Look at this Gem I found Yesterday...

Hi Readers,

Two posts in a day, surely a massive record!!

I can remember when I would get excited about two posts in a week!!

For a while I have been banging my head trying to figure out how to get videos to play on my blog, and I think that tonight I nailed it.

So, yesterday I discovered this little gem that I made with one of our sons, Lachie, about 7 years ago.

As he is now 19 I'd imagine he'd rather not see it for many years to come!

The history behind it is that we had bought tickets to a motorbike thrillseeking show called 'Crusty Demons', and they were coming to Bendigo.
It was one of those shows where they jump over cars, through fire, over tall buildings and through the eye of a needle. You get my drift?

 However, with only a few weeks to go before the show was to happen, it got cancelled.

So, Lachie and I put our heads together and created our own show and named it 'Crusty Kerrins'.

We hope you enjoy it!!

As always,

Until my next post...

Cheers!!

Today it rained, then rained again...and again!!

Hi Readers,

Well, if you are one of my overseas readers you must be wondering why I'm so excited about a bit of rain?

We have just finished Summer here a few weeks ago, but the Summer weather hasn't stopped. We have consistently had weather in the high 20's and mid 30's for the past three and a bit weeks. It just feels like Summer is not going to leave us!

One thing we really love about Bendigo is the absolutely beautiful weather we get in Autumn, but we aren't getting it yet, unless you love really hot weather.

For the past two days we have had predictions of lots of rain. Yesterday didn't really deliver much where we live, and for most of today it has really been threatening, but not delivering.

Until late this afternoon.

The distant rumbling and occasional drops on the roof turned into a full scale downpour that lasted nearly 20 minutes. I know some who are reading this will be saying "So what?", but for us it is a bit of a novelty after a long hot Summer. I am aware that there was a bit of rain in January, but we were away overseas and missed it all, and as we only had two rainy days while we were away, it feels like we haven't seen rain for months and months.

So that explains why today excited me somewhat.

And it wasn't just nice, pleasant rain, it was a massive downpour, followed by sunlight for a while, then another downpour. This went on for a few hours and was just great to watch as I am home on the couch each afternoon due to not being back at full time work after my recent illness.

I hope this short video works, if not...SORRY!!!!

  

In this one you will hopefully see the hundreds of what I thought were moths after each downpour.

As it turns out, they are termites! Luckily we have had the house treated and have it checked every month with new baits.

This morning it was dry and dusty, this afternoon under water.

With the amount of water coming through the gap, it looks like I'd better get up this weekend and clean the spouts.

That little spout in the centre of the picture is our overflow from the tanks. 

Looks like they are well and truly full!

A close up of the overflow outlet from the tanks. This is the first time I've ever seen it spurt up like this.

When one lives in an environment such as Australia it is easy to get excited by such downpours as they are not overly common here.

I remember when I went to the UK this time last year and I was at a school in the southeast of England when a massive storm hit. All of the people at the school couldn't care less about it, whereas I was fascinated, due to the fact that in our part of Australia we hadn't seen decent rain for months.
I think they were amazed that I was so amazed at the rain!!

Also, at the time Bendigo was in the middle of a very long stretch of disturbingly hot weather that just wouldn't abate, and here I was enjoying the lovely cold weather in Europe!!

Well Readers, you can tell I'm running short on the creative juices if I'm using an entire post to talk about the weather!!

But as it was a somewhat rare occurrence for us, I consider it sort of newsworthy!!

Hang in there though, I'm sure there might be something interesting just around the corner.

I'm off on Thursday to see the doctor in Melbourne who put me on the medication that made me so sick of late. It will be really good to get some answers from her, and I don't hold any bad feelings towards her as she told my doctor she has only had 3 cases like this in 20 years, which isn't really a bad strike rate. She did everything that she thought was good and proper, which is what we all try and do in our jobs.
Sometimes it works, others it doesn't, and I'm totally sure she put me on this medication with my very best interests at heart.

By the way, has anyone noticed the new style of the Blog? Some new themes were issued today so I thought a bit of a facelift was in order.

What do you think?

Well Readers, that's the end of this weather report,

So...

Until my next post...

Cheers!!

Back to Work...Sort of !

Hi Readers,

Two posts in a week, a record!

And a huge callout to one of my faithful readers for some great feedback...Thanks CG!!

Well, after three weeks at home doing an enforced diddly squat, I have now been given the all clear to go back to work, sort of.
My doctor would not hear anything about going back full time, and has said only half days for the next two weeks, as I'm generally at my best in the mornings. We have two weeks holidays after that, so I'm sure that my tanks (and liver!) should be fully recharged by then.

It's amazing how the mind works. For three weeks I have not thought much about school at all, even though I have been tapping away with some of my roles from home.

Since knowing that I am back on the job tomorrow (sort of!) my mind has been racing. 

I was awake for hours last night with things running through my head and trying to prioritise them so that they get done in some sort of an orderly fashion. I think that what was worrying me most is that there are so many things to do, but I'll only have half a day to attack them.

So I've gone from not thinking about work, to being kept awake about it at night!!

Then there will also be the mountain of work that has piled up that I don't know about yet!

Still, no point in worrying about it, as that won't help. Things will get done in time, I just need to be sensible.

I love to collect motivational quotes, and after just looking through them, these three jumped out at me. Actually, just about all of them did, but these ones resonate particularly at the moment.

The last one in particular  speaks to me as I just cannot cope with pessimists as I am generally an optimistic person at the best of times.

Possibly the hardest thing to cope with lately has been no exercise.

I am accustomed to daily exercise, and missing a day does my head in, so you can imagine what three weeks has been like, with another two weeks at least to follow!!

Even though I really miss my exercise, I'm prepared to keep sitting it out as I don't want to cause further problems by coming back too early.

One of our sons mentioned this to me the other day when he said "Dad, you're missing the two things you love most, your exercise, and your home brew beer"

Yep he nailed both. Readers, please don't think that I am a total soak, and drink beer from dawn to dusk. I am a responsible drinker!!

It's just that I really enjoy making my own beer, and have been doing it for more than 20 years.

I like it more than the commercial stuff that is generally made for the masses, hence the more blander taste that many of them have. Plus, my stuff has less preservatives in it, and is so much cheaper than buying the ready made stuff (although I do buy it from time to time)

It's great just having a stash out in the shed, knowing that I can grab one whenever I want.

This is my beer making time of the year, so last Friday I put a barrel on (made up a brew) and now it will bubble away for a week until it is ready for bottling.

The brewing is so easy, takes only 10 minutes to mix sugar, beer mix, boiling and cold water and a touch of yeast and it's done.

The bottling takes time, about an hour and a half to do a barrel that fills about 60 stubbies that are usually ready in about a month. As I make a big stash over Summer, I always have enough to last through the year, just perfect to grab one when I watch the football on a Friday or Saturday night.

This is my barrel happily bubbling away. Such a pleasant sound as it means all is going well with the fermentation!

Probably another consequence of being sick for the past few weeks is that I have lost a lot of weight as I have really been off my food. My appetite is slowly coming back, and I have lost my yellow colour, but in the next few weeks I hope to regain some condition and tone. 

Losing a few kg's hasn't been all that bad for me, so I hope I can maintain this more suitable weight.

I probably won't when I get the all clear to start drinking my home brew again!!!

Stay tuned for my next photo after I get back into my exercise!!

I also have a spring in my step this week as my other passion begins this Thursday- AFL Football.

For my overseas readers, this is Australian Rules Football (AFL), the one that you might see on ESPN where we jump on each other, catch the ball (it's called a mark), wrestle each other (that's a tackle) kick the ball and hit it with our hands (a handball).

It's a great game to play, although there are often many injuries. I've had lots of injuries when playing, and many of these still cause me grief. An ankle reconstruction, torn ligaments in shoulders and about 6 knee operations are just a few to mention, but if I had my time again I'd still play the game.

Apart from playing, the next best thing is to follow a team, and my team is Richmond, also known as the Tigers.

We are a bit of a laughing stock to other supporters because we are perennial losers and under achievers. The last time we finished as the top team was in 1980, but there is absolutely no way I could ever swap teams. We also have a reputation of finishing 9th, one spot short of qualifying for the finals.

This year will be different readers, as I maintain my positive outlook for our chances as usual.

We begin the season by playing one of our traditional rivals, Carlton (known as the Blues) this Thursday night, so you know where to find me this Thursday at 7.00 - in front of the TV wearing something yellow and black!! ( but not with my usual beer !!)

 

Well Readers, that just about brings me to the end of my recent layoff, I now need to go and actually get my clothes ready for tomorrow which is a change after just throwing on a pair of shorts and a singlet for a day on the couch!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but I am confident that I will be physically ready for a half day.

Let's just wait and see!!

Until my next post...

Cheers!!

Never Been So Bored...

Hi Readers,

Well, since my last post I have had more time than ever to write things, but have had just NOTHING to write about!!

Tomorrow marks the 3rd week that I have been stuck at home on the couch, and as I rarely get to even go outside I have done nothing whatsoever that is mildly interesting, newsworthy or even remotely worth mentioning.
So, this will be a challenge to write a post about nothing, but here goes!!

For those who aren't regular readers, I have had an adverse reaction to some medication that I was put on to treat an arthritic condition that I have developing. It has caused some liver damage that can only be treated with extensive rest.

And also throwing the medication as far away as possible!

I have needed blood tests every few days, followed by a doctors appointment where he tells me, "Bernard, your levels may be dropping, but they are still way too high. You will have to take another week off".

And speaking of blood, a couple of test tubes taken out every few days is no big deal, but imagine the shock I got just over a week ago at the Peter Mac hospital in Melbourne when they took 15 tubes!!
I'm due back there in a few weeks for another visit, so I might just take a large bottle for them in order to save using so many tubes.
Environmentally safe blood letting at its best!!

While this might suit some people, it's not for me. A day or two I can manage, but three weeks?

Usually any enforced time off work has been due to recovery from operations, but this is doing my head in as there are no visible signs of illness or injury. Okay, I may have been yellow for a few days, and I have developed 'Grandma arms' as my wife calls them, as I have lost so much body tone and weight.
But being told to just sit and rest? Aaarrgh!!

So, to give you an idea of my average day. This will be so riveting I can assure you!!

This morning I got an early call from the Principal at my school asking if I could ring around and get a replacement teacher, as someone had called in sick. He hated asking me, but he knew I wanted some things to do, so that killed about 15 mins.

I actually thought I had a doctor appointment today, so I got mildly excited as that meant getting out of the house for an hour. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it is tomorrow. 

So after reading the paper online (is it still a paper if it is online?) on goes the TV as I now know that one of my favourite tv shows, The Amazing Race is on at 10.00.

The reason I love this show so much is that I love it when they go to places we have been to, or are planning to go to.

Still awake? If you are, then well done!!

I then stumbled across a cooking/foodie show (I did warn you that I am incredibly bored!) that was all about street food in Lisbon, Portugal, where my wife and I were just a month or two ago.

It was just great seeing all of the landmarks that we had visited, especially the street trams that the city is famous for.

The best thing I ate over there were these small custard tart type of things that are a national delicacy, and for sale in just about every bakery in Portugal. 

And to make things even better, when we flew from Lisbon to Bilbao in Spain, they served them on the plane. 

And it gets better Readers...My wife cannot eat them as she is gluten intolerant, so I got hers as well.

Winner Winner!!!

Let's just say though, I really had to keep up with my exercise in Portugal when I was demolishing a couple of these bad boys each day!!

It was worth travelling to Portugal just for these pastries alone!!

Well Readers, I won't bore you with the gory details of the rest of my day in front of the TV/Laptop/iPad/phone, rest assured I kept travelling between each device as different jobs came my way or a show came on that interested me.

Adding to this blog has been on my mind for days but for the life of me I just could not think of what to bang on about!! Looking back now I feel that I have created something that just might be mildly interesting to some of you at least!

And speaking of Readers, I can vividly remember when the views on my blog was creeping up to 

1 000 just a few years ago.

Look how things have changed since then.

Not sure why so many Americans tune in, but you are all welcome!!

Now for just a few readers to leave the occasional comment...

Who knows, I just might finish my enforced layoff with a bang and pump out a few more posts that might contain something bordering on interesting or worth reading, or just might encourage some casual readers to become regulars?

As always Readers,

Until my next post...

Cheers!!

Well, This Wasn't Meant to Happen...

Hi Readers,

Well, after a bit of a hiatus after our recent overseas trip, I've been struggling to find anything worth writing about.
I just felt that  talking about what it is like being back at work would just be incredibly boring to say the least.
We recently had a visit from someone from Russia who we hosted as a child 20 years ago. This was not just a great moment, but one of the great moments of our lives. Ilia and his family flew back to Moscow yesterday, and we had planned to see them one more time at the airport, but these plans were soon blown out the window, as I'll explain.

As my regular readers know, I've been receiving ongoing treatment for some issues that arose after shoulder surgery just under a year ago. I have been tested for various forms of arthritis and put on different medications.
The first of these made me sick after just over a week, causing bloating, extreme tiredness and a slight slurring of my speech. After a little more than a week on these I stopped taking them as the side effects were very worrying.

I was then put on to another drug, but was told not to start taking them until I got back from overseas. Thank goodness I followed this advice, for if I did take them while away it would have totally ruined our trip.
These pills started with one a day for a week, then two a day, then three, and then finally four a day. I also had to have blood tests every 3 weeks while on them, which was a worry in itself.  These pills also made me extremely tired as well, and another side effect was constant nausea and loss of appetite. There were other side affects as well that I needn't elaborate on, but needless to say that they all collided last week.
I had been very listless and tired at work, constant headaches, but thought it was just a passing bug. I left work before lunch one day, came home and slept for hours, something which is unheard of for me as I never sleep during the day!!
Still no good the next day, I headed off to the doctor who was pretty alarmed with what was presented to him. I was ordered off for immediate blood tests, and told to immediately stop taking the pills I was on. As the test results came through, he tried to get me hospitalised for the weekend, but a bit of a bed shortage put that plan to bed. Just get home and total rest, with blood tests each day.
Looking back now, the whole weekend is now just a blur, as I was constantly in and out of sleeping.
More checkups this week (plus being told no work for this week at least, and most likely next week as well) and it appears that the pills I have been on have caused a fair bit of liver damage, resulting in all of the side effects I have been suffering from.

While we all know that the occasional day off work and lounging on the couch does sound appealing, it has done my head in. I have watched LOTS of tv over the past 5 days, but I'd much rather be up and about and getting my regular exercise.

As my son said to me the other day, "Dad, you've had two of the most important things you love taken away from you. Your exercise and your home brew beer"! He was right. I do love my exercise, and I do love my occasional home brews! As it concerns my liver, alcohol is definitely off the radar at the moment.

Just even concentrating on a task is incredibly difficult, possibly due to the constant headaches I have.
So if there are major typos or grammatical errors in this post, please forgive me. It has taken hours to do this post as I have to stop and rest every so often and come back to it.

Sorry if this post sounds like a whinge, it wasn't meant to be. The events of the past few weeks have given me quite a scare, especially as the medication I was on to make me better actually made me extremely sick. When my doctor rang the doctor in Melbourne who put me on this medication to explain what had happened, she said that this had only happened 3 times in 20 years! Not a statistic I was proud to be part of.

The rest of this week is more tests and lots of rest (and tv!). Plus a trip to a hospital in Melbourne for mores tests too. Thank goodness for Nurse Jen (my wife) who is coming with me for the day.

So Readers, not much to write about, but it explains to some extent why I have not posted much of late, I've just been too knackered!!

As always, until my next post...

Cheers!