A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN OLD AGE PENSIONER

We slept in this morning until 10.10am and it was the fault of Precious that this happened. MOH opened the back door for her after 7am but she wouldn't go out 'cos we think that awful tom from 3 doors up may have been lurking. She just sat and looked through the screen door and after a while back she came with her little 'I need to go out' miaow so MOH got up again and popped her out the front door where she can sit on a chair or table on the verandah and feel safe.

A while later back came Precious with here "I am back now" loud miaow and disturbed us again. Having had rather a late night last night we decided to stay in bed and that is when the damage was done....we slept in.

So, what the heck? We are retired and only have to answer to each other (and the cat of course).

Had a cuppa and some cereal and played around on Facebook for a while (I run some 'farms' on there which is a lot of fun and play scrabble with a friend in New Zealand).

More or less a fine day so a couple of loads of washing to be done. Towels, sheets and undies mainly. I sit near the clothes line and hand the items plus pegs to MOH and he hangs out the washing. I can't stand for long enough to do that now plus I am a little unsteady on my feet. Not sure it is a good drying day though as it is very overcast and practically no wind. Probably leave it all on the line overnight and hope it will be dry in the late morning tomorrow. Have a bit more washing to do as they are forecasting showers tomorrow night and then more showers over coming days. I don't have a dryer and never have had one and have always managed OK even when we were both out working all week.

Now wasn't that all exciting?? Made sandwiches for our lunch and we sat and watched question time in Federal Parliament for an hour....I say watched as we don't listen to a lot of it as we get sick of the government patting themselves on the back (not really deserved in my opinion) but some of it is interesting and you can learn a little about this and that.

MOH still hasn't been up in the roof with the rat trap so that treat still awaiting us. I have to hold the ladder for him 'cos as mentioned previously we can't afford any accidents to happen to him.

The rest of the day? I will soon shower and wash my hair and for dinner tonight we will have grilled pork cutlets and vegetables. MOH will have a small glass of red wine which he really enjoys and it is good for him so why not? As television is pretty terrible these nights we will probably watch a couple more episodes of West Wing on DVD (what a wonderful series that was....I think the US producers excelled themselves with that one).

We will eventually make it to bed before midnight after having had our two little squares of dark chocolate which our specialist says is very good for us. Just before I pop into my bed MOH will inject my insulin for me and then it's drops in his eyes for his glaucoma. The cat will start off on the end of my bed and possibly stay there or transfer over to MOH's bed depending on whom she feels deserves her presence tonight.

After reading the above you will realise why my blog is not all that interesting. I don't have children at home nor do we have visitors other than my daughter occasionally. We don't go out much 'cos I can't walk far and everything is very expensive these days anyway. There have been no holidays for about 9 years so can't report on them either. A dull life by many standards but...

Are we happy? Yes, I would say we are in our own quiet way. We pay our bills, we stay out of trouble and get things done as and when we can at our own pace. It's not a bad life after all.

R.A.T.S.

Yes, RATS. They are back in our ceiling again and the white ant man told us the other day that they have chewed a hole in one of the reverse cycle airconditioning silver ducting thingies which is not good as our aircon can be somewhat temperamental at times without help from outside sources.

MOH has bought this complicated rat trap that looks like a small water tank and in a few minutes he is going to climb the ladder and pop this trap in the ceiling. Apparently the best bait is peanut paste (I did ask MOH if it should be smooth or crunchy and I got this sort of funny look from him). I hate killing any creature, but rats we really don't need as they can do so much damage and they are not the healthiest of neighbours to have.

A few years back we had neighbouring back gardens that were nothing but weeds and I think it is possible rats were nesting and breeding in there. Now those areas have been cleared and houses built on them so the rats obviously had to find new homes but what attracts them to people's ceilings is beyond me but then I am not a rat.

I'm not keen on MOH climbing the ladder as he has osteoporosis and I always dread him having a fall but someone has to do it and me...I have never been able to get past the first rung of a ladder even when quite young. While up in the ceiling MOH is going to try and mend the hole in the duct thingie so I wish him well there.

I hope this rat trap works and the rat dies quickly, if indeed we catch one at all. It costs a fortune to have specialists do the job and when on an age pension there are some things we just have to try and do ourselves. Here's hoping for a quick result and a quick kill.

AN UNFULFILLED DREAM OF MINE

MOH came from near Coventry and my ancestors from Scotland, Denmark and England so all lived in countries where it snowed quite frequently. I experienced snow when holidaying in New Zealand back in the early 1980s and found it quite fascinating and even built a snowman!

I don't know if it is genetic but I do not like hot weather and have often dreamed of living in a cold climate where the temperature rarely rises about 25C but would I like it? MOH says no I wouldn't. He said snow is pretty on Christmas cards and the like but can be a nuisance especially when it begins to melt and also it can become quite slippery and dangerous when walking or driving.

This picture was taken from MOH's cousin's home in England. She (85) and her husband (90) live in Solihull in the West Midlands and he sent me this photo during their last very cold and very snowy winter. I don't think they found it all that enjoyable but it is certainly very pretty.

I realise I will never now know what a cold climate is really like to live in and my memories up in the snow in New Zealand all those years back will have to stay with me as my one peek at another world.

SHARING HERSELF AROUND....OUR CAT

Our little cat has decided to share herself between MOH and myself at night. She sleeps on my bed for a week or two and then over she goes to MOH's bed. We can't work out why she does this but in her mind she must feel we both need her company but she cant split herself in two so it's my bed for a while and then on to his. We both love her and she obviously loves both of us equally. A home is not a home without a pet.

CHRISTCHURCH AND ITS PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SUFFER

We keep hearing of these continuing so-called after shocks that are happening in and around Christchurch and one wonders just how much longer the people of that city can continue to go about their daily activities without suffering severe nervous strain.

MOH and I stayed in Christchurch in the 1980s and we quite fell in love with the city and its surrounds. We spent many hours walking (I could walk in those days without difficulty) around the magnificent botanical gardens and Hagley Park and along the Avon River. It was such a wonderful experience.

The city itself was very beautiful and to think that so many of the lovely buildings are either already destroyed or are listed for demolition is truly heartbreaking. One can only imagine how the people themselves are feeling.

They are saying that some of the outskirts of the city may no longer be able to sustain housing so people who have lived their lives in those areas now have the prospect of moving to other areas where it will take them some time to resettle.

Our hearts go out to Christchurch and its people and our thoughts are with them on a daily basis and we continue to hope that it will not be too long before the earth stabilises and they can resume a normal life again.

I ALWAYS KNEW HE WAS WONDERFUL

MOH and I visited our GP today and I had reason to ask him for a copy of a couple of reports about both of us that I had promised to send to our diabetes specialist to keep him up to speed with what had been happening in regard to certain problems.

Two of these reports were from a doctor in regard to MOH's mild anaemia and I was chuffed to read the opening sentence of the first report. It said:

"Thanks you for referring this DELIGHTFUL EIGHTY ONE YEAR OLD MAN..............

I 've known for years that MOH can be quite delightful but it is nice to have it confirmed and now I know it is not just prejudice on my part .... he is also obviously regarded by others as being delightful.

I am waiting for the day when somone says we are a delightful couple. That would be nice!!!

TODAY HAS BEEN MUCH BETTER

Great news when the Eye Clinic rang and my two cataract ops have been brought forward a month so now in August and September. It will be good as all my specs are becoming increasingly useless to me so looking forward to new ones come October.

MOH and I had to both fill in pages and pages of questions today in regard to a diabetic study that is being carried out by Fremantle Hospital (we go to the hospital every two years for extensive tests) and this time we sat down and answered the questions together which was a big help to me as I really couldn't see some of them properly.

These questionnaires take a lot of thought to fill in correctly but we feel that if we can do anything that helps future generations in regard to this insidious disease then it is worth the little time we devote to it. We get something out of it as well as it is possible the tests we have could discover a problem we have that we are not aware of.

I also had to fill in TWO forms for admission to the hospital for when I have the eye ops done....one for each day although they are identical forms. Hope I put the same answers on each one.

One question intrigued me...."Do you smoke?/Have you been a smoker?" Yes / No. NO I don't smoke but YES I was a smoker. Do you tick both Yes and No? Hope I didn't confuse them with my answer!!

Enough forms filled in to last us quite a while.....boy oh boy all that thinking!!!!