Dog Fight, Lola on Bike

We went to a street party last night. Tied up Sox (age 12) at his kennel, and put Patch on the deck but didn't tie him up - he's nearly 14 with bad arthritis so doesn't move much - so I thought. I gave them their tea and we left with them both munching happily. Came home about 10.30pm to Patch looking like this - Yes, he must have gulped his tea down and gone round to see if he could steal Sox's tea as well. - He couldn't and this is what Sox did to him. Sox, still tied up, was almost unscathed - just tired and sore. Stupid old Dogs - you should know better by now! Vet visit tomorrow I think. More money - we worked out that our old animals cost us $100/week with food and Arthritis medication - let alone vet bills cos the old dogs home erupted into a brawl last night.











Lola is loving our new bikes

Drought

We've had 34mm of rain this year, we normally have around 230mm. I am having to do a watering round daily for all the trees we planted last autumn. I take buckets of water up the drive (which is 500 meters long) and fill milk bottles from them to place around the trees. This way they at least have 4 liters of water a day but that's just survival level! Why is the grass green? cos we're infested with Kikuyu - an Africa grass which can survive drought but smothers anything near it and is a right pain in the A*$#, and almost impossible to eradicate here in Auckland. But looks good in a drought. The grass in the foreground is more what real grass looks like at the moment

While I am writing this North Korea is all but declaring war on the rest of the world.  This new ruler seems to be more gung-ho than his father.  This is how wars start.........

E-bike ride to coast beach

I have to have a bit of a rave about my new e-bike.  I ride along with a big grin on. It’s so much fun.  It has a small electric motor, which assists my pedal power and takes most of the hard slog away.

In this photo, we are admiring the black sanded beach. It is volcanic iron sand. Close up the silicone grains catch the sun and glitter like stars in a dark night sky.  Oh but on a sunny day it is so hot you get blisters even if you sprint from the grass to the sea. Shoes are essential. This is the west coast of New Zealand, just north of the Waikato river mouth. At the Waikato mouth, New Zealand Steel gathers up the sand, extracts the iron with magnets and turns it to steel. However, we must respect the rugged beauty of the hills and shore. Rips regularly take lives and swimming between the flags is essential.

 The bike ride there takes us through undulating farmland, old sand dunes now grazed by sheep and cows, liberally dotted with trees and the odd patch of bush. It reminds me of Hobbiton, which in the guise of Matamata, is only about 150km away.  I am so lucky to live here.

Bad back, Baritone sax and drought

I am sitting in great discomfort.  I put me back out yesterday by sitting down in a chair. I just reached for the arms to pull the chair in to the table before sitting and OUCH.  Simple as that.  I'm loaded up with anti-inflammatory drugs and they are doing the trick so I hope to be up and back on my e-bike shortly.

TLOML today "I like to try to make the Bari (baritone Sax) sound like a flute"  Ok I'll go along with that -Not -  Have you seen how big that thing is? He seemed to know what he was aiming for and in a way I can understand he was trying to get that lilting feel to the music

There has been no rain for many weeks - the politicians are going to meet towards the end of the week to see if a formal drought should be declared.  I am watering the orchard now to try and save the persimmons on the tree which are drying up and dropping off.  Thank goodness for our stream which just keeps tripping along no matter how long since the last rain.  Now if that starts to dry up we will be worrying. No rain in the long distance forecast for the next few weeks either so this year will be a record.

Devonport Food Wine and Music Festival 2013

17th Feb 2013
What a perfect day. Great friends, sun, wine, food, music - what else can soul and body need?

Ed and Sheryl

Avalanche City

Di Wood

 

The Reputations

T

 

Synchronicity and Whispers

"What shall we have for tea?" I asked TLOML yesterday

"Pancakes" he replied from totally left field.

My mouth watered at the thought of them with bacon swimming in Maple Syrup, or my childhood memory of brown sugar and lemon juice. So, blowing away my diet, that’s what we had.

TLOML can eat heaps of pancakes so I cooked seventeen, I had four and he had nine.  I felt smug because I had actually managed to make more than he could eat.

On Facebook today a friend commented that she had eaten too many pancakes.  For a moment, I was amazed that she had had pancakes too but it slowly dawned on me that it was actually Shrove Tuesday.  The one day of a year when we decide to have pancakes turns out to be Shrove Tuesday.  How synchronistic is that?

We had a lesson today on Chinese whispers.  Oh, am I still allowed to call it that?  Maybe just whispers then.

Yesterday Jim Mora on National Radio told a story whereby a photographic studio was looking for strawberries for a shoot.  They contacted a grower and arranged for some, but said, “They’re not very red”  “Don’t worry,” said the grower, “we’ll spray them to make them turn red.”

Jim was wondering if that was normal practice - and is it why strawberries taste so bad recently.

Very concerned, I wrote a text introducing myself, and saying that we have never heard of the practice and would be shocked if it were true.  I signed my name and TLOML’s.

Jim, Bless him, read out our text including our names.

Today our Wonderful Worker said that his wife had heard the programme  and  she told him it said we are starting a programme to spray our strawberries to make them red.  Another friend said exactly the same thing to him. Poor WW was totally flummoxed; he didn’t know anything about it.

Took ages to explain and get it sorted.

How easy it is to get hold of the wrong end of the stick.  That sort of thing could cause wars…

Car cleaning with Breast reconstruction after mastectomy

Car cleaning with Breast reconstruction after mastectomy

I gave my car a ten-year birthday present today. I cleaned it. No not took it through the car wash – I actually cleaned it. Meguiares car shampoo and everything. I even polished it probably for the second time since I bought it about seven years ago.

It has lots of dings and scrapes. None of which I hasten to add did I put there. No TheLoveOfMyLife who for many years after I bought it drove it as though it was disposable caused them. Of course, TLOML drives a Jag so he is used to throwing cars around corners at speed and expecting the vehicle to respond. Unfortunately, the little Toyota Corolla is no Jag and doesn’t handle as well. After many scrapes and scratches, TLOML has finally realised this and so drives it “Like a van” he assures me.

I hate polishing cars and only do so because I like to see the rain forming those little bubbles on the paint. This, however, was the first time I polished the car since the mastectomy and reconstruction. I have an implant of the sort they put in straight after the mastectomy and pump up with silicone over a period of several weeks. Now they did warn me that, because the Pec muscle is stretched over the implant (for some very good technical reason that I can’t be bothered with, just take my word for it, it is) I would lose some of the strength from my Pecs. The truth of it is that – 2 years later – I have almost no strength at all. Wiping down kitchen benches seems to use the Pecs a lot cos that is very tiring and sort of painful in an overworked muscle kind of way. And polishing cars apparently.

Now I don’t know if other forms of reconstruction are better or not. I do know that I have thought about removing the implant because it is a bit debilitating but seemingly it’s not that debilitating and I am too vain because I haven’t done it yet. So if anyone happens to read this and is considering this type of reconstruction, that is my take on it. Oh and I have gained weight a bit in the last two years – well more like when the reconstruction was done I had lost heaps of weight from all the stress of cancer and I am now back to normal. Trouble is its all gone into my other boob which is now bigger that the reconstruction. In addition, the reconstruction doesn’t move around like my natural boob, which results in my clothes slipping across the still one, sitting skewwhiff and sliding to one side, which is ugly and annoying.

PS

If anyone reading this (which is unlikely) wants any info on anything about breast cancer and breast reconstruction feel free to contact me I am