The Knee Bone's Connected To The Leg Bone

Saw the doctor this morning due to my paining left knee…

He had a bend and a flex and made my eyes water when he deliberately hit the sore spot and said that although he’ll send me for an MRI that I undoubtedly have a torn cartilage and that it will need to be corrected by an arthroscopic procedure…

He also said however my right knee – which isn’t sore – is actually worse because the cartilage has worn through and I have a bit of bone on bone rubbing behind the knee cap…. I am not sure what he wants to do about that, he has only ordered an MRI on the left knee but he spent most of the time talking about the issue in the right knee.

Glad to be getting things looked at and fixed, but I am not looking forward to the actual operation and the post-op physio.

Also, his consultation - $150,… the MRI - $500+… his follow-up visit after MRI - $80…. The surgery itself?  No idea…

I have Private Health insurance, so hopefully I will get most of that back… but I doubt it!

Mood: Impatient

Everything seems in a blur at the moment… my company is selling off half the business to a competitor and hence us corporate types are wondering which half we will fall into after the sale or whether some of us will fall through the cracks… its an uneasy time at the moment, but I am not too fussed about it but it’s a hard subject to avoid around the water cooler so to speak…

On top of this, I am seemingly endlessly busy!  Last night I had to take apart our old Queen sized bed in anticipation of my new King size ensemble arriving today.  Niki has told me its here… in three large separate boxes!  I presume I will be reacquainting myself with the trusty Allen Keys and screw drivers again tonight if I want to get any sleep!

The Cricket Test match I am also seeming anxious to see start… I don’t know why, I love cricket, but the fact that the match is in Perth and it will be some 3 hours or so before the toss, I am for some odd reason on tenterhooks this morning… I think its because I want to see Shaun Tait ram a bloody great big thunderbolt up the Indian batsmen!  I have never been so fired up and I blame the rubbish that has been embroiling world cricket this week and the shoddy, in my opinion, treatment that the Australian team has put up with in the press namely from Messrs Greig, Gavaskar and Roebuck.  (sounds like a law firm!)

In addition, the Aust Day long weekend approaches and I am aware that I have A LOT to do before I head to Canberra that weekend to run the Australian Blood Bowl Nationals.  From giving it a go three years ago, I am now running the damn thing!  The prizes have arrived, they need to be bagged and labelled, the trophies are done, the registrations currently stand at a healthy 32 participants and my own team is nearly complete (2 last miniatures to touch up, and then bases need to be done).  I need to organise a laptop, a printer and paper etc as well…

On top of all this, my knee is getting worse.  Finally got to see an Orthopaedic surgeon yesterday… unfortunately the booking was messed up and when I showed, they had to bump me to tomorrow morning… so again, I feel impatient.

Which is my whole life at the moment… waiting for things to happen!

Rudd Funds "Extremist Cult"...

Whilst everyone who regularly reads this will know, I was very against the Howard Government and strongly supported the Labor campaign for change. The basis of this wasnt really on the fundamentals of what a Labor govt would do as opposed to a Liberal one, but the driver was that I felt that the Liberal govt who had been in power for so many years had long ago ceased to be a government for the people and became a self driven machine that resulted in many instances of a lack of transparency. In short, they became self serving and not public serving.

Rudd campaigned about integrity and open and transparent government.

Now this:

In September 2006, a young Labor opposition front bencher named Kevin Rudd challenged the Howard Government on their support and funding of the religious cult / sect "The Brethran". At the time, it was highlighted by the Four Corners program that the Brethren received not only special funding but also critical excemptions from the Liberal Work Choices legislation. Many commentators / bloggers questioned whether the Prime Minister Howard was actually a member of the Brethren given his apparent generous and imbalanced support...

Fast forward to today and now the PM title sits with that very same frontbencher Mr Kevin Rudd. He now is reviewing the funding of Education at a Federal level and in the past week or so the media has picked up on the imbalances within the Liberal's scheme favouring Private education over Public. This shouldnt be a surprise as the Liberal cornerstone is privatisation and free market economic theory as opposed to state based schemes.

But why then has Rudd promised a whopping $10M of government funding for the Exclusive Brethren schools? Kevin Rudd has not hidden his Christianity at all during the election campaign and it wasnt an issue during the campaign as both candidates seemed equal in regards to their personal beliefs and outlooks in life. Whilst I am not of those same beliefs I feel that as long as a person does not use their political power to promote personal beliefs (i.e. Tony Abbott and Abortion / Birth Control legislation!) then a member of parliament can be of any faith whatsoever... seperation of Church and State if you like.

But now that he's in... he has done the opposite to a) his comments on the Exclusive Brethren b) his notion of fair funding for all school systems and c) has perhaps been influenced by his personal beliefs against the principals of the Labor Party and his very recent election campaign.

Views people?

The Working Year Commences!

Greetings from the desk of Clay!

I have returned this morning, one week after most other people and have gotten through the first couple of hours with some light catchup of emails / mail, some chats to colleagues about holidays and the cricket (India are being girly idiots is the concensus) and a long chat to my boss about his break (lack of it) and the issues that have continued to bubble along during the holiday period...

So, its almost Coffee Time and I thought I would let you all know that I am back here and ready to tackle the inane issues for the year ahead.

In passing reference, I have been continuing to read the papers during the holidays and would have liked to have commented on the Bhutto Assasination, the Indian Test Cricket shenaningans, the early days of the Rudd Gov't and the ongoing US Presidential Campaign, but really I dont think I should begin by going over old ground.

So I will look forward now and focus on the events in the world coming rather than wasting time going over old ground... besides it has been a slow news month anyways!

Also, this is the 5th year of Lime Kettles and its previous incarnations! How time flies!!

(For the record, my train ride was on time, smooth and uneventful...)

I'm Back! Holidays Were Great!!

Hello all! Am back from Bateau Bay on the NSW Central Coast and am happy to inform you all that we're tanned, relaxed and happy!

The week was perfect weather wise with no rain except a passing shower on our first day and to sum up, the daily itinerary went like this:

Morning: Wake up, walk to cafe, buy coffee and newspaper. Read said paper for an hour or so. Kids went to the morning craft session run by the kids club until about 11:30am. Kids then rode bikes with the other park kids. Lunch of sandwiches or hot chips.

Afternoon: Pool... swimming heaps until about 3pm, then down to beach for low tide for an hour or 2 and then back to pool for say another hour.

Evening: Usually the resort had some sort of event on for the kids - Karaoke, Disco, Movie Night etc. BBQ dinner or Niki would cook a nice meal and we'd go to the event and have fun. After that, kids were usually zonked and went to sleep easily while we had a drink or three on the verandah.

Thats it! 7 days of that! No driving, no hassles, no time pressures to be somewhere... I did get the odd work call, but I palmed most of that off to this week when I go back...

The girls get their first taste of the surf. This is the first time Brooke has been out past her ankles!
Wrestling in the pool... a daily event!

Rock climbing... looking for crabs!
Seaweed Girl!

Bubbles!

Niki and the girls before we headed out to the pool / beach!

Off Up The Coast

We're off tomorrow to the NSW Central Coast for a week of pool... beach... pool... beach...

Niki is busy packing as we speak... the new bike rack is fixed to the car... we'll be setting off tomorrow morning for some R&R and fun times.

What this means is though I will have no internet, no blog, no email, no gaming... which is probably why I am online now getting a last minute fix :-)

See you all (figuratively at least) in a week!

Happy New Year

A short note to say Happy New Year to all of you!

I hope your evening last night was fun, enjoyable and safe.

For ourselves we had a great NYE as we spent the afternoon at the Adventure Palace with Tommy and his family and a huge crowd of people.  Many thanks to them for their hospitality as the girls made new friends, had a huge swim in the pool and snacked away to their hearts content whilst Niki and I relaxed and chatted with people.

Then in an amazingly quick drive of less than an hour we travelled from Tommy's at Earlwood to a place called Belimbla Park on the other side of The Oaks and had dinner and took in the fireworks with friends at Dave & Michelle's place.  We went from Earlwood where you can hear the airport to rural / country Belimbla Park very easily and with no hassle whatsoever.  Dave & Michelle's place is on a nice acreage and their neighbour had a horse which the girls loved as well.

Kate stayed up until midnight but the rest of the kids slept in fits and starts on the lounge room floor after the 9pm fireworks and we got home at about 2am after Niki drove me home... hic.

I in turn have woken up today at 12:30 this afternoon... the first time I have slept in for so long since I was probably a 19 year old uni student!