Ok, may I start this month with a big “thank you” to all of those of you who wrote back to me last month, with advice, tips and your own experience in dealing with high cholesterol. It was heartening, useful, and somewhat gobsmacking to find out how prevalent this is. (However, the person who wrote back offering to buy me 14 lbs of Stilton for my next birthday can go fuck themselves.)
Oh, and never ask a farmer, no matter how good a mate he is, for dietary advice. “What’s wrong with a good steak?” wasn’t really what I was after in terms of advice Aidan.
My cheese free diet, and ultra low fat eating of the last month, can be summed up thus; “Shite.” It’s boring, boring as all buggery. But there you go. I did come close to eating fish on one night, but chickened out before I could be dragged to the supermarket to buy some. I got the “sick in mouth” effect from just thinking about it.
On the plus side I’ve lost 3 kilos. On the down side, I didn’t want to lose weight in the first place. At 6″1′ and 89 kilos, (14 stone exactly) I’m not happy, specially not with the way it’s distributed. However, as cheese was 90% of my protein intake I’m not finding it easy to keep the muscle on. On the plus side my bowels are working wonderfully.
Scrutinising each bloody purchase at the supermarket for fat content is undoubtedly interesting at first, but the glamour soon wears thin. I get blood checked again next month, if there’s no improvement I’m going to get the prescribed drugs, and go back to living on nothing but cheese.
Remember the tale from last month on Mary’s magpie? After five weeks of treatment it was cleared by the vet as well enough to survive , and she was allowed to take it home. She released it in the garden. It flew off, and hasn’t been seen since. The ungrateful bastard.
While we’re on the subject of vets, Barney still has a very severe limp.
I’ve taken to singing in the style of Roy Rodgers, except more tunelessly;
“A three legged dog,
a three legged dog,
he’ll never let you down…”
whenever he’s hopping about the house. But then Bethy starts hitting me, so I stop. He’s had three visits to the vets, and two sets of X-rays done ($$$). He’s been seen by Rob, our fave vet, whose diagnosis so far has been;“I’m fucked if I can see what’s wrong with him.” So next week he’s seeing the orthopedic surgeon specialist ($$$$$)
Bethy came home from school the other day and told us; “I was called out in front of the school assembly today. The principal gave me the “Principal’s Award Certificate” for the Semester”. Apparently each term the principal picks out one student who has achieved something of note, or done something of merit, and they get given a certificate of recognition. “Well done kid, what were you given it for?” I asked. “I haven’t a clue, “ replied Bethy. Ok, well she must have done something right!
Bethy’s also been invited to be on the school council, as a student representative to the school governing body. You well may be, as we have been, wondering where she gets this balanced, intelligent, involved, personality from. Certainly not me, but probably not her mother, or her father. She must be doing it as a way to rebel against us and our slovenly useless git natures. Long may she continue to do so.
Me and Lee-Anne took a drive out to Araluen the other day. It’s a small hamlet nestled in a steep wooded valley. There’s an old, (old in Aussie terms,) Catholic graveyard there. (This is an exciting to visit by local standards.) It was a lovely drive out, the place itself was wonderfully secluded, very beautiful, and the morning mists added a great ambiance to my photos. We ended up, yet again, thinking we would move there to live some time. Mind you we think that about every place we stay at outside of Canberra. I wonder why? We didn’t find any mushrooms there, which was the point of our visit, but it was a nice day out in any case.
On the way back I got a speeding ticket (for 89 in a 80 kmph zone.) One demerit point, and a $155 fine, oh arse! Lee-Anne didn’t give me any grief over this as it was off the same camera she’d driven though at Xmas, on our way back from the coast. At 105 kmph.
Just so you’re aware, and forewarned. The plan is still for us to move back to the UK in a few years time. When Bethy is old enough to go to Uni, she can choose to study in Aus (she’ll have a her father here for support) , or she can come over to the UK to do it. She’s still keen on Oxford (Magdalen College,) and we’re certainly doing nothing to discourage her.
Back in the UK , we’ve had a change of tenants in our house in Cornwall. During the empty period, (3 months,) our house managment people got the place redecorated for me. Which of course means another couple of grand in bills, sod of a thing paying to keep a house decorated, when your not living in it. Mind you, we don’t decorate this one, and we are living in it.
Having said that, I did go and see Matt, our goth accountant, the other day. The price and pain of listening to him wittering on about money, savings, ISA’s, and that sort of shit, (and boy could he witter for Aus or what!) plus a bill for $240, wasn’t that great. Not compared to the seven grand tax rebate he got us.
🙂
Pete Gillings is planning on coming over here to get married, in August. His trip sounds like huge fun, even if he’s going to spoil it by getting wed. The time frame gives us a few months to fumigate the house, hack down the garden jungle, and generally do the place up so it’s fit for human habitation. It’s a great joy to be having someone over again, and we cannot wait to see him and his intended. Some of you buggers are well overdue a trip out here, how many times have I been back to see you now?
My “Citizenship Test” is on the 14 th. of the month, wish me luck! I informed me Mam about this (for the second time, she’s getting a bit forgetful in her dotage,) her reply? “Does that mean you won’t be Welsh anymore boy?” I thought about trying to explain how I would have dual citizenship, and that I wasn’t actually Welsh by citizenship, but British, but gave it up as a poor job. So I told her I’d be a “Waussie” or “Welsh Australian” instead, I think she likes that idea; “My Alan’s a Waussie you know, he’s got two passports!”
It seems a life time ago that I was living at Howard and Janet’s place in Sennen, (may they be forever blessed for their kindness,) when my original Aussie permanent visa came through. But it was only March the 3 rd 2004!
One of our team’s clients, phoned up his mother the other day and said; “I’m going to drown myself in the lake!” His mother panicked, as you would with a severely schizophrenic son, and phoned the cops. The cops drove with full “sound’s and lights” going to his last known whereabouts. They sighted him, and approached cautiously. Seeing them coming, he took up his courage and threw himself into the lake.
All the way up to his knees he went.
Apparently the cops were more wet with tears of laughter than from the “rescue.”
Talking of lunatics…
I’m a big fan of John Otway, “Rock n Roll’s greatest microstar. I keep up to date by following his exploits on his website.
For those of you who do not know of him read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Otway
John’s got a new book out, so I ordered a copy online, and a copy of his old autobiography, (my copy is still in Nicol’s attic). If you order online, John signs them for you! My first book arrived this week, and, not only was it signed, but John had put a short letter to me in it. I’m having it framed!! Thanks John!!
Go here to order your copy of his books, you won’t regret it, they are hystrically funny!
I’m getting his DVD next 🙂
After months of trying, we finally got to see the “Masterpieces from Paris.”
Our first two attempts, despite turning up at reasonable times, (once an hour before the gallery opened,) were met with entry queues of between 3 and 4 1/2 hours length! Yesterday we strolled to the entry, even though it was 3.35 pm on a Friday, we expected a good hour or more wait to get in. We went to get our tickets changed, as they were bought for a day a month previous, (the gallery were honouring all tickets bought in good faith, due to the massive demand for viewing.) “Oh,” said the girl at the desk, “the 3.30 pm entry allocation people have just gone in, you can follow them if you like!”
So we strolled in with no problem at all.
It was fantastic! Standing within touching distance of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” brought tears to my eyes. The works of art there by Gaugin, Cezanne and the post impressionists really made you feel in the presence of great beauty. Some were almost as good as my photographs. I just loved the pointillists, they were working in pixels, before pixel were invented. (I really must get a patch for photoshop which give a “pointillism” effect.)
I wanted to steal the lot of them, but resisted. The posters in the shop afterward just didn’t cut it.
The mother-in-law is just back from the “Perth Masters Games,” where she’s been competing in the throwing events. 4 slivers and a gold she won!
That’s all from me my friends, please keep in touch.
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