Long time no blog

Been too busy with "out of comfort zone" job. 
6 more weeks.
In the meantime..this little man is the newest member of our family..I'd been eying him since waaay before Christmas and he was even on my Christmas list.  I  finally gave in on Saturday.

Meet Aloysius the first of the 3 blind mice:

when this pix was taken he was guarding our front door but in keeping with the "Ernie"  tradition he keeps moving around and currently he's sitting on the balcony

Cat pix

caption options:

• ok so THIS one's mine
• no..this just doesn't smell right
• boo hoo  nothing for me...I've been forgotten

oh well I love Ernie and Ernie loves me

End of another phase

Well one thing's for sure...I cannot now work an 8 hour day AND train if I'm on my feet literally all the time except for lunch and a bit of computer time.  I'm just too stuffed by the time I get home.

• Thankfully I've come to the end of my 6 week clinical locum. Since New Year I've had to put in 8 hour days 'cos  the ward, which was s'posed to have  only 20 beds open, ended up with 25, 26 or 28 patients depending on the day and I was the only lonely Physio.

• For the next 13 weeks I get a bit of a physical rest but more  mental stress as I go through a vertical learning "curve" as a project officer. Wish me luck.

• Training was going well til this week, but hopefully I'll quickly get back on track :-) this weekend and next week as I start to prepare for the State Masters Track Champs in Feb.  I've given the women's Omnium the flick as I'm fairly sure I'll need a rest period afer my first week on the new job rather than a full day's racing...could it be that I'm developing a modicum of sense? I rather hope not.

• My European plans are still fuzzy due to not yet knowing if there'll be a European Masters Track Champs. I hope they decide soon...I need to plan for 2 weeks  in an Italian Language school in Italy to mesh in with them.

• And yet another slip of the tongue this time  from a social worker to a male nurse:  Hey Scott...you're really good with the ladies in the shower!    WE knew what she meant but a good belly laugh is always great medicine.

• I've just eaten my first home grown tomato and strawberry (not together of course)..yum!

2010 reprise..a year of trials and mixed success

2010...the year I decided to stop permanent employment (retire in fact) and the year I decided to try cycle touring. It was also  the year I discovered neither was right for me!

I was well and truly over being a slave to having to front up for work regularly and only having 4 weeks/year to do what I really wanted to do, but when push came to shove I realised that retirement sucks and actually I enjoy the work environment as long as I can engage with it when I want to ...so locum work is the go.  Currently I am coming to the end of a 6 week clinical locum and after that have a 13 week project officer job.  Then.....well who knows, but I'm going OS on June 30th and that's a ticket already bought and paid for.

Cycle touring...I adored Italy, just loved the hilltop towns and villages, the olive groves and the Italian people but discovered that touring for touring's sake didn't grab me at all which meant that riding through bad weather or boring terrain was not for me...I enjoy a physical challenge but I rapidly  lost my sense of humour when things got boring, went on too long or got really wet and/or cold, 'sides which too much touring wrecks my race legs.

So...2011 brings occasional work, no touring, racing on road and track both OS and in Aus.

goals are:

Track

Masters Nats  in March

Masters European  if it eventuates in Italy in July

Masters Worlds  in manchester in October

Road

racing in Austria for 2 weeks during August

and to make these goals happen  positively:

train consistently

manage fatigue levels

return to race weight

and finally just to demonstrate I'm not one dimensional(!) attend an Italian language school in Italy to supplement the classes I'm taking here.

Hold the front page!

What a year..first Alex thinks he's #'d his left wrist while in Portugal, then Phil #'s his left hip and had to be helicoptered out of the bush, and now (hopefully finally) in a truly dramatic effort to up-stage all, Ben has #'d  his left scapula. Me?..... I'm staying wrapped in cottonwool for the next 2 weeks...especially my left side!

I was diligently working away on the indoor trainer late Saturday afternoon when a pathetic pain wracked   voice said in my ear...I think you need to take me to hospital...and there was an  ill looking Ben  holding onto his arm in a way that all cyclists recognise there is a fracture somewhere, although usually its the clavicle not the scapula. 

Despite Ben not having private health insurance l  opted to go to that route rather than wait for hours and hours in a public hosp emergency dept and so 2 hours later, after an xray which was a bit unclear and a CT which was not, we got the whole story in graphic detail.

Usually scapula #'s  are just left to heal themselves as they are stable due to location and the underlying rib cage and despite my initial fears on seeing the scan, that's the case for Ben too..if you take a good look at middle  pix on the right of the bottom scan..the one that is 100% side on, you'll see that nothing is sticking out either into his ribs or out into his skin.  

He's up for 4 weeks total immobility in a sling with no exercises at all to allow it a good chance to heal itself as best it can, followed by Physio.  

I'd never seen anything remotely as bad as this before, but the surgeon said he'd seen similar on motor bike accident victims.

Poor Ben..appalling timing  as he wont be able to work and he was on the verge of getting an adult  apprenticeship in the building trade.....

 

I'm now going to have what might be a rather robust discussion with the Private Hospital..they wanted to keep Ben in overnight to see the surgeon when he came in the next day .  I was told that since he was uninsured their protocol is to ask for 5 nights accommodation and if he didn't stay the 5 there would be a refund.  On discharge I was told a different story which was that if the Health fund allocated 5 days funding for the particular problem then that is what I would have to pay, or the hospital would lose money on that admission!!!

I'm not very good arguing my case on the spot but forewarned is forearmed and I've been busy marshalling my arguments just in case...I might even suggest that I would consider  contacting "Today Tonight" or some other equally appalling "exposure" TV program..

helmet standard change - yet again and again and again

How to govern by feel, hope and a prayer(click the title for the link).  

This time the standard was updated and brought in so quickly wholesalers and retailers were caught on the hop but  after protest the change is  to be delayed by 6 months.

Our helmet standards are already so stringent they surpass any other standard on the globe and now they are being tightened even further.  In my mind they reflect the "nanny state" persona of our laws, after all we ARE the most governed people in the world with federal, state and local governments alive and well and living off our taxes.

I'm just hoping that the aero helmet I bought for road TT's will not have to be replaced too soon ..first i want to make it earn what I paid for it!

Bizarre

This, like the scene on my weekend ride into the country of green grass and full dams, is sooo bizarre for this part of the world, it needs to be recorded for posterity:

from the bureau of meteorology site