anyresemblance

Emerging stocktake

 

1. Puzzling: over my health. My cardiologist says "you are a puzzle but luckily I love a puzzle".  All tests are ok but still the swelling in my foot and ankle and still the breathlessness and the slight vertigo.  I have two Pulmonary Embolisms in my lungs and am on medication to prevent formation of any more.  The ones that are there should dissolve over the next few months.  It sounds alarming and can be life threatening when undiagnosed but I was diagnosed and my life continues.  On the plus side, there is no reason why I can not fly as long as I continue on blood thinners and take all the usual precautions.   
2. Discovering: Ted Lasso, I know I am late but have been watching it this over the past couple of weeks and find myself delighted by it. Can't wait for Season 3.
3. Baking: eclairs.  I was inspired by Celebrity Bake Off and made some excellent choux which I filled with creme pat.  I love a custard filling.
4. Assembling: salads as it has been unspeakably hot.  My current favourite is teeny tiny chop like those Persian salads with tomato and cucumber.
5. Watching: The Last of Us.  Oof, every episode hits somewhere.  I am loving the slow burn of an episode a week.  I still haven't finished Happy Valley as the streaming service is so pants.
6. Organising: my home office.  I bought another Ikea desk for $50 off marketplace as I feel my desk was over crowded and I want to get a big monitor as well.  I manhandled it with the help of my neighbours but I am still not convinced I have the right configuration.  I'll get there.
7. Anticipating: the arrival of my sister and her husband.  She is currently in Perth but comes here in ten days.  I've seen her lots in the interim but I think it is nearly 10 years since she was visited me.  I am taking a week off work and planning outings.
8. Drinking: tea, water and am trying some no alcohol beers for socialising.  This one is not bad.
9. Listening: lots of podcasts.  I really liked the You're Wrong About episode about Napster and early days of file sharing. 
10. Loving: Rihanna at the Super Bowl and her take no prisoners, zero fucks.  She really does not care about wanting people to love her and I love her for her lack of neediness.  By the way, I did see her live more than a decade about and she was a shockingly flat singer but I actually don't care.

 

 

Still afflicted

Tedious and dull and hard to get a full breath but my lovely daughter has arranged to work from home and it is nice to have company and lie on the sofa.  Maddeningly, Binge, the streaming service showing Happy Valley keeps crashing so I have had to give up for a bit and have started watching Redemption on BritBox.

Last night I read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day which I can't believe I have never read.  I found it utterly charming, like PG Wodehouse mixed with an Astaire movie.  I see there is a movie with Frances McDormand which I now must seek out.

The cats are enjoying my enforced rest and are loafing with me.

Modern medicine

I've had a week of it, specialists and specialist scans and finally a diagnosis of what ails me and scary medical terms which I am assured are not as scary as they sound (too many episodes of hospital dramas) and a promise of something to make it feel better.  But unfortunately, I don't feel better, but maybe my expectation of "a few days" is different from the specialists?  Either way, I woke up Monday morning and thought "I can not work today" and am off for the week.  

I lay on the sofa and finished Lockwood and Co which I ended up really enjoying.  I am obsessed with the lead character's cobalt blue* wardrobe and spent some fruitless time looking for fashion sources.  As my daughter says, you love a fashion account.  Then I started watching Happy Valley Season 3 but after 3 episodes thought I needed some light relief and watched some cooking shows.  I plan to do much the same today.

*here is something I have never said.  Years ago, a friend gifted me a cobalt blue cowboy shirt with little bits of embroidery on it.  For some unfathomable reason, I gave it to this person and always secretly regretted it.  In fact, I still think about that shirt.

 

The rule of three

 

1. I drove my daughter to work this morning so she can save on parking but when we got there she had forgotten her laptop so had to drive home in the worst traffic which then meant I was late for an 8.30 meeting.
2. In my first batch of email was notification we had been unsuccessful in some work I was sure we were going to win.  The client left the agency suddenly and there was silence and then this.  Time kills deals.
3. I am losing my battle with my "no bad hair days" quest as I didn't have time to do more than screw it in a pony tail and then felt miserable on the video conference.

On the upside, I grabbed a really good coffee and a nice almond croissant, I saw a Labrador puppy and I finished two pieces of work that were hanging over me and turned out not to be that hard.

Post apocalyptic romance

Every so often, a piece of television comes along which is so moving and beautiful, you just want to watch it again and again.  I've got hooked on The Last of Us (possible spoilers) and if I tell you it is a quest during a post apocalyptic zombie world you might think that is not for you but actually it all about love.  Last night's episode (3) was the story of two older men finding each other during this time and their years together growing intimacy, bickering, tenderness.  It blew my mind to see love between middle aged men shown this way on screen.  At the end the Murray Bartlett character says something to the effect of I won't say every day was a gift from God but I would rather have spent these days with you than anyone else.  The pitch and the acting and the script are just wonderful.  I can't stop thinking about it. 

Sidenote: Linda Ronstadt on heavy rotation this morning.

Under the weather

It is rainy, hot and humid here, a rare combination for our inland and high altitude city.  It is vile and saps every ounce of energy out of me.  I have been sitting at my desk trying to do the tiniest of tasks and not concentrating at all.

However, it was a good weekend and here are ten things:

1. Finished painting S's apartment with the help of her dad who was super helpful and worked with speed
2. Went to see What's Love Got to do with it which as instantly forgettable but mildly entertaining.  Honestly, did not thing I had the mental fortitude for Tar right now
3. Eventually got the spinach pie to work and it was tasty
4. S made cauliflower tacos for dinner last night and they were delicious
5. Finally watched the Bake Off final where my favourite won but felt like everything is becoming about sculpture not flavour (noel has excellent knitwear)
6. Watched all four episodes of Poker Face which is hugely enjoyable and has a range of wonderful guest stars
7. Listening to the Caroline O'Donoghue podcast on Gilmore Girls and immediately commenced watching a couple of episodes from Season 5 which confirmed all her observations.  Rory is a terrible kisser!
8. Washed the dog as he decided to lie down in a smelly stream on Saturday but at least he is now sweetly scented
9. Got an amazing, if remarkably ugly, cushion thing off Amazon which really helps elevate my legs while in bed or on the sofa
10. Had a pedicure

 

What day of the week is it: episode 873

Yesterday's public holiday was on a Thursday and I booked today as leave but I am so behind so don't know whether to cancel my leave and just put my head down or keep my leave so at least I can do a number of errands without guilt between calls.  Also, that waking up and having no idea which day of the week it is has me struggling.

It was so hot last night in the house and despite a cool breeze coming through nothing seemed to come in through the screen.  I watched In Bruges for the first time and then a Jennifer Lawrence movie on Apple TV that creaked along and gave up after an hour.  I had a cool shower and cracked open the latest Garry Disher.  It wasn't my favourite and I would have decried the plot for being far fetched if it were not for that covid denier/sovereign rights shit playing out with tragic results in recent weeks.  He is such a great writer and I will always read his books. 

Charlie is home from his farm stay and we walked along the Foreshore this morning and met our favourite psychiatrist and border collie owner and her lovely dog who we have known for nearly a decade.  It is always a calming experience talking to her.  She told me she has her own dog classified as a therapy dog so she can take her to work everywhere.  I love her imperfections (the dog, not the medic) - when a motorcycle when by, she has to be held as she has a camp dog predilection to despise motor cyclists and chase at their heels.

Always was, always will be

I spent today thinking about an essay I read by Kim Foster on Substack, titled Delinquent: Kids who get lost.  She is an astonishingly good writer and in this essay I kept thinking that everything she wrote was relevant to the shocking high number of indigenous kids being incarcarated for being "raised with difficulties outside of their control" and putting them in environments removed from their families, their communities and their siblings.  Added to this the generational trauma of land being dispossessed, so yes, no wonder changing the date of our national day would be the very least we could do.

This morning S and I did another coat of paint in her apartment.  We've now done two coats of undercoat and the deep teal green is just about covered.

I've still got minor (I hope) health stuff going on.  I have had various tests and see the cardiologist next week.  The technician did not gasp in horror when she did my echogram but I am sure having a poker face is a requirement of the role.

 

Monday miscellaneous

I managed to edit a spreadsheet on line this morning for a task I have been avoiding and it took me all of 5 minutes so now I am winning at Monday.

Someone close to me is struggling with sorting something out so I am trying to be helpful and not judgemental.  The latter is very challenging but I chose to spend Saturday engaged in painting walls in a flat.  It was a lot harder than I recall painting to be and not helped by a step ladder that was too short but I made a good start.  I co opted someone to help me finish it this week on the public holiday and hopefully the whole thing will be under control shortly.

On Saturday evening I went to see Ottolenghi in conversation.  I've heard him interviewed several times, and listened to his own podcast a few years ago, but I found him very engaging and warm and interesting.  He was hosted by Alice Zaslavsky who was an excellent interviewer.

My daughter is sad because her half brother and his wife and her beloved nieces are moving to Dublin. I was quite shocked when I heard this as they have been in Australia for 20 years and 11 years respectively but M decided it was time to go home and be closer to her family.  It kept me awake on Saturday evening thinking about going home.  I like to think I would be back in the UK in a heart beat if my children were not here but I am not sure starting over would be that easy. 

S is house sitting this week on a country property so has taken Charlie with her to hang out with the other dogs and the alpacas who he is very uncertain about.  She said he followed her to the gate this morning when she went to work so I hope he works out how to be a proper working dog.

I started watching The Last of Us on my colleague's recommendation.  It's good and I think I am going to like it.  Other than that I can't find the thing that fits my mood.

 

A rare night out

I went out tonight but am way too tired to write.