This will be a quick blog cos i am so busy at work, i am doing the job of two people... well 1 1/2 people anyway as i don't do all the duties of the other person but enough of it to keep me stressed to the max. This state govt in its quest for the almighty dollar decreed that when someone goes on leave or quits the dept the person does not get replaced. we have one person on extended leave and another resigned, both from the same area, so the rest of us has to take up the slack as neither of them are getting replaced. This govt has no idea whatsoever, they don't know the meaning of the word "stress". They just turn up for "work" a few weeks each year just bitching at each other while taking home $100000+ salaries - that my friend is not stress i don't care what anyone says. There will always be rulers and peasants, nothing ever changes, only the names and position titles changes...... anyway.......

Football tipping lesson #1 - always pick the Magpies!! haha!!! Awesome win they had last week. They should beat the Gold Coast this time, well they had better beat the Gold Coast otherwise I will disown them!! I got 6 points last week so doing reasonably OK, in the middle of the field, well top half of the middle anyway......

It's June now and still sunny and warm.... well it did rain last night after two weeks without rain, but it will all clear up again and be sunny again today.... uhhhhh such is life on the sunny west coast hehe!!

Hey all.... about time I peek my head in again. My life is all pretty well the same here, go to work each day, then be carer for Sally when I am not at work, changing bandages every night and etc. One day just merges into another, my life a never ending treadmill with no end in sight.

Anyway..... had a good week with the football tipping after recovering from the disaster the previous week when I gotten only 4 points. I am back in business with 7 points last week including my much beloved Magpies. Will my beloved Magpies win again? They make the trek to Adelaide this weekend, and well the Crows are in 2nd spot but won only one more game than us..... hmmmmmm...... have to think about this one......

Lots of interesting things happening Astronomically. A few days ago there was the solar eclipse. Then in what seems to be a series of amazing coincidences, a lunar eclipse will be happening in just a little over a week from now, indeed on June 4 and it can be seen from anywhere in Australia during the first part of the evening, well before midnight anyway. Then we have Venus transit of the sun on June 5 and 6, and that can also be seen from here in Australia early on the 6th - from the west coast it will be as the sun is rising. I have to dig out my old telescope!!

With all these celestial events.... well much has been said about 2012 being the end of the world cos the Mayan calendar ends on December 21 2012. Well I don't think for a minute that the world will end, not in 2012 nor any time soon. Indeed this planet will be around for at least another few billion years until the sun decides to blow itself up. Whether we will be around by then is another matter, nevertheless, I do believe the human race will survive for some time yet even given the possibility of some nutcase rising to power akin to Hitler, Stalin or George Bush! LOL! and with nuclear weapons in hand. But anyway, point is, both us and the planet will be around for a long time after 2012.

So what's the deal about 2012. Well on December 21, the earth and sun will be in exact alignment with the center of the galaxy, that is, you draw a line through the earth and sun it continues to the exact center of the galaxy. This happens only once every 26000 years and happens to be in the changeover of the astrological ages. The earth axis processions around in a circle over 26000 years so for 2000 years each it points to a particular zodiac sector, and for the past 2000 years it has been pointing to Pisces - the age of Christianity - hence the association of Christianity with the fish, you know those fish signs on the back of cars owned by Christians, and Jesus referring to fishing and fishermen, etc. But it is moving from Pisces into Aquarius, well it has been for a while but moreso now if that makes sense......

The Mayan calendar.... well to say it "ends" in 2012 is really not an accurate way of putting it. We with our Roman calendar are used to seeing time in a linear fashion, one year moves into another ad infinitum. The Mayan calendar however is cyclical, indeed it runs on three major cycles, and it just happens that all three cycles coincides on December 21 2012, the time when the earth and sun lines up with the center of the galaxy. You see smart cookies them Mayans, they know about Astronomy and stuff. So it doesn't actually end on 2012, it simply the case of the three cycles coinciding, and it will continue on thereafter, just the start of the next cycles for another 26000 years..... pure and simple really.

So there is nothing to fear on December 21 2012..... but I did enjoy the movie!!! haha!!!!

Its about time I peek my head in again.... nothing too much changes here so nothing much to update on.....

It has been another good week on the football tipping, scoring 8 points from 9, and my Maggies won again which helped in my tipping ;)  This week I pick the Maggies again they should beat Brisbane in spite of home ground advantage. And I picked Essendon to beat the Weevils - West Coast Eagles - they can't keep on winning forever, Essendon lost only one game so far so is only a game behind on the ladder, and they have home ground advantage. Shall see how it pans out......

Sally is back on antibiotics much to her displeasure due to side effects but the sores are starting to flare up again so need to nip it in the bud. Several months of changing bandages each night is most exhausting although it is currently down to an hour or so, an improvement on 3+ hours each evening when they were really bad before she went on the first two courses of antibiotics.

This weekend I am not looking forward to it...... Mother's Day on Sunday..... I miss her so much.... I never thought I would miss a mother so much but I do.... all these health issues with Sally flaring up after her death with no one else to help me. It is going to be a very depressing weekend, there is no other way to look at it. We used to go down to Mother's on Sunday afternoon of Mother's Day for afternoon dinner - those days are gone. I guess there is nothing more to be said...... she died early in 2011 so this will be the 2nd Mothers Day without her......... *sigh*

We had a bit of rain but it is all sunny again.........

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.