a hard days night

I'm back!Finally!!

Chloe's accident was on the Wed night and she wasn't operated on till the Friday night and even then , it was with a lot of pressure from the staff on the ward to the theatre staff,as they knew about the 3 appt's Melbourne on the Monday/Tues. She was allowed home on the Sat afternoon and I brought her to my place so we could leave early on Monday morning.

Travelling in a bubble car when you are 6ft 2 and post op after having 7 screws and a plate in your arm is not recommended. She sat in the back with a beanbag and about 7 pillows, you could pretty much just see her head.

Travelling to a previously unvisited city without GPS or street directory is also not recommended. Chloe and I almost came to blows as I constantly questioned the directions I had written out myself. Imagine her in pain,so talking is white noise and I am pretty much an annoying noise anyway and me constantly asking "how far to the turn off? what does that sign say? are you sure it said 10km?" etc etc

7 hours later we arrive in Melbourne and find the motel after stopping and asking exactly where on this road it is.

I was surprised that between Wodonga on the NSW/Vic border and Seymour on the outskirts of Melbourne ...there is nothing. About 400km of nothing. There are a few highway exits, but they don't seem to lead to much. Tiny farming towns I guess.the landscape doesn't really change either like it does when you go north.

Driving on the roads with the trams wasn't as hairy as I thought it would be, I had tried to plan the trip to avoid them, but ended up in one area right behind them, but they just flow with the traffic and stop at the lights like the cars.I still wouldn't drive with them right in the middle of the city though.

We called in at the Simpson Barracks on the way through, to drop Danny a bag of clothes and the all important xbox. I was allowed on base and given an ID tag to wear. I left the bag for him to pick up ,as he was still at work. Poor Chloe had to wait at the gate as the police still had her licence,so no photo ID.

We caught a train and a tram into the city for an appointment at 5pm then met Danny at Central railway, had some dinner, left Danny to meet his friend for a lift back and headed back to the motel. I was disappointed,other than food places all the shops were shut at 5pm.

I didn't do any better with directions the next morning, we ended up late for the first appt as we first went to the Monash University, then the Monash Medical Centre,only to find it was in the middle of the hospital.They rang ahead to the next Dr as we were going to be an hour late for that one. Got there finally, then had to find a medicare to get a refund from all the Dr's fees,so that meant following more written directions. Found it ok, but I got lost in the huge shopping center, finally found Chloe when I found medicare. By this time I was buggered, tired and cranky, and I overheard Chloe talking to Jessie on the phone and telling her I wouldn't stop whinging. BAH!! I saw red and lost it. "I'm nearly 50, I'm crook myself blah blah blah"

Chloe and I are the same under stress, she gets it from me, but once we both had our say and cooled down it was business as usual.And I did stress and whinge.

We didn't end up leaving Melbourne City until 5pm.I got lost about 3 times, ended up on the West gate bridge in the wrong direction,so I came back over the bridge, this is peak hour traffic..sigh... pulled into the first garage, walked up to a truckie and asked how to get to the Hume in the Sydney direction.


He said if you can keep up with me,I'm going that way. Keep up I did and once on the freeway it's basically straight ahead all the way home.The last 10km on our bush road from the Jugiong exit was like driving drunk though and I was thankful when I pulled up in the driveway about midnight.

So Yup, I've been to Melbourne, but I didn't really see anything, and there does look like there's a lot to see. So I will have to go back, this time with a GPS! or maybe I will just catch a train.

I have Danny coming home for a few days leave next weekend,looking forward to that, though he will probably be out with friends for most of it,still, t'will be nice to have him back in the house.

Wedding is only 3 months away,something is wrong with our postal system, some of the invites have not arrived,only to resend 2 weeks later and have both arrive the same day...sigh. I still have to chase up help with the catering on the day and a vintage car, decor for the hall and I think we are organised.

Well that's me caught up.

Will try and catch up on everyone's blogs this week and see what you've all been up to.

cheers all

Could have been much much worse

It's been a whirlwind few days.
We got THAT call. "Dad I've been in an accident..........Me and Jess came off the bike". My head, I'm ready to explode at this point, as hubby' face gets all worried and he is listening on the phone.

Chloe was slowing down for change of speed sign as she does, the same time and place everyday.,the weather was bad with sleet, as she tapped the brake lightly as usual ,next thing they are on the ground.

Chloe has broken both bones in her forearm that needed pinning and plating and Jess has a pretty bunged up knee,not broken but oh so painful.

This happened Wed night and Chloe was finally operated on,last night..Friday night,it would have been some time over the weekend,stuck on morphine until surgery, but she has those 3 appointments in Melbourne ,she has been waiting for for months,so the staff were great ,understood the importance and just kept hassling theatre ,trying to get her done last night. The call didn't come through until 7.30pm . This means she will get home tomorrow and we can still go for the appts.Won't be a comfy trip, but she will get there by hell or high water!!!

So I've been down in Canberra at Chloe and Jess's flat with only the clothes I am wearing.....I forgot my bag,left it in the hallway.. I bought new undies and borrowed t shirts.Jess is at her mums for mothering until her knee is better and she sleeps better,so it's me and the cats.



The bike in the pic above will be sold, they are getting licenses to drive cars. Chloe won't risk Jess on the back anymore and the fun suddenly went out of it. In the meantime they walk and bus it everywhere.It will get them fit in a hurry,so they are not terribly upset, but at the moment its freezing.


Thank the deity/s that they are ok. If a little nerve damage and a numb back of the thumb is the sum total of damage,it is amazing. Very rare to come out of a motorbike accident in relatively one piece.
I count my blessings.

RemembeRED - TVSHOW

link

Television, I grew up with this medium,it was wonderful. I learned to have an imagination from telelvision. Who new there were witches like Samantha,families that came together to form one huge family,who had a housekeeper even though the mum didn't appear to work? Or you could study hard and go into space as an astronaut, maybe even find a genie .Cavemen lived like us only in a cave,and they were funnier.







Gilligan's Island, I watch reruns every now and then.Still silly,still funny.I use B/W pics as we didn't have colour till about 1974.



The sound of the opening music to Bewitched brings back memories of childhood. It was on at 6ish ,around the time we were getting tea ready and I always think of peeling potatoes and a pang of homesickness when I hear it. Dad used to get home around this time and it didn't matter if us kids were in the middle of watching it, the news was on and so the channel was changed.

GOOO RINNIEEEEEE. I was a very small child when this was on but I loved it. Hubby did too, so we have bought the entire series.Each episode is like a mini movie.

I loved dogs when I was a child, we didn't have one till I was 11,so TV dogs were mine .Here is another one I loved,mum and I watched this one together.this dog was sooo good at helping people.

Every morning before school when I was about 8 H.E Todd would read his own stories about Bobby Breswter.

His stories were great , my imagination went wild, Bobby would have inanimate objects talk to him and get him into all sorts of strife, I remember were a story about a goldfish who used to give answers to maths questions through bubbles and another about a ball that could find lost items. It took about half an hour to walk to school and it ended at 8.30 so I was very often late for school or running as the bell rang.If I didn't have my hair done in the ponytail and find both my shoes before it started ,I'd have to have a late note from mum.

I also loved the family shows, Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons, even now if there was a reunion show I would watch it .

A not so family show came on in Australia in the mid 70's ,titled Number 96, it was to us kids the "rudey" show. rudey and nudie. It was on at 8.30 at night after all good kids should be in bed....apparently, but my sister and I would sneak into the hallway and peek through the sliding door to see if we could get a glimpse of...well ...anything.

Saturday mornings were great. Cartoons.Unless I got up too early and had to sit through "thunderbirds are go" urgh, that was so boring to me that show.

I loved the Fat Albert,beatles cartoon, The Jackson 5, Wacky races, Batfink, and Doreamo a weird Japanese anime about a giant cat robot that a professors son tried to use to his advantage but things always went wrong... a bit like Bobby Brewster really.

who could forget this :My wings are like a shield of steel!!!

or this : I will use my super sonic sonar radar!!!

And then there was the Muppets ,just to show us it doesn't matter what you look like there is true love for you, talent overcomes looks, old codgers have a soft side and there is no language barrier if you can cook. I loved this show and would love to see reruns. It was always fun to see the celebrities on this show too.For a great remembeRED about the muppets have a look at Kisartle's blog. I really enjoyed it and gave me an idea for this blog.

There's always a lot of talk about Television damaging young minds, maybe some of it can, today. A lot of the content isn't as lighthearted as when I was young. Shows like Underbelly and all the Law and Order & CSI shows that highlight the evil in people rather than the good. There were cop shows on when I was young,like division 4,Homicide,Columbo and Quincy M.E, but the empahasis was more on the bad persons being caught rather than the defence getting them off.

I think if yo let your kids watch the lighthearted stuff, cartoons,family shows, fantasy shows that help them use their imagination, I think they learn to stretch their minds a little and think outside their own square.