Patra's Other Place

I started out with Patra's Place, primarily dedicated to my linen collection and stitching projects. But I kept getting side-tracked, so I decided to create Patra's Other Place for anything not related to embroidery topics. So you now have a choice. If you are interested in me, read this. If you only want to see my linen and stitching, visit Patra's (original) Place! (Please note that by clicking on any of the photos, they will be enlarged to fill your computer screen.)

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Location: Melbourne, Vic., Australia

I was married to Ken for 43 years, but he died in October 2022. So I am now alone with two cats, eight hens, and a few finches and parrots in one aviary.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Just a bit nervous.

We coped okay with the heat wave last week, thanks to the new roof and effective air conditioning, and limiting our activities outdoors.  Today it was so much cooler (by comparison to 44 deg.C) that I cleaned out all the aviaries, pruned the wilted branches off shrubs and trees, raked the lawn, swept the paths, and generally cleaned up outside.   I'm not naive enough to think that it is all over for this summer; it is only half way through January, and going by previous years, the worst is yet to come in February.  Hopefully Australia Day (26th January) will be sunny and warm enough for the nation to celebrate, but not hot enough to exacerbate the bushfire situation.

We had a scare nearby last week - an out of control fire in Kangaroo Ground on one day.  Fortunately it was brought under control by our brave firefighters and probably the local community most of whom are well aware of the dangers and have bushfire plans in place.  One of my friends said she was evacuated from her home in Research when the Kangaroo Ground fire was burning, and I said 'WHAT??'  as Research is the next suburb to Eltham.  She explained that her home is situated between KG and  Warrandyte, and if the wind had kept blowing in the same direction, she would have been right in the line of fire, hence the evacuation orders.   Oh man, that is too close for comfort.

The funniest thing about these extremely hot days (funny-weird, not funny ha-ha) is that nobody around here uses their swimming pools then!   All our neighbours either side and across the road (five houses) have swimming pools, but on those hot days, it is completely silent outside, no sounds of splashing at all.  I asked one of the parents why the kids weren't in the pool and he said "It's too hot!"  and explained that they would get sunburnt or heatstroke if they were outside for any length of time.  I suppose he is right, but I remember when we had our pool, I would go outside on those hot days and splash around in the pool for about five minutes,  just enough to cool my skin, then come inside.  I'd do that every half hour or so, and it kept me cool for the day.

All that is not the reason for the title of this post.  I'm having a colonoscopy on Monday, which in itself is nothing to worry about, I've been assured.  A 15 minute procedure.  But it is the preparation that I'm dreading - drinking a heap of stuff to make you go to the loo - a LOT.  Ugh.  Then the anaesthetic to relax me before the procedure.  Ken says I'm being silly - he had both ends done at the same time and suffered no after effects.  But I've had just two operations in my lifetime where I had a general anaesthetic, and was violently ill as soon as I woke up.  I told the hospital about this when I took all the paperwork in last week and the lady at the counter assured me that I wouldn't get sick as this was only a light anaesthetic.  "And things have changed a lot since then".  Yep.  That's what they told me last time.  No doubt you will all be back here in a few days, wanting to know how it all goes....haven't you got anything better to do?

2 Comments:

Blogger Pam said...

Oh dear, poor you. I hope it goes well. And happy anniversary!

Sunday, 19 January, 2014  
Blogger Unknown said...

Heat wave? That is not easy to deal with. Good thing you had your new roof installed and have an effective air conditioner. Every little thing that can help you cope with the heat is a godsend. I just hope the weather is way better now compared to this day.

Paul

Wednesday, 26 February, 2014  

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