OH MY GOODNESS

No, no, it's not nice. Not nice at all.

I feel sick.

This is to blame. And this.

What a world, what a world.

My workmates have suggested that this is why my diet is so adequate, and that clearly I am getting enough protein through sources that I hadn't realised. Is nothing bloody well sacred anymore?

Special Guest Star: post from my dad

Hi Amy, I’ve had a ‘just ducky’ week.
They cut my throat on Monday which was horrific! It was in a hospital which made it a little less horrific. Thankfully before they cut my throat they gave me needles … which was more horrific.
Which part don't I want to talk about first?

After I got out of surgery (throat cutting – thyroid lobectomy)
I was doped up for a while with a drip in the arm (big straw-sized needle which is held in there with duct tape). I was still in pain during the night so a nurse (who I thought was a great humanitarian a few hours previously) came in and jabbed a pethedine tipped harpoon into my thigh. Just "BANG" like that. I can still feel the force and hear the prick of it busting my skin.

Now that knocked out the pain but foolishly, later on when I was still having pain and sat up sweating, coughing and woozy, I rang the nurse button again.

Guess what! She did it again! No 'there'll be a slight pain' .... she just walked around the other side of the bed and WHOOFA!



I think at that stage I threw the nurse call button out the window and hit myself over the head.
Well that was Monday!

I'll save Tuesday until a little later as I'm breaking out into a sweat thinking about it.
How has your week been?
regards,
Dad

Hi again,
I think I have recovered enough to tell you about Tuesday.

I was quick out of bed on Tuesday morning, the doctor came round and gave me the okay to go home. I wasn’t going to argue with that as I was looking forward to a needle-free day.
I felt pretty good at home until around 6 in the evening. I was having a little difficulty swallowing, and breathing wasn’t as easy as I would have liked so Meg rang Wyong Casualty and they said to bring me in.

At the hospital they took me into a small room for observation and a lovely young nurse kneeled beside my bed, looked up at me with her relaxing blue eyes, stroked my arm and told me not to worry … ‘Let us do the worrying’ she said and proceeded to stick a needle in my left wrist. The first one didn’t go into the vein (I think my veins were running scared) so she went to my right wrist. The vein there chickened out as well so she went higher up. (This is the harpoon type needle I’m talking about – the one that stays in and they use for a drip entry) That one thankfully went in at the elbow as, I figure, my veins were exhausted and had run out of places to hide. They taped that on.


Oh dear... I was feeling woozy then and developing a great empathy for sieves.

Anyway to cut a long story short they admitted me through Casualty and I stayed that night for observation. Well I did plenty of observing!

I stayed awake and read Dan Brown’s Deception Point until 3:30 when I was almost certain I was safe from having my hide needled. After setting a number of booby traps around the bed I guess I must have dozed off for a couple of hours. When I awoke it was early morning so I took the sign I had written (NIL BY SKIN) off my forehead and sat up looking my wellest.

I was well pleased to get the drip needle out of my arm and the okay to go home again at around ten a.m.

Let me say that the health care in both private and public hospitals was excellent and I commend each and every nurse and doctor on the wonderful job they did in looking after my health.

But rest assured I won’t be getting sick EVER again. I certainly won’t be putting my skin through that level of care again. Not ever!

regards,
Dad

Thanksgiving

I just found out that it's Thanksgiving Day in the US today! I remember one year my dad called me and told me that he and some of his friends had had a Thanksgiving dinner, and he'd given thanks for me. I think it moved me to tears :-) (What a great dad!)

So this year I decided to make a list of things I'm thankful for. Anything you think I've forgotten that I should be thankful for? Leave me a comment! Anything that you're thankful for? Leave me a comment!

I'm thankful for...

• good doctors results for my thyroid tests
• a steady job with good pay
• great people in my department at work
• a beautiful Cottage to live in with my own beautiful room
• great friends around the world who post me presents and cards
• my wonderful family, both immediate and extended, and their great sense of humour
• all the fairy lights on sale at Christmas
• that I have confidence in my church
• free internet and access to my blog at work
• my diamond ring
• being able to spend time with my family now that I'm living in Australia
• the wonderful budget that Sarah helped me with which is helping me become debt free!
• the fact that both my parents are in committed and loving relationships
• that I can never do anything to make God love me any more, or any less than he already does
• that more of my brilliant friends and getting blogs, so that I can read their brilliance online
• that I'm getting lots of comments on my blog (okay that one is a thankful-in-anticipation!)

How about you?

Beta Blogger, it's a new adventure

So I converted to Beta Blogger last night - did you notice it looks a bit prettier around here today? (Say yes!) I've added a few more elements to the sidebar (please note careful use of blogger jargon) which I'm excited about. The list of books that I'm reading at the moment has gone - partly because I read so much that it was always hopelessly out of date, and partly because who's really interested in knowing what I'm reading? (Hello! If you are, send me an email and I'll give you a list)
I'm loving the 43 Things site lately too, so I've added my list onto the sidebar. It's a great site, check it out and feel free to start your own list! Reccomend something to me that you think I should do :-)
And how do you like my pretty new Clustr Map? Every unique person who clicks on my blog gets their own pretty red circle. The more people from a particular area that visit, the bigger the circle. Want one for your website? Just click here.

This has been a week undescribable by any adjective. (Thus named because I just sat here for 5 minutes trying to think of a word to sum up my week and could not find anything that would do it justice!) So let's summarise:

Monday:

• nearly passed out while giving blood
• had to dash up to the Central Coast after work to see my dad
• realised I was nearly out of petrol
• my credit card stopped working at the petrol station
• tried to call my bank for help but my phone stopped working
• nearly passed out again
• credit card mysteriously started working again
• phone mysteriously started working again
• went to visit my dad in hospital but he was asleep
• passed in the halls by a 80 year old streaker trying to escape from hospital (totally starkers)

Tuesday:

• huge hunstman in the shower at mum's place, nobody to rescue me
• picked up dad from hospital
• drove back to Sydney, then found out I'd left my phone charger at dad's house and my battery was nearly flat
• dad was readmitted to hopsital

Wednesday:

• big hairy spider in the shower at the Cottage, nobody to rescue me
• dad discharged from hospital again
• too traumatised by spider to have breakfast, forgot my lunch
• coffee lady didn't come to work, so starved all day
• stayed at work late to get work done that I missed on Tuesday
• got home late, starving, and ate all of Shelley's dinner that was in the fridge
• felt bad so decided to wait up til she got home to apologise in person
• she stayed out late, didn't get home til 23.45, and then told me that she'd left it for me anyway

Thursday:

• slept in due to late night
• big menacing cockroach in the shower, used a large bottle of TreSemme conditioner to RESCUE MYSELF as clearly nobody else would rescue me
• had an early meeting so forgot to have breakfast
• coffee lady didn't come to work, so starved all day

I'm waiting in anticipation to see what will be in the shower tomorrow... I can't even guess... maybe a frog...

Random Acts of Kindness: 7 day challenge

Last week some friends and I had a 7 day challenge. We had to do one random act of kindness every day. This was so much fun! It really made me nicer (for a week!) as I found I was really looking for opportunities to bless people without them asking.

Here's a list by day, of the random ways we made the world a bit nicer...

Mon:
"Gave chocolate at team night to loads of people around me"
"Made dinner for my mum"
"Couldn't think of anything kind that I did today so will have to do 2 things on Tuesday!"

Tues:
"Cleared up the kitchen for mum"
"Complimented the check out lady on her beautiful earrings"
"Gave someone from my connect a lift from the station without being asked. Hard to think of things isn't it!"
"Drove friend from work to shopping mall near my house so she could get a new phone then drove her home. This is fun!"
"Ironed my brother-in-law's work shirt this morning"


Wed:
"Last night I ran after a guy who walked past our shop with 4 cups of coffee to give him a bag to carry it cause his hands were burning"
"Stayed back at work for an hour and did my colleages filing. I'm getting the hang of this!"
"Spent 20 mins sorting out the photocopier at work. Photocopied a booklet for my colleagues which though they might find useful. Told a couple of ladies at the advice centre that I help at that they looked much younger than their age. They smiled!"
"I lent a book I was busy reading to the girl in the next shop"

Thu:
"Paid the toll for the car behind me on the way to Leadership Vision Night! That's my best one yet!"
"Cheered up the receptionist when I went to the dentist after she'd just dealt with an angry patient on the phone."
"Drove friend home from work at lunchtime so she could get her passport."
"Selflessly ate all the toffee that was left on the table at work so nobody would get a toothache, does that count??"

Fri:
"Prayed for a friend after being sounding board at work and took another friend home after the annual Hillsong rugby match"
"Let an old couple push in the queue at the airport in front of me!"
"I leant my bunny ears to a doctor for 'Wear It Pink' day!"
"Did the washing up for mum"
"Brought morning tea for my colleagues"
"I ran down to daycare, (about 30 metres away from outpatients where I was working, and pressed the red button on the Lobster that sings + dances to "Rock the boat baby". (I may have even borrowed the singing roses in a flower pot, and got a little kid to press the button.) (6 times)"

Sat:
"I spoke to a friend for 1 hour on the phone instead of getting ready for a party"
"Pulling faces for a friends daughter to make her laugh"
"Bought dinner for a friend"
"Told my sister something lovely that someone else had said about her (she cried with happiness!)"

Sun:
"Taking a friend to the movies as a birthday treat"
"Bought lunch for two friends!"
"Fed a hungry kookaburra (birds need kindness too!)"

I love the idea of making the world a kinder place!

Have you committed a random act of kindness? Post a comment.

US man gets trapped in chocolate

Oh yeah, the headline grabbed my attention! As a self confessed chocaholic, frankly I don't think I could imagine anything sweeter than swimming in chocolate!

US man gets trapped in chocolate

It may seem like heaven to some people, but for a US man, being trapped in a vat of chocolate wasn't so sweet.

No-one is quite sure how the 21-year-old man ended up in the giant container at a chocolate factory, but it took two hours to get him out.

Some reports suggest the man fell into the vat while others say he climbed in to sort out a problem.

Rescuers had to mix cocoa butter into the chocolate to make it thin enough to pull the man out of.

The unlucky man had to go to hospital after the incident, but he's okay now.
The local police chief in Wisconsin said the chocolate was "pretty thick" and admitted he'd never heard of anything quite like it.

You know my favourite part of this story?
The part where it took them 2 hours to get the 'unlucky' man out. 2 hours - well done mate! Can you imagine?
Rescuer: "Just grab onto this rope!"
Man: "Er... I can't quite reach... why don't you guys take a break and try again a bit later..."


You know it would take all day for anyone to get me out of a vat of chocolate...!

Mango gelato (I like it, but I'm not bothered if you don't)

It's SO HOT at work today. To be fair, it's probably hot everywhere, but it feels especially hot here because for some reason the air conditioning doesn't reach into our office. We had this same problem last year, and have resolved that if we see an air conditioning repair man in our office we may just kick him - not out of nastiness you understand, just to give him a bit more of an incentive to fix it for good this time so he doesn't have to come back again ;-)

Mango gelato - all gone!

So wonderful Julie went up to the shops at lunch and bought us back gelato! I got mango gelato. I never used to like mango, much to the total delight of my family (this meant more for them!) but I adore it now. Funny how your tastes change hey? But it's not like I used to find people who liked mango and try to convince them how bad it was. What would be the point of that? Live and let live I say. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'm probably not ever going to change anyone's mind about anything. I remember an old saying - if someone talks you into something, you can be talked right back out of it. Too many people feel the need to force their own opinions onto others, which annoys me. Go opine on your own blog I say, no need to chase people down and shout the glories of your opinion into their ears. (Got that Lionfish?)

In that spirit, I've had to put comment moderation on, sadly. Hope I dont run into the same trouble as Sarah did, but I'll try to keep on top of it!