27 January, 2008

twitch... twitch... twitch...

That's what my leg is doing right now.

I have a muscle twitch in the middle of my right thigh, at the front. It's the weirdest feeling. How do I get rid of it though? It's starting to drive me a little nuts!

I'm sure it will go away eventually. J's a little amazed that I've never experienced this before. I guess I've had a twitch in my eye before (I tend to get that when I'm stressed or over-tired) but it's never happened in my leg before.

Has anyone else had this before? And more importantly, how the heck did you get rid of it?!

23 January, 2008

22 January, 2008

What is it with...

* little boys and their 'aim' in the bathroom?

I went into the toilet after Chickie used it and nearly slipped over in the large puddle of wee next to the toilet. I was not amused. Moral of the story here - always turn the light on when entering.

* shops stocking up on the next 'holiday item' so early?

Seriously, I saw hot cross buns in the supermarket on December 27th! Easter is what? March, April? Now the shelves are stocked with easter eggs and I'm going to have to live with the gooey deliciousness, that is the Cadbury creme egg, calling my name for months!

* my lack of motivation to look after myself?

I have type 2 diabetes that is controlled by diet and exercise. I haven't exercised properly in two months and while I try to watch the diet, the last two months has also seen a lot of icecream being eaten. I keep saying that I need to exercise but I can't seem to actually drag myself onto my bike. My next HbA1c is going to be awful I think (and the point above won't help...)

* grumpy customers who can't seem to accept that sometimes you do need to take some responsibility too!

Honestly some customers drive me mad sometimes. You get so many customers that just don't believe you when you suggest that the problem may be something on their end - even when you can prove to them that they don't have the problem when they unplug that phone or stop using the 70 gazillion metre phone cable. We had one customer who went ballistic at one of our reps, even after her brother (who is a telephone line technician by trade and had checked the wiring inside her house) told her the wiring was the cause of the problem. Considering this brother works for the opposition, I'm inclined to believe him.

The one that blows my mind is the lady I spoke to a few months back. She had a new service that hadn't worked from the start. She was furious when I spoke to her and was demanding we refund her full monthly fee. The problem? Well, she'd plugged the filter in backwards. Now I can understand that some people get confused about how the DSL service is supposed to be set up. That's why we include a pamphlet with pictures showing how to plug it in (this customer told me she hadn't bothered to look at that). We also include a little animation on the setup CD showing exactly how to set it up (she told me she skipped that part of the setup CD). Finally our service also provides free 24 hour phone support if there are problems or you want help setting things up. This customer waited over a week to call us, and when she did she yelled at the rep she spoke to and basically wouldn't let them troubleshoot. It was passed onto me and fixed in 10 minutes. She didn't get to use it for a week and wanted the whole monthly fee back. I didn't give it to her. If she'd been nice about the whole thing though, I would have been happy to give her a credit for the week she wasn't able to use - even though it was a problem she'd caused.

Thank goodness there are plenty of nice customers out there though.

* Chickie's teeth!

I'm amazed at how quickly straight teeth can shift once the adult tooth decides it's not waiting for the baby teeth to be lost first.

In the last few weeks of school last year, Chickie's teacher took photos of all the kids so they could make a frame as a Christmas present for their parents. Chickie's photo is very cute and his teeth are quite straight. Then by Christmas day, two of Chickie's front teeth have been pushed aside so far he was able to fit a straw in the gap (one of the big front teeth and the smaller one to the left). The big front one was overlapping the other big front one, while the smaller one next to it was almost sticking out at right angles! Neither of these two were loose, by the way, and I was about to make an appointment at the dentist to have him check things. Then on my birthday he came home with the big front tooth in a paper towel. It had finally been pushed out far enough. He's funny sometimes though, he told the vacation care supervisor that she could have his tooth as a present. She kindly declined, suggesting he might want to see if the tooth fairy came (she did).

You can now see the adult tooth and it's huge. It's basically taking up the whole gap where previously there were two baby teeth. I'm worried the poor kid's not going to have room in his jaw for all these huge teeth that he seems to be getting (this is his 4th adult tooth and he has two more wobbly teeth! Not counting the one that is still sticking out at the front).

Can anyone reassure me that he'll grow into his teeth? Or should I be starting a braces/dental fund now?

12 January, 2008

Back into it

It's now been a week since Mum and Dad left for home. They should arrive home today after a slow drive home with the caravan. They were here for a bit over three weeks, with my sisters and their families here for around a week (over Christmas).

It was really great to see them all. Some of the family had never been down here (and we've been here almost 10 years now), and some I haven't seen in over a year. The amazing thing was how grown up the kids are getting. The oldest nephew didn't come - he was actually in Japan over Christmas (got back the day before yesterday). He's 18 and finished school now so I guess it's to be expected. At least we got to see him when we went on our holidays earlier this year.

There were a few stresses and annoyances during the whole time. I suppose that's also to be expected (there were 10 adults and 7 kids around for a lot of the time and our house isn't that big!). I was debating with myself about posting some of my gripes here, but I've decided to just let it go. I think that might be healthier!

So, I'm back at work now and nothing really changes. I mean that literally. We're still dealing with issues that were a problem, before I started my holidays! Although, there was one change. The no shorts policy has been temporarily changed back to allowing them - due to the extreme heat. Same rules as before - below the knee, dress shorts, no board shorts etc. So I can wear my capris again. A good thing, as I did wear one of my skirts to work and I just felt I wasn't dressy enough (like I do in my capris!).

Thank you all for your good wishes for T's dad. At this stage it will be a bit of a hard road for him as he recovers. He's lost one foot (up to mid calf as prosthethics available for this amputation are better) and the heel from the other. They were able to save his toes on the other foot and grafted a muscle from his stomach to reconstruct the heel (basically from his arch to the little bone that pokes out on the side of your ankle was lost).

T says he was very lucky. He was doing the work on his friend's property and she was home so heard him yelling for help. They also have neighbours, very close to the area he was working in, who also heard him - these neighbours are both nurses, so he was able to get medical help very quickly. If this had happened on his own property it's quite likely he wouldn't have survived apparently.

I'm going to try visiting all your blogs soon and I know I need to do some work on my template. A lot of my links need updating and I need to fix up my header/photo, so I have a bit of work to do. I was thinking of redoing my header pic again anyway, so this will be a good opportunity for it. I have no idea how long it will take me though!

Feel free to comment and update me with how you're doing. I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and 2008 is a wonderful year for you!