Roundup of the Week

We were peacefully watching the TV last Monday evening when the lights flickered and went out.  The TV went off. Everything went off. Jim and I were just getting up to find torches when the power came back on.  And went off. And came on.  Off again. And on.  This time it stayed on.

The rest of Monday evening was surprisingly calm, given how the rest of the day had been!

During the course of the week the builders came and more or less finished the plastering, the doors and the windows.  The bricklayers came and finished the rest of the bricklaying. The car was mended by the car hospital so Jim and I are mobile again. Order was slowly restored to the week.

Stella and Tony were well enough to join Ian, Jim and me at Piper's at the top of the Lake for lunch on Wednesday. It was a lovely break from domestic routine.  And the food was extremely delicious.  Stella and I went for a drive out to Mount Mercer on Thursday and then she, Tony and I went for a gentle potter around the little Mount Clear shopping centre.  Lindsey and I went to work on Friday and Saturday.  Jim and Ian have done a fabulous job of fencing off part of the front lawn so that Rupert (and Sam) can wander in and out of the kitchen door without supervision (always supposing of course, that the weather is sufficiently clement for have the door open (not too cold, not too hot) and that there aren't many insects about. )

Stella's health improved more and more as the week went on. She decided that she was probably well enough to go home at the weekend.  So after very nearly three weeks in hospital and about ten days at Mount Helen she went home yesterday. Tony went too :-)  Lindsey and I took them back and had lunch with them at the Dava. And then we left them to it and made our way back to Mount Helen via a quick mad dash round Costco.  The house smelled amazing when we got back.  Ian had devoted himself to preparing a Persian style slow cooked shoulder of lamb with pomegranate seeds and roasted vegetables.  It was amazing!

Today was an exciting day for Rupert.  He went in the car for the first time since he arrived.  Although I don't think he was particularly excited by this.  In fact he seemed to be quite worried.  I wondered if he thought we were taking him away for ever.  In fact, we were taking him to the vet for his second lot of shots.  He rather liked the vet, who is a friend of Emily's.  And he was so busy munching the little bundle of treats that she put on the floor that he didn't notice the injection.  And he was quite happy in the car on the way home.  We hadn't abandoned him after all!  And now that he's had his second shots we can take him out more and he can meet other people and other dogs.

When Lindsey, Emily and I were walking around the Lake on Sunday a week ago Emily happened to mention that when she was working for a few months in the Solomon Islands they had used cannulas to clear wax from people's ears. I have had a blocked ear for weeks and weeks and weeks.  I've had my ears syringed out twice but it has been clear to me that this hasn't got absolutely all the wax out.  I've had my ears looked at but to no avail.  Lindsey pondered the cannula idea and on Friday mentioned it to two of the practice nurses.  All of a sudden I was sat in the treatment room while a GP and two nurses were animatedly discussing this idea, how best to do it, which things to use ... Experimenting on my ear, they were!!!  And the experiment was successful. It was a tiny piece of wax which had been causing the trouble, obviously tucked away where no one could see it and where the syringing wasn't reaching.  Water through a cannula worked magnificently - and I can hear properly again.

Persian style lamb for dinner.  Photo by Lindsey