V5.1

Update: Pop made it through surgery seemingly well. Hoping the recovery process is positive and we hve home home soon again!

Until then, some pictures hand chosen from the family albums...

Pop, if he put on weight, a squint and wore a tux complete with bow tie.

Pop in parade balloon form.

V5.0

I know, I have been slack for the past few months. With a fair enough excuse. Since last blogging, I have moved from Queensland back to Victoria (two states ftl/ftw - depending on how you look at it).. Aside from that, it has been back to square one with a new job, new/old friends and other such prospects.

I had originally typed up a rather positive blog and had saved it. Unfortunately things have dramatically changed in the past half a week or so.

Nan and pop moved from Brisbane to Geelong on Saturday. They were both well, slowly moving things and getting the house set up etc. Sunday, however things had taken a turn for the worse. Pop had gone from being able to walk, talk, eat and do things for himself to not being able to walk without two of us, unable to eat on his own and was unable to speak sense - i.e. it consisted of made up words. After deciding to call the ambulance, against his wishes we headed off to the hospital to meet them there. Four or so hours later of tests and such, they found he was bleeding intracranially, and had been since his last head injury the week an a half earlier. The week and a half earlier, he had tripped and pounded his head on the tiles causing internal hemorrhaging into his brain. From this he ha gone into surgery to have it fixed up, leaving a hematoma behind. After being in observation for continual bleeding for a few days the doctors there (in Brisbane) gave him the all clear to fly down to Victoria. But alas, their observation had failed. Poppy had been bleeding out into his brain since the original injury, but noticeable symptoms and signs were only showing a week and a half after the fall.

He was rushed off to Melbourne to see a neurosurgery team to decide the best cause of action, although we already knew that ultimately more surgery was the only option. We spent the day with him before he went in for surgery today. I have never seen him like this, so confused, so disorientated. Although, I am surprised that he was pretty good with remembering my name this time (usually he gets a little muddled and calls me Cass - my cousin. Although he does have the early stages of vascular dementia).. We said our goodbyes, kissed him on the forehead and watched him be taken away for surgery.

He should be out now. However, I have not heard any news. It's strange you know, with this sort of thing at work I am fine, but once it's your own it's a totally different ball game.

Surgery for four hours, and I just got the word - he has made it through the surgery and has gotten to recovery. Fingers crossed he continues to get through it. I am aware that risks of this surgery may not seem that likely to happen, but with Poppys health status at the moment, I am not taking anything to chance. As nan says however, 'We shall not worry until we know for sure there is something we indeed need to worry about.'

I am currently looking positively into the future, hoping that it all works out the way we desire. I could not bare to lose another grandparent. Losing the first two was hard enough. A sense of relief has come over me. I pray it only gets better from here.

V3.1

He's gone. A man who terrorised me back home, caused heart-ache and distress; altered lives forever.. Passed away. Now I am quite sensitive when it comes to people passing - I've seen over a handful of dead bodies in my life during work.. However I will not be one of those that do a complete 180 and once the person passed act as though we were friends, we got along, we cared. He was not a good person, he did not have a heart of gold [do not get me wrong, we are not all perfect]. Granted, he was in a tough place towards the end - his final attempt encased him in a limp; lifeless body until ultimately he met his demise.

This event closes an important chapter in our book, I will no longer be thinking 'what if', what if he was to 'suddenly' get better and it happen all over again? I knew it was impossible, to go from what he had become back to what he was, but it never stopped me from wondering. This event will give a number of us the closure in our lives that we have been looking for, for years.

I probably sound cold but I refuse to be one of the ones who turns and says, 'He had so much to live for what a shame.. Isn't it sad..' Etc. That is not me, and although he lived the past couple of years in somewhat torture - he was finally on the receiving end. I know, I sound cruel, but I have good reasons to. I get that it was sad what he tried to do towards the end.. But he did it all to himself. You know, you reap what you sew.

On another note, time for a change. Going to take some time off uni and do some IT stuff for a while. I need to chill and get myself together, and just enjoy myself for the time being. Before I burn out; or my back goes again.

Holidays soon! Heading home [Geelong] for 9 or so days, then on to Tassie where I will be meeting up with Katey, Lyns et al for 6 days to hunt around and such. I seriously can not wait - so excited!!

Cadbury factory here we come!


I sincerely hope they have this at Tassie Cadbury..

Well, off to have lunch with the Nana!

V3.0

Happy New Years to all! After much waiting, 2009 is finally upon us! I [among others I am sure] have been waiting a long while for this year to finally be here, and here it is! Last night for me was spent between my friend Dan's and Southbank for the midnight fireworks... Oh and in the back of the ambulance. Ahah fun fun.

It started off by me waving goodbye to Katey from the front yard as I set off to the station. Having not been to our new station before I left with ample time, yet today the train decided to come early and hence I did not have time to get a ticket [what a rebel, I know!]. After getting Jane to get me a ticket and bring it to me so I could get out of the train station unscathed of a $150 fine, we made our way to the happy herbs shop in the Valley. This place is hippy to the extreme, and smells wonderfully of incense and hemp clothing. It makes me reminisce over the hippy events/festivals that my mum used to take us to, including such things as Confest and other glorious places; times.

After getting some [completely legal] happy pills and brew we headed to the supermarket to get dinner items - it was decided I cook apricot chicken for us tonight. After trying to take a supermarket trolley out of the supermarket full of bags and still needing to go to the bottle shop, we were stopped by the attendant. Turns out that once you leave the store, the wheels lock so as to prevent trolley theft. It seems it has been a long while since I had been to the good ol' Valley. Heh.

After we trekked up to the Jubilee to collect booze for the others, had a minor flirt with the attendant - who says curls DON'T get the girls - and we were on our way back to Dan's new pad, with a carton of Vodka Cruisers. Ahah, I feel like the epitome of a teenage girl, except that I am well over legal age. Shame. It helped a little that Dan was carrying it, knowing fair well that he enjoys the taste an alcoholic beverage that fairs the same as soft drink. Somehow I think back to the 'outrage' experienced by the Australian Family Association over the 'Alcopop Free Condom Offer.' Can not be bothered explaining, but in the end came this lulzy picture:

Anyway, got to Dan's where I cooked an awesome apricot chicken with rice where we had one or two drinks and played Sing Star. Turns out, I am not too bad at it. We headed out to Southbank to meet up with some of Jane's friends. We danced to bad dance, try hard trance and mandatory songs [such as 'The way you make me feel', and Toni Basil's 'Hey Mickey'] in a sea of people who did not seem to be dancing, which turns out produces pictures like this:

After sitting down for a while, I started to feel ill. Leapt up, running to the bathroom where I proceeded to vomit up blood. Tasty much [Keep in mind I had a total of 2 (two) drinks].. After spending a good 30 minutes to find the ambulance officers with police being next to no help, they took a set of obs and said I was fine and dandy and to just take it easy. I am thinking that the heat, dancing and lack of water did not agree with me. It was dark blood so that tells us that it is old - i.e. no problemo. As I stepped out of the ambulance, walked down to the steps the fireworks started. Happy New Years. I looked around, finding Dan and Jane's cheery faces which seemed to melt away the reality of drunken youths and annoying people in general. Fireworks were not as good as I had hoped for, but were pretty all the same.

After the trek back to Dan's, I downed about a litre of water while the others had more alco pops and we wandered down to the pool. Sat around and had a long chat, then deciding that we would bail out on the pool idea and pass out in front of the air conditioner instead [mainly because someone was getting 'busy' in the pool, or so it seemed]. Good choice I say [in us deciding to bail]. The day after involved pizza, Kung-Fu Panda, Futurama, air conditioner and the pool. All in all a reasonably decent New Years.

Besides, it is all worth it when you have awesome kids to hang out with..

V1.6

Exam 4 out of 4 completed today, and I am feeling pretty good about it! That's uni done for the year, now I can focus on work and moving and such. Woot.

What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Romantic movies are [secretly] certainly one of my favourites when it comes to movie genres. I think I associate more relationships I’ve had with movies rather than songs. Like, you can associate it with words as well as pictures, rather than just the words [with music]. This seems to make the movie leave a mental image that’s stronger than a song, I guess [Don't get me wrong, I still associate some people etc with songs]. Movies set the stage. What ends up playing out is just about anyone’s guess, but personally I would rather take a night on the couch with a good movie than one spent by the radio when it comes to love.

Highlight for this evening would definitely be seeing Mike O'Malley serenade Heather Locklear on the footpath, even up the fire escape in an attempt to win her heart. Any guy that takes me to a concert [or even a gaming convention] for our first date would definitely be in the runnings of having my heart, but that's just me.

I sometimes wonder, how these [romance] movies become so popular? The story's are more than often illogical and very, very unrealistic. I mean, daughter pretends to be 'the dream guy' to mother on the internet, then tells mother. Yet the daughter is still alive?! This being said however, I must admit, there is a certain appeal to them. Having even the smallest ounce of hope in thinking that these scenarios could infact happen to us one day, somehow manages to connect us with the film. Clever. I am optimistic that one day I get the geeky guy [in this case Ben Feldman] in the film. Or am I just not Hilary Duff enough? I bet she doesn't get his comic jokes.