Happy 18th Amy

Well we all grow older. Except I think I feel a lot older than my daughter who just had her 18th birthday. Yes, Amy turned 18 on Wednesday 17th December, 2008. This is how we celebrated it.

Quite some time ago, Amy decided that she wanted a cocktail party for her 18th birthday. So she planned it, and she tried to open our pockets wide. Alcohol is damned expensive. So when you have a whole bunch of different cocktails with 2 to 5 different types of alcohol, setting up is not cheap. We don’t have an extensive bar, well we didn’t. We suggested that she try to limit the different number of cocktail drinks available to 6.

In November Amy and Katrina went on a shopping trip to DFO in Spencer St, Melbourne, there Amy found a bar tenders guide to mixing cocktails reduced about 70%. So she picked up the little bargain and trawling through the pages searching for yummy drinks. Keep in mind her experience of alcohol is limited, so her choice of drinks came down to colour and flavour, or it sounded nice.

So the final 5 (five), her choice, were, a Blue Lagoon, a Death By Chocolate, a Flirtini, A Heartbreaker, and a Midori Illusion. (Email me if you want the ingredient list). They average three different types of alcohol in each. That’s right; fifteen different bottles of alcohol were required. Amy even prepared the menu, and as Anita was going to be working, she even said she would prepare the food. She baked her own cake, which was a tower of Mississippi Mud Cake Muffins.

We held the party on Saturday the 13th of December, as her birthday would be mid week, and that wouldn’t be fair as people would probably leave early for other week day commitments. So, she invited 10 friends and their plus ones.

Some didn’t bring a plus one, so we had about 15 young people turn up and celebrate with Amy. We had tidied, cleaned and moved things in the house, so we were presentable and practical. I think they had a good time, I think Amy had a good time. They danced, they talked, they ate and they drank. And thankfully they didn’t over do any of it. All in all, a great bunch of young people.

On the following day, Amy’s Oma came up to spend the day, coming to church with us, and then home for lunch and the afternoon. Gran & Grumps came early afternoon and Auntie Joanne and Uncle Michael came mid afternoon. More presents and more food.

Wednesday the 17th came around, and we got the family up earlier than they would have liked, because Amy was working at the shop with her Mum. She is a hard task master her mum. “No day off just because it’s your birthday, in my day they made us work harder and we were privileged. Aye.” She said. Not really, it was actually Amy’s choice. I had to work, and by the time I got home at 8.30 that night, Amy was asleep on her bed. All tuckered out. Kids these days, no stamina.

So that is the tale of Amy’s 18th Birthday. Relatively pain free, and fun for all.

Neville Lloyd – 70 years young!

Firstly, sorry Dad; Sorry it took a while to so long to get this up. For everyone else, wish a Happy Birthday to my Dad. He turned 70 in mid November, 2008. We celebrated his Birthday on Saturday the 15^th with a gathering of family and friends at home in Frankston.

Dad’s oldest living mate, Wally, joined in the celebration, and in typical Wally style lead Dad astray, and off the wagon, with a bottle of single malt Scotch. But with his usual generosity, Dad shared. Mmmmmm. Dad’s sister Glenda came down from Albury, bring her daughter Jenni, grandson William and granddaughter Jenna with her. (Won’t go into the family tree of who belongs to whom)

Mums brother Lex and most of his family joined in, with his daughter Leah providing this excellent cake, which celebrated a large part of Dads working life, as you can see.

Family friends Joan Carson, and Di McKay turned up, and Di's son James graced Dad’s presence for a little while too. Others visited on and around Dad’s birthday and made this time very special for him.

Some of the memories I have of my father, and I am sure there will be many more to come, follow here.

- Visiting Dad at work in the Army Band

- Watching him blow the Bugle on Remembrance Day at the Shrine

- Driving to Melbourne every second week from Puckapunyal to go to Eye & Ear Hospital, and visiting the Vic Markets

- Trips up the old Hume Hwy, single lane, to Albury & Wagga Wagga

Learning to drive on the old airfield at Puckapunyal me aged 7, so that if Dad had an accident getting firewood, I could drive back to the main road.

- Dad going on road rescues with St John’s at Seymour

- Bush walking at Wilsons Promontory. Especially with the Carson’s; Dane wearing knee hi socks.

- Hitch Hiking around Tassie, and waiting an eternity in Strachan for a lift

- Dad blowing Bugle for the local RSL on Remembrance Day

- Going motorbike riding and Dad coming off breaking his knee, (looking for me ‘cause I was late back and he wanted to go home, but hey, no guilt!)

- A proud father on his Daughters graduation from the Police Academy; a proud father on his Sons graduation from the Police Academy.

- A proud father when his children got married.

- A proud Grandfather

A special thanks to Mum, (it takes two to Tango!)

We Love You Dad!

Recovering from the Flood and the Gall Bladder

For me, recovering from the removal of my Gall Bladder (Cholecystectomy) proved much easier than the shop recovering from the flood. No pain relief was needed from Sunday Morning. However I think Anita still has a headache! From the problems caused by the burst water main of course. As I said in the last blog, the assessor approved the carpet, so before that could get layed, the store room had to be cleared out as well. So a few of the younger chaps from church who were available weighed in and helped out.

They had to move all the excess stock into boxes or trolleys, or even just carry it by hand to the temporary storage locations. The insurance assessor agreed that we need to replace the old water logged counters, so Anita measured and began calling around. Without exception, not one cabinet maker or joiner in Warragul said they could help us before Christmas, and probably not before February! It wasn't looking good, we needed two quotes, and there was only one guy willing to even look at quoting now. Craig from Allure Kitchens looked at the job and said that seeing it was small he would squeeze it in. So he quoted, Anita told the insurance company of our dilemma, 'not until after Christmas quotes', and they agreed to go on the one quote. So Craig got the job.

The strange thing was that even whilst the shop was being stripped and things moved to other vacant shops in the centre, people still wanted to come in and buy things, regardless of the complete sense of disarray. Some customers seem to thrive on disorder in these situations. I don't know if they think they might get a bargain or just want to get the items on their shopping list. I have to say most of our customers were very understanding, most just said they would come back next week when things were back in order

So Wednesday was the day, the carpet got layed. Anita was happy with the choice of color, but she was very unhappy on Thursday with the smell that the carpet glue made. it gave both her and Kerryn headaches. The carpet layers looked like they knew what they were doing, it all seemed to go down smoothly and little mess was left. That was until on closer inspection we found that the carpet was about one inch short of the wall in the front corner of the store. Fortunately for us, there is a fixture that goes over that spot and hides the error. On one of the joins, there is glue that has marked and damaged the carpet. and in the back where it is not so important, they did a lousy job of fitting the carpet around the pipes. The front door had to be adjusted by the landlord as the carpet is thicker and if left alone would have damaged the new carpet very quickly.

Anita originally planned to re-open on Thursday, which she partly did, but due to the fixtures having to be moved back in after the carpet was layed and the glue dried, it was late Thursday before some normalcy returned. Thursday morning saw the young volunteers from church return, and lend their able bodies toward the task of returning the fixtures to their spots, as directed by the Queen Bee and her apprentice, Princess Bee.

We had the odd fairy turn up to help as well.

But by the end of the day, the fumes and the effort had started to get to the girls.

They called it a day around 4.30 p.m.. Which was fair. And Friday saw some return to normal trading, although the paper stands were still out for most of the day until clean up and restoration was more complete. My sense of humor was definitely NOT appreciated when I walked in near lunchtime and said, "Is that all you've done?" It lacked sensitivity and understanding. I also failed to say how great the shop looked. Then again being tired can do that to you.

So How did my recovery go? I rested a lot. I apologise if my email to some were short, but it was difficult to sit up straight for the first few days, and resting a laptop on my lap took time to get comfortable. I spent my time mostly reading. I ready Wally Lamb, "I know this much is true"(900 pages). Paulo Cohelo "And on the seventh day" which is a trilogy that includes: By the River Piedra I sat down and wept, Veronika decides to die, and The devil and Miss Prym.(350 odd pages). Followed by Ken Follet, "World without End". (1250 pages). So as you can see I have not been bored. I have also watched a few movies, drunk some coffee & tea, and visited the surgeon again.

The surgeon was generally happy with the operation, but one of the blood tests was not back to normal, so that is to be repeated. I see the Surgeon again on the 6th November. I visited my G.P., Dr McKelvie today, and had a Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) removed from my right cheek (face for those wondering), and a Solar Keratosis burned off with liquid nitrogen. The good news is that my cholesterol levels are great, and there are no signs of diabetes. I have now lost around 14 kiograms, which puts me within 6kgs of my goal weight. Not that you would notice.

Anyway, to those I have offended I am sorry. To those I have overlooked, again, I am sorry. To those of you who feel neither offended or ignored, I am sorry. Better luck next time. Cheers

Flooded Shop & Gall Bladder

What an interesting week and a bit! Firstly while I was away in Howlong I received a phone call advising me of the date of the surgery to remove my Gall Bladder. Great, but the day after I got home I received another phone call telling me that the surgery had been postponed due to a more urgent case arising. Fair enough. So I was rescheduled for Friday the 17^th of October, the day before Anita’s birthday. I thought that would be okay and that Anita wouldn’t mind as it was necessary surgery, and I was right, she didn’t mind.

I rang Work and told them that the surgery had been postponed and what did they want me to do, come back to work? "Well you only have one rostered shift for the days between when you are due back from holidays and the new surgery date, and we've already arranged someone to cover you, so just take a day off." Okay! But the day I was supposed to take off, someone called in sick, I got called and asked to work, and ended up working a 14 and ¼ hour day. But that’s okay. So I had a few days off to fill in, no problems with that I can assure you all.

The night before the surgery I read until about midnight, felt pretty good, I was getting a sleep in the next morning so I would be relaxed and ready for surgery. 0125 am, Friday the 17^th August, 2008; the telephone awakes me from deep slumber. Constable Scott from the Warragul Police Station informs in her ever so lilting British accent that as I was the afterhours contact for Bizzy Bees she was letting me know that a water main had burst and flooded the shop and the keys were needed to access the shop!

Anita and I sprang into action, sprang in to the car, and drove to the shop. As we arrived, a workman form the water board was turning off the water stopping the flooding. We spoke to S/C Jenny Wiltshire, and then waded our way to the shop. It could have been worse. But there was a good 3-4 cm of water on the eastern side of the shop. We decided to move stock off the floor immediately to try to reduce stock damage and loss. We moved some fixture for the same reason, and tried to mop up the water with a bucket and mop on loan from the police station. It was a fruitless exercise. Too much water, too little sopping power! Sam’s Warehouse was flooded as well, luckily they had no carpet, but they still lost stock that was sitting on the floor and got waterlogged. We went home about 3.30ish and climbed back into bed, making a mental list of people we needed to contact the next day to see how things stood with insurance, etc.

As I had to be in hospital by eleven, and I still needed to pack, (and be rested) I stayed home and Anita went to the shop to marshal the troops. Well I actually made some phone calls from home to get some guys to help her in the shop, because once the carpet man arrived, we found that EVERYTHING needed to be moved out of the shop! So who do you call, our contemporaries mostly work full time, its Friday morning and most days off are Mondays. Thank God for the church family. I made a few phone calls to some men from church, and within half an hour Anita had all the help she needed. Grant in his 50’s but the others probably in their 70’s. Fit enough and willing enough to lend a hand. The carpet came up and we found it had to go out. Anita came home around ten and made some calls to the insurance company, and organised for an assessor to come out in the afternoon to help speed up our return to trading. The stock was spread across three shops in the centre. Hard to sell like that.

At around 1030 we left and she took me to the Hospital. First to admissions, first to be admitted, and first to go through that part of the day. As we walked into admissions it was empty, but as we walked out of admissions, the waiting area was full. Timing. Up to the ward we walked, and were greeted by the friendly faces of the surgical ward nurses, some of whom I know through work. We were asked to take a seat as they were busy and it might take awhile to get me through the admission process on the ward. Anita looked anxious to get going so I told her I would be alright, and she should get back to the shop. She had left shopgirl, Kerryn, in charge, but there is nothing like being there yourself to feel that everything that can be done is being done. Here is where I kind of lost track with the shop as I as now involved in my own little exercise for the day. I spent a good hour or more waiting for my bed to be readied. But that was okay; I read a magazine and then my book.

Finally I got shown to my room, only to discover I was by myself, a single! Hooray. It was definitely worth the wait. A little more waiting whilst the ’admission’ process took place, and then I got dressed for theatre. Not too sure if I like the disposable underwear they get you to use. The stuff is made out of the same material the make the disposable hair nets for the hospital kitchens outs of. I know I was wearing them when I went to theatre. I just don’t know what happened to them after that because I never saw them again! They had disappeared by the time I awoke in recovery! As it turned out I was first on the list for the afternoon surgery, which I think is great because all the surgical team were as fresh as they could be. It seems all went well; the procedure was completed laproscopicaly, which means a quicker recovery than open surgery.

The pain straight after waking in recovery was quite intense, after all, they inflate your stomach with gas to make it easier to look around inside. So a little bit of morphine, some oxygen therapy, and a few sets of obs’ later and I was wheeled back to my room. I am used to being on the other end of the saline drip, and vacuum drainage, so it was a good experience to go through really. The nurses were all great during my stay. I have an Easter egg shaped gall stone about 3 cm long as a souvenir. Anita gladly took it to show it off. Anita and the kids visited Friday evening, and Anita came back on Saturday morning after the carpet guy came to the shop for her to choose her ‘new carpet’. I was given the okay to go home on Saturday afternoon, after initially being told the drainage would be taken out Sunday before I could go home. So at about 1400 they rang Anita and pleaded with her to come and get me. Then came and took out my drainage, and cleaned and redressed the wounds. I was discharged.

The recovery so far has been great; I only had to take pain relief on Saturday Night and Sunday morning. The rest has been bearable. Apart from having to cough hourly, the pain is quite okay, and wearing pressure stockings to reduce blood clots is a fashion statement I’d rather not make but will put up with for the greater good. Anita's Birthday was probably a bit of a dud, but the kids gave her a present in the morning, and I gave her a present I had made up when I got home from hospital, and then of course her mum came for the afternoon and stayed for tea, so she was appropriately gifted and celebrated.

Anita was back in the shop early Monday morning organising the rear store room to be emptied so the carpet can be ripped up and replaced out there, and new storage racks put in there to replace the wooden ones we have discovered were also damaged. She has chosen new carpet which will go down Wednesday, so reopening on Thursday looks like the go. New counter and other fittings will arrive later I expect. Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment.