TGIF - Fun Librarian-style

From the American Library Association

Not happy

Our supposedly de-sexed puppy may be in season!

We noticed some blood last weekend - thought it might have been a leech but it has continued. Took her to the vet on Friday and he thinks she might be coming into season (she's about the right age for doing it the first time). Either that or she has an infection.

Anyway $400 + later (Bella also had her annual injections) we have got some massive antibiotics to give her and I have to leave her at the vet tomorrow and he will take a swab to see if he can diagnose her problem.

If she hasn't been de-sexed properly (there might be a tiny remnant of ovarian tissue somewhere) she'll need another operation and it could be like looking for a needle in a haystack - Expensive and invasive.

TGIF - Jokes only understood in Scotland

A pregnant teenage girl phones her dad at midnight and says: "Can you come and get me? I think ma water has broken."
"Okay," says her dad. "Where are you ringing from?"
"Fae my knickers tae ma feet."

"A Glasgow woman goes to the dentist and settles down in the chair.
"Comfy?" asks the dentist.
"Govan," she replies.

What did the male Siamese twins from Glasgow call their autobiography?
Oor Wullie.

A guy walks into an antiques shop and says: "How much for the set of antlers?"
"Two hundred quid," says the bloke behind the counter .
"That's affa dear," says the guy.
"Aye yer right!" replies the bloke.

Did you hear about the fella who liked eating bricks and cement?
He's awa' noo.

After announcing he's getting married, a boy tells his pal he'll be wearing the kilt.
"And what's the tartan?" asks his mate.
"Oh, she'll be wearing a white dress."

Ten cows in a field. Which one is closest to Iraq?
Coo eight.

Three wee jobbies sitting on the pavement.
Which one's a Musketeer?
The dark tan yin.

A Scotsman in London is having trouble phoning his sister from a telephone box. So he
calls the operator who asks in a plummy voice: "Is there money in the box?"
"Naw, it's just me," he replies.

While getting ready to go out, a wee wifie says to her husband: "Do you think I' m getting a wee bit pigeon chested?"
And he says: "Aye, but that's why I love you like a doo."

What was the name of the first Scottish cowboy?
Hawkeye The Noo.

What do you call a pigeon that goes to Aviemore for its holidays?
A skean dhu.

How many Spanish guys does it take to change a lightbulb?
Just Juan.

What's the difference between The Rolling Stones and an Aberdeen sheep farmer?
The Rolling Stones say: "Hey you, get off of my cloud."
And an Aberdeen sheep farmer says: "Hey McLeod, get off of ma ewe."

What do you call an illegitimate Scottish insect?
A wee fly b*****d.

Did you hear about the BBC Scotland series that features the queue for the toilets at Waverley Station?
It's called The Aw' Needin' Line.

While being interviewed for a job as a bus driver, a guy is asked: "What would you do if you had a rowdy passenger?"
"I' d put him off at the next stop," he says.
"Good. And what would you do if you couldn't get the fare?"
"I'd take the first two weeks in August,"he replies.

Two negatives make a positive but only in Scotland do two positives make a negative - Aye right.

A Glasgow man - steaming and skint - is walking down Argyle Street when he spots a guy tinkering with the engine of his car!
"What ' s up Jimmy?" he asks.
"Piston broke," he replies.
"Aye, same as masel... "

3D Ice

Ishbel and I went with Cailey to see Ice Age 3 this afternoon after dropping Rob off to work. When we got to the pictures at Penrith it was to find that it was the 3D (and more expensive) version of the film being shown. They gave us some NHS look-alike 3D glasses and we settled down to the film. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the film, and the 3D effects. Me . . . it's too dark in there for me and all I wanted to do was sleep.

Weekend report

The weekend began with RFS training on Friday night. Jamie Neale's dad had invited all those involved in the search and rescue mission to join them at an hotel in Katoomba but Steve, now our Captain, said he had a fun night of training for us instead so along trundled Robbie and I.

And it was a hoot! Somehow our "Ropes and Ladders" training session ended up, not with me adding another knot to my repertoire (of 3), but with us abseiling at Warrimoo in the dark!!! It was alright for Rob, he's been abseiling with the Scouts, but it was a first for me. Steve took some photos and said he'd send them on so I'll load them here and on Flickr when they come through.

Saturday night was Babysit Xavier night, something Ishbel's been counting down to all week. We think things went well enough that we have asked Karen and Dan if we can do it every six weeks or so despite the fact it meant even less sleep than usual for me.

The wee one was quite content during the evening. He thoroughly enjoyed a bath with Ishbel - we'd forgotten about the bath running as we made up his travel cot so it was lovely and deep - but didn't have much milk at bedtime.

We made up the travel cot in Ishbel's room and he went off to sleep really easily. However, around 2:30am he woke up grizzling. A wee cuddle and he went back down but woke up again later. Another cuddle and again off to sleep but again only for a short time. On the third time I gave him another bottle which he polished off in one gulp almost. Then (about 3:45am) he went back to sleep until after 7am.

He'd drunk his morning bottle during the night so he just had yoghurt and toast for breakfast. Same as us really! We were just getting ourselves ready to take Xavier a wee walk when Karen and Dan arrived. She gave him a feed that put him off to sleep! But we walked him up to the shops anyway and he was soon sitting sharing hot choc and a spoon with us.

This afternoon I took Rob out for a driving lesson. It's the first time he's driven a manual car. We've only re-insured the manual Suzuki for the boys; we can't afford to insure both cars for the boys driving, it's about double our normal, and we'd already done the Suzuki before we realised. We just went round and round a couple of loops in the local streets lots and lots of times while he got used to going up and down the gears. It was a bit jerky at times and I ended up feeling somewhat seasick but he mastered the skill pretty well in 30 mins or so.

Then he wanted me to drive him down to Blaxland where he works for McDonalds. He didn't want to have to drive on the Great Western Highway but I said for him to try going along Hawkesbury Road and we'd stop before he got to the highway if he wanted. However, he made it all the way down to Blaxland without a hitch.

Ian is off back to work tomorrow (although he'll have to be off again on Tuesday for a GP appointment). He nearly went back to work last week but stayed home to supervise the kids during the school holidays and anyway his hand has been somewhat sore. It's my turn for a week off this week. We've got Ishbel's mate, Britney coming tomorrow. And lunch with a girlfriend organised on Wednesday and I'll have to see who else I can catch up with . . .

Karen's making me do it . . .

Jamie brought me home a copy of The Daily Telegraph on Thursday. I'd made it on to page 3 of the paper - or at least my beanie did!

(Double click the picture to enlarge it)

UK search also successful . . .

From the wonderful Newsbiscuit site this exclusive report :

A 58-year-old British prime minister missing for two years has been found alive. Gordon Brown, from Glasgow, Scotland, went missing in Westminster’s political jungle shortly after taking assuming his new role two years ago.

Cleaners alerted emergency services after finding Mr Brown wandering aimlessly around the UK political scene, suffering from critically low poll ratings and a severe lack of exposure.

Mr Brown’s father, who flew to Westminster to join the search, said his son looked ‘gaunt and defeated’ but was lucky to be alive. Brown was thought to have wandered off into the jungle without any kind of moral compass.

TGIF - Office Mozart

Too funny to wait 'til Friday

Great News!

Hot off the press! Our backpacker has just been found! Don't really know much more at this stage but I am really pleased!

Here's one news report. Narrow Neck is where we were on Friday!!!

BTW: This was the pic accompanying another online report - that's my reporter in his immaculate black wool coat!

Update - 1:20pm: The beady-eyed among you will notice that the picture in THIS STORY is almost identical to one of mine on Flickr!

Another update - 2:30pm: ABC report with video (I'm not in this one!)

Sick people

Image via Wikipedia

We were supposed to be going to Killarney Heights today to meet up with Genevieve, Jenny and Sue that I used to work with in the Dept. Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital but Ishbel has succumbed to the lergy now. I was thinking I'd go anyway but Ishbel didn't want me to go. Robbie wasn't very happy - he told Ishbel to 'man up'.

She was spiking a temperature last night. I can never get her to take medicine; she must deep down somewhere remember that she spent her first 12 months on daily antibiotics which we used to have to force down her throat with the aid of a syringe. Such a contrast from the boys who would take anything and if one of them had medicine the other had to have a spoonful of yoghurt so he wouldn't feel left out.

In the end last night, worried her temp. was a bit high, I got 5mls down her by mixing it into a tub of yoghurt. Even then she carried on like a two bob watch. Only the threat of having to go to hospital and have a drip put in got her to co-operate, tearfully.

Anyway, she's feeling better today, still hacking with the cough but not febrile. We all stayed in bed until after 10 this morning - in our bed - me, Ian, Ishbel, Bella and Josie (who snores by the way!) Robbie got up and dressed, all set for our day out, but then went back to bed in disgust.

Jamie is out at Graeme and Kim's at the moment at their re-enactment group. He's pleased the day trip is off or he would have had to miss it.

The winter school holidays have started so the kids are off for the next two weeks. Luckily Ian is still off post op - he has a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Thursday - and I will take the second week off so no need for Ishbel to go to Tanderra this holidays.

S&R News

Karen rang me this morning to tell me I was on the Channel 9 Today News - the front of me!

Click here to see the video and another here that shows better the kind of terrain we were looking in (I just happen to be in that one too - same shot as before).

There's a shot of firefighters walking towards the camera - I'm the third person in the line, wearing a red beanie.

Form an orderly queue and I'll get around to autographs after I've had my breakfast!

Karen had admonished me for smirking in the shot. Apart from needing to keep cheery while performing what is a fairly grim task, physically as well as emotionally, the cameraman had just popped up out of nowhere and it was a bit surreal.

We'd been bashing through pretty close bush as I said last night and then grouped up by the cliff. Seemingly out of nowhere came a reporter with his notebook in an immaculate long black wool coat and with a cameraman at his shoulder. He got the policeman, Matt, to do a few things then they went away. Next thing I know we're tramping through waist-chest high brush and there's suddenly the cameraman in front of us on the trail. I'd just shouted "have you got a teleporter on you?" when that shot was done.

S&R Day 2

Look what I nearly got a ride in today!

Again I was able to turn out for the search and rescue at Wentworth Falls/Katoomba. More hurry up and wait, more even than yesterday.

We came within a whisker of getting a helicopter ride. We were going to be deployed on the top of Mount Solitary and were all briefed on getting in and out of a helicopter either while it was hovering or via winch (!?). But then the mist rolled in and stayed and plans changed and only 4 with Remote Area Firefighting Team (RAFT) and winch training and the NPWS crew were able to go. The remaining RFS were split in to a couple of teams. One team was sent down the Golden Stairs and along the bottom of the cliff below Narrow Neck and my team were deployed to search Castle Head at the top. (Phew! - I think doing the Golden Stairs would be like climbing the Wallace Monument 2 or 3 times). My team included people from Faulco (Karen & Dan's brigade) some of whom I'd met before, two from Woodford and two from Glenbrook-Lapstone, including Steve who did the VF training with Jamie, Robbie and I.

As we did yesterday, we did line searches - spreading out from the track in a line. The terrain was less steep than yesterday but the bush was much more dense and more than once I was on my hands and knees burrowing through bushes and found myself stuck on top of a bush once or twice too! We bashed through the bush following a walking track off the main (dirt) road unable to see very far ahead. After about 30-45 mins of this we came to the cliff edge - and what a spectacular view! A bit of a walk further along and we were at Castle Head and the view was just stunning - it was all misty when we first got there but within 5 minutes or so the mist cleared and it was just glorious. It's a shame to be there under such circumstances, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything - this really is a blessed part of the world.


No sign of our boy again. At one point the team on Mount Solitary thought they might have found something - some scuff marks and some broken branches near the cliff edge. The police helicopter was deployed to have a look along the base of the cliff but they didn't see anything.

I was on the ABC news tonight. At one bit in the story on the search there is a policeman giving a briefing - there is the back of a blonde head - that's me!!! Tried to find it on the internet but all I found was some British news video. The media was everywhere today. We had a reporter and his cameraman appear at the cliff with us - then they kept popping up everywhere. We were hacking though the undergrowth and they sauntered along the track. It was a bit intrusive at times though and they just assume you don't mind having your picture taken.

TGIF - Worm story

For those of you who may have missed church last Sunday, here is a recap: four worms and a lesson to be learned!
A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.

The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.

The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

• The first worm in alcohol-Dead
• The second worm in cigarette smoke-Dead
• Third worm in chocolate syrup-Dead
• Fourth worm in good clean soil-Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What did you learn from this demonstration???

Maxine was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, 'As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!'

That pretty much ended the service --

RFS Search and Rescue mission

Today I played hookey from school to assist in an RFS search and rescue effort.

A young 19 year old Englishman left the Katoomba Youth Hostel last Friday morning saying he was going for a bushwalk. He hasn't been seen since. He has been out in the cold and rain for 6 nights now.

Answering a pager message last night, we gathered at our shed at 8 this morning and went up to the old Queen Victoria Hospital on Kings Tableland Road, Wentworth Falls for a briefing with other RFS brigades, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the State Emergency Service and the Police who were in charge of the operation. We stood around for ages waiting to be deployed - Karen must've sent me a Hurry Up and Wait on Facebook - then off we went down into the Kedumba Valley.

Once at the walking track we had to get ourselves in position to do a line search - we were separated into two groups and spread out in a line on each side of the walking track. It was slow progress at times, over rocky ground and bush bashing through some fairly thick brush. By lunchtime we were down at the bottom of the valley at the creek - it was very beautiful down there (see the Flickr slideshow):



Sadly, neither we nor the police dogs found the boy and so we had to climb back out for the night. Getting out was a bit arduous but we finally make it - after many "it's only five more minutes" - and crews being needed tomorrow, I've said I'll go again (if I can move tomorrow morning!)

I can't imagine how the boy's parents will be feeling. He's only a couple of years older than our two.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Brit Backpacker Missing In Australian Bush (news.sky.com)
• British backpacker missing in Australian wilderness (telegraph.co.uk)

Ian's birthday, 4th July.

It was Ian's birthday on Saturday. Unable to go to the big party they throw for him in the US, we had a lower key celebration here at home.

We had dinner here with Karen, Dan, Ben and Xavier, Sharon and Holly, our Polish neighbour Chris and later, after they'd been to see their daughter Georgia in a play, Steven and Janet dropped by.

We had a yummy slow cooked lamb dinner with roast veggies and a banoffee pie to follow. The banoffee pie was a bit runny but no one seemed to mind - well Karen didn't!!!

TGIF

I'm so glad to have found out about this.

The correct way to weigh yourself:

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

Ian's had his op

Have spent the past two days going down to the city as Ian was booked in for his operation yesterday.

Ishbel, Ian and I left the house just around nine yesterday morning. We arrived quite early for the operation as we'd not been sure how long it would take us to get to the hospital, St.Lukes, in the eastern suburbs (Pott's Point). We had a fair bit of hanging about but everyone was very pleasant. Dr Hargraves came out between operations to say hello and for a little chat - told us how the fires in Victoria were affecting his grapes - all that smoke gets into the fruit and you can't make wine from them - apparently!

Eventually Ian went off to theatre about 2:30pm and Ishbel and I wandered off to find a late lunch. We took a while to find somewhere and we did that only after we'd walked around for a while and then we found what she was looking for (chips) near to where we started! We did, however, also find the British Lolly Shop and shared an Irn Bru and McCowans Highland Toffee bar for dessert!! Finding a nice spot to eat our lunch wasn't easy either. As we walked past the entrance to a church, Ishbel noticed the front porch and steps of the church were chocabloc with people lying on mattresses - "who are those people?" - her first experience of homelessness. Not an easy one to explain.

We sat in the car for a while listening to a talking book then went back to the hospital. We could see Ian through the Recovery Room window. We were able to go up to his room to wait for him coming back up which he did about 1/2 an hour or so later. He had a block on his arm so he was in no pain at all but had a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) machine so that he could dose himself if and when he did get sore.

It was when Ishbel and I headed home that the fun began. There are a lot of one way roads around that part of the city so getting home was not straight-forward. We ended up at one point with a choice of taking the bridge over to the northern suburbs and north coast, or the tunnel!! Neither thanks. Went through the city somewhere and ended up going the other way, headed for Bondi. Very wrong! Finally found a space I could stop and look at the map which was difficult because of the glare off the shiny paper. I'd nearly asked Catherine if I could borrow her Tom Tom - wishing dearly by now that I had. FINALLY got to Cleveland Street and on a route I recognised. Yay. It was just around 9pm when we got in at home.

And then we had to turn around and do it all again this morning! At least we didn't come home via Bondi because Ian was able to navigate. We did, though, only get to the hospital in one run because Ishbel had been paying attention yesterday and remembered which way to turn. Good girl.

Ian is back home with a big bandage round his wrist. He has to keep it on until about the 16th when he goes back to see Dr Hargraves and then he will probably get a plaster cast put on.

We'd left Robbie at home ill the past two days. This morning he fainted getting out of the shower. He managed to crawl back to bed and didn't tell me until about 1/2 an hour later. I couldn't make him a GP appointment - they are all booked out so I will have to ring at 8am tomorrow to see if we can get a cancellation. He seems a bit better this evening and is up watching TV just now.

Jamie came home from school this afternoon and went straight to bed, not feeling well.

And Ishbel has been complaining of a sore throat for the past couple of days.

I'm fine! Just might not be at work again tomorrow unless this lot get well.