This is April Fool's day but there are no April Fool's jokes in here, and in any case it is after midday when the jokes no longer counts ;)

The internet has been very slow at times since the start of the solar flares last month, seemingly coinciding with Mercury's retrograde. It is said both events affects computers and electronic communications - the internet.

I am now on a month's leave from work though it is no holiday for me due to the high level care needed for Sally. She is to start on the antibiotics but first needing me to get some pro-biotic yoghurt to help with the side effects - namely diarrhea.

It has been one of those weeks with the football tipping, with every one of those close games (ie less than 6 points difference) going against me hence is suffering not a good start. Still there are two more games to go yet as of this blog. The universe balances itself out, so hopefully the close games will go my way a bit down the track.

There will be no pixs today as the internet is very slow..... must be a lot of solar flares today.....

This is mall-rat day being payday though these days with the economic strain due to bandages and other medical issues with Sally we will have to implement austerity measures comparable to that of Greece, especially in the food dept as there is really nowhere else we can cut back without major inconvenience.

However the script for the antibiotics arrived yesterday, so went to the chemist to get it, we get pensioner discounts since Sally is on a pension. So I went to get the pills only to find on arrival back at home that it contains gluten, and Sally being a celiac (sp) among other things cannot tolerate gluten. So had to take it back to the chemist who was happy to exchange it for a gluten-free version, and he put it on the computer that Sally is a celiac so make sure to not dispense meds that has gluten in it. Anyway she will wait until Saturday, the start of my 4-weeks leave, before taking them in case of severe allergic reactions as she is allergic to some forms of antibiotics. But for the time being there is a glimmer of hope that the antibiotics would help clear the sores, so at least a lot less bandages, then can work on resurrecting our financial situation from the dead.

Uhhh time to put in the rest of the football tips.... of course Sydney won last week, that was a no brainer. The rest of the tipping is not so easy..... everyone says the Maggies are going to lose, but being a loyal supporter I am going to stick my neck out and tip them. Essendon and N.Melbourne a toss of the coin, they're both pretty hopeless..... ooooops!!!... sorry!!! hehe!!!!..... hmmmmm..... and the Weasels... I mean West Coast Eagles.... suppose I should tip them, they haven't been doing too bad..... but the 1st round is always a toughie when it comes to tipping, you can't go on last year's forms, and you really can't go on the pre-season comp form as they never field their usual teams anyway, they experiment and try different things, and the game conditions are different anyway..... we shall see how it all pans out by the end of the weekend.....

Haven't posted any pixs lately so here's a few... dragons and fantasy pixs... yeah I like dragons and fantasy in general, my escape from reality..... wouldn't you like a dragon for a pet... I would... hehe

The latest on Sally and the sores on her legs.... yesterday she called our naturopath doc and explained we couldn't afford the oils cos of the ongoing expenses of maintaining supplies of bandages etc, and also that she won't be able to make it to the Wednesday appt due to the sores weeping, she is basically housebound because of it and the swellings. SO he prescribed her some antibiotics and will post the script out, hopefully it will help clear the sores at least long enough to keep from needing bandages, then a bit down the track we can save up for the oils in case of any relapse. Only complication is she is allergic to some antibiotics, so he prescribed a type that she hasn't had before and insisted that I be home the first day she takes them in case of bad reactions. Fortunately my four weeks leave begins from this Friday.

During such crisis as this that we find out who our true friends are. Just the other day when I was at the mall I came across someone who obviously knew me though I didn't recognize him, but it was someone who was at church back in the days when we used to attend church before Sally had gotten too sick to attend. He asked if I was still going to a church, and when I said no, explaining that I have a sick wife housebound and am full time carer for her, the conversation was cut short and he just wander on without so much of an offer of sympathy. It seems if you don't go to church regardless of the reason then you are a nobody. Since she fell ill and stopped attending church we have had no offer of any help whatsoever. And it's not like they didn't know about our situation. When Sally was in hospital for six weeks, I did contact the church, and they did send out a couple who visited her in hospital just twice in the six weeks. I visited her at least once per day, twice on weekends and days off work.If the church was true to what they preached from the pulpit, I should have received help and relief in my carer duties, having people come visit to help in the care of Sally rather than depend on the rather limited service of Silver Chains which we have to pay for. Therefore I would not have been so stressed out and suicidal at times cos I am all alone left to carry the burden on my own. I have had no help from the church nor the family here in this city. Mother would have helped if she was alive, indeed back in the days before she got sick mother did help, taking Sally to the doc and etc when she could. But without mother I am all alone, I mean physically alone, those closest to me are far from me in physical distance.... how ironic it is that mother died just before Sally's health started to get worse, when I needed mother the most!!!! How cruel is fate itself........

Sally wants to go back to church when she gets better albeit perhaps a different church. However I will be far more circumspect in regards to any involvement in any church. I will not be giving my heart and soul to it as I had before. Pagans care more for each other in physical tangible ways than most Christians! In any case I am more Jewish than anything else, I always have been, it is in my soul, it has been from the beginning..... I am Jewish at least in my soul.

Back at work after another torrid weekend with Sally. Her condition is getting worse, the swelling is getting worse, the sores are spreading and costing us an utter fortune in bandages etc, and her pain is getting worse to the point where she hasn't slept for three nights. She is due for a doc appt this week, Wednesday. Our doc who is also a Naturopath had recommended some pure oils that can be gotten online yet they are so expensive and we can't afford them due to having to spend on bandages etc. If not for the bandages we could get the oils, yet we need the bandages as her sores are weeping and literally dripping. These are special bandages designed to catch the moisture, and special tape to hold the bandages on with as she is allergic to the normal tapes that one usually get from the chemist. So a catch 22 situation. The current situation is unsustainable. It seems the only other solution are the natural oils, but there is simply no way we can afford them for as long as we must spend money on bandages. I think I will need to get some more lotto tickets.

With the football season starting, I am back in the office footy tipping comp through the West Australian newspaper. I always at least win back the entry fee. A couple of years ago I came 2nd and won about $300, I would have come first if I hadn't forgotten to submit my tips one weekend!! Last year wasn't so good but I still won back at least the entry fee of $50 and then a bit more. So will see how it pans out this year. Last week was a no brainer, we all knew Sydney would beat the new team GWS. The rest of the fixtures  for the 1st round is next weekend, and of course I will pick the Maggies - my beloved Collingwood Magpies.

It's been a tough few days.... through the equinox and the new moon which marked the end of the Hebrew sacred year. Astronomically it is also the end of summer, the nights now longer than the days, but no rain here as yet, indeed not a drop of rain in sight, just warm sunny days...... y'all should come to the west coast! LOL!

Will write more later.... this is just a quickie since I haven't posted for a while......

More pixs from the universe.... although these are obviously artwork from one's imagination I wonder if these places really exists..... if our imaginations and our dreams reflects places that actually exists somewhere in the universe, and somehow we connected to it or even visited them in our spirits..... hmmmmm..... me and my weird musings....

I have finally been approved for vacation leave from work for a month during April beginning the first week of April. In reality there is no vacation for me, this simply means I am not going to work for the month. With Sally being utterly housebound we cannot go on any vacations, not even day trips. She has not been able to attend any doc appts due to the fact she cannot get into the car due to the swellings in her legs. Even if the swellings were to go down, she is still too ill for even day trips, our only "outings" being to the clinic and the hospital. It is no wonder i spend so much time online, being online is the only way I get to see the world. This reminds me of the scenario of some sci fi writers, that in the future we will not physically travel anywhere, we will be confined to small cubicles for all of our lives, but we "experience" the world through virtual reality, basically a futuristic version of the Internet today. Maybe such sci fi writers also had a partner who was always ill and housebound so can never get to go out anywhere but spend time exploring the world online!! LOL!!

Of course Easter is the 1st weekend of April. Jewish Passover begins that Friday and runs for a week, actually 8 days. For that week we remove foods with yeast from our homes and we don't eat food with yeast (or other raising agents such as bicarb) for that week. Probably why they say Jews keeps strange customs! LOL! But due to Sally's condition we will not be able to go our anywhere for Passover, we will just have to do the best we can at home to remember the holidays.

Since we cannot go out anywhere for my vacation, we can always dream.......

another weekend passes me by.... brief summary.... saturday, sally was in a lot of pain in her hips for some reason and hard to settle, always getting up and down which needed my help.... I needed to go to the mall for minor groceries supplies, and that was about it.....

today sunday i suffered a catastrophe, manifestation of my ADHD, i put the drummettes in the oven and forgotten about them until i discovered them burnt to a crisp..... $20 worth of chicken down the drain, that hurt a lot.... finances always tight due to having to get extra bandages and stuff for sally, it costs an utter fortune....silver chains supplies the bandages for free when they do it, and usually leaves us extra but is never enough especially over the weekend when they don't come, so we are forever spending fortunes on them to get us through. And today i did need to go to the chemist for more bandages. Due to the burnt chicken catastrophe i will be short on food and no funds for anything extra..... such is life....

this is what it felt like when i burnt $20 worth of chicken drummettes....

this is where i wish i was now..............

Here it's Friday morning and thought I'd get in early before the business sets in. Another weekend awaits, but weekends are not times of rest for me, it is when the workload of caring for Sally is transferred to me as there are no Silver Chains carers or nurses that comes over the weekend.

Today more errands at lunchtime. I go to the PO box to collect any mail that I may have, usually bills. As an old joke goes, if I had any doubt how much the creditors loves me try missing a payment and I will know they miss me very much!! LOL!!

Then after the PO errand I go fill the car. Here we have a website that lists the cheapest petrol/gasoline stations for the day, and am usually fortunate enough to be within a 5 miles radius of one of the cheapest stations in the city. Today it is at Warwick, just a short stretch up the Freeway from here. There are always queues at the cheapest station whereever it is, often out into the street. But when we are talking about 2-3cents per litre difference between the cheapest and next cheapest, it is worth the wait. The average price is about $1.50/l (approx $5.76/gal for those in the US complaining about high gas prices!!) but the cheapest is running at $1.36/l; ($5.23/gal) down to $1.32/l with the supermarket discount docket which I always make sure to have on hand, so is worth the bit of extra travel as i go past all of the more expensive stations with no more than 1 or 2 cars in the driveway to the cheapest where the queues often snakes out onto the adjacent road!!

Anyway enough about life in this expensive country, still amazed at the land of 99c burgers and all-you-can-eat joints for as little as $5, where they think $1.40/gal gas is highway robbery!!! - the U.S.A that is!!!!

Some more interplanetary travelling......