Paris.

Just venting - can we just take a moment here to reflect please!

Husbands brother saw fit to end his own life in the weekend. They found the body last night. Husband and brother weren't particularly close as brother has always had some issues and many of the things he has done over the years distanced him from many people. But still losing a sibling is tough, and sad.

His mother was within an hour of hearing the news asking for money for the funeral. My mother is extremely concerned that attending the funeral may interfere with my ability to cook the turkey for Christmas day.

Can we please have a moment to reflect on the man! I am not ready to discuss money (but I don't think so!) or turkeys right now, husband even less so.

Vent over.

Wot I did in my holidays - part 4

Seaside interlude over we head back to the Cotswolds and an explore of the area. Love Oxford, Stow on the Wold, Moreton on the Marsh, Stratford on Avon... as the inhabitant of a relatively newly settled country the age and history of these places bowls me over at times. We head out to dinner one night at a local pub where Sis and BIL went to lunch one Sunday to find they were dining with Paul McCartney (or perhaps more properly in the same restaurant as Paul). We get Paul's table this time. "where was he sitting?" I ask. "In your seat" Sis replies. Wonder what he ate - the sea bass was very good but he may have gone for one of the vegetarian options...

After a week of the Cotswolds we return the rental car and take ourselves to Gatwick for an Easyjet flight to Venice. Like getting on a bus (and a bit cheaper than a long bustrip too, as a comparison the off peak fare from London to the Cotswolds on the train is 20 pounds and Gatwick to Venice is 17 pounds.) Captain informs us as we take off that some people haven't turned up on time and that is their bad luck. Watch out for them on the TV programme. Actually the flights are so cheap and are non refundable so if you decided you didn't want to go you would just not show.

Arrive in Venice airport where we are promptly passed through Immigration and let out into Italy. Catch a waterbus to Piazzo San Marco and with extremely limited Italian (two words) get directions to our hotel and walk off trailing luggage. Hotel is close to the Rialto Bridge tucked away down a narrow (one person wide narrow) sidestreet. The decor is perhaps a little dated but it is comfortable and charming. We dump the luggage and head out to explore Venice. And to fall in love with the place. Touristy yes but with a character all of it's own. I love narrow streets and unexpected squares, little bridges over canals with barges laden with beer and the drivers holding a glass of the product. I love the unexpected cafes with tables out on the street and we discover that to sit at those tables invites them to charge what they like for whatever you order - coffee at the bar is the cheapest, followed by inside tables, then sit outside and you may pay another five euros to hire that space so to speak. Love the street stalls with Murano glass, carnival masks and postcards. Gobsmacked by the ceiling in San Marco Basilica and the worn floor where centuries of feet have walked. We eat pizza of course in a little bar with extremely expensive drinks, we drink anyway. We learn a couple more words of Italian. The waiter tells us he is a rugby fan - "All Blacks, kamate, kamate." It is well past dark and we wander some more stopping for a last coffee about 11.30pm. The only danger appears to be the wandering rose seller who is determined we need a bunch.

In the morning we take a waterbus to another part of the city and explore some more. We take a gondola ride - highly expensive but you can't go to Venice and not ride in a gondola. Our gondola man does not sing but he whistles, and points out the items of interest.

Having looked at most of the options I buy some Murano glass for Xmas presents (with the odd piece in there for us of course) Foolish move as I spend the next two weeks worrying about the glass in my suitcase (cocooned in my clothes as well as the packaging the shops put on it) but it was an unfounded fear, all survived. And I buy an Italian leather handbag of course....

Another dinner - this one by the Grand Canal - several more bars where we alternate between coffee and wine and another wander round the narrow little streets and it is time to go. In the morning we are booked on the train to Rome.

Wot I did in my holidays - part 3

Are you bored yet??? If not I'll show you the pictures - there are a couple of thousand (digital cameras are mighty fine things) so there should be something in there to interest you... Remind me later to get the slide show going for you :-).

After Edinburgh we headed up to Inverness (with a look at Stirling Castle on the way) and quite by accident we found one of those magical places. We had booked to stay in a house in Strathconan, about 25 miles out of Inverness. So we drove about 12 miles down a single lane road in the growing dark. At the end of our hesitant drive was a cottage, one of a group of four. It was too dark to see more than a general shape of the outside but inside was great with the fire going, cozy and with everything you could imagine you might need. We settled in for the night.

Got up in the morning and find there is a waterfall across the road. Wow what a view! And out the kitchen window is a meadow across to a river with a stag standing in the distance. It is stunning and I could stay here for ever. Instead we go and look at Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. I saw the monster five times.... I'm sure I did. Then we check out Culloden Moor. Brr it is cold. Round the road from Culloden is Clava Cairns, ancient burial chambers. Amazing that something four thousand years old is still there. Back to the magical Strathconan, wishing we could stay another day or so. More deer on the road. Very nice 6 or 7 pointer at one point. Any hunter would be fairly pleased at getting that. Could have shot him from the car. Actually I did but only with the camera.

Back down through Glen Coe where the Campbell's slaughtered the McDonald's. Let that be a lesson to all tenants who pay their rent late! Anyway the McDonalds were cattle thieves and generally ruffians. Did I ever mention my maiden name was Campbell? No? Sordid little piece of history actually and Glen Coe is an eerie sort of place. Loch Lomand is pretty and had a good feed of real English (or maybe that is Scottish) fish and chips along the way.

To cut a tedious story a bit shorter we headed to Norfolk over several days where we stayed in an apartment above the stables in a stately home - Felbrigg Hall. Very cool. Recently fitted out apartment, lovely place surrounded by acres of parkland and gardens. Explored Norfolk. It was here that I discovered husband has no map reading skills at all - he got very perturbed when expected town didn't turn up where he expected. I found out he thought we were travelling in the opposite direction to the way we were actually going. Hmm - he can go back to driving and I will be navigator, otherwise we may end up back in Scotland.

Meandered along the south coast (parking very expensive in Brighton BTW) and to Cornwall where we stayed another couple of days in an old Schoolhouse. Another interesting place.

In the Eden Project we were somewhat interested to find they collect the rain water, filter it UV treat it and then (drum roll) use it to flush the toilets. So here is this water that is in far better condition than anything that might come out of the taps but they don't even use it to wash hands! UK seems quite backward to me in conservation matters, they are apparently lagging with recycling and supermarket goods appear over packaged to my eyes. The water collection and treatment to flush the toilets makes me laugh, we use rainwater with less treatment for everything at home (we do filter it before we drink it) I guess we do not have the air pollution problems they may have. I like the Eden Project. I like Cornwall, old mines, the Minarck theatre on the side of a cliff, art galleries and cornish pasties.

Wot I did in my holidays - part 2

Seem to have sorted the jet lag by the morning. Collected rental car and got a guided tour of Cheltenham with BIL. Sis has gone to work and nieces to school. We take a walk around the village in the afternoon. They've all been expecting us so it is a friendly occasion, though slightly disconcerting when total strangers come up to say "you must be J's sister". Must have been in the city too long...

The church (12th century)is open so we wander in to inspect it. Nice. The carving has worn off the older headstones they have been there so long.

The whole lot of us go to the pub for a curry and a pint in the evening. I admire the Grand National winner on the wall - he was trained in the village so they are proud of him. Nieces roll their eyes when told we have had their fathers Cheltenham tour. "I bet you saw the house Dad had in...." Yes I think we did (but we liked it - it was our first tour of Cheltenham). When we go home B from the local guesthouse rings up and offers to take us out to see her horse train in the morning. Yes please! She rings back five minutes later to say she has cleared it with the head lad at the stables and all is fine.

Out in the misty dawn at the training gallops. We hear about B's horse, he's only a youngster, ran once on the flat and won, ran once over hurdles and was leading but faded at the end, they found later he was injured. Then the horses come down. It is like something out of a Dick Francis book, stable lads chatting and call good morning to us as they walk their horses down to the end of the sand track and come back at a half speed gallop. They appear out of the mist in ones and twos and thunder past us. B's horse is looking in great condition, they are planning on running him late the next week and he looks as though he will be ready. Behind me a horse in a paddock comes up and starts windsucking on the fence. I turn round and tell him to stop that, he gives me a startled look and thinks about it before grabbing the fence again. "He's not sure about your accent" B says.

We pack the car up and head off about lunch time, giving the girls their room back for a few weeks. Rental car is a gutless wonder. I am not too happy about the sticker the company have slapped on it proclaiming it is their rental as I am sure it must increase the chance of it being broken into. However it is probably better that people realise that we wouldn't actually own this pathetic excuse for a motor vehicle ourselves as it would be embarrassing to admit our taste in cars was so bad. It appears economical which is good given the price of petrol in the UK.

We get as far as the Lake District before stopping for the night.

Have a quick explore of the Lake District in the morning. Frosty morning but clear skies as you would expect. I used to love the Arthur Ransome books when I was a kid so Coniston Water where many of them were set is on the agenda. Saw a stone circle too. Autumn colours in full force and the area is beautiful.

Headed on to Edinburgh and eventually found our apartment. The actual location was very straight forward. Go down the road, turn left and it is in a street on the right. Looked dead simple on the map. Except the town is full of one way streets, bus lanes and no left turns. We drive round in circles for half an hour. Eventually we get there but it is a mission. Funny little apartment on the first floor of a building. Initial inspection shows a kitchen living room, a bedroom and a toilet with a handbasin. Where's the shower!!!! I'm prepared to get irritated until we find it - in the wardrobe. Interesting. Okay I can live with that.

Spent the next day doing Edinburgh Castle, walking down the Royal Mile admiring the wonderfully tacky souvenirs and the wonderfully expensive kilt shops, having an extremely expensive lunch, checking out a couple of museums and Hollyroodhouse where the Queen stays when in Edinburgh. Wonder if the Queen ever wishes for a nice hotel room, it is a cold and drafty place, even with the heaters going. Quite pretty though. Worked out later we walked about eight miles.

Wot I did in my holidays - part 1

Okay so some time ago, (so much has happened in between that I have to refer to my diary to remember what happened) we went to Auckland and got on a big plane. One medium sized book, a viewing of Finding Nemo and a snooze and we arrived in Hong Kong where the sun was rising. That - and a view from the plane - was all we saw of Hong Kong but the departure lounge was okay (if you like that sort of thing) as two hours later we got back on the plane and being blessed with a blissful lack of many other passengers had a row of seats each to stretch out on and stewards and stewardesses on demand to deliver hot and cold drinks and small snacks as requested. Another movie (The Worlds Fastest Indian) some crappy airline food and another sleep and we touched down at Heathrow.

I am told that the queues for non EU passport holders at Heathrow are horrendous and you get the third degree about the possibility you might be intending to work. But when we got there there was no one in the queue. Immigration man had a short chat to me about my occupation, commented that my boss was very nice to me giving me such a long holiday and slapped a stamp on my passport. He didn't think husbands occupation even worth discussing and stamped his too (though we were advised later that there is quite a shortage of tradesmen of husbands profession so perhaps they didn't mind if he worked). So we strolled through the nothing to declare lane and there we were in England. We had in fact disembarked and completed the formalities so fast that there was no one there to meet us. So we went and got a coffee. And discovered a language barrier - "long black" means nothing to coffee shop staff. After some debate about precisely what I wanted I was told I wanted an Americano. Okay so give me one....

Half an hour later spotted sister and brother in law standing at the arrivals entrance scanning the crowds coming through. Snuck up behind them and scared the hell out of them. Ha!

We piled our luggage in the car and set off with brother in law and sister to the village they reside in (for part of the year) in the Cotswolds. Along the way we catch up with gossip from both sides of the world and have landmarks pointed out to us. I am a little perturbed at the speed brother in law travels in tiny little lanes but avert my eyes - he's lived round here for most of his life (apart from the time he's spent in New Zealand which isn't inconsiderable) so he must know what he is doing. Love the dry stone walls.

BIL and Sis inhabit a delightful 16th century Cotswold stone cottage in a village with three hundred inhabitants, two pubs, a bakery and a post office. It is gorgeous. We are given a welcoming reception from my nieces which is very generous of them since they have been relegated to airbeds in the tiny little study for the duration of our stay.

Gossiped, ate, drank a bottle or two of wine and fell asleep.

Anyway a recap

I've been busy.

I always get busy at this time of year so I shouldn't be surprised should I.

There's a lot going on.

Finished my radiation yesterday. Apart from driving to Hamilton every day I love radiation - it's far more fun than chemo, quick, painless and appears effective. Lovely staff too. All good.

In between the radiation thing I finished a heap of work off and got audited. Hopefully get the final tick for that tomorrow. Sold my horsetruck (bit sad) and will buy a float in due course. Husband sold the spare Subaru Ute he had - far too cheaply as it turned out (I thought it was too dear so there you go, I know nothing) so the garage and yard is looking relatively tidy without spare vehicles parked round the place.

All this is culminating in our trip to the UK - we leave on Sunday. Yeeeehhaaaa!

waiting in trembling anticipation

Is it 5.30 yet?

Last week I was audited... for work (not *fingers crossed* by those tax people) I get audited with reasonable regularity for bits of work I have done - all part of the system and normally they are pretty cruisey.

This one went a bit wrong when the auditor got stuck at an airport so ended up doing the interview by phone. It was okay I guess but I was left with follow up work of all sorts of things that I could have shown at a face to face interview.

Last night at 5 past 5 I was told I needed to do some more work - took until about midnight and today I have been sitting answering minor queries on the email (not a problem unless my fax decides it doesn't like my broadband which it does sometimes)

So waiting for the last sting - if I get another four or five hours work tonight I am going to be most unhappy...

I got a tattoo this week

My sister in law has a butterfly on her bum I am told. I think she offered to show me once but I declined. I can't quite remember.

I worry a little about the tailend of the baby boomers and their willingness to permenantly mark themselves. I mean when you are 85 and in a rest home the sexy little tattoo on your whatever is not going to be that pretty. But I suppose anyone that is looking when you get to that age either won't care or won't have that great eyesight...

But I got three small blue tats this week - I asked for a more appealing design if they were going to permenantly mark me but they declined to do a rose or a running horse. Not fair really.

It was actually called a 'mark up' to make sure the radiation I am getting next week will be delivered to the correct area. 10 medium doses they reckon should zap the tumour back into submission. Not that it is rampaging, just sneaking in a little growth here and there.

"where have you been?" someone at work asked when I came back.
"getting a tattoo"
Don't think he quite knew what to answer...

What is it with automatic denial?

Have been in occasional ongoing argument with the power lines supplier for some months now. Nothing major, I maintain we should not have power cuts as often as we do, they deny we have power cuts, they deny it is their fault if we do (one excuse is that cars knock over powerpoles and that causes a lot of powercuts - that happened ONCE) or maybe it is the weather.. (hello... we have weather all the time, I don't think that is a good reason for twice a week power cuts)

So after this too-ing and fro-ing by email and emphatic statements that it is not their fault in any way they announce yesterday on the radio that they are going to install a new substation and this will help the problems with powercuts to Te Puke and surrounding areas (guessing that is us).

Had they said back when this started that yes they knew they had a problem and they were looking into solutions I would have gone away happy. So why persist in saying I was imagining things or it wasn't their fault.

Feel like sending them back their emails with a request for further comment in light of recent announcements. (but I don't think I can be bothered)

New Baby

Without a lot of fuss - she managed to calve sometime yesterday morning after 8.30am and had baby cleaned up and fed by 12 when we got home - the heifer produced a black bull calf.

I get there eventually

Trouble is she doesn't much like having her photo taken...
But here is Ali, the new girl on the block.

I'm a sucker

(pictures to follow)

There was a little thoroughbred mare going to go to the dogfood place through no fault of her own. She's now residing at our place. Or actually at the neighbours since we appear to be short on grass. She's a sweet wee girl - very timid as she has had very little handling over the last few years. I wasn't sure what to do with her but I think she might have to stay... One thing that I am keeping an eye on is that she appears a little round in the belly department when viewed from front or back on. Time will tell I suppose.

Also round is the preggie Ears, and the No 12 cow who is due at the end of next month and just about as round as she is tall. This does not stop No 12 from having bucking sessions round the paddock - though perhaps it isn't bucking it is cow kicking.

Arghh - it gets too difficult sometimes

A week or so ago the bank wrote me a nice letter and offered me a pretty platinum credit card with a credit limit about the size of half the mortgage to replace my boring old ordinary credit card with it's piddly little credit limit only the size of quarter of the mortgage. (my parents nearly went bankrupt in the 70s for less money than my old credit card limit - but that's another story) There was a small annual fee for this lovely card of course but as it includes free travel insurance it was actually a good deal. Anyway I felt really special to be offered this pretty shiny card that suggested I was a rich person and since you never know when you might want a brand new car or something on a whim I thought I had better take it.

It arrived the other day - and it is pretty and shiny - but I had to take it to the bank to get a PIN put on it. I decided to do this today when I was in Hamilton working. So I stood in the queue in the bank for 14 minutes (I kid you not - they were extremely slow). I got to the counter and said I needed a PIN on my credit card and handed the card and my drivers licence over. The teller looked at my drivers licence, sneered, and tossed the two cards back at me "Your licence has expired" Oh god - has it... I check, yes it has, and I've been driving round for two months with no drivers licence. Hmm. She refuses to accept an expired licence as ID. She isn't that polite (in fact she makes a comment about hoping I remember when my credit card is due for payment). I collect my dignity, sneer back and walk out contemplating the letter I will write to the manager.

Anyway now I don't have a drivers licence I am due to be stopped at any minute for some driving indiscretion and then I will get a big fat ticket for having an expired licence won't I. I'm too nervous to drive home, I go to the AA and enquire about renewing my licence. The lady in there is lovely. She gives me the form. My expired licence is okay for ID I just need something with my name and address on it to prove where I live and we can go ahead. Oh darn. I turn out my handbag. I have a lot of receipts for all sorts of things -but I have nothing to prove where I live. Double darn. Nice lady commiserates with me. I have a thought, there is a receipt and guarantee for the tyres on the car in the glovebox. I run out to the car and get it after shovelling dozens of receipts back into my handbag. It has our address on it BUT it has husbands name not mine. Triple and quadruple darn - and worse words than that.

There is nothing for it I will have to do it another day. I get back into the car I am not supposed to be driving and head down the road. Where I find a branch of our insurance company. Brainwave. Quick braking (probably very bad driving brought on by being an unlicenced driver) and swing into the carpark. I go in "I want to pay some insurance" I'm directed to another nice lady and explain the story - I want to pay whatever policy is due next and get a receipt with my address on it please. She congratulates me on my initiative and has a look - there is one due for renewal next month, would I like to pay that. I don't need to pay she could print me out the account if I would prefer. In the face of such pleasantness I opt to pay - it will save me forgetting to later anyway.

Armed with my receipt with name and address on it I proceed back to where I was and renew my drivers licence. All done with good cheer and efficiency. The new licence will arrive in due course and in the meantime I have a temporary one. I am now safe to drive again.

Still don't have a PIN on my pretty new credit card. Guess I'll just have to sign.