Wedding Weekend #1

Well, yet again I have been slow to post.  But there has been a LOT happening.  Last weekend, we were in Adelaide for the lovely Beth & Andrew's wedding.  It was on Friday 18th, and was unfortunately one of the wettest days in Adelaide for many years.  It just rained & rained!!  Luckily the ceremony was in a church, not outside ... and the bride was amazingly calm about it.  She looked beautiful, the groom looked gorgeous & everyone was happy & had a fantastic time! 

There were over 200 people there, some had come from all over the world ... and it was truly a special day.  After the wedding, they had organised a few events to make our weekend a great one.  There was a BBQ at the groom's parents' house the next day, then we all went into town to a show at the Fringe Festival.  And on Sunday we all hopped on a bus they had booked & went to the Barossa Valley, for much wine tasting & even lunch at Maggie Beer's.

'Twas a great weekend indeed!  In other news, I've been offered & have accepted, a new job.  Yaaay!  I had a second interview on the Wednesday, they offered me the job on Thursday, I flew down to Adelaide that night & rang the next day (before the wedding) to accept.  So, last week I gave notice at my current job, and they were quite understanding about it.  I've really been unhappy & hating my current job & don't like the people, although I didn't tell them that.  The new job is  a fair bit more money (plus I think they also have a bit of paid maternity leave - might be needing that in the next couple of years), and it's an opportunity to be part of some exciting changes happening at that company.  I start on 21st March.

Lucy's Day Out

Lucy went to the groomer yesterday.  She was a big scruff-ball & getting impossible to brush.  Plus it has been so hot, it was definitely time for a haircut & nice lovely shampoo & conditioning session for her.  Before shots.



My husband's foot on the right

So off we went to Ana's house.  Ana is the dog groomer, and she runs her business from home.  She also let Lucy board with her when we were on our honeymoon.  For some reason, we had to drop Lucy off at 9.30am on Saturday (sacre bleu!!), but when we got there she said she wouldn't be doing Lucy until the afternoon and there were all these other dogs there.  So why not give us an appointment time, rather than us having to get her there early and leave her there all day with other dogs??  She is so friendly to people, but does not really play well with other dogs and Ana knows this only too well.  Weirdness.

About 10 seconds after arriving home from dropping her off, I get a call from Ana telling me that Lucy is stuck in her door/gate - it has bars but no screen, and Lucy had stuck her head and shoulders through and got well & truly stuck.  Ana could not her her out - she sent me the following photos she took on her phone of Lucy stuck in the door.

Yes, she is a fool ... but funny.  Ana was quite worried because she was home alone & just could not get Lucy free by herself.  But five mins later I got a text saying Lucy was free.  It was probably quite stressful for Ana, but we had a laugh about it I must say.

So, all ended well.  We picked Lucy up later that day, she was very pleased to see us & we were of course pleased to see her, not only perfectly unscathed, but also clean, neat, fluffy and smelling clean!  This is her now with her new do - look at those fluffy white paws, so cute!  It's been raining so they won't stay that way for long.

She really is the one with the waggedy tail, hence the blur

House of Pain

Our house has truly been a misery-filled house of pain lately.  I am still laid up with this back & neck pain.  Saturday was the worst day - I could hardly move or walk and was just lying around crying in frustration for a while.  And it was soooo hot.  My poor mister was very worried about me.  I returned for another remedial massage on Saturday but was in such a bad way, she just did a short gentle one.  I started to feel better that evening, but was bad again on Sunday.

So, I went to the doctor again yesterday - he told me to cancel the next massage as I am in such a bad state I would not really get the benefit from any treatment like that at the moment.  It's so tight with several different pulse or spasm points and very uncomfortable.  Basically, a mess.  When he recommended the trigger point massage to me, at the time it was only my neck that was sore and had been that way for weeks,  not fresh.  At the moment, with all the rest of my back playing up, this sort of treatment is not advisable.  He has given me muscle relaxants (hello Valium!) and prescription anti-inflammatories, which are stronger than the Voltarin I was taking.  It has helped a bit but not yet enough for my liking.  I am supposed to have acupuncture tomorrow evening - he advised this as a less invasive way to treat it.  So I have not been to work since last Wednesday.  Every day has felt the same really - just a blur of Foxtel cooking shows and lying around helplessly.  At least it is not so hot now!  I would quite like to be a lady of leisure and not have to work ... but not if it means lying around in pain & not doing anything.

Meanwhile, my poor mister developed terrible tooth pain and had to go for emergency dental work yesterday (his pain has subsided overnight, after that).  We've really been in the wars!  Poor little Lucy has been missing out on walks, firstly because it was too hot and then because we've both been in pain. 

But she has been a good girl, looking after me.  The other day I toddled off to bed for a lie down to read my book for a while in the middle of the day.  She followed me into the bedroom & jumped up on the bed with me (this is normally not allowed, but was a special "don't tell Daddy" treat).  Anyway, she started to squirm around as she does and was trying to roll on the pillows - this pissed me off so I said "NO!", she got bored with me and jumped off the bed, and (I thought) toddled off back to the lounge room or outside.  In fact, she had settled under the bed, which I discovered about 10-15 mins later when I went to roll over and kind of cried out in pain.  Immediately, Lucy was up, out from under the bed and jumped up onto it to check on me.  I was so proud of her - what a sweet girl.  Even though she is technically not allowed to jump onto the bed unless she's invited, I thought that was pretty cute.

Somebody call me a Waaahmbulance

This is just a total whingey, woe-is-me post.

I am in pain.  I have had a dodgy neck for a few weeks now, which you may recall me saying was the reason I was not going to the gym.  Well, I have been in various levels of pain & discomfort this whole time.  I was popping Voltarin like it was going out of style whilst on hols down south and I have been ever since. 

I went to the doctor on Monday and, luckily, the doctor I saw has a special interest in musculoskeletal stuff and trigger point therapy.  He briefly did a few trigger point thingies on me and it did help my neck a bit, but the pain seemed to move to my lower back, an area I have had a lot of trouble with, on & off, over the years.  Anyway, he told me I needed to get remedial massage with someone who knows how to do this trigger point therapy.  So I went on Wed night & had it.  It stirred up my lower back & sciatic pain so much I could barely walk out of there & have not been able to go to work yesterday or today due to barely being able to walk or move.  My neck was feeling a bit better though, but this morning when my alarm went off & I went to move across to turn it off (my dear mister is sleeping in the spare room because I'm in pain, to give me room if I need it - AND he brought me home cake tonight. What a wonderful man!), my lower back basically screamed & I couldn't move properly ... so I had to wriggle my way across the bed like a worm.  Somehow, in doing this, I strained my neck all over again & it has been terrible today.  So I've had both sciatic and neck pain today & am really feeling sorry for myself.

Have another appointment for follow up massage tomorrow & am nervous.  Also have to cancel on meeting my mister's cousin for brekkie tomorrow morning, and dinner tomorrow night for his friend's birthday.  I feel very bad but there's not much I can do about it. 

So basically, waaaaah!  I'm feeling very sorry for myself.

Great Ocean Road Adventure

Well, once again I am starting a blog entry with apologies for being so slow!  Really must do better.

So, I have been busy.  On 22nd Jan we flew down to Melbourne and attended my friend Dino's 40th birthday party.  It was fabulous!  The venue was gorgeous - he had it in the function space at the back of a restaurant called Jorg in Fitzroy North.  And the food was delectable; I think the wait staff must have thought we were the biggest pigs as they always made sure to come straight over to our little group.  AND he had a macaron tower as a cake!  I didn't take any photos as the lovely and talented Steve, who really is a brilliant photographer (as well as many other things, see the link to his band Asian Envy in my links), was taking so many.  Here is one he took of me and my wonderful friend Ross (the other half of Asian Envy).  I have copied & pasted it from his Facebook so I hope it turns out big enough.  And so, readers ... you finally see my fringe!  It has grown so much, it's really more sideswept than a "fringe".  Perhaps what the Americans would call "bangs".  You can see how I'd been going "nom nom nom" on the food & drink by the total lack of lippy left on!

Speaking of Americans and young Ross here, he is about to move to New York City in a few weeks.  How bloody exciting!!!

Anyway ... great night had by all at Dino's party and the next day, the mister & I picked up the hire car and headed off to Warrnambool via the Great Ocean Road.  Well, it was a long day of driving but what a beautiful part of the world it is!  We stayed in Warrnambool for 2 nights, at the lovely Sebel - it is a really gorgeous town and I was so pleasantly surprised by it.  We also visited Port Fairy, which is a bit further on.  Strong contender for nicest town I've ever seen - what a fairytale little place!  I was seriously ready to pack up & move there. Here are some piccies from our trip - enjoy.


The amazing pole house - have been dying to see this!



12 Apostles, of course ... or 7, or however many are left.

At Port Fairy

 ... who couldn't handle living by that?  Plus a fantastic cafe with yummy food (well, we only sampled one but there were several) & gorgeous, gorgeous houses right on the river!  Wish I had taken photos of that because it was just picturesque.