An Expensive Movie and an Unhappy Hip

In an attempt to alleviate the monotony of telling my friends "nothing different" to their question "wotcha bin doin'?" (no relation of Osama Bin Ladin), I decided to go to the movie, "Avatar", with one of my support workers. The 3D goggies and the animation were worth the effort and I gave it 7 out of 10 (a pretty good score for me). After leaving the theatre, we went shopping and I returned home without my wallet. Thanks to "Woolies", it eventually showed up, minus the $60 taken from the cash advance received after paying for my groceries (the finder obviously took their 'reward' before returning the wallet).

March 3rd commenced with yet another unscheduled hospital visit. I woke at 2 a.m. with an intense aching in my left hip, which spelt the end of my sleep for that night. I eventually rang one of my support team to get me a couple of panamax, which they did (after they went back to sleep for a couple of hours). By 6.30 a.m. with no relief from the panamax, I had had enough, so I phoned the ambulance which took another two hours to arrive and take me to the hospital for x-rays and blood tests, etc. All of this took until 2 p.m., by which time the the tests had revealed nothing and the pain had gone.

A self-diagnosis of gout, brought about by my recent cellulitis, was later confirmed by my doctors. Thus, they prescribed pain killers for the anticipation of further sleepless nights (but wait, there will be more?)!!!

On the Road Again... Just a quick update.

OK folks... let's see how long I last THIS time before I take another trip to the hospital!

I'm playing darts again (my team has won the first two rounds of the season and I have won 3-1 of my singles games) and I return to radio next Monday night (Feb. 8).

My leg still isn't quite back to normal, but it's on the improve and my Dr. seems satisfied with its progress.

All I need now is a good lady in my life or to win first division in lotto (preferably in that order!). Any suggestions anyone?

'Twas the night before Christmas...

I had completed my diaysis treatment for the day and was in a taxi on my way to my support workers home where I had been invited to stay the night. The caring lady, by name of Roberta, thought I may like to share Christmas morning with her family by getting up early and watching her three young children open up the goodies Santa had brought them.

Upon arriving and being welcomed at her home, I settled in to watch a bit of TV with them. Dialysis treatment always leaves me feeling tired and today was no exception, but now there was a different feeling... I was shivering with cold and my whole body had the shakes! After a few minutes I had to ask my friends to excuse me as I felt I must go to bed straight away.

The next thing I knew I was awake in a darkened room, in a strange bed with rails all around me! Was I in prison? No, I felt the rails and realised that they were part of the bed and it began to dawn on me where I was... in my support workers home!

Apparently I had 'blacked out' from the time I asked to go to bed and, somehow, Roberta had managed to get my lifeless body out of my wheelchair and into bed for the night.

After a few hours of intermittent sleep, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet... Roberta's children had woken up and were eager to open their presents. They had been told they must wait until I was out of bed and ready to watch the excitement.

Having been up several times during the night to check on my condition, Roberta dragged herself out of bed and came into my room and - finding I was more or less back to 'normal' - popped me back in my chair and prepared me to face Christmas Day 2009.

Presents were opened, breakfast was consumed, Roberta's family and friends began to arrive to celebrate the day with her and I was happy to be part of the gathering.

At lunchtime, I left Roberta's and caught another taxi to the home of my daughter, Leanne's, where she, her husband Craig and their boys - my grandsons - Jack, Ryan and Harry, had arranged for me to share a Christmas meal with them and their friends.

Feeling extremely tired - and full of good food - after all this activity, I arrived back home on the late afternoon of Christmas Day. Bed time that night brought back the 'shakes' and another mini-blackout!

The following morning, Boxing Day, brought a visit from the district nurse who took one look at my swollen left leg and immediately ordered an ambulance to take me to Hospital, where I was diagnosed with severe cellulitis.

Thus began 18 days of pain, needles, anti-biotics, sleepless nights, tears and mixed emotions, ending two days ago when I returned home to the care of my team of support workers. I still have to take things easy and only get up for limited amounts of time each day... but it beats being in hospital!

And so, it was a very different Christmas for me this year. My sincere apologies to those of you who didn't receive a greeting from me and the many whose emails went unanswered - I had just under 900 emails waiting for me to open when I got home (most of them were spam, of course).

Thanks a million to those of you who sent me Christmas greetings and to those who contacted me in hospital... you are all precious gems and very special to me. A special mention here to my brother Geoff and his wife Meryl, who visited me in hospital on several occasions, to friends Ron Nancarrow, Vera & Geoff Higgs and Kaye Butler who also visited, also to my daughter Leanne for her daily phone calls... and, of course, to Roberta and the others in my support team.

Now, to a necessarily slow recuperation. It will take some time until I return to the 'old me', but I'll get there. My regular radio programmes, darts and other activities may have to take a back seat for a little while, but WATCH THIS SPACE!

MORE Trophies!

We won! Pictured is li'l ol' me trying to hide behind two trophies collected on darts presentation night... one for being a member of the winning team and the smaller one for Best Average Score and most number of wins.

Anyway, enough of my bragging! November saw me with a new Visa card and cutting back on my spending (including food!) in an effort to save some money for buying Christmas presents. The blowdarts demonstration went well and I took part in the groups one-day tournament losing in the end to the captain of the Colac team. The main objective was achieved, however, by showing how I compete by using my special blowdarts equipment.

A BBQ for my support workers was not the greatest of successes with only three of my team in attendance, but it was still a social success and I'll have another early in 2010. A pre-Christmas dinner with friends and family went very well... 26 of us enjoyed a meal and each others company on Dec. 6 at the Bendigo Club.

Over 30 years ago, when I first lived in Bendigo, I was a member of the local Chess Club. My greatest achievement was winning the B-Grade Trophy one year. A good friend by name of Alan Williams, who played in A-Grade at the time, still lives here and during a recent visit he asked if I would "still like a game". Being one who never knocks back a challenge, I took him up on his offer and we now meet on a regular basis on Wednesday mornings... and he still thrashes me. Given time, however, I reckon I'll beat him!!

Almost Christmas and my usual last minute rush to print out my Annual Christmas Newsletters (also known as 'cards'), gift wrapping, etc. One of my support team, Roberta, has invited me to spend Christmas Eve at her home, so I can wake up Christmas morning and see her three young children open their gifts from Santa. I will leave there at Noon and go to my daughter Leanne's for Christmas lunch with her husband and my three grandsons, twins Jack & Ryan and young Harry.

May God be kind to us all for another twelve months and enrich our lives with good health, lots of love and peace in abundance.

As Christmas Approaches...

Well, I did it! I crammed as much activity into the past few weeks as I could and - as I write - am feeling a little better for it.


For example: I attended/did the following...

• church with one of my carers and her children
• a concert at the RSL Club that same evening to hear a band from Queensland which featured Sylvia, the drummer from one of my old bands
• two dinners with my singles' social club (which I am trying to revive)
• a picnic at the park across the road with one of my carers and her family (after which I had a stomach upset and had to get another carer to stay the night - just in case!)
• caught a bus to the shopping centre where my daughter works, had a chat with her and met her work mates
• accepted an invitation to give a blowdarts demonstration at the Colac Darts Club (three hours drive each way with one of my carers and her husband).

Still on the subject of darts, on November 19 the darts team I play for will contest the Grand Final... and, I feel, we have a good chance of winning. I have been happy with my form in having gone through the season undefeated. I lost my first singles game in the semi-final (best of three), however, but recovered to win 2 - 1.

I had two overnight visits from my Melbourne friend Barbara. She came with me to my community radio program on Phoenix FM... also a visit from Lisa, one of my ex-Geelong carers. She brought me some irish stew and I have always LOVED Lisa's irish stew!

Incidentally, Phoenix FM is streamed all over the world through the internet, so my program can be heard live by anyone with a computer. I have a number of listeners in Ireland who have sent me CD's and DVD's of some of their top artists which makes it all worthwhile. It would be great to 'spread the word' even further, so if you - or anyone you know - are interested.

I am on air every second Monday night from 8 to 10 p.m. (Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time). Just login to http://www.phoenixfm.org/ and click on the Phoenix FM logo. My on-air dates to the end of this year are Mondays, Nov. 16, 30 and Dec. 14, 28.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to track down requests from my listeners. These are open to any genre of music and are usually played in the first hour of my programme. If you would like me to play any of your favourite songs please get in touch. My email address is coljames@bigpond.com.au.

All of the above and then... a new experience. I went absolutely broke! For the first time I owed the bank money... and began living from week to week on my disability pension. I even had to borrow from my carers to buy lunch!

And so, a new goal in my life... to claw my way back financially in time for Christmas! To make this task a little harder I went shopping for groceries yesterday and looked in my wallet to find my Visa card had gone missing. A thorough search proved fruitless, so I had no alternative but to cancel my old card and order a new one.

Ned Kelly was right... "such is life"!

Time to take my own advice!

I'm not sure why I am writing this particular blog. Maybe it's because I feel particularly alone today and that's when blogs can help to fill a void... someone to talk to when there's no one to talk to! I'm not trying to hide the fact that I am still wishing, hoping and praying for someone to enter my life as a friend, lover and soulmate. I simply don't feel 'complete' as I am.

All the emails I receive from people I rarely (if ever) see are welcome, but they are not the same as communicating in flesh and blood and my greatest fear at these times appears more and more likely of eventuating - that of ending my days alone.

Apart from emails, my most immediate contacts are my support workers... most have become good friends. They tell me I should be satisfied with my life as I have had three good marriages. I can't agree with that though because, for a start, if they were so good I would not be on my own right now, would I? Also, there is little value living in the past... it's the FUTURE I want to look forward to, not the past. I'd like to feel I still have a future.

I always tell others that they have to make things happen in their lives... create things or events... so I guess it's time I took my own advice. Watch this space!

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT!

As I go through a period of sleepless nights (don't know why... just a combination of itches and a restless mind, I think) I am usually awake until mid morning. So it was a couple of weeks ago when, at 3 a.m., I heard a woman and a man chatting nearby, followed by the closing of a car door, the revving of a motor and the departure of a vehicle. Little did I know until 8 a.m. when the police knocked at my door that I had been listening to the theft of my neighbours car!

The police wanted to know if I had heard anything during the night, so I gave them the above information. A little later in the morning I spoke to my neighbour who was obviously upset, not only by the loss of his car, but by the fact that the police had since found it burnt out in a nearby rubbish tip! Add to this that he was blaming himself for leaving the keys in the ignition, also that he was not insured, and one can understand how bad he was feeling.