Belinda’s Blog

Of the holidays, that is 

Just the weekend to go, before I head back to work on Monday *sob*. This break has been SO so good for me. I really needed it, to help with my vomiting and fatigue. I wish I could have another week or two. But alas, I don’t have that option & I shall just have to push through and hopemy energy returns soon and I’m not stopping to  puke on the way to work. *cross fingers*.

Today I finally faced my crate of schoolwork. After a sleepin, I threw some music in the home theatre system and got through most of the work I wanted done before going back. Printed decided to act all funky on me, so I shall finish the last of it tomorrow.

Had my blood drawn for the First Trimester screening that goes in conjunection with Nuchal Translucency ultrasound next Friday. I always go to the same branch of pathology even though they are not the closest as I’ve always had really good experiences there. For someone like me who has really crap veins for taking blood, it’s important that my experiences are GOOD! From what I understand, no more blood is taken now til the 28th week (woohoo!). V. pleased!

No major plans for the weekend since it’s my last opportunity at R&R. I have a manicure tomorrow and then am going to go and try and find some fairly inexpensive Autumn clothes (esp jackets/knitware!). Was going to do that during the week but had a few off days. I want things for work so it has to be this weekend.

Sunday, no plans. Just organising school things, sleeping in and not much else.

Oh! Must end post with some good news. My great-Aunt has continued her great recovery & she is being flown home tomorrow! A commercial flight to Sydney then an ambulance will transfer her to her local hospital. Not sure how long she will be there, but her progress continues to amaze all Drs and nurses that have treated her.

Well today was  quite an enjoyable day. We had the 1st bathroom reno company come to quote us on a new bathroom. We organised this almost 3 weeks ago, so we were hoping that a) they’d turn up and b) they’d fit our expectations (we had previously visited their showroom a few times and asked a lot of questions).

Well, they didn’t disappoint. They turned up right on the stroke of 9am & were very professional and gave us pricing before they left (others we checked out a few yrs back posted them and took forever and some didn’t even bother with mailing the quotes!). We ran them through the ideas we had – moving the various fittings to different parts of the room, adding things, removing things. All of our ideas seemed fine and not too much extra effort/hassle/cost. We are going with a shower over a large bath (for Steven to be able to sit with legs fully extended in a bath  found him suitably impressed!), with a glass pivot door. Moving the vanity, adding a toilet into the bathroom (we currently just have 1 separate toilet). The toilet room will also be re-done. Basically both rooms will be totally gutted & will be getting new walls, ceiling and everything in them. It came in at the price we expected and have budgeted for & we went over the business side of things and they sound excellent in terms of contracts/work guaranteed. So next week, we will go in there, give them a deposit and set the wheels in motion. Hopefully, we’ll be looking at installation in the last week in May! We need to go over all the choices of tapware/ vanity/ colour scheme  etc and we’ll do that next week when we go in there to put the deposit down and organise it all etc.  So that’s that!

Following that, we went and checked out some furniture stores. It seems fairly hard to buy plain white kids’ furniture anywhere other than at baby stores, where they often charge an obscene amount. We looked around but to no avail really, other than some portable robes we quite liked (the baby’s room is the only one without a built-in robe and  until he/she is older and in a bed  and in need of decent hanging space, a robe like that will suit just fine) that were funky. We did find one baby store that sold some that were not too badly priced, so we may revisit them down the track. This place has really good discounts/package deals as incentive for buying the bigger must-haves in the one store. They have a cot in the style we want, albeit more expensive than the ebay store that manufactures them new and sells them. Depending on freight costs though, we may buy from this shop instead as it may work our similarly, esp with the discounts built into the way they do things.

So that was that – a busy day was had! Rest of the day I have just been taking it easy, making the most of my remaining days off. Even managed to catch Oprah and Dr Phil!

this is what we have planned to set up in our house for our ‘arrival’ later in the year

Might seem a bit weird, but for the family that we only see once or twice a year it’s going to be invaluable, I think!

http://www.warcom.com.au/shop/flypage/wireless_camera/1282

Pretty cool, huh?

Hope all of the Aussies who read here are enjoying their day off and taking some time to reflect on those whose lives ended in Galliopli, as well as other troops we currently have stationed around the world – Timor, Solomon Islands, Iraq etc.

Having studied 20th Century history at school I’ve always been aware of the details of ANZAC. However, I watched a documentary on the ABC last week about ANZAC and the true tragedy of it really hit home. They were so unprepared, the maps they used were COMPLETELY incorrect in so many respects. It was a nightmare waiting to happen. Steven and I sat watching in utter disbelief at much of what we saw in this doco.

Steven is actually working today. The managers needed to get together and do some strategising before the bigwigs from their parent company come to Australia at the end of the week. For some reason, that had to be today. He’s hoping it won’t be all day though and he is having tomorrow off in lieu of today. Bathroom reno ppl are coming tomorrow to quote us and get the show on the road, so it’s probably worked out for the best that he has tomorrow off instead. It’s all good! After yesterday’s adventure, I’m spending today just lying on the lounge, amusing myself with laptop and TV/DVD (currently rewatching all of Anthony’s Idol performances. Seems like a lifetime ago. Loving watching them though, as I haven’t seen them in ages and several songs reduce me to tears). The kitchen needs a tidy and the floors need vacuuming but I’m putting my feet up and Steven can do it later.

speaking of Steven. He is such a sweetheart. He has really been doing so much more at home at times when I’ve been sick. He’s been truly amazing & he has been so affectionate and gorgeous   And to top it off, I just LOVE his humour. I went to the fridge this morning to get a juice & on top of the u/s picture from yesterday, he had made a little speech bubble that said “Good morning, Mum!”

OMG I totally laughed out loud! He’s a funny guy, to boot!

Oh and update on my Great-Aunt…she’s making great progress. She is talking a little and walking with the aid of a frame. She will be a while before she is ready to make the flight back home. She is also under the impression that she will be going back to her place again to live, but the reality is that she will probably move into a nursing home or in with family. It is going to be sad to see that happen, because pre-incident, she was an active bowler and walker & she was fiercely independent. I think making adjustment to living situation is going to be frustrating and tough on her. But hey, she’s astounded the medical staff so she is a fighter!!!

This morning I took Steven to the train, got home, had a bit to eat then went to the toilet. I saw slightly brown-tinged toilet paper and FREAKED. Went to bed, lay down and tried to call Steven. Tried nearly 10 times, left voicemail and SMS but never heard from him.

Luckily, I had a Dr appt today anyway to get a referral for my NT scan around 12 weeks. So once i finally got hold of Steven, he headed back towards Wollongong & I met him near the Dr surgery. Told the Dr about the spot & he recommended the u/s without me even having to ask for one. I just LOVE my Dr!!  He phoned and got us an appt while we were wiating there in his office. The first place he tried were booked and he didn’t seem impressed they coud’t accommodate ‘emergencies’. I explained that we had troubles with them last preg and they weren’t nice. He then tried the Obstetric u/s place again and got us an appt there. Man, that was the longest 3 hr wait of my life I think!!

Good news is, things are fine. U/s tech didn’t even have to search and the baby was there, all curled up cosily in a ball, kicking its feet up in the air and waving its arms about. A few CRL measurements and Heartrate checks later, she said all was totally fine and off we went.

There was no obvious reason in the uterus for the spotting, so perhaps it was just as my Dr had thought – a sensitive cervix. Even so, I’m going to take it pretty easy the rest of the week and not overdo it. I will feel fairly relaxed going into the NT scan on the 5th now though, after seeing all good things today

I’m so tired now after a very nerve-wracking day. I shall sleep well tonight!!!

Friday night I went into the city to see the musical “Dusty” with my parents. I’m sure most ppl know of Dusty Springfield, so you’ll envisage it was full of great songs, funky costumes and groovy 60s sets and carry-on. Well, you’d be right!

I really am a huge musical theatre fan and one of my favourite females is Tamsin Carroll. Aside from knowing I’d enjoy the songs in this production, Tamsin was cast in the lead & I really wanted to see her in it. I went with my parents and we had front row seats. I had watched the documentary made on the putting together of this show, from casting, to rehearsals, set design etc etc. Watching it put together was really making me excited for the night we were going to see it.

Most annoyingly, they chose Friday night to have 2 of the lead roles played by understudies. I was so angered by this, as Fri and Sat nights are the most expensive tickets. If 1 was off, I can imagine maybe they were sick, but 2? I’d say they were just being rested and to rest them on a Friday night is really crap IMO. ah well!  I didn’t care about missing Deni Hines and I’d say the understudy had a stronger voice anyway. Tamsin’s understudy was very good but I really wanted to see her! I’d be tempted to go again just to see her do the role.  Prior to the show, we had dinner in Chinatown and had Peking Duck for dinner (haven’t had it in ages! Yum!). The show was fab & we got home extremely late afterwards (almost 1:30am).

Saturday, I was dealing with a totally debilitating headache, like the ones I had middle of the week before. I spent the day sleeping and putting hot cloths on my head. I finally gave in and took something for it that night and then I got a good night’s sleep and woke  up headache-free 

Today, we headed out to buy a new router for our wireless broadband connection. The one we’ve had the last 3+ yrs had starting acting up and we were without a connection more than we’d had it the last day or two. We also decided to change ADSL companies because the one we’re with were just not interested in sorting things out today and after previous issues last year (no connection for over 2 weeks and no apologies, credit, nothing) that was the last straw. So that should be ready to roll in the next 5 days. The other cool thing, is that we are now using VOIP (voice over internet phone)! Our new router does it so we signed up with Engin. Local/long distance calls 10c untimed, and international are 3c per minute. We were surprised at the quality of the connection as well. Yet another technology in our geek-house 

Decent night of TV tonight – series final of “Love My Way” and also the start of 2006 “Big Brother”. I know lots of ppl hate reality TV, but I really enjoy the psychology of such social experiments of people in tightly controlled settings. We also associate BB with winter TV viewing here in Australia, so to us it signals cold nights, snuggled up. Bring it on!

As for the coming week? Not a heap planned. Tomorrow I have a Dr appt to get my u/s referral and I plan on cleaning out some kitchen cupboards. Tuesday is a public holiday but Steven is working and having Wed off instead. So no plans for Tues other than to do a few hrs of work . Wednesday, we have a company to come and quote us on the new bathroom. Thursday I’m going clothes shopping for a while & Friday nothing planned other than having my blood drawn for part of the NT test. So a few things on , but they are mainly things I can do in my own time and can still sleep in and take it pretty easy.

I have booked my NT ultrasound. Friday 5th May @ 2:30PM. It will be just past the 12 week mark. I will do the bloodwork part of the NT test the Friday before.

I know I should be calm and confident but after what I went through before, I’m still quite nervous and anxious to know that all is OK. Hopefully it will be & things will proceed from there.

Please keep this freaked out chic in your thoughts 

It’s been a fairly quiet few days since Steven went back to work after Easter weekend.

Yesterday, I was puking in the morning and then had a beautician appointment. After all that, I was pretty tired, so I just came home, slept and lay around watching TV and playing with the puppies.

Today I was going to head to Sydney and do some clothes shopping (swapping my usual expensive taste for cheaper stuff that I may not get a lot of use out of). I just didn’t feel up to it though, so shall do that at some other point during my school holidays. Just been watching TV and then went and rented “Just Like Heaven” from the DVD store.

Tomorrow is a long lunch with Lena, who I haven’t seen since early Feb (so cannot wait!) and Friday no plans during the day, but off to the theatre at night to see the musical “Dusty” with my parents, prob having dinner at Chinatown beforehand.

On a bit of a sad note, I have a very ill relative at the moment. My Nan and her sister (my great aunt) went to Alice Springs on 9th April for a 10 day holiday. My great Aunt’s grandson lives there now, so they were going to see him and see Alice, since they have never been to the middle of Australia before. They were due back last night, but the day before, my great Aunt was acting disorientated. They took her to the hospital and found that she’d had a bleed on the brain. They kept her there for observation but during Mon night, she apparently had a major bleed on the brain. She is unconscious and half a country away. My Nan is in a total state, stressed, vague. I realy feel for her b/c my Nan is not a very independent woman and to see this happen to her sister and be so far away from us for support would be very difficult for her. Thankfully my great aunt’s daughter (my Nan’s niece and my godmother) was flying to the Northern Territory this morning, so at least they can be some support for each other. My Nan has delayed her flight back until there is an outcome. We had been told yesterday though, that she had been doing downhill pretty fast and they did not expect her to live. This was such a sudden thing and very unexpected. She is very independent and fit (80 yrs old).  I know this will be very traumatic for my Nan on yet another level – her husband (my grandfather) died when they were interstate on a holiday many yrs ago. So to be going through a similar experience with her sister interstate must be bringing back memories and be beyond tough.

Lastly, I’m going to vent a bit.

I damn well hate trucks! I deal with them on a daily basis on the route I drive to work. Just a month or two back, I got a stone chip on my windscreen from a truck heading past me in the opposite direction. Today, on the way to get a DVD, I had a truck in front of me and its load mustn’t have been secured too well (which annoys me SO much! My first new car was almost written off from a chunk off wood flying off the back of a truck and I’m lucky it didnt hit higher than it did).  The stone today hit hard – hard enough for me to be shocked and utter an expletive or two. It has left like 3 chips in the windscreen. I hate that I have to pay to get these kinds of things fixed as it’s not worth going through insurance. But it’s something that is so avoidable if the truckers could simply SECURE THEIR LOAD PROPERLY!  I’m not sure what can be done, but I did memorise the registration of the truck, so maybe I can write to someone and complain about their negligence?

Happy Easter! Whatever the day means to you, I hope it’s enjoyable. Being the heathens that we are, Easter is viewed as a family day, sans religious interjections.

Steven gave me a big white Lindt choc egg. Due to the pregnancy, I have not been feeling at all inclined to eat sweet things, but b/c Swiss choc is so nice and light, I am sure that if I just have a nibble every so often I will still enjoy it   I gave him a bunny as he loves munching their ears off! Hee!

We are off to my parents’ place in a few hours to have a BBQ lunch. The air has a certain crispness to it, but it’s supposed to be around 25C today so lovely outdoor BBQ weather!

Most unusually, we rented 2 Australian films to watch today. Also they were both quite dramatic/suspenseful choices.

“Wolf Creek”. Probably one of the most creepy films I have seen in quite some time. Horrific, but in a real sense, not in cheesy horror-movie style. Based loosely around the Backpacker serial killer Ivan Milat. It was haunting and very well acted but OMG.

“The Proposition”. Set in outback Australia  in the 1880s. Based arounda family of brothers being hunted for crimes committed. Great cast and well acted. Quite violent but was necessary for the story. Thought-provoking.

We have joked that the next rentals need to be nice fluffy, fun or romantic choices after the amount of violence and horror in tonight’s viewing!