Le Chat Noir

I want to share this amazing singer with you. He is Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and he has been blind from birth. He has the most incredibly moving voice and he has been nominated for an Aria award which he will win hands down. I just love this song and his voice.

YouTube - Djarimirri - Gurrumul Yunupingu
     

It was officially Spring here as of 1st September. In Australia, the change of season is always on the first of the month however I understand that at least in the US, it is usually around the 21st or 22nd of the month. The days are definitely getting longer here and in the last two weeks, the light seems to have totally changed. In fact, in the last week, I have been so amazed to see trees go from zero to having real foliage...how utterly wonderful!

We've had some really warm days but every now and then, a little blast of winter sneaks up again. Today, Saturday, I woke up to beautiful bright sunshine but by 11am it was raining and really cold however I did manage to attend the house auction in my little street. After the global financial meltdown of the last week, I wanted to see how property is travelling in my street as it helps me to gauge my real equity in my house (which I am still buying!) On a better day, the attendance would have been more than double but, I suspect that the weather will never deter those people who are really seriously interested in buying a property. The rest of us, like me, are just curious onlookers. The property was passed in but, I strongly suspect, it will have been sold by negotiation later today to the highest bidder. Over the years, I have observed so many auctions and I have got really familiar with each licensed auctioneer and their patter, and the auctioneer that was in action today is one of the best in the area (if I was going to sell my house, he would be one of only two who I would be chasing!) I will be able to check it out tomorrow as the auction results here are usually published in the Sunday papers.

Max is going okay, in fact, I think he is going really,really well or at least he feels incredibly well judging by the regular thundering up and down the wooden floor boards in my house and his incredible appetite for his (new diet) food. Since I accidentally deleted what I now realise were several blogs (although how many I just don't know), for anyone who did not read those blogs, Max has been through quite a lot lately. He was so seriously ill for so many weeks in July that I really did not expect him to still be here today, but, he's definitely feeling 110% so I am extremely thankful and happy for that. I did have some tests done within weeks of his crisis and there is definitely kidney damage but without a biopsy, it's not possible to know just how much. After all he has been through, and he's been through so much, I won't be pursuing a biopsy which would be very invasive not to mention incredibly expensive. He is due for his annual vaccinations in November so we will repeat the blood and urine tests and do a comparison and hopefully get some idea of where he is at.

He is now on a very special diet; it is a brand called Royal Canin and it is their Urinary S/O diet. They have a wet variety in a pouch as well as a dry variety but at the moment my vet wants to keep him on the wet variety. This diet is meant to hopefully avoid any further urinary blockages and also keep his urine diluted. The food which is available in only one variety, a chicken special, actually smells and looks really great but it is about $1.25 per pouch and we go through two pouches a day so it's not cheap compared to other cat food although when I think about $2.50 a day it doesn't seem so much for my little friend. Fortunately he just loves it which is a damn good thing because if he didn't, the alternative is a canned variety through another company called Hills which to me, does not look at all palatable! Royal Canin is based in France and over the last 2 months, they have had a number of wharf and factory strikes, so I've decided to stockpile this food just in case we can't get it for any period of time. It turns out that there are very few customers like me here in Australia who are so dependent on this special diet so I am at their utter mercy...zut alors!

Anyway, Max is now really comfortable and happy again although we went through weeks where he totally didn't trust me at all (probably because I had to regularly take him back and forth - initially daily - to the vet to have his bladder checked and on occasions had to leave him there for the day) and he was just also feeling so unwell, so between hiding under the bed from me, he stayed in bed all day and was not there to greet me at the door when I got home. Now, he is there to greet me every night without fail. But, he is now also so very well, that he decides he is hungry again at anytime from 3am to 5am and decides to let me know by bouncing on me while I am asleep. I can tell you that I am not happy about that at all and he knows it. Sorry Max, but I am not some kind of human trampoline!!!!!...I love you dearly but enough is enough!

I love this cat so much but I also try to maintain some kind of distance as I know that I will outlive him and I will be ultimately left grieving him and I know it will really, really hurt. I have had cats all my life but I guess he is the one that seems to currently look so large in my life. I adopted him within months of my now ex dumping on me some 5.5 years ago, and Max and I have had quite a few adventures but for over 5 years now, he has been the absolute joy of my life. He's a funny cat. I adopted him from a young couple who were leaving to live in Europe that I met via a mutual friend.   He is so scared of loud noises, strangers, and especially plastic bags (his former owner and I theorised that someone tried to kill him as a kitten in a plastic bag and I think we were right about that) but when he is relaxed he is the most trusting, and affectionate cat I have ever had the privilege of knowing. He trusts me beyond my belief right now although just over a month ago, that would not be how he appeared.

I had to travel interstate for a whole week late last month so I had to leave Max in my vet's cattery where I knew they would keep a close eye on his condition. My vet has the most wonderful staff and I rang them every day morning and night to check on him. Initially we were all traumatised as Max was not going to let them anywhere near him to medicate him without a fight. He was throwing himself at the door of the cage, hissing and snarling, and they were so worried he would injure himself (not to mention the staff!) I asked them to try leaving the medication in his food, which worked a treat. By mid week he was greeting them every morning (although I know it was just for the food!) and allowing the staff to pat him, and, purring! It was a major breakthrough for all of us and they were as relieved as I was.

I am still trying to keep up here in Spaces and mostly falling so far behind.  However, it is my intention to keep up, especially with those of you who somehow regularly keep in touch.  And oh my gosh, if I could ever catch up, I might be able to blog beyond the banal of my life!

Till next time......

Postscript:

The house in my street was, according to my Sunday paper, sold for $5K over the final bid...exactly as I anticipated!

 (Source totally unknown!)

Let me illustrate why the English language is so hard to learn!

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to

    present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into the sewer.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

22. I tried to perfect the perfect swing.

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese? One index, two indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If  you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people: recite a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. 

English was invented by people and not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. Why doesn't BUICK rhyme with QUICK?

Excel ant!
(Reportedly nominated for a Pullet Surprise)

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight for it two say,
Weather eye and wring oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long,
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.
Eye have run this poem threw it
Your sure reel glad two no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

--Sauce unknown

Just a quick update. I had to chase up Max's results last night and they were inconclusive...meaning??? they have no idea what caused the problem. Max himself seems to be quite comfortable and in no pain (I did take him for another shot on Monday as a precautionary measure as much for my own sanity as his comfort) so that's good but it's nagging me that they don't know what the cause was. I'm just hoping it was a passing thing and nothing more sinister.

I am still hanging in here - still coughing and spluttering. Somehow managed to complete a whole day's training with a client yesterday, and hoping that I will be 99.9% by Sunday night as I have 3 more full days training to complete next week, and lots more days in coming weeks.

Thanks to everyone for their concerns, thoughts and prayers! Hugs to you all!

Well, I still feel like crap and my throat is now feeling sore yet again even though I have done almost zero this weekend. It's now Sunday night but tomorrow is the public holiday thank goodness. (I know we are supposed to be celebrating the Queen's Birthday even though her real birthday is the 21st April and I voted for a Republic when we last got the chance.....unsuccessfully, but thanks anyway Liz for the long weekend.)

Max is still happily comfortable but the nanosecond/minute I think he's starting to show signs of distress again, I will be onto the vet to get him another pain killing shot. The urine sample has to be cultured to grow whatever crystals/bacteria to work out what's wrong with him so other than pain relief, he's not on any other treatment. Due to the long weekend, I suspect nothing will happen with his sample till Tuesday - it is most likely sitting in the fridge at the vets right now waiting to be sent to the laboratory on Tuesday morning. I am back at work Tuesday and I will be spending all day Wednesday training with a new client so there is NO way I can cope with him being unhappy and in pain again. Absolutely no way. I have so much to do this week at work and that's why I've been lying low doing nothing but if Max gets stressed, I will be even more stressed. That cat is my family.

As they say, there is a silver lining to every cloud. The silver lining is that I have spent a whole lot more time in spaces than usual. It's nice to be back, I must say. I've visited just about everyone on my blog walk and friends' list, changed the template here and moved things around a bit. Thought about changing the music playing here but not quite ready although who knows when the mood will strike...could be later tonight.

I have also managed to finally sort out my hard drive. I had almost nothing left of an 80GB hard drive but now since I deleted a lot of unwanted podcasts, I have a whole 13GB!!! Just as cathartic as cleaning the house!

Now, there are some things about spaces that I can't work out so here's my request for guidance.

I started a new book list. I filled in the blanks, the title, the author, the website, and the ISBN. So why, oh why, do I not see any nice book cover pictures like I do on everyone else's space. Sometimes I suspect that the Australian version of spaces is a cut down version...is that the explanation? Are we being dudded here?

And, my lists.....some of them have descriptions while others display nothing, but I do have a description filled in behind almost every list that no one else can see so what gives?

All advice and suggestions gratefully received.

Does anyone ever feel like the mouse running in the treadmill?  Life seems to be totally out of control timewise lately.

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend here and I took Friday off thinking I would finally catch up on the myriad of things that need to be done but not to be. I have been fighting off a cold all week and now haven't got the energy to do much else other than read, or maybe catch up in Spaces. I had planned on sleeping in on Friday morning but when I got home on Thursday night, it was obvious that Max was not well and made even more patently obvious at 4am Friday morning. He was very distressed (and so was I not the least for lack of sleep!) I called the vets as soon as they opened and took him in first thing at 8am. It turns out that he has an inflamed urinary tract but we don't know why as he is on a diet that should prevent such problems. It's not blocked so that's good. The vet gave him a pain killing injection which will last a few days and I left him there all day Friday so they could get a urine sample which he finally delivered in the afternoon but just not in the tray so it could be collected! So I brought him home last night with a small amount of polystyrene beads (they are placed in the kitty litter tray to give the appearance of kitty litter but are not absorbent), a specimen jar and a syringe and was able to successfully collect a sample at 5am this morning! I've dropped off the sample and the results will be available in a few days. At least now, Max is very relaxed and comfortable so maybe I can finally catch up on sleep.

When I went to pick him up from the vet, the assistant said he wasn't keen to come out of the cage he was in so I went with her to get him. Max has always been a very shy and nervous cat with strangers, and he was the picture of a scary angry cat. The crazy thing is, when he's at home and relaxed with me and people he knows, he is the most friendly and affectionate cat I have ever had, and all my previous cats have been very extroverted compared to Max! He hates being at the vet's and hates being left in the cattery there.

My new job is going well although the next two months are going to be frantic as we have a number of new client implementations all at the same time. I will also be training in an area of our software that I have not had to train before which will be quite a challenge.

It is officially winter as of 1 June and the days are quite short now but the winter solstice will occur in a few weeks so that's something to look forward to. It is cold and we have had quite a few foggy days including one which closed the airport but it hasn't been windy or raining so far. It does not snow here at all so I should be thankful for that. Snow looks beautiful but I can't imagine living in an area where it snows. One of my work colleagues is travelling to Sweden for work and has been told that as it is summer there, it doesn't get dark till 11pm and it gets light again at 3am! I don't think I could cope with so few night hours.

I helped my mum buy a notebook recently (the first one she's ever had) and I have been helping her out. She has been attending some basic computing classes but they run the classes on Windows XP and her notebook is on Windows Vista so it looks different and for her, it looks incredibly different. Her classes have also covered MS Word and MS Excel (thankfully she is not using MS Office 2007 which also looks very different) and she picks up some things quickly but struggles with others.

I haven't been to the cinema since Easter. I saw 'Gone Baby Gone' and 'The Painted Veil' and I had also seen 'The Edge of Heaven' a few weeks earlier which were all excellent. I also saw a documentary called 'In the Shadow of the Moon' about the first trips to the Moon which was great (I can remember that time so well.) The Melbourne International Film Festival is coming up at the end of July so I will have to plan for that although I will probably only go at weekends thanks to my work.

I am going to do a bit of tidying on my space...I'm tired of the cluttered look so we'll see what happens here. I am going to try and get around to see what everyone has been up to.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest We Forget

We will....

Never, ever, ever forget the sacrifices that were made in defence of our freedom, by the men and women of our armed services.

It's April Fool's Day...and it's one of the most amusing days on the calendar. I have been keeping an open eye on our media today for hoaxes.  So let's see...here's just a small selection from my media; you be the judge:

The Reserve Bank met today and decided not to increase interest rates for the first time in several months. True or False?

The centre lanes of St Kilda Road, one of Melbourne's main and best loved boulevards, will only be available to trams and bicycles in the future and motor vehicles will be relegated to the service lanes. True or False?

Google have today announced an amazing new feature called G'day that allows you to search content on the internet before its created. True or False?

Andrew Bolt, the ever charming and erudite right wing columnist at the Herald Sun, plans to stand for the Liberals when Peter Costello resigns.  True or False?

Wayne Carey, the former AFL footballer, is finally telling the truth (see last night's Enough Rope interview with Andrew Denton). True or False?

The Yarra River, the major river that runs through Melbourne, is about to become the third freeway. True or False?

And finally, here is the last word on the Australian media and April Fool's Day.

Oh and PS: And for those of you who like me, just love April Fool's Day, here the link to the (arguably) Top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes.

And PPS: Please tell me and others here about the hoaxes where you live. Humour has to be shared!