I'm 'chucking a sickie' today...

at my manager's suggestion. I did ask for a day's annual leave but he said it was easier to just have a day out of my sick leave than to have last minute annual leave approved. I haven't used much of my sick leave so I'm fine with that.

The reason for it, is that I went home with a migraine last Friday and since then, I've had a mild continuous headache. It just won't go away. I think it's more a tension headache though, since it has that feeling of a tight band around my head. I'm hoping that with a couple of days relaxing it might just leave me alone. Particularly since I have today all to myself.

I thought, if the weather was nice, I might take a nice stroll around the neighbourhood. Unfortunately it looks like it might rain (and it's been so sunny all week!), so I'll skip that, I think. I might go visit a friend who is pregnant and on bedrest (she's in danger of giving birth very prematurely). I have another massage booked this afternoon. I also plan to get off the computer after this (and stay off for the day). So hopefully a relaxing day will fix my head.

Any other suggestions for relaxing welcomed!

Census

Census night tonight in Australia and jeez the questions are nosy!

They want to know all sorts of things besides the usual how many people in the house, what religion are you all, are you working type of stuff. Things like, did you look for work in the last week, how did you get to work today, how much time did you spend on housework, did you look after any children this week.

The ads say it's to help plan the services required for the future (hospitals, transportation etc). Umm... so where does the housework amount come into things?

I wonder how many people will lie in this form? Particularly given that last time there were a surprising percentage of jedi knights living in Australia. Interestingly though, apparently Australia has one of the highest census counts in the world, well according to channel 10's news anyway - they reckon the last census covered 98% of our population.

Governments are so damned nosy...

Signs of things to come?

Normally Chickie is an early riser. Way too early for J and I. I wonder though if that will last when he's a teenager.

He has this little alarm clock since he's very interested in learning to tell the time at the moment. Anyway he must have switched the alarm on at some stage. He's been in bed for about half an hour or so (so probably not yet into his deepest sleep, I'd imagine) and the alarm went off. It's not hugely loud but I could hear it with his door almost shut (I just couldn't figure out where it was coming from).

I went in there and, at a quick glance, he looked to be fast asleep. I was surprised he hadn't woken up. I turned off the alarm and double checked him and nearly laughed out loud. He was fast asleep - with his hands over his ears!

Oh, these teenage years are going to be fun. Good thing I have 9 years to prepare!

Domesticity

It's a glorious sunday afternoon. Sunny with a slight breeze, around 18 degrees (about 64 for those who use Fahrenheit) and this weather is making everyone feel that spring is coming soon.

Yesterday was similar and it was quite funny to go shopping and people watch. We sat down at our local Yiros place (we often share a yiros on a plate before doing the grocery shopping) and watched as people wandered by. The lovely temperatures meant a very wide range of clothing. I saw one lady bundled up in a thick coat with fluffy hood, then another with a short denim skirt and shoestring top. Neither was really the best dress for the day, if you ask me.

Spring is definitely coming. Both J and I are feeling the urge to spring-clean. J's been clearing out the shed so we can actually use it as a proper workshop and I've been madly washing clothes (to take advantage of the sunshine), sweeping, mopping and vaccuming. I've got all the windows open wide, with all the usual sunny sunday sounds coming in. Lawnmowers in several yards, kids riding their bikes up and down the street and the birds singing at the tops of their voices. Domestic bliss...

All a bit traditional, I guess. Mind you, I'd much rather do the mopping and washing etc than clear out the shed - way, way less cobwebs to deal with!

Updated my links

I've been meaning to do it for ages and now I've finally done it. Please check out the links over on the left hand side. There are a lot of interesting people out there.

Dear dieters

How do you keep your cravings in check?

I have type 2 diabetes, so I need to eat a balanced diet, eat healthy, eat small portions often, leave the junkfood alone... blah, blah, blah

What do you do when you just don't feel satisfied?

I'm in a mood tonight, I think. I'm not hungry but I'm not feeling satisfied by what I'm eating. I'm a bit sick of healthy food tonight too. Fed up to here (picture me with my hand waving around eye level) with vegetables. What I feel like is a pack of plain potato Tasty Jacks or paprika flavoured Pringles (it's probably a good thing they don't make these anymore, I think - I loved them!). By the way, the reviewer on both those links didn't really think much of either of these items - but they're my favourites anyway.

So, I'm obsessing over food tonight. Feeling in crunchy, salty kind of mood. An 'mmmmm.... potatoes' kinda mood. I've had to make do with a handful of salted cashew nuts. Again yummy, but not exactly what I'm craving.

I'm sure I never thought this much about food - well, junk food - before I was diagnosed with diabetes. I ate it sure - but obsess, nah...

What to do about the cravings then huh?

Big Bother.. er Big Brother is over for another season

And Jamie has won. I have to admit I didn't watch the finale, but I did hear an interesting tidbit/soundbyte this afternoon.

A bit of background - Jamie and another housemate Katie got very close (even had a mock wedding apparently) though she was evicted several weeks ago. Things were supposedly all still on even though, they've been separated for weeks.

On the radio I heard about how Katie ran up to Jamie and said something like 'We're rich!'. I thought that was a bit presumptive. I mean, they've had a very short relationship - in a weird situation that may not stand up to the pressures of day to day normality. Why would she assume that she's getting half? Sure Jamie might want to share the prize winnings, but that's his choice.

I think Rove said it best. The housemates were all on his show tonight - except John and Ashley who were removed after the turkey-slap incident. One of the housemates mentioned he was disappointed they weren't included and Rove said he would have had them there but he wasn't allowed. The housemates said that he could have them on next week and Rove said that by next week no one will care.

Hate to say it guys - I reckon it's true!

Shopping Vent

We went shopping today. One of the things I was after was a plain white longsleeve t-shirt type top for Chickie. I found a total of zero longsleeve shirts in plain colours. Plenty in short sleeves but not what I wanted.

I wish retailers wouldn't bring in the summer stock so early. There's still a bit over a month left of winter and even in early spring it's not warm enough to wear the shortsleeve stuff. With Chickie growing so quickly (as kids are wont to do), the winter clothes I bought at the beginning of the season are starting to look like 3/4 sleeves. So some plain, cheap winter basics would be handy right about now. There's still a selection of more expensive stuff out (character stuff, fashion stuff etc), but basics are all oriented to summer now.

I guess I could just buy the next size up as well, at the beginning of the season, but there's really two problems with that. 1 - I can't really tell how much he's going to grow at the beginning of the season. This kid seems to grow in fits and starts. 2 - I'm pretty much buying a whole new wardrobe (shoes included) each winter/summer so it's kind of a hit to the wallet already. Buying the next size up as well, just in case would be costly - especially if he doesn't grow as much as I estimate and then never gets to wear them!

I don't quite understand why the retailers get the new stuff in so early. I used to work for a clothing store in a town where it used to snow in winter. I remember unpacking the new summer arrivals, while it was snowing out, many many times. The new stuff didn't usually sell for a long time (till it started to warm up natch) and then we'd have the questions from customers about stuff they wanted now for winter!

Oh well, I'll keep looking.

The other thing I saw, while shopping, was - The Wiggles Toddler Wipes... The only thing I could think of was The Simpsons and how Krusty has his brand on everything! Wiggles - say it ain't so!

Can money buy serenity?

Perhaps...

Once a month I have a day off on a Friday (I work Sundays instead). So Chickie's at childcare, J's at work and I have the day to myself.

Today I slept in, cleaned the bathroom/toilet (they sparkle!) and went to the movies. I saw the Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. It was sweet - I'm a sucker for chickflicks (heck, I'm a sucker for a clean-shaven Keanu too, hehe).

Last thing I did was have a massage. 45 mins of relaxation - well sorta... I've had problems with my left knee. If you read back a bit, I've been on anti-inflammatories, I've had x-rays and at least it's not an arthritic problem, but no one really knows what it is. It started as a sore muscle down the outside of my left knee but the docs have said both my knees were swollen (I haven't had a noticeable problem with my right knee though). After a lot of weeks I'd say it's about 85-90% back to normal. Much better than it's been but still gives out on me occasionally and aches if I do too much with it.

So the massage therapist concentrated a bit on my leg muscles and hoo boy, I thought I was going to jump off that table a few times! After a bit, he sprayed something called cold spray on it and got right in there. I have to say it feels so much better! In fact my left knee feels better than my right. He says it's the illio-tibial tract that seemed to be giving the most reaction. Hopefully I've spelled that correctly since I'm off to google it in a moment.

As I was heading out of the building I saw one of the guys I work with. He said I was looking very serene. So, I guess money can buy serenity - well at least for a while ;)

Tough girl!

I saw a dietician today. She says I'm doing the right things - in fact she thinks I might be too tough on myself. What she had to say did seem to feel right.

I've been testing my blood glucose levels after eating various foods to see how they affect me. A lot of the levels just don't make any sense. I could eat the same thing (ie: cook one meal then halve it) one day and have a reasonable blood glucose level after 2 hours. Yet the rest of the meal the next day would send my levels to the quite high mark. Some days my levels don't always seem to have a lot of relation to what I eat. It was like that when I had gestational diabetes too (and I ended up on insulin injections fairly quickly then).

She said that if I had random highs even when eating properly, then I may need to speak to my doctor about medication. *sigh* I really don't want that though. I feel like it's admitting defeat.

I have this sinking feeling it might happen sooner rather than later though. My morning (fasting) bgl's are way higher than they should be, then they seem to go fairly low (for me low is around the 5 mmol/ml mark) before lunch. I spend a lot of mornings feeling like crap.

She thinks my levels may actually be going too low overnight, the liver then pushes out glucose to (possibly over) compensate, which then pushes up my fasting bgl's. Then when my body finally gets around to processing that glucose, it's going low enough to make me feel awful.

For now she wants to make sure I have a snack before bedtime to see if that helps keep my levels steadier overnight. Then if my body isn't pushing out too much glucose, there isn't as much insulin required to process it, so I won't go so low before lunch. I'm hope it works - I hate the feeling of low bgl's.

I shouldn't have said anything!

A while back I commented on this post about dreams on Sean's blog. My comment was that I don't remember my dreams. So last night - I had a dream I remember.

It was more a nightmare really. I don't really remember much. Something about someone snatching Chickie and wanting to hang him. I grabbed Chickie and curled my body around him to protect him while J fought off the bad guy with an axe.

I feel sick at the thought of someone trying to hurt my Chickie, and this dream's been on my mind all day. So, I looked up a dream dictionary to see if there's any meaning behind it. This is what I found at Dream moods:

• To dream of being abducted, indicates that you are being controlled by your circumstances or by someone. To dream about witnessing an abduction, foretells of unexpected news.
• To watch a hanging in your dream, represents your feelings of insecurity. Consider also the image as a pun for something in your life which you have left hanging or unfinished.
• To dream that you are protecting someone, suggests that you are putting up an emotional wall or barrier between you and others around you. Consider who or what you are protecting for clues as to what aspect of your own self you are afraid of letting out and letting others know.
• To see an ax in your dream, indicates that you are overly controlling. It is symbolic of destruction, hostility, and the frustrations that you are experiencing.

So what does all that actually mean? I'm overly controlling and put up a barrier between myself and others? I'm also insecure, have unfinished business, and I may be getting some unexpected news?

I don't know... the dream was pretty unsettling, is all I know.

I love talking on the phone...

and I hate talking on the phone.

I'm on the phone pretty much all day. A lot of the time I like it. I love chatting to people, helping them out with their problems. Some people can be so nice and friendly even when they're having problems with their phones or internet.

Some people are all business. They just want to get on to you quickly and get the problem fixed or reported and get off the line. I have no problem with that and will do my best to be as quick as I can.

Some people are angry at the circumstances of their problem but they take pains to let you know it's not you personally they're angry with. For those people I will do whatever I can to help out.

Then there are others. Others I really don't want to talk to. Others that are rude. Others that think they're the only person who deserves help and therefore want to jump the 'queue'. Others that hurl abuse at you because they think that making a big stink will get you to do whatever the hell they want and fsck anyone else that is ahead of them. Those I don't want to help at all. For these people I will do what my job requires but I will not go out of my way to help. These people get the absolute minimum I'm paid to do.

I don't understand why people treat others this way. I've been on the other end - waiting for ages in a queue, had problems with services, had to wait my turn and been annoyed by things. Is that any excuse for poor manners though? There are ways to communicate your displeasure that don't leave the rep, you are speaking to, wanting to reach down the phone line and slap you stupid.

It may seem silly but, to this day, I will not get pizza from a certain pizza company because of a customer I spoke to over 5 years ago. This particular guy had his franchise in my area and he was so rude that I decided we'd never buy anything from that chain ever again (and J buys a lot of pizza! He'd have it several times a week if I'd let him). That particular customer may not even be involved with that place any more, but I don't care. I don't care that it's just my little protest and it probably makes zero difference to them.

I do want to say thank you to the nice, friendly, even angry but polite callers out there. Thank goodness you're in the majority or I'd have quit a looong time ago.

Habits

I've been told it takes about six weeks of doing something consistently to make it a habit.

Not sure I believe that. I was told I was diabetic in the latter months of 2005 and part of the management plan is regular exercise - 30 mins a day. Regular exercise helps keep your blood glucose levels steady apparently.

So why is it that I'm sitting here blogging about exercise and not actually out there on the bike working off some calories? I've been exercising for months now and it most definitely isn't a habit. I really have to force myself to do it.

I was never a sporty kid. The most exercise I got as a teen was bush archery (no, not with real animals or anything - just cardboard targets around a great big hill). P.E. and sports carnivals were 'exercises' in getting out of stuff. At every athletics carnival my friends and I would volunteer to help out with the discus event. It was always the furthest from the main action and you couldn't always hear the announcements for your events.

The most disappointing thing? I've found that exercise is really the only way I lose weight. I was at my lowest weight when I lived in a flat on top of a hill and didn't have a car. I had to do the groceries in bits - as much as I was able to carry in my backpack (up the hill).

Oh well, better go do my half an hour for the day. At least I'm seeing results - I've lost about 12 kilos since September 2005 and it's noticeable. Lots of people have commented and I've bought jeans two sizes smaller.

test results are back

The x-rays are back and the very good news is no sign of any degenerative conditions in my knees.

Phew! I have to admit to being a bit worried when the discomfort and swelling didn't seem to want to go away (not to mention when the first doctor was throwing around terms like arthritis and psoriatic arthropathy - eeek!). At least it's getting better - just a little too slooooowly for my liking.

The report does say "There is minor irregularity of the patellar articular surface superiorly on the left. " but the doc says this is nothing to be concerned about. She believes it was just some inflammation that's now on it's way out. That's what I like to hear!

My Hb1Ac (or is it HbA1c??? I always get confused) results are back too. This is the test that averages your blood sugar levels over the past three months. Mine came back at 5.8 which is good. It's a little higher than last time but I thought it might be the case since my knee has stopped me from exercising as much as I had in the past. I was half expecting it to be over 6.0.

My results started off at 7.0 when I was diagnosed (apparently 7.0 is the cut off for diagnosis of diabetes type 2), then I had 5.9, 5.6 and now 5.8. I'm told these are really good levels.

I have to admit though, I don't think I'm doing that great with my diabetes. I'm still learning what foods send my blood glucose levels high. Sometimes it's really confusing because, at times, I'll eat the exact same thing and get really different results - one day may be quite high and others fine. I feel like I'm often bouncing between highs and lows, and to get the result like this 5.8, I wonder if there are many times that I'm going really low that I'm just not aware of (I try to test if I feel odd). I see a dietician next week so perhaps she can give me some help in figuring things out.

Gah! Will someone just discover a cure for diabetes already!!!

Hello, my name is Caramaena...

and I'm a blog-oholic.

Well, ok my name isn't really Caramaena, but addicted to blogs? Yep, that's me.

In the previous post the lovely Fairscape thanked me for stopping by so often. Often can mean a couple of times a day. I have a list of bookmarks of my favourite blogs (lots more than I have in my links on this page - I really need to update them) and the list is growing longer and longer. I even have them separated into folders of work related, personal and miscellaneous blogs. I love to see new posts and I wish my favourite bloggers would post more often!

I'm in Australia and most of the blogs I read are either based in the U.S. or the U.K. so the time difference means I can find new posts in my mornings and my evenings - that's why I check a couple of times a day. Ok ok, so I'm justifying my addiction now!

In any case, I'm always looking out for new blogs to read, so here's an invitation. Feel free to comment on this post, advertise your blog and I'll check it out. It would be great if you gave me a bit of an idea of what type of blog it is too. Expand my horizons people!

Sleepy...

Yawn... I'm sleepy tonight.

I was up most of last night with Chickie crying hard - with what's probably a growing pains type of thing. Doctor says he's fine (and he was back to normal today).

I know experts say there's no such thing as growing pains, but whatever it was fits the 'traditional' description. Poor kid was so tired today, hopefully he'll get a good sleep tonight (and not get up too early - usual time is anywhere between 5.45-6.45am).

Speaking of pain - my left knee is still bothering me (though it's heaps better). I had x-rays of both my knees today, so hopefully we can figure out what's going on.

Looking at the payment slip for the x-rays gave me a pause. The radiologist I saw apparently charges less for the right knee than the left. Both have the same item number and description etc. Perhaps a discount for having both done at the same time? What's next then - a two for one offer? Group discounts?? ('Come on down! And bring the whole footy team to get an amaaazing saaaaaving!') heh.


On a sadder note, another tsunami has hit Indonesia. Not as deadly as the one a few years back, but still giving waves between 3 - 5 metres (depending on which news report you read). I'm sure the death toll will rise a bit over the next few days. I've no idea if it's hit areas that were hit during the big one, I hope not.

Hmmm... better get off to bed I guess. Before I doze off on the keyboard ;)

Stubborn kid

When Chickie gets his mind set on something - that's it. There is no changing it. Like his Marvin the 'Marshman' thing.

Today he was watching the Smurfs on Boomerang (paytv channel here in Aust.) and some skeleton warriors appeared. Chickie said 'look mum, sketelons'. I tried to correct him saying 'ske-le-tons' and he's going 'no mum, it's ske-te-lons'. Saying it syllable by syllable back to me in a very insistent way. After a while I just gave up.

He's always been like this. Even when he was younger and just learning to speak. J's parent's had bought a new fridge that beeped if you left the door open. They showed me how it beeped and Chickie looked up and said 'truck!'. I explained it was the fridge, but no, he wasn't having any of it. Eventually he came up to me, put both palms on my cheeks so he could look me in the eyes and said, very forcefully 'truck'.

The teenage years are going to be very interesting, I think...

Amusing movie

This gave me a chuckle.

Yes, I work in a call centre. No, not one like that. Thank heavens I don't have that many phones - one phone is plenty!

Kiddy rides

Chickie loves playing on the kiddy rides you see in shopping centres, but he's never wanted to have a ride on them. Wouldn't have anything to do with them if they were moving, and I'll be honest - that hasn't bothered me one iota!

Well, we went to a centre yesterday that had a thomas the tank engine one, he asked for a ride and actually sat there the whole time. When it finished he ran over, threw his arms around me and triumphantly announced "I'm not afraid anymore mum!". Heh, it was cute.

Of course, then he wanted to have a ride on all the ones we saw... he was content to just play on them though.

One I saw was of Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter. It looked like a jeep or something with Steve and a croc in the back. It tried to show Steve with a surprised look on his face (presumably to go with his catchphrase 'Crikey') but honestly it looked just like the blowup rubber sex dolls with their open mouths.

It started with a paper clip??

Now this guy is a savvy trader.

Apparently some guy in Canada has done a series of trades online, starting with a paperclip and trading up to a house! Heh, I'm sure I have lots of paperclips lying around - anyone got a house they want to trade it for???

The news story says it took him 14 trades, which is pretty quick if you ask me. He says says he basically wanted to do an online version of a game called bigger and better (I've never actually heard of the game before though).

The story mentions he has a blog as well - anyone know what the link might be? I wouldn't mind reading it.