LIFE IS TOO BUSY

NO SPARE TIME

Hi all, yes I am still alive.   I feel quite sad that I haven’t been able to even look at my Blog for the last 6 or so months.  Life is just way too busy.  I never seem to have any spare time.   It is not an excuse, not a lacking of not being interested, just honestly no spare time to keep up with everything.   I am finding it very hard to keep things in general tidy around the house and the garden, my collections of things are getting out of hand and I need to tidy up.  As I don’t work in an office job any more and are mostly house painting with overalls on now as a job I need to have a clean out in my wardrobe also.  I probably will not be wearing any of my nice office clothes anymore and need to take them to the Op Shop.  Trouble is, I still like them all. 😦    I am trying very hard to stop buying stuff at the 2nd hand shops that I don’t need and I have started to get rid of some things.  At least they are going to be given to needy people and the charities like the Hospice Shop etc will get the money from them.  That makes me feel better.

I was volunteering at The Hospice on Sunday, it is a very rewarding thing to do, I have been a volunteer for around 11 years now.  I changed from the Kitchen work there to the cleaning side of things. I like this more as I vacuum all of the Hospice main corridors and clean the patients rooms and bathrooms.  This is the best bit, chatting to the patients that enjoy the company. 

Recently we had my Sister Brenda over from Brisbane, Australia for her 50th Birthday, she was here for a week in Dunedin.  Her Daughter Gina came down from the North Island to spend time with her and Andrew, her Son lives here in Dunedin.  It was a lot of fun seeing her and spending time with her, I hadn’t seen her for around 3 years.  I put on a surprise tea/dinner for her with around 12 friends and family.  She loved it and so did everyone else seeing her.  It is the only time I have seen Brenda lost for words. ha ha

Colin has officially been given the all clear from his Oncologist last week. He is now in remission from his Leukemia.  All of his appointments and blood tests have been good with no signs of cancer.  He is now signed off.   All he needs now is to fix his back and legs.  He has nerve damage in his lower back which is pinching on nerves in his legs also.  This has been going on for a long time and is affecting his walking and his back is really sore.  He has been to a Nerve Specialist who has determined it is that.  He is again waiting for a MRI and another Scan, geez I hope the appointments don’t take forever as he is getting worse.   They don’t know if the nerve damage is from all of the chemo he has had.  Once that is sorted, he will be fit as a fiddle.  He may need a small back operation.  He is only 53 so still young, it will be good to see him again not struggling..

I have been running with my Harriers Athletics Club for the first year this Season.  I changed over from  7 or so years of Walking with my Club.  My Brother Steven joined my Club recently.  We often go out for little runs together, mostly running on tracks in the bush.   We went for a 15 km hard hilly run on Sunday 30 mins south of Dunedin.  It was very hot, it took us just over 2 hours due to all of  the hills.  We aren’t speedsters either, but determined. Steven is faster than me though.  We have both improved in the last 6 months and have run in lots of events, including a half marathon 3 weeks ago.  We also have another Half Marathon in 2 weeks time, so Sundays run was great practice.  This one coming up is on sand, paddocks, mud, gravel and road, it will be a grunty one as there is lots of hills too.  I do get sore knees running down hills and a few hamstring problems but I figured I won’t be silly and will just run to my ability and when I am able and will continue while not too old.  I can revert back to walking anytime and still love walking anyway.  This year with our Athletics Club and running events it is just so busy.  I am enjoying it though.

Better go and get dressed.   Ta ta for now.
Donna T x

 

BIRTHDAY TIME

WINTERY DUNEDIN

I write this blog post with a bit of guilt as I haven’t had the time to get on here for so so long.  I don’t know where the days, nights and weekends go.

So much as happened over the last couple of months, good and bad.

It certainly is not from a lack of not wanting to write on my blog, I just have not had a spare moment to do so. 

First things first, it is our Daughter’s Birthday today, she has just scooted off to her work for the night, she also worked this morning. It is a shame that she couldn’t have at least got the night off her job, but her work said ‘no more leave in May’ available when she thought about putting in for it. 😦   

I volunteered at The Hospice this morning, my regular Sunday shift for the month, I thought I might as well work as the young 23 year old was working too.  Colin and I gave her her pressies at 1pm today.  Lots of bits and pieces, new and second hand vintage pieces.  And some nice warm sheets and PJ’s as the days are so cold now, coming in to winter.  Snow has hit the South Island over the weekend.  It hasn’t settled here yet but you can feel it in the air.  It was  only 5 degrees yesterday.  

Back to the birthday girl, the main pressie was a vintage Cake Mixer, a Kenwood one.  I managed to buy one on an auction a few weeks ago and had it freighted to my work in Dunedin so we could hide it.  The young lass still lives at home 🙂 and uses my Kenwood mixer all the time and has always wanted one.  It also has an extra piece on it – a blender, and also the original handbook.  Her one has baby blue on it, being one of her favourite pastel vintagey colours.   Is vintagey actually a word?

Anyway, she was chuffed and so surprised.   I am so pleased as it arrived very dirty, with years of cake crumbs and gunk everywhere. It took me around 3 hours to clean up.  The old Kenwood brand heavy mixers are so much better than the new type.  They still go for a good price, we paid $200 for it which was a great deal.   I am sure she will put it away back in the cardboard box and keep it for when she gets her own place one day.

When she arrives home from work today, we have one last surprise for her, a nice Gluten Free Chocolate Gateaux for her that we had made by a local bakery.    

The flowers below are a small bunch that I managed to find in our garden to take to the cemetary for Mum for Mothers Day last weekend.  I am sure she liked them.  I got a nice green vintage glass bud vase and a cute pink rose for my Mother’s Day present off our young girl. She also took me out to a cafe for a coffee in between her split shift.   I was spoilt.  Incase you are wondering I am not allowed to give her name on my blog as it is a unique name that we made up when she was born.  I understand that and promised to respect her privacy.  

Colin has been doing well in remission.  He now gets checked and has an appointment by his Oncologist every 6 months (rather than 3 monthly). He still has blood tests every 3 months.  He does often feel tired, but manages to hold down a busy job working in the cold.  He never moans, but I know he gets sore legs and back.. it is suspected his sore legs are nerve damage from all of the chemotherapy.  He likes working and takes things in his stride.  

My health has been semi-ok lately, I have been having problems again with my iron and also low white blood cells.  The Doctors don’t seem to know why they are low all of the time now and don’t seem to want to do much about it, just to monitor me.   I know the low iron and vitamins are from having Coeliac Disease, but it does worry me about the low white cells.  I can’t afford to get sick or an infection or anything as I have been classed as neutopenic.  That is what Colin was like when he was fighting the luekiemia.  That will explain why even small cuts don’t heal.   I also have been having a few bowel issues.  I hate it and it does get me down a bit, I lose a bit of confidence, but then try to remember that we have both been given another chance at life, and that there are way worse people off than us.  

Apart from that I am in a happy place with my running and walking. I have been seeing a lot more of my Brother.  🙂   He has joined my Harriers Athletics Club.  We have done lots of running together in and out of club when time allows.  He is a way better runner than me, I am a slow plodder.  A photo of Steven is below in one of our Club races, he was on a roll and over taking the girls. 🙂

 My bowel problems are always a worry, not so much with Walking but when I run. I will NOT let it stop me from trying to do things.  I am slowly getting a little faster, beating my own time on the same distance.  I am still a walker in my club but also like running too and have only picked it up a year or so ago. I try to go running on a Monday night after work, it is always fun going with others, they are mostly from my Club but a few extras.  We normally do around 10kms, I am always at the back of the pack, but it doesn’t matter.  They are a great crowd and it pushes me more. 

Below is an event my friend Vanessa (in yellow) and I run in.  It was such an awful day, cold and wet, but we did it, we completed 10kms 🙂 

Oh well, I better sign off, I think I have written a book. ha ha.

Hi to my Sister Brenda in Australia and also to my Niece Gina in the North Island.  xxx 

One of our dogs, Chevy and Turbo looking from inside out.  The dogs do not like the winter either.

I won’t leave the next post so long next time.  If you have winter at the moment as well as us Kiwi’s in New Zealand, then keep warm. 

Donna x

VOLUNTEERING

HOSPICE VOLUNTEERING

Today has been a nice day, yay, the sun did come back.  We have had some dreary old days and not much of a Summer.  I am not looking forward to Winter at all.  The mornings and nights are certainly getting darker. 😦  The sun does makes everyone feel better.  I did the Park Run at 8am this morning at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens,  it is only 5kms, but very hard with some hills on the 2nd half.  To me, they feel like Mount Everest, especially when running.   Today I walked the Park Run, it seemed harder than actually running the Event. Yesterday after work I was a good girl, I actually went for a jog/walk when I finished at 5pm.  I tripped over some toi tois (NZ native plants I think) and rolled down a small grassy bank.  Unfortunately the toi tois are like cuttey grass, they have cut all of my arms and legs.  They still sting like anything.  I hurt my dodgy knee again too. 

I sucked up the soreness and blood and soldiered on jogging back to my car.  🙂 I thought today I had better take it easy. I enjoyed the walk this morning though and felt good for doing something physical.

Yesterday at work a few of my work mates and I dressed up in Green for St Patrick’s Day.  It was nice to have a fun day at work as we have been so busy, one of the girls is away on Annual Leave seeing Adele in Australia so we have been under the pump with all of the work load.  I also have been teaching a new lady in the office the basics of the job all week…that is tiring.  I didn’t even get much training myself in the job when I started 7 months ago, it was around3 days overall I think.  It was so busy then I was thrown in the deep end.  I guess it is a bit of a complement really that the Management think that I can teach her rather than one of the other girls that has been there a long time.   I don’t really like teaching people though , not for this long, especially when we are a staff member day as well. It has been pretty stressful.  

This weekend is a long one as Monday is ‘Otago Anniversary Day’.  That makes me happy, an extra day off work and maybe it will even be a little lie in, until 9am ish.  That would be nice.

After the Park Run this morning I had a coffee and chat with my Walking friend at a local healthy Cafe.  It was a good catch up with him.  

Tomorrow I am up early again, but this time to help out at the Hospice, I am on cleaning duties.  I like doing this even more than being in the Kitchen working as it means I spend even more time with the patients in their rooms cleaning and chatting to those that can talk.  They seem to like having a little bit of company after their Breakfast.

Two weekends ago I had a Birthday, my big 50!!   I didn’t do anything special really(my choice).  I decided to not even go out for tea/dinner.  I had had a few busy weekends and the day before my Birthday on the Sunday I competed in an out of town event down South.  It was a 2 hour drive to get there.  

My Brother Steven went and a girl from Harriers.  We went in Steven’s car.  He has never done an off road/race event like this before.  He ran it and did really well.  It was 15.5 kms, with a BIG hill to run up, we ran/walked on the beach for 5 kms, that was hard. Then up through tracks, in through Farmer’s paddocks with long grass with big ruts, then on to gravel roads, straight up.  Then down, down, down.  This was my third time doing it, walking.   I did a PB, knocking 4 mins off my time.  I came over the finish line 4th Female Walker and 12th overall out of heaps of Walkers.  I was pretty happy.  It was nice to have a laugh with Steven and Julie too, feeding our faces messily in the car with birthday cake.  It was Gluten Free so was falling to bits due to the lack of gluten.  Steven’s Daughter, my Niece, Isabella made it.  She is only 10.   We had cream cheese icing everywhere too.  🙂  It was so tasty.

The photo below is of the Walkers at the start, I was rearing to go, the weather was nasty, rain, wind, awful, but the event was awesome. Superb views.

Me at the finish, I look like I am going to whip a horse or something…I wonder what I was doing??

Photo of my Brother below, he was almost at the finish line. I am not so sure what the guy behind him is laughing out.  Maybe something written on his back? ha ha

Julie ran the event for the first time as she normally walks it but has started running last season. She ran really well, she has guts and determination and was 2nd female Runner to cross the line.  She even surprised herself.  She is amazing.

The next day on my birthday, I was just happy to stay home. 🙂  I got a nice piece of pink depression glass from my Daughter.  It is a huge plate, beautiful.  She even gave me chocolate and made me a yummy Gluten Free chocolate cake. Colin gave me a new cell phone.  My one was a bit old fashioned, I wanted one with a decent camera on it.  I have one now :), I just have to work out how to use it.  

My Sister Brenda sent me a lovely orchid plant and also a helium balloon.  I was so so chuffed, it would have cost her a fortune arranging it from Australia.  And I have never ever had one of those balloons.  And it is still inflated and only going down a little bit.  Spoilt rotten. 

I am not one to make a commotion or have a big party, me being me, I was happy to hang around home and just do my knitting or something. …I guess I must be getting old. ha ha.  Have a good Sunday …Donna

A special hello to Bren in Brisbane.  I miss you Sissy. xxx

 

 

PRESENTS THAT MEAN MORE THAN MONEY

CHRISTMAS PICNIC /  BBQ

Today we had our Car Club’s Christmas Party just out of Dunedin.  We have been in the Volkwagen Club for quite a few years now.  It was nice to catch up with everyone, especially my young mate (one of the member’s Sons).  He is my favourite and it seems I am his = 🙂

We were a little late arriving as I volunteered at The Hospice this morning, Colin picked me up afterwards in my Karman Ghia.

Lunch was nice, I made three salads last night so I could eat something Gluten Free.  It is hard having Coeliac Disease when there is an event on especially if it is a shared meal.

My special friend had me colouring in with him, playing cards then having a go on the swings.  I like that saying ‘ you are never too old’.

I made my friend ‘K’ a ‘noughts and crosses’ game yesterday, also his Cousin one as well as I knew she would be attending today.  I collected some flat stones, painted them last night, then sealed them so the paint won’t come off. The hessian I purchased yesterday morning was cheap, I sewed it into bags to put the stones in.  I used a permanent fabric marker pen late last night to draw the lines on the outside of the bags.   Then tied them up with a draw string. The two of them loved the gift.  I also made ‘K’s’ card.  It just goes to show that you can give gifts that don’t cost much at all, and they mean more to people if handmade.

Earlier in the week a gift my Daughter gave to someone she looks after was a bunch of flowers I did up quickly for her out of our garden.  Flowers always makes peoples day.   Our Daughter is a caring girl, she suits her job caring for people that need assistance.

I am not feeling Christmasy at all again this year. I am very unorganized and since working full time with my new job of 4 months I don’t seem to have much spare time for bigger projects or to do too much extra things as I get home late each night.  I am very grateful and happy that I have a job now that I like, feel worthwhile and work with nice people.

 We haven’t go anything planned to do on Christmas Day 😦    I feel a bit sad with having no family around at all anymore.  I will try to get in the Christmas spirit a little bit this week. 🙂

I hope you like the photos of my crafty project yesterday and my car, taken today..I love it.   Also a photo of our Beetle with the roof off in Nelson at Easter time.

Have a good week.

Donna

 

NAUGHTY DOGGY

NAUGHTY DOGGY OR  TWO DOGGIES

I spent last weekend transferring some plants into a new garden by our clothes line.  Finally I completed something that I have wanted to do all winter.  I thought summer is coming therefore I better hurry up and break up some Astelia plants I wanted to move.

We decided to make a small patch of lawn near the clothes line into a low maintenance garden with low plants and ground covers.  The bit of lawn is a pain to mow with the hand mower.  Most of our lawns gets done on our ride-on mower, it takes an hour to do.  Then the small patch takes an extra 30 mins.  Well, no longer as I had the plan to convert it, to save us time and to look better.

I came home from work tonight after a busy week at work = yawwwwn and find that half of them have been pulled out and chewed and played with 😦   Just as well Chevy and Bailey are cute.  

Blimmin dogs, I was angry for a while until they sucked up to me being all cute.  Buggar, I have more work to do again, replanting.  I wonder when they will out grow the puppy stage.  

We saw our Niece, Gina last weekend, she came down from the North Island where she has been living for a couple of years now.  It was nice to spend a couple of hours with her.  

Tomorrow I have my small 5 km run that I do most Saturday mornings at 8am, then meet up with my Harrier’s friends at 1pm for a walk.  Then Sunday I am volunteering at The Hospice.  No lie in for me this weekend on my days off. Maybe next weekend I can.  

I like this poem below:

The Naughty Little Puppy
She's lucky she is cute!
All day long she's chewing things.
I've yelled so much I'm mute, 
still she's chasing kids on bikes.
She's lucky she is cute!

She chewed my favorite boot 
The first night on Christmas eve.
She even pooped on route
To our home that fateful night. 
She's lucky she is cute!

My daughter's in cahoot
With this naughty little dog.
They yell and bark and hoot.
She feeds her from the table!
They're lucky they are cute!

The leash works to recruit
The children to her side, but
Her training's in dispute.
Surely guidance is required.
She's lucky she is cute!

Oh that naughty little puppy...
She's lucky she is cute!