..and it's only been a week...
Sometimes I'm amazed at just how much can happen in 7 days. Like most busy weeks, some of these things are quite trivial to anyone else but are huge for me personally so this post is a little long. I don't post very often and so sometimes I make up for it with memories I need to remember. After all this is my lj.
The userpic is a photo I took out of the window of the jumbo that flew me back to Sydney on 3rd Jan. I love the combination of notions such as flying, ocean (the Indian), travel and the link between my disparate family members. Half of the family lives in Perth. They're also my fave colours. The shadow of the plane certainly looks sharper in a smaller size.
Starting with the night of the day I last posted. Drove down to Spotlight Castle Hill to buy up patterning fabric (cheap at $2/mt bright red with the word Love in pink so obviously it won't matter if it's destroyed) and chemise ramie. Feeling smug I was driving home when the temperature gauge decided to climb up and over the limit. So, I pulled over, rang NRMA and thanked my lucky stars that I'd just paid my renewal two days previous. As I'm in a pedometer war with mayela_delarue I used the time wisely to pace up and down the street (am averaging around 10,000 steps a day) and ring a couple of people to let them know where I was. One taped up hole in the radiator hose later, I was on my apprehensive way home. Bless the NRMA. He was a lovely chap who I ended up having a long and interesting discussion with about the electrolytic effects of differing metals upon each other.
Australia Day was spent over at Loreena & Paul's learning how to pattern my own personal topography. Eleven hours later I had a toile. A toile is a form fitting pile of fabric that follows your own left and right halves. I'm very lopsided but Loreena (Marie of Mainly Medieval) assures me that I'm normal in most ways despite my bumpy shoulders. We ate lovely food and wore ourselves out.
Saturday I bummed about with RedJen (who was just back from the States) over at elissande who plied us with her cooking experiments. I'll be her guinea pig anytime! Then went out to dinner with Marky to a new local Indian Vegetarian & Meat restaurant. It used to be just vegetarian but obviously they needed the patronage of carnevores to survive! They're still making the fabulous savoury pancakes that I love. It's an Indian Fawlty Towers to sit through but cheap and entertaining. Afterwards we watched 'Garden State' on dvd. It's something I've wanted to see for awhile because I bought the sound track cd first and love it to death. It was everything I was hoping. Inspirational, quirky, dark and light with great music!
After sleeping for 11 hours I traipsed off to the auntyyolly 's 40th Birthday party where champagne and much meringue was consumed. Got to wear my new one-off black chinese inspired top and olive silk skirt. Not often I find clothes that make me feel elegant. These did the trick. Picked up auntyyolly 's Singer overlocker for a singer song. This should help muchly with the sewing when it gets a new set of knives. Gave Taryn a lift home and she has kindly offered to teach a class at Stowe Faire III The Return of the Mahout. I've managed to wrangle 4 possibly 5 teachers already and that's just this weekend.
In Monday's post came the draft submission for the out of court settlement with Martin who has already received a copy. Their response was to say that he's trying to set up things with the bank to pay me out but if they don't comply then the house at Leichhardt will be put on the market and they've asked for an extension of the proposed 6 weeks to 12 weeks to enable an auction. I also went to the dentist to get a crown organised after the surgery I had last year which wiped out any remaining medical cover for that year.
What I find terribly funny is that the first paragraph of the draft reads that it's Me (the defendant) that's supposed to pay Him (the Plaintiff) a huge amount of money. It reverts back to the correct parties from then on for several pages but I'm amazed that not only did my solicitor not pick it up (she would've dictated it and then presumably checked it over before sending it out) but neither did M's solicitor!! Let this be a warning to anyone dealing with the legal system. For 4 years I've noticed more dangerous spelling mistakes coming from the solicitors and barristers (we both have one of each on our team) than I've ever seen previously from any one trade of my personal encounter. Remember I've been a personal secretary to many top level directors for companies such as Amex and Goodyear etc. It's truly stupifying that these people are in control of major direction changes for their charges but don't take time out to check that they've got the simple facts right.
During the week, Mum has been for another battery of tests as she was about to be put into isolation and have the major chemo bomb (known as BEAM) and then a transplant of her own white blood cells put back in as the BEAM wipes pretty much all of them out. Unfortunately she managed to pick up the tummy bug that's been going around Sydney and is now showing a reasonably high spike in her infection readings. The liver and other tumours seem to be proving quite resistant to the chemo after the initial huge reductions and she seems to think it's due to the mix of drugs. There's a cortosteroid that she feels works best but she wasn't given any for the last two treatments. Luckily she's a chemist and has been able to work out which drugs work out best. Monday she goes back to her specialist armed with CAT & PET scans, new blood results etc which will be evaluated to see whether she undergoes the BEAM. If she does then it'll be a 4-8 weeks stay at RNSH where I won't even be able to give her a hug due to the isolationist nature of this particular ward.
Meanwhile, deense reported on a new finding that is being trialled at Albert University. It's a cheap, non-patented, metabolism altering drug that seems to switch on the "I've been alive for too long now time to die" marker within the tumour cell. It makes fascinating reading. If you're interested then go to
http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/ and read up. It's been written up in every paper from New Scientist onwards. There are interviews with one of the professors there too. Problem with getting trials underway is that it's a drug that's already in wide circulation and due to it not being patented, it will be cheap as chips. Why is this a problem? Well the large pharmaceutical companies won't make any money so they won't trial it. The University is calling for donations to help out.
Wednesday we had resumed our weekly Stowe on the Wowld gatherings at Pendle Hill. We'd all missed it so it started a week early. Aside from just general catching up the hot topics of the moment are organising Stowe Faire III, stuff was sorted, and the succession for the Seneschal's position. The parties interested were Tatya, Michael and myself. I'd only just decided, after much deliberation, that I would apply for the office. After a little discussion another decision was made. At the next monthly Canton Meeting (2 weeks hence) the applicants would be given a chance to talk about their visions and what the position meant to them etc. The B&B and Seneschal for Rowany are to be invited to the meeting by Torg and a general announcement to be put onto the Stowegians email list as well as an advertisement in Writing on the Wowld. This will be a step up in responsibility for a group of people I feel strongly about. I care very much about ensuring the survival of Stowe as they are a bunch of big hearts who have helped me in many ways.
Dad has been in regular contact which has been lovely and he is very supportive emotionally. For that alone I'm extremely grateful. He has also been awarded a second honourary doctorate, the invitation for which I received this week. It's up in Brisbane and is being awarded by the University of Queensland and is again, for helping to set up their music department. He's pretty much started every music department and conservatorium in Australia. If not started then a major overhaul took place wherever he went and this was always for the benefit of next generations. He sacrificed a lot of his personal life in doing this and so it's been nice to see the recognition flow forth. Doctor, Doctor Hobcroft, Order of Australia. Although pretty much a Republican by nature, it's a shame, from a medievalist point of view, that they stopped the knighthoods in Australia just a few years prior to Dad getting his OA. I could honestly have claimed to being the daughter of a Knight. LOL!
So, in summing up the last week. I've learnt a lot about sewing, the fallibility of my car, just how nice my dentist is (yes that's always a surprising thing) and how wonderful my Dad is. Have been inundated with more medical information than ever before and that, aside from the stupidity of draftmanship within the legal fraternity, they sometimes manage to get you a win. Despite wanting to chuck in the stress of sifting through 15 years of a defacto relationship and the associated paperwork, it was worth sticking it out. Hopefully soon I'll be able to find a house to call my own even if it will really be all about the garden.
The userpic is a photo I took out of the window of the jumbo that flew me back to Sydney on 3rd Jan. I love the combination of notions such as flying, ocean (the Indian), travel and the link between my disparate family members. Half of the family lives in Perth. They're also my fave colours. The shadow of the plane certainly looks sharper in a smaller size.
Starting with the night of the day I last posted. Drove down to Spotlight Castle Hill to buy up patterning fabric (cheap at $2/mt bright red with the word Love in pink so obviously it won't matter if it's destroyed) and chemise ramie. Feeling smug I was driving home when the temperature gauge decided to climb up and over the limit. So, I pulled over, rang NRMA and thanked my lucky stars that I'd just paid my renewal two days previous. As I'm in a pedometer war with mayela_delarue I used the time wisely to pace up and down the street (am averaging around 10,000 steps a day) and ring a couple of people to let them know where I was. One taped up hole in the radiator hose later, I was on my apprehensive way home. Bless the NRMA. He was a lovely chap who I ended up having a long and interesting discussion with about the electrolytic effects of differing metals upon each other.
Australia Day was spent over at Loreena & Paul's learning how to pattern my own personal topography. Eleven hours later I had a toile. A toile is a form fitting pile of fabric that follows your own left and right halves. I'm very lopsided but Loreena (Marie of Mainly Medieval) assures me that I'm normal in most ways despite my bumpy shoulders. We ate lovely food and wore ourselves out.
Saturday I bummed about with RedJen (who was just back from the States) over at elissande who plied us with her cooking experiments. I'll be her guinea pig anytime! Then went out to dinner with Marky to a new local Indian Vegetarian & Meat restaurant. It used to be just vegetarian but obviously they needed the patronage of carnevores to survive! They're still making the fabulous savoury pancakes that I love. It's an Indian Fawlty Towers to sit through but cheap and entertaining. Afterwards we watched 'Garden State' on dvd. It's something I've wanted to see for awhile because I bought the sound track cd first and love it to death. It was everything I was hoping. Inspirational, quirky, dark and light with great music!
After sleeping for 11 hours I traipsed off to the auntyyolly 's 40th Birthday party where champagne and much meringue was consumed. Got to wear my new one-off black chinese inspired top and olive silk skirt. Not often I find clothes that make me feel elegant. These did the trick. Picked up auntyyolly 's Singer overlocker for a singer song. This should help muchly with the sewing when it gets a new set of knives. Gave Taryn a lift home and she has kindly offered to teach a class at Stowe Faire III The Return of the Mahout. I've managed to wrangle 4 possibly 5 teachers already and that's just this weekend.
In Monday's post came the draft submission for the out of court settlement with Martin who has already received a copy. Their response was to say that he's trying to set up things with the bank to pay me out but if they don't comply then the house at Leichhardt will be put on the market and they've asked for an extension of the proposed 6 weeks to 12 weeks to enable an auction. I also went to the dentist to get a crown organised after the surgery I had last year which wiped out any remaining medical cover for that year.
What I find terribly funny is that the first paragraph of the draft reads that it's Me (the defendant) that's supposed to pay Him (the Plaintiff) a huge amount of money. It reverts back to the correct parties from then on for several pages but I'm amazed that not only did my solicitor not pick it up (she would've dictated it and then presumably checked it over before sending it out) but neither did M's solicitor!! Let this be a warning to anyone dealing with the legal system. For 4 years I've noticed more dangerous spelling mistakes coming from the solicitors and barristers (we both have one of each on our team) than I've ever seen previously from any one trade of my personal encounter. Remember I've been a personal secretary to many top level directors for companies such as Amex and Goodyear etc. It's truly stupifying that these people are in control of major direction changes for their charges but don't take time out to check that they've got the simple facts right.
During the week, Mum has been for another battery of tests as she was about to be put into isolation and have the major chemo bomb (known as BEAM) and then a transplant of her own white blood cells put back in as the BEAM wipes pretty much all of them out. Unfortunately she managed to pick up the tummy bug that's been going around Sydney and is now showing a reasonably high spike in her infection readings. The liver and other tumours seem to be proving quite resistant to the chemo after the initial huge reductions and she seems to think it's due to the mix of drugs. There's a cortosteroid that she feels works best but she wasn't given any for the last two treatments. Luckily she's a chemist and has been able to work out which drugs work out best. Monday she goes back to her specialist armed with CAT & PET scans, new blood results etc which will be evaluated to see whether she undergoes the BEAM. If she does then it'll be a 4-8 weeks stay at RNSH where I won't even be able to give her a hug due to the isolationist nature of this particular ward.
Meanwhile, deense reported on a new finding that is being trialled at Albert University. It's a cheap, non-patented, metabolism altering drug that seems to switch on the "I've been alive for too long now time to die" marker within the tumour cell. It makes fascinating reading. If you're interested then go to
http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/ and read up. It's been written up in every paper from New Scientist onwards. There are interviews with one of the professors there too. Problem with getting trials underway is that it's a drug that's already in wide circulation and due to it not being patented, it will be cheap as chips. Why is this a problem? Well the large pharmaceutical companies won't make any money so they won't trial it. The University is calling for donations to help out.
Wednesday we had resumed our weekly Stowe on the Wowld gatherings at Pendle Hill. We'd all missed it so it started a week early. Aside from just general catching up the hot topics of the moment are organising Stowe Faire III, stuff was sorted, and the succession for the Seneschal's position. The parties interested were Tatya, Michael and myself. I'd only just decided, after much deliberation, that I would apply for the office. After a little discussion another decision was made. At the next monthly Canton Meeting (2 weeks hence) the applicants would be given a chance to talk about their visions and what the position meant to them etc. The B&B and Seneschal for Rowany are to be invited to the meeting by Torg and a general announcement to be put onto the Stowegians email list as well as an advertisement in Writing on the Wowld. This will be a step up in responsibility for a group of people I feel strongly about. I care very much about ensuring the survival of Stowe as they are a bunch of big hearts who have helped me in many ways.
Dad has been in regular contact which has been lovely and he is very supportive emotionally. For that alone I'm extremely grateful. He has also been awarded a second honourary doctorate, the invitation for which I received this week. It's up in Brisbane and is being awarded by the University of Queensland and is again, for helping to set up their music department. He's pretty much started every music department and conservatorium in Australia. If not started then a major overhaul took place wherever he went and this was always for the benefit of next generations. He sacrificed a lot of his personal life in doing this and so it's been nice to see the recognition flow forth. Doctor, Doctor Hobcroft, Order of Australia. Although pretty much a Republican by nature, it's a shame, from a medievalist point of view, that they stopped the knighthoods in Australia just a few years prior to Dad getting his OA. I could honestly have claimed to being the daughter of a Knight. LOL!
So, in summing up the last week. I've learnt a lot about sewing, the fallibility of my car, just how nice my dentist is (yes that's always a surprising thing) and how wonderful my Dad is. Have been inundated with more medical information than ever before and that, aside from the stupidity of draftmanship within the legal fraternity, they sometimes manage to get you a win. Despite wanting to chuck in the stress of sifting through 15 years of a defacto relationship and the associated paperwork, it was worth sticking it out. Hopefully soon I'll be able to find a house to call my own even if it will really be all about the garden.