The crazed ravings of Splinter (Tony Castley)
Posts about my family.
Ok so work has been worse the last few months than I could possibly imagine. However we just got the core of the project over and done with and things look like they might settle down. This is so overdue as my home life has been badly effected by the current work load.
Now I have posted up some more photos from the weekend away with the family and I hope you all like them.
See you in a day or two.
A few years back my Grandad died after a prolonged illness. During that time my Dad stayed at our place in Brisbane and travelled up to the north coast to spend each day with Grandad. Over the last few months we all spent more time with Grandad.
We all knew that Grandad was in the RAAF in World War 2, we knew he flew in Lancaster Bombers but really we did not know much more. However over the last few months Grandad showed us the “Golden Caterpiller” (a medal given to all that have been saved by their silk parachutes), the map he carried so if he was shot down over Europe he could move towards allied lines.
Today I looked for his service record in the Australian National Archives, however his record is not currently open to the public as it has not been checked for national secrets. It is not likely that my Grandad performed covert missions, just likely they have not got to his record to clear it.
I paid a small fee and they will now check it, copy it and send me the copy. In about 30 days I should know more.
I will keep you posted.
Well we have moved and we are connected to the world again. 🙂
We got all our furniture and stuff moved in about 4 hours, with the help of two very good friends and One Man Removals. So a big thanks to Jason, Robert and Jeff from One Man Removals. We were able to move all our stuff in two quick trips leaving only odds and ends for us to tidy up this weekend.
Firstly, as you know, we are moving to a bigger house with the same rent. So this week we are doing all the organising… you know phone, power, internet etc.
First the good.
Now the bad
Due to the ISP stuff I may be offline for a few days.
Over the last few weeks we have been so busy.
We had a family Christmas in Brisbane and on returning home we had to start house hunting. The owner the the place we are currently renting is coming back to Canberra and for some reason wants his house back.
So we have found a place, just one suburb away, at the right price and size. Now for the move…. ugh! 26th Jan is our move date and I have a couple of days off to help.
All this and a PILE of work 10 foot high at the office.
Wish me a good nights sleep.
To all I wish a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!, and an apology for being late with these wishes.
We have been away for the Christmas break, up with family in Sunny Queensland and now it looks as if we will have to move house before the end of the month.
I promise updates shortly, really.
Another year ….. it seems to go so fast. The day passes without comment now. I don’t expect the children to remember, there is no need for them to linger in sadness ……today is mostly for me.
Its been 4 years now, since I lost my little girl. This year has perhaps brought it into a little more focus. This year I moved states, and removed any chance of having more children. It all seems so final. I wasn’t …. and I am still not ready.
Happy birthday Isabeau ….. mummy misses you.
Yesterday our family and some good friends of mine, Jase & Bec, went to Cowra for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had a great day and took lots of photos.
Cowra was the location for a POW camp in WW2, holding Japanese captured by Australian Soldiers. After Peace in the Pacific Cowra became the centre for a sharing of cultures and the persuit of peace.
We did have one small problem with the place
Seems we had to be responsible if we were to bring the kids.
Ok today was an interesting day, started as usual driving to work. Like most people, I have to be careful of other traffic and pedestrians, however this morning I had to give way to a kangaroo as it crossed the road in front of me.
Lunch time saw me drive to the city to have Pizza with a good friend, Jim, just arrived from Brisbane. After parking I was walking down the street to be caught in a 1 minute hail storm. Each piece of hail was no bigger than a drip of water. Now in Brisbane when it hails you run for cover as the golf ball sized ice really does crack open skulls.
This afternoon and evening is has been quietly snowing, my kids have loved it! This is the first time any of us have seen falling snow.
All in all an interesting day.
Last night on the news we saw an article on World Refugee Day and that some buildings in Canberra were specially lit for the night. So my daughter and I braved the 5 degree night and shot some photos.
Rugged up we went out and passed the fountain lit in neon blue, we found a park, walked to the lake edge and …. they’d turned off the fountain. 😥 Well you can catch some of the other photos on my Flickr page.
My wife had her surgery today, and it went well. She has been sleeping of the General today and I will get to talk to her and the doctor tomorrow.
Well the other day the house’s second computer decided to stop working. The thing would not stay turned on, it would just shutdown, if you were lucky it would run for 10 minutes then stop. So I had a look and figured out the power supply was not working right. The repairs will have to wait a week or too so I have time and money to fix.
Today however my computer decided to die. Freezing within minutes of turning on! I think it is memory or CPU related, so those repairs will have to wait as well.
So in the space of days we have gone from two working computers down to none. I could not even salvage enough common parts to make any hybrid work (one is an old celeron the other an AMD, different memory everything).
So I have set up my work laptop, we have no access to our photos, email or games. Looks like a computer spend is on the cards 😥
After my many, many ….. many problems with my health, struggling with my hormones, coping with my girly works becoming so unreliable that it was making me ill all the time. After fighting peri-menopause, struggling to fall pregnant and failing, and facing the fact of no more children. And after fighting doctors tooth and nail for the last 2 years for some sort of definative answer. After all that ….. today I finally got an answer.
After moving here, I decided to try again, and so I saw a new gyno today. The poor man looked at the novel sized pile of documentation I gave him, and looked more than a little startled. I was a little more forceful with what I wanted from him …… a hysterectomy. He listened to me, asked some questions …. and showed a great deal of shock when I told him the opinions of my previous gyno’s. He quizzed me about my hormonal issues, which I was a little reluctant to mention, for fear that he would insist I try chemical control methods (yet again).
And finally he looked at me and said … “Well obviously its a no brainer. I feel the best management would be a complete hysterectomy and estrogen implant”. Not only is he going to give me the hysterectomy I wanted, but he offered to remove my ovaries, therefore removing the major cause of the other symptoms that I have suffered for nearly 20 years.
I stood at the reception desk to pay my bill, and I was shaking. I held it together until we got outside his rooms …… and then I had a good cry on hubby’s shoulder. This is what I have wanted for years. I have a chance of being able to have a normal like life, and quite possibly, some of the PCOS features in my health will be gone.
So …. in a little over 2 weeks time, I will have my mum here to look after me, and I will be starting the next phase of my life. I am scared, but incredibly happy.
Is it possible to be both?
Well, I have to say that this mother’s day has been lovely, but probably not what hubby wanted to do. We have been so busy, with moving in, sorting out the house, kids etc …. and just generally freezing our bits off …… that he really hasn’t had time to organise anything.
I did receive one thing from my little boy, that hubby thought was memorable enough to blog. Mr6 wrote me a poem, which is now stuck on the fridge.
Mum I love you because: …………………..
* you buy me dessert
* you make up jokes
* you are beautiful
* you are like the sun
* you are like a berry in a tree (apparently I am sweet)
* you are lovely like the stars in the sky
Mr6 watched me read this, and then I put it onto the fridge. He looked at me and asked me, “Did it make you cry?” I have to admit it did a bit, but I just told him that it made me feel very special. He was very pleased with himself.
Well as you can imagine things have been a little hectic. I have started work, the kids have started school and Dani has already put her name down to help tuckshop and the P&C. Only got my broadband back yesterday, man talk about withdrawal. 😀
Work is crazy as usual, but at least I am busy. Seems like my old area is still trying to find enough work for all their people.
The kids are really liking their new schools and both seem to be making friends easily. My daughter is continuing with her Japanese and my boy just loves the new schools playground.
I have some shots of the new house etc more will be coming.
