Merry christmas everyone...

Despite the dog tearing down the Christmas tree and un-wrapping all the beautifully wrapped pressies...

Despite the fact that I have to be on-call for work on Christmas day and can't have a drink until after 4pm...

And despite the fact that I swore off doing Christmas things "because no one else cares about Christmas as much as I do" (insert dramatic stamp of foot and pout here)...

I have found myself signing Christmas songs all day!!!

For a Jewish kid I sure do know a hell of a lot of Christmas carols!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!
May your day be special, whatever you do.
And, may Santa be kind to you all!!

Hate it...

*Warning!! Complete and utter rant about to start now.*

I have come to the conclusion that I hate my job.

I hate, hate, HATE it!!

I hate my boss.

I hate my staff.

I hate my hours.

I hate my clients.

And I especially hate the fact that I have no work / life balance.

I feel like I'm being totally taken advantage of and I'm the only one in the team who pulls their weight.

I hate trying to convince staff to do shifts.

I hate having to come in and cover for staff who don't answer their phones when they're on-call, especially on the weekends.

I hate being called at all hours of the day and night for anything and everything, even when I'm not on-call.

I hate feeling unsupported by my colleagues.

And I totally hate the fact that I have to be on-call on Christmas Day, potentially threatening a what should be a lovely day with my husband and close friends, good drink and good food.

Bah humbug to you all.

Quiet

I'm doing some Thematic Photographic earlier in the TP week this time.

This is Massil, a beautiful, quiet and shy child, from a village not far from Woollu's family.

On this day in December, 2006, Massil was trying to stay quiet and not giggle as I took her photo during an open air church service while we were visiting the island for Christmas.

For more info about Thematic Photographic, stop by and visit Carmi and check out some of his teriffic writings, and beautiful photos.

Bright.

Ok... I'm jumping on Carmi's Thematic Photographic bandwagon, and posting my own photo to match this weeks subject, which is "bright".

This photo was taken at a farewell party for a friend earlier this year.

It captures the vibrancy and warmth of the night.

It's amazing the fleeting fire patterns that the camera can catch!

Kids stuff...

I thought I was too tired to do anything yesterday.
All I wanted to do was sit on the couch with the fan blowing straight on me and watch DVD's to distract myself from the stinking heat.

When my friend's daughter called me asking if I wanted to go to the beach with her and her mum, all I really wanted to do was blow them off. Find some nice way to make myself sound busy so that I wouldn't have to get up off my arse.

But after hearing this little voice filled with school holiday boredom (already!!! Only 3 days in!!!), I reluctantly agreed to trawl through my bedroom to find my swimmers somewhere underneath the piles of clean washing waiting to be put away, and the dirty washing waiting to be washed.

BEST DECISION EVER!!!!

After stopping off at the supermarket, where it's inflatable pool toy time of year, and arming ourselves with a couple of inflatable rings and a few soft drinks, we drove on down to the beach and spent a couple of hours just floating away over the waves.

SOOOOO good!!!

To think that I live on an island and haven't been to the beach for ages.
What a crime!!

From my leg to my neck in 3.3 seconds... A tale of medical woe...

So I went back to the real world and eneded up staying longer than expected!

The whole clot business turned out to be a non-event (after scans and specialist visits), but then, mid conversation, the specialist noticed what is apparently a goiter in my neck (RANDOM!).

I had no idea it was there.

One thing led to another and I ended up being injected with radioactive stuff (bring on the superpowers!) to check for abnormal function in a nodule that was found on my thyroid!!

Most convoluted non-illness ever!

Anywho, everything is all good and we even managed to squeeze in a few cool things like a trip to the zoo, and on the ferry, and into the city, and the museum, and shopping...

Boy, can my man SHOP! It puts me to shame!!

Now I've gotta go earn some $$ to pay off that credit card!!!

Murphy's Law strikes... #1 (because it will continue to happen over and over again)

I'm due to return to Oz on Wednesday.

Only for 2 days.

Woollu (sweet husband of mine) is supposed to be coming with me on what will be his first trip on a "big plane", his first time out of the country, his first time seeing traffic lights... Ok, you get the point, there will be a lot of firsts.

It's going to be special!

So, of course, something has to go wrong and spoil all the fun.

I discovered yesterday what appears to be a clot in one of the superficial veins of my leg. My leg looks like someone has wrapped a blue chord around it like a maypole because the vein is so congested!

The implications of this discovery is that I may be banned from flying, and if I am allowed to fly I will need to have injections in my tummy, and take tablets, and wear compression stockings (in sweaty tropical heat!), and will have to go to the doctor in lieu of going shopping in the big smoke!!!

Murphy's Law strikes again!

Addit: Just had my first injection in my tummy and boy did it hurt! That's gonna leave one heck of a bruise!