That's not rain...that is freedom!

It weather outside is shit-house.  Fog, rain & wind.  It isn't nice.

Sorry, pic taken from inside through both the screen & the glass, I'm not going out before I have to. I'm not CRAZY!

But I'm going home so I don't care.  I'm out of here.

It's my informed choice this time, and I feel ready.  Last time I "timed out", they don't like you to stay after 35 days as they stop making money from you and the health funds get difficult, hence my release and re-admission a week later - it re-set the payments.  I wasn't ready, just putting on a brave face in the face of not having a choice, on the wrong meds and not well.

I have a long way to go and a lot of work to do I know but I feel positive and happy about it this time.  My medication is pretty close to right and I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, and I checked, it isn't an oncoming train!

So next time we speak I will be at home.  Thank goodness.

Have a lovely day despite the weather!

Jo xxx

Untouched

Sometimes a picture you expect to have to delete is just too gorgeous.

This is untouched, save my name being added.

Helps you believe there is someone up there doesn't it?

Jo xxx

Sick and tired…

This year got off to a bad start with “the mumps that stole christmas”  as my husband less than affectionately refers to it and then my dislocated shoulder…

… but I thought we were doing well this winter - no illness, not a sniff or a cough.

Until I went to Sydney that is...

…Two weeks on I am still miserable, not sick as such, but still not completely well.

Alternating blocked and runny nose, cough and croaky throat, more annoying than anything.

I have loaded up on the vitamins, drink a heap more water and tried to stay warm...have eaten a LOT of lozenges and throat pastilles, all to no avail. 

At least I can sleep for once, even though it would seem that I have been snoring loudly enough to wake the dead!  Makes a change to being the one listening to the snoring every night…

There is no point going to the doctor, there is nothing they can do, it is after all only a cold.   I am allergic to a lot of anti-biotics so am not keen to take anything unless there is absolutely no alternative!  Hives are even less fun…

So I will carry on with the tissues, my favourite for a cold are Kleenex Eucalyptus…bliss, Butter Menthols, Strepsils and Throaties, various inhalants, saline sprays and copious amounts of various vitamin supplements in the hope that I don’t have to go through a third week of this…

…and that my boys don’t catch it!

It’s getting cold out there…

I love winter as a concept, in reality it kind of sucks.

I hate the wind we tend to get here; it will freeze you to the bone.  I also hate the flu and colds, coughs and snot, you know, the things people share in shopping centres…don’t like dry skin, chapped lips and cold feet…and every year the need to get firewood from the shed seemingly every couple of house shits me to tears! It isn’t that often of course, it tend to be days between trips to the woodpile, and it isn’t usually me that does it, but I hate having to nag…and there’s never enough small bits of wood to get the fire re-started in the morning!

I don’t like the slate floor in the bathroom, so lovely and cool in summer, it is like ice in winter.  Going to the loo in the middle of the night isn’t any fun.

I do love snuggling up in front of the fire, steaming cup of coffee or a nice red in hand, something lovely bubbling away on the stove, listening to the wind and rain outside and knowing I don’t have to go out in it.

That lovely feeling when we are all home and safe while a storm rages outside.

I can actually sleep in winter, electric blanket, flannelette sheets, feather doona and blankets piled on…robes and slippers, bed socks and fluffy ‘jamies.

I love scarves and layers, gloves and boots. 

As I work from home there is no commute, our school run is no more and with the advent of online shopping the groceries are home delivered…so I can mostly choose when I go out.

What do you love, or hate, about winter?