Why is getting sick so expensive?

My wonderful marvelous tax refund, the last one of this size I shall ever get, is almost gone. Until you need treatment, you just don't realise how expensive having sleep apnoea can be!

And I did think about not writing anymore as I began this as a way to keep my sibling-in-another-state (Froggy) up to date of the happenings. But it seems that we chat every day and exchange most of the gossip there. Thank you readers, I guess I will keep the tales going so you may continue to nap through my updates.

The fortelling thing can be a little exciting. I dreamed once my ethereal self was standing with a couple of others, watching someone perish in a car fire. The radio news the next morning featured a story about some people who died in a car fire. I've dreamed that MOTH was riding pillion involved in a accident. He came off the bike headfirst into a light pole and broke his neck. His next doctor appointment revealed trouble with his neck... Haven't done it for some time though beyond the little things like the mattress. Just as well!

MOTH comes to pick me up after work. He's early, so I make him wait for about 15 minutes. Finish up time and I jump in the car, eager to get home. He turns the key and ... nothing. What? Again. Nothing. Then he switches off the lights and slumps in his seat. Dangit! Not AGAIN! Yes, the battery is about two years old and he's back to his habit of leaving the lights on...

I often see a cat running past the office through the garden. It looks way too well cared for to be a stray. An expensive looking cat actually, a beautiful cream with very pale red tabby markings. Someone has come in the front door and the cat has seen them. It comes to the door, meowing loudly. Is it hurt? I go to the door and look. No, but it has seen me and rolls on the step, showing its belly and continuing to meow. Now I see it up close, it's definitely an expensive cat! Beautiful colouring and lines, muscular and sleek. Pedigree by the looks of things. Why would you let a cat like that roam a busy street and with no collar?

Speaking of cats, Jerome has his vet appointment today. I've borrowed a cat carrier from the vet. He didn't fight to go in it, but when he realised he was trapped, he began to cry. Like a siamese. This little kitteh cried meow meow meow all the way ... to the vet, in the waiting room and finally quieted just before we went in. The vet was running late. Must be a medical professional thing.

He took the poking and prodding and temperature check in his stride and didn't even flinch at the needle. But apparently he's a bit of a porker. I didn't think I fed him that much - up to 1/2 a cup of dry food and an 85g can of tinned food. Googling and Bing-ing the interwebs and cat care forums don't give so much as a clue as to volume but plenty of opinions about WHAT they should eat. I took a guess, somewhat less than the packaging gave as a guide. So. Now he's fat. The Teen wails ... YOU MADE MY BABY FAAAAAT. I laugh, rough him up and call him fatty. In an effort to cut back, I've dropped the tinned food to half a can.

I've also got to figure out what details have been included on the microchip? The Teen's or mine? Or maybe even Ma's?

It's a toll free weekend. The new airport tunnel is open. I get an email from our toll provider who say their tunnel is free this weekend so people can go check out the new tunnel. Perhaps we'll go for a look.

Movies again! W00t! This week's special is The Avengers. MOTH asks if it's the Emma Peel one. What? No, get with the program. Just asked, he said, cause they released that not long ago. The one with Uma Thurman? Yeah, that one. Riiiiiight, Rip Van Winkle, that was some years ago now.... The Avengers is great; great characters, great cast, subplots, themes, tension and all broken up with some well placed one liners.

And I like it even better because the ticket price on special is $5.50 a person.

MOTH tells me that we will have passengers for the tunnel trip. John and his daughter were going to have a look so they will come with us. No problem. She and I are quite alike and get on like a house on fire. We head out with a few thousand others to check it out. Around Airport Drive and MOTH and John are contemplating whether most of the other traffic is just 'doing the loop' as well. It seems so. The whole round trip takes an hour and a half from home. Usually one way takes a minimum of 45 minutes.

We extend our stay to a cup of coffee and chat. An hour or so flies by but it seems only a few minutes.

I walk the length of the house to MOTH's office. Wanna go out to Hardly Normal? Sure, we can do that. *surprise surprise cause moth doesn't do impulse* I'm thinking of buying an expansion pack for a game I have. We arrive and I remember that HN has very little in the way of computer games but gear more toward console. Okies. We browse and before I know it, I'm looking at printers.

Half hour later I've walked out with a new printer, an HP photosmart that takes the same cartridges as the printer I already have. It's wireless and networked too. Sunday night after dinner and I finally get around to setting it up. It is wireless and networked! It sits on my desk, not a cable in sight and it's on the network so MOTH can print too. If he wants. He snavelled the old one. And I have discovered I can print photos directly from the iPhone too. Excellent!

Now I just have to print out some photos to mail to Ma. She's not tekkalogically advanced....

Slightly more than usual

True. I do have slightly more than usual to blather on about. But sometimes I wonder if I should let this slip for a while. I don't know if anyone reads it anymore as most of the people who used to read it seem to have dropped off the blog-o-sphere...

I'm in the car, music playing as I wait for the lights to change. Traffic is horrendous this morning. Busier than I recall from previous mornings. I glance in the rear view mirror and something catches my eye. I look again. It's an ambulance. Coming down the same side of the road as I. Usually I seem them rushing past going the other direction. Uh oh. This will be interesting. Everyone is at a standstill waiting for the lights. All three lanes are full. I start to pull the car to the left. Luckily I have room. As I watch, cars move and open up a gap in the middle as the ambulance weaves in among the traffic. And then the cars close behind it. I can see the same thing happen all the way up the hill. It looks amazing.

Different day, homeward bound. I approach the big overpass roundabout and notice a car, about three in front of me, with a mattress tied to the roof racks. An image flashes into my mind of the mattress coming loose. Gee, I think, I hope I'm not behind it when that happens. I think no more about it watching the traffic and waiting for my turn.

I wasn't behind it. On the other side of the roundabout, just down the hill, the mattress AND THE ROOF RACKS are lying in the middle of the road. A 4WD has stopped in the middle of the lane, the driver of the car is running back to get the mattress. It's a busy spot and I don't stop although I slow to the the 4WD cross into my lane and out of the way. I wonder how the driver got the mattress home...?

MOTH is driving me to work and we are listening to the breakfast radio show. They've found a website where you can enter a famous name and find out if the person is alive or dead. They've called the segment Dead or Alive. I look at MOTH. How come, I say, no one has yet rung up and asked about Elvis?? MOTH laughs, and a minute later, someone has phoned to ask about Elvis. MOTH looks at me. You've got to stop doing that, he says. I'd already told him about the mattress.

Cruising my email and I see the newsletter from our local cinema. They are offering discounted tickets to see Prometheus. Sometimes I don't bother, other times I check to see if MOTH wants to go. Prometheus. I had seen a trailer and it looked like it had potential. The plot seemed to indicate it was about the origins of man. Well. It was an outing anyway. The movie that had potential seemed to have lost it. Someone asked for a no spoiler review, but it was difficult to say anything without spoilers. It began with potential, cut to a scene in the mountains with nothing out of the ordinary beyond finding some cave paintings, then suddenly they were in space on a ship named Prometheus and from there degenerated into a monster movie. I leaned over to whisper to MOTH that I was waiting for the Aliens to jump out. It turned out to be an Alien prequel and not a great one at that.

My recommendation ... wait for the DVD.

I love this!

It's a great shot. :)

Nothing much has been happening lately. MOTH has been sick and I have been keeping a low profile, hoping I don't catch it. He's been on a course of antibiotics for the last week and it seems to be easing. I'm gradually beginning to breathe again as I have seemed to have missed it. *of course, having just said that...* I took him to the doctor before I went to work this week. I'm grateful for flexible starting hours. I didn't get to work until nearly lunch time!

Things have been quiet at work. Admin2 returned from holidays this week. It's been sort of busy doing both her work and mine, but certainly waaaay easier to handle than the six week stint I usually have to cover over the Christmas/New Year break she takes.

I've put in for my holidays. Ekka week, and two weeks at the beginning of January next year. Maybe I can sneak in a day or two in between. I don't think she was happy, but like my super says, I got in first. She also didn't realise that Admin2 takes that time period EVERY year?? Yes, that's the emphasis she put on it.

It's tax time again, and I make an appointment. I hate making these appointments. I don't know why, but I am really out of my comfort zone doing this kind of stuff. I have all my papers and off we go. MOTH decides to come with me. WHAT?? No more dependent spouse rebate? This is the last year I can claim? Sigh. Typical. The Government gives with one hand and takes away with the other. Apparently the rebate no longer exists for non-working spouses born after 1952. The new tax changes that have increased the tax free threshold do NOT in any way come close to compensating for this loss. This is a huge blow as it pays my bills which all seem to come in at that time of year and lets me buy small things for Christmas that I wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. Look out Froggy, no presents for you next year not just no birthday ones! The change doesn't take into account any spouse that CAN'T work either. MOTH is on a disability pension.

The storeman is over today to collect his 'reward' for helping us ship things to our conference in May. We donate chocolates and a backpack for him. Usually we drop it off - Admin2 always seems to drag me along - but since we've relocated, it isn't as easy. He's carrying a box out to the car and as I see him in my peripherals, he takes a misstep out the door. Whoa! Luckily he steadies himself before he hits the next step but it's a close run thing. Imagine the horror of the rest of the department if the storeman is laid off with a broken ankle! My heart slows and as he leaves I remind him to watch the step. We laugh.

I have had a small payment of a work related allowance this week. Whoo! I decide to see if Target has some specials on DVDs. I leave MOTH with the old boys and as I go to walk away, Wombat asks MOTH ... Do you feel just like you're in an old folks home, where they bring you in, sit you down and leave you? Yes, I said. I'm getting in practice. They laugh. I have now decided to call them the Baby Sitters Club.

Yes, Target have specials but certainly not clearance prices. I purchase three. Choosing was a brain destroying exercise! I ended up with Harry Potter 7.2, Captain America and Jason Statham's Blitz.

I get the DVDs home and pop them on the shelves ..... and discover that I don't have Harry Potter 7.1. That must have been Elder's copy. Whoops.

I also tried to find a second pair of flanny jammies. I only have one pair and with the cold and rainy weather we've been having, getting them dry has been difficult. I don't have a dryer, and this weather is the only time I miss it. But none my size. Siiiiigh. When I get home, I look at the ones I have. Oh! They did have this size. I forgot I had bought 1 size bigger as I  like them really baggy. Back the next day and grab a pair.

Ahhhh warm flanny jammies....

Pics. Just cause.

This is gonna be different...

I usually close my eyes to housework. Somehow I've managed to train myself not to see that it needs doing. Until it gets to the point where I simply cannot ignore it anymore. This is a far cry from being a teenager and living at home. My room was tidy and before I had the carpet put in, I recall dragging the furniture out to the hall so I could vacuum and mop properly.

A lot has changed!

So, it's around 8.00pm and I walk into the kitchen and discover Jerome playing with a huge dust bunny. Mostly made up of his own fur mind you. Does he do this deliberately - throw his fur around to mark the house as his? It would not surprise me.

But this did! Holee! MOTH's guests arrive tomorrow at sparrow fart and THE PLACE IS A PIGSTY! Did I mention that I hate housework? The vacuum and I are not friends either. The Kirby man came to us once. Talk to him I said, I don't touch that stuff. I'm not tall by any stretch of the imagination and even with the pipe at full extention, I still have to bend my back to use the cleaner. There are chips of paint out of the corners where I never fail to get caught. They don't call it a barrel cleaner for nothing, I always manage to get it to barrel roll at least once.

So in the space of an hour and a half I had the main areas of the house vacuumed, the dusting done, the shower and bathtub cleaned, the vanity cleared of my stuff and cleaned and the kitchen and bathroom floor mopped. Oh, and towels replaced *is proud*. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTH! He already gets coffee in bed every day, and he'd been given his present last weekend so nothing special this morning except an early rise so he could get to the airport by 7.20am to collect his guests. 

Still haven't managed to hem those jeans. They are dress jeans, not blue denim. But even the blue denim ones he likes to have chopped off to the right length. Usually I make him do those.

He drops me off at work on the way ... and the gate is still closed! Uh oh. Ok, so I am a bit earlier than usual but hey! That's no excuse. MOTH drives me round the long way - I can still get to my office, just not through our normal gate. I find out later the gardener doesn't work on Wednesdays so the site manager has to open them. 

Home to meet Eva, Mike Snr, and Mike Jnr. She's nice, Snr is quiet and ... dorky. Jnr is ... well, a 6yo boy. Been a long time since I've had anything to do with one of those. This is going to be interesting. Jnr calls me Aunty. Roast lamb for dinner tonight. MOTH is cooking.

MOTH drives them to Dreamworld the next day. They pay for his way in. Bus home, and I walk in the front door. MOTH tells me they've only just arrived home themselves. His feet and back are killing him but they seemed to have had a good day.

Shopping night. MOTH told me she keeps Jnr well in hand, but not this time. Or is that me and she's just not keeping him as in hand as I might like? He's not mine so I feel I can't take him to task properly about his behaviour, but I do set him to task helping me find things. It keeps him occupied and Eva and Snr tell me it's the first time he seems to be enjoying shopping. *i'm glad someone is!*

Eva and Snr have gone to sit down, Jnr is still with us. We get to the checkout and Jnr is bothering me so I send him to find his parents. I can see them sitting on one of the seats. I'm packing things into the trolley and MOTH says ... Uh oh. I have to make a quick trip home. You what? Home. I have to go home. I've left my wallet at home ... in the bag I asked him if he needed before we left *rolls eyes*. I get to stand at the checkout and wait for him to come back. 

Eva and the boys have something planned for Friday night and we leave straight after I finish work. They have a pass to see Ripley's Believe It or Not. I've gone past, but never visited. I'm excited at the prospect of doing something different, yet at the same time not as I like to come home and crash on Friday night. I fall asleep in the car. It's on Cavill Avenue and MOTH assures me he knows where it is. Turns out he was ... not correct ... and we are a little lost. I sigh and look it up on the phone. Not far enough south. He drops us off and we wait for him to park the car and come back. We're outside some eateries and Eva buys everyone Subway. 

Eva wants to buy souvenirs but we aren't sure where to find a store. We wander a little, the weather is cool but not totally freezing, the clubs are going full bore. We find markets on the beach and spend time wandering along the foreshore looking at stalls. Eventually they tire of this and we head to Ripley's. 

They pay our way in *yay* and off we go. There are some great things to look at but Jnr is very loud. VERY loud. I shush him several times, my patience is wearing very thin. I will add some photos in an update. 

Home for them today. The flight out is 6.30am so we are up at 4.00am. The airport has changed a lot since I was there last! Drop them off with lots of hugs and back home to bed. 

Later, MOTH lays on the floor to watch Robson Green's extreme fishing while I hemmed the jeans. Soon enough, he's snoring. He didn't surface again till nearly 4.00pm. He must have been tired!

Out to dinner tonight. This is what MOTH needed the jeans for. We had booked a table earlier in the week, but some of the old folk read reviews about the place and decided they wanted to change the venue. They chose Thai, but Stan told them he didn't eat Thai and wasn't going. Back to the original choice and see how it goes.

It went really really well. The only complaint from the table was Stan - he had bangers and mash and the skins on the bangers were a bit tough. Dinner was served within 25 mins of placing the order. Everyone who had steak thought it was perfect. Even Wombat *who wanted to change the venue* was raving. Home by 9.30pm. 

He was still in a good mood the next morning when we all met up again. Amazing. 

Jerome spent the day meowing. The. Whole Day. Ok, slight exaggeration. He spent the morning meowing. Constantly. I patted him. I played with him. I feed him and still he called. Eventually he wore himself out and fell asleep on MOTH's couch. Thank heavens!

Another pair of jeans need's mending. Not sure how to do this one as the waistband is falling off. The only thing keeping it on is the belt loop and some safety pins. I can't machine it - that means unpicking the belt loop and trying to sew it back in place. Ummm no, how many layers of denim is that?? I try to back stitch it. Nope, the needle breaks. And it wasn't a tiny embroidery needle either. I find a way and spend a pleasant couple of hours listening to Jerome and hemming jeans. Not!