I am back at work now, have mixed feelings, it wasn't much of a vacation due to what is involved in the care for Sally, and being back at work means I will have far less time for any of my other pursuits. Her sores have cleared to the point where I am able to change the bandages in less than 90 mins which gives me a bit more "me" time during the evenings, that I am thankful for, but am rather worried that the sores will flare again now she is off the antibiotics and does not want any more of it due to side effects. It is just early days yet and only time will tell.

Had another good round of football tipping, scoring 7 points once again out of a possible 9. I am yet to check online to see where I am on the leaderboard for the dept but I would expect to be in the to 50%.. It is early days and anything can and usually does happen.

We had our first heavy rains for the year but the winter chill has not set in yet, it is still mild and set to warm up again. Sally would disagree but then she is hypothermic, she regards 23 degrees celcius as being "cold". Meanwhile I am still in my shorts and summer shirt, so definitely not winter yet.

It's been a while, had a particularly bad week with Sally healthwise, suffering severe pain and lack of sleep. It seems she is somewhat better now, the antibiotics seems to have done its job although some sores remains but not nearly as many as before. My worry is, now she is off the antibiotics the sores may flare again, however she says she wants to work on losing the fluids and reducing the swelling. I guess we shall see what happens.

My football tipping has gone well these past couple of weeks, last week scoring 7 points which is above average compared to everyone who is in the competition through the website. My tipping for this round is off to a good start as I picked the Magpies to beat Essendon in this ANZAC day match, we won by just one point nevertheless it IS a win - a win IS a win whether it by 1 point or 100 points.

Anyway I am back at work next week, not looking forward to it, I did not meet all of my goals for this vacation in regards to the gardening and my computer room. My next holidays won't be until October, so such things will remain on hold until then. There is simply not enough time for anything else when I am working.

I did upgrade my Windows to Windows 7 Ultimate for just $20. It's one of the privileges of working for the govt, we get a special deal through the Dept to have our Windows upgraded on our home computer to 7 Ultimate for just around $20, in the shops it be several hundreds of dollars for the same thing. Not a bad deal I must say.

Now let's see if the system will let me upload some pixs.........

In years gone by I could remain loyal to my beloved Maggies and do well in the football tipping, even gaining 2nd place in 2010 when the Magpies won the Premiership - I just picked them each week and I still came 2nd. Alas! Those days are gone..... and with a heavy heart I tipped against my beloved Magpies last night, realising that Carlton is indeed the team more likely to win..... and win they did..... mixed feelings, i managed to score at least one point so far (haven't yet checked the other matches today), but realising this year will not be the year of the Magpies.

Sally was able to get a repeat script for the antibiotics as it does seem to be doing some good on the sores, they are starting to clear although there is a long way to go yet before I am set free from the nightly drudgery of changing bandages. Nevertheless i am already spending less time changing the bandages, now about 90 minutes rather than up to 3 hours. I am not sure if the antibiotics will clear the sores completely, she still has so many of them..... just have to wait and see I suppose.... she will do anything to avoid going into hospital. Unfortunately like it or not a hospital stay is in her future, she is starting to suffer intense pain in her hips, and this will need to be checked out. Arthritis does run in her family, and she already has it in her knees.

Nothing much else to report here for now...... yeah i know, boring life..... uhhhhhhh......

If you wondering why there hasn't been any pixs lately..... cos for some reason this system will not let me add pixs.... bloody computers they have minds of their own.... i will just have to keep on trying until it decides to let me add pixs again.

It's been a while since I came by here. Sally keeps me busy, she is a very sick little critter but she is trying to avoid going into hospital. It is her choice what she does. She is almost finished her current course of antibiotics, and some of the sores has cleared but not all of them. She is thinking of calling the doc for a repeat script for them.

The football tipping was much kinder to me this week but then it was an easy tipping week with most results entirely predictable. I managed to score 8 points but a lot of my tipping work buddies would have gotten all 9 points. The most difficult game to tip was Geelong/Hawthorn, and that was the one that let me down continuing my pattern of hopeless luck when it comes to close matches that is less than one goal. Geelong won by just 2 points and I picked Hawthorn. So I have a 100% record of misses for matches that were decided by less than a goal. My luck is truly hopeless, I don't think the universe likes me, or I must have killed a China man! LOL!

Summer is still here, it was 36 degrees Celcius - 96 degrees for the Americans - here yesterday. It will be in the 30s Celcius again today.

Easter is just about upon us, and it has been busy today, going to the mall and making sure we have all we need as tomorrow being Good Friday everything is closed, well except for convenience stores and such likes. Jewish Passover also begins tomorrow. As the Jewish calendar runs on a lunar cycle with the 1st crescent of the moon being the 1st of the month, Passover doesn't begin on a specific day of the week like Easter, but a specific time of the lunar cycle namely the Full Moon. It just happens this year the two coincides, the Easter holidays beginning the same time as the 8 days of Passover. Herein lies the origin of the "spring clean". Jewish tradition has it that we don't eat food containing yeast and other raising agents for the 8 days of Passover, such as bread, cookies, cakes, etc, and all traces of such foods are removed from their homes prior to Passover. So many a Jew would have been spotlessly cleaning their homes top to bottom to make sure it is totally free of the offending food crumbs - hence the term "spring cleaning" as Passover is in the northern hemisphere Spring. Due to Sally's health issues and the energy required in her care, we will be foregoing the ceremonial aspects of the holiday but it will still be no more cookies for me for the next 8 days!

It was at this time in 1980 when I saw that very strange orange light UFO. I was 16 at the time, was traveling down to Augusta with mother and soon-to-be stepfather on that Thursday night for the Easter break. Just as we were to arrive at Augusta, I looked out the side window and was shocked to see a large orange ball rise up from behind the trees in the field, did a loop in the sky, then coming back down behind the trees. It was a fair way off, maybe a mile across the field, so mother and co didn't  notice anything as they were looking at the road straight ahead. But it was this UFO that would change my life forever, for better and for worse, some were good, some were bad, but it certainly marked a shift in my life. I have seen other UFOs since then but won't go into any details......

Now to more terrestrial matters..... the football tipping. Time to get my tips in for this week as the 1st match is tonight - Carlton and Brisbane. Carlton seems to be the favourite there. I suppose I should go for Essendon to beat Port Adelaide.... hmmmmmm...... if Essendon doesn't win there will be hell to pay! hahaha!!.... and the Maggies, well despite letting me down last week I am a forgiving guy, I will back them again this week against Richmond, but then if they can't beat Richmond then there will be no hope for us this year, might as well look to next year!!

Just into the first week of my time off work, trying to catch up with everything but not quite working out that way. Being a Tuesday night its take out  trash night, leaving the bin out for council collection in the morning. It is also one of our rostered watering nights, we have two nights each week that we allowed to water our gardens on a roster system based on house street number, and for my number it is Tuesday and Saturdays, and can only water either at night on the day or early in the morning, not both. However we had some showers of rain yesterday so for the first time in a long time I figured I didn't need to water the garden. But with the weather clearing and sunny again, I will need to water the garden on our next rostered night - Saturday.

The 1st week of the football tipping was a disaster area with every one of the close games (less than 6 points) going against me. These are games which either side could have won, but every time the side I picked to win did not do so. And with my beloved Magpies also losing, I ended up with just four points out of a possible 9 - being 9 games each week. So it won't be any major prizes this year, but still hold out hope to have at least the entry fee won back. Each year in the tipping comp I always had won at least the entry fee back. But I do have talented workmates at work who seems to be able to pick winners, so  you won't win major prizes unless you get high scores each week which happens with a combination of footy know-how and luck, I don't seem to have much of the latter.

Sally has started on her antibiotics, its only the 2nd day so too early to see if it is doing any good, but looks like no allergic reactions.

Now I will indulge my love for dragons and mystical creatures......