day fifteen/turning the corner?

What a change a few days can bring.  On Wednesday, I was feeling more crap than I had in over a year.  Today, I feel fairly normal.  I say ‘fairly’ because there was some knotted stomach stuff earlier today; but in terms of my capacity to think, and to do stuff, I’m about a thousand percent better.

Who knows.   Maybe prozac is the one.  I was saying to my work friend P yesterday that finding the right antidepressant is kind of like finding the right guy, but harder.  He agreed.  And as he added, sometimes it can appear to be the one, but over time you work out that it’s not.  Which sucks.

Still, I’m feeling heaps better.  It’s hard for me to believe that things can change in such a short period of time.

I also had a win today.  SO’s dad has recently been diagnosed as having coeliac (that is, he’s gluten intolerant).  As a result, his diet has radically changed.  It seems that most of the food available for coeliacs is pretty nasty tasting, and he’s been miserable.  His favourite recipe that I make is a date loaf, and I decided to try a gluten-free version today.  He came around this afternoon and we had a taste of it.  Well, it tastes great, and he was so appreciative, poor love.  And the changes were easy, too.  I’ll have to post the amended recipe at some stage. 

So yes, that was great, and it was so nice to see SO’s dad smile while he chowed down.  First time in a couple of months that it looked like he was enjoying eating something.

day nine

Another day where I didn’t accomplish much.  Did some more laundry (washing and ironing) and some dishes, and I made SO lunch, but that was about it.  Felt very crook this afternoon at around 4pm, so I crashed for a couple of hours.  Woke up and felt considerably better.

My little brother called me in the morning and asked if I could have a look at a property with him, to which I said yes (of course).  We went along and looked at a nice little three bedroom, two toilet stand alone unit in an inner-city suburb.  We both agreed that it looked good, and A’s decided he’ll put in an offer on it tomorrow.  Poor love, he’s a bit nervous about it, but I told him that I’d help him out and it’ll all be fine.  Hopefully, it will be.

gardening/day three

Today was a public holiday, and we put it to good use.  SO and his dad did a fair bit of weeding in our front garden yesterday, so today we followed up by planting new plants (all free, courtesy of the in-laws’ prolific garden), throwing some wettasoil about the place, and fertilizing with sheep poo.  SO and his dad did most of the hard work, while I weeded the lawn and supervised.  SO’s stepmum was also there, giving advice and deadheading various plants that needed it.  After a busy day, the front garden now looks respectable, and hopefully our neighbours will start speaking to us again now that we’re not dragging down the suburb’s property values.

I also visited my mother this morning.  It was all a bit stressful as her fiance J was moving all his stuff in today, so there were family members all over the place helping out, as well as various boxes and furniture, and Mum was not happy.  I find it awfully tough dealing with her when she’s like that as she gets so shrill, it hurts my ears.  And my head.  The good news was, my brother was there, and the moving finished up shortly after I arrived, so we sat down and Mum finally started to calm down.  It took a while, though.  She runs on sheer nervous energy.  However she and my brother are both well (as is J) and it was good to see them.

I’m doing better on the drug switch today.  No nausea or visual disturbances, and I’m still feeling okay (ie. not sinking into the black hole of incapacity to move or think).  I’m also not too short-tempered, which is good.

 Back to work tomorrow.  I’m kind of looking forward to it, and kind of not.

home stuff/moaning about mother

Things are feeling more and more settled.  All of our units are tenanted (yay!) so we don’t even have to think about them.  Our house is slowly (very slowly) getting back to a habitable state.  For example, I have an oven!!  It’s not installed; it’s currently sitting on the floor in the family room.  But at least it’s in the house.  If I’m lucky, and play my cards right, SO may even install it sometime today.

The laundry situation is under control, the bathrooms have been cleaned, and the sheets on the bed are fresh.  The kitchen is also reasonably neat and tidy.  All in all, it’s starting to feel more like a home, and less like a dump we have to live in for protection from the elements.

There are other signs life is becoming more calm and regular, such as my increased interest in cooking.

my dad

It was my dad’s birthday yesterday.   Since he died, my mum, my brother and I have always met for lunch.  It’s been nice, not solemn or miserable, and it’s been a good way to remember my dad.  Well, mum didn’t arrange anything this year; and she didn’t call, email or text me, or presumably my brother either.  It makes me sad.  I know she has J now, but she was still married to my dad for over thirty years, and had two kids with him. 

I guess the thing is that while a husband can be replaced, a father can’t.  I miss him so much, and I can’t help thinking that it’s just not fair.  I wish he were still here.

loss

I’m sad tonight.  My mum had to put down one of her dogs on Wednesday.  He was the older of the two, and sure, he was on his way out; but it’s always heartbreaking to lose a pet, even one that has a skin condition that makes him stink and need steroids to stop him going crazy with itching.  It was good in a way, when we were at Mum’s the other day for SO’s birthday, I made a big fuss of him and spent a lot of time just patting his old head.  SO noticed it and even commented on the way home.  I’m glad I did, as I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before he was euthanased.

At least it was a peaceful death for him.  He wasn’t in pain, and he just went to sleep looking at the one he loved more than anything else – my Mum.  As far as animal deaths go, that’s as good as it gets.  In fact, it’s probably the best humans can ask for too.

Bye bye Marty.  We love you, and we’ll miss you.

birthday

It’s SO’s birthday today – he turned 35. It seems like just a couple of months ago that he was having a crisis over turning 30, and now here we are.  Middleaged, but happy

I got him some transition lens sunglasses for his mountain bike riding, three shirts for work, some pyjama pants, and some socks.  Not very exciting, but he loved them, especially the sunnies and the work shirts.  We had a very lazy morning, and then were taken out to lunch by SO’s dad and stepmum, which was lovely.  Of course it was a long slow three-course meal, so by the time we got home it was nearly 5pm.

We were at Mum’s place on Friday night, celebrating SO’s birthday with my side of the family.  After dinner, Mum and J informed us that they’re getting married!!  My brother A and I then made lots of jokes about how relieved we were that Mum would now be J’s problem.  (Actually, I don’t think we were joking.)  So that was lovely.  They’ll have a little celebration lunch in a couple of weeks’ time, with us and J’s kids (and their kids) so just the immediate family.  I volunteered to bring a garden salad and potato dish, which made Mum happy as she knows how much I hate cooking.

And what of the reno, I hear you ask?  Well, after much to-ing and fro-ing, it’s finished.  We had a couple of last minute disasters - the couch we bought didn’t fit into the unit, through either door, or the window, so we needed to buy new couches on a Sunday.  $1300 later, it was done.  Also, one of the beds was missing a bit, so on Monday morning of last week we bought another bed frame.  So it didn’t go quite as smoothly as it could have, but all in all we are SO glad it’s finished, and how it’s turned out.

So, some photos.  Here’s one of the toilet beforehand.  Notice the substantial plaster cracking around the hot water system.

And a close up of the original basin and cabinet.  Observe the condition of the shelving above the cabinet – mmmmm, nice.

The toilet afterwards:

And the cabinet area after:

Not bad, huh?  We’re pretty happy with the outcome.  The rest of the unit looks equally good, but I’m not going to put a huge amount of photos up as they can take far to long to load.

Yes, so it’s been a busy but happy couple of weeks.  I’m now going to fall into bed and catch up on some of the sleep I’ve been sorely missing.

reality check

My father in law is very good value. As well as being a lovely guy, he helps us out so much, both around our own house and also with our units.  We couldn’t have done half of what we have if it wasn’t for his help over the last couple of years.

On Tuesday night, before meeting our new tenants, we dropped by the current reno to speak to him.  He’d been there most of the day, painting on undercoat/sealant on the walls and ceiling of the smaller bedroom.  I was having a whinge about how tired I was from the night before (see previous post for boring details), and about how hard it was, and how tired I was, etc etc.  He paused for a moment, painted some more of the cornice, and said: ‘And just think, in ten years’ time, you’ll be told how lucky you are.’

Talk about putting something into perspective.  In ten years’ time, we’ll be financially set up for the rest of our lives.  Minor crap like doing the hard yards sometimes, working all day then painting ’til  midnight at the latest reno, dealing with problem tenants and regular turnovers, that’ll all be in the past.  We’ll be reaping the rewards for all that stuff, and it’ll be in the past, while our lives will be immeasurably financially improved from our hard work we’re putting in now.  Let’s face it, you get very little in this life without doing some hard work at some stage.  We just happen to be at that stage now.  And really, we’re already reaping rewards.  We got a great tax return last year, and we should get another great return this year, so even apart from the capital gains the properties will inevitably produce, the yearly returns are going alright too.  We’re making our own luck.

Next time I’m complaining, I’m going to remind myself that we’re doing okay.

renos, and a birthday

As per usual, it’s been a busy week.  I’ve managed to catch the first flu bug of the season, according to my doctor.  It’s a bit different to the usual flu – it basically inflames the eustachian tube in the ear, causing it to hurt.  Plus there’s the usual aches and pains, tiredness, swollen glands, etc.  I must confess it’s pretty manageable as a bug, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

That said, I wasn’t delighted that I was sick again.  SO and I had the following exchange on the way to work:

SO:  What’s wrong baby?

Me:  Ugh, I’m sick again!!  I feel like I’m sick all the time.

SO (patting my knee consolingly):  That’s because you are, baby.

It wasn’t funny at the time, but I can see the humour in it now.

The renos are going reasonably well.  The bathroom tiling is finished, and it looks good.  We’re both happy with it, although it’s taken longer than we’d been told.  But as I said to SO, you have to expect both time and money blowouts with renos, and three extra days isn’t a huge amount in the scheme of things.  Next we need to get the cabinetmaker in to measure up for the bathroom cabinet.  I personally can’t wait until there’s a toilet in there again, it makes spending all day there so much easier.

It’s SO’s dad’s birthday tomorrow.  We’re having him and SO’s stepmum over for a cooked breakfast.  I’ve also taken it upon myself to make his favourite thing, date loaf.  I haven’t made it in ages (probably years) but I suddenly remembered today how much he liked it, so I thought I’d make it for him.  He’s done a huge amount for us with renovating both the current and previous projects, and he hasn’t been very well lately.  It seems his chronic fatigue has come back with a vengeance, poor thing.  That said, he’s still doing a lot of stuff to help us out, which we appreciate even while it makes us feel guilty.  So yes, tomorrow we’ll be having bacon, eggs, lightly fried mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, then french toast and pikelets for ‘dessert’.  It’ll be the works, and no one will need lunch.

mother’s day 2009

It’s been a busy weekend.  SO went for another all-day bike ride yesterday, so I cleaned the bathrooms and toilets, did the food shopping, and also did about five loads of laundry and hung it out.  I also had good intentions of cooking, but all I managed was to half-do some rissoles.  After that I collapsed in a heap and slept for four hours.  Whoops.

Today being Mother’s Day, we saw SO’s stepmum for breakfast.  We went over to their place, but took our coffee machine, and made french toast.  It was nice, but we got there at 9 am and didn’t actually eat until 11:30am, by which time SO was frothing at the mouth he was so hungry.  I was okay as I’d had two coffees by that point, so I was high on life and caffeine.  SO still isn’t in touch with his mum, and mine is currently away in New Zealand with her boyfriend, so it was an easy day for us.  (In the past we’ve had to see all three on the same day, which was a killer for both of us.)

We got home after 1pm and I had every intention of having an afternoon nap.  However, SO was going to a couple of the units to do some work (one needed new tap washers, the other needed a replacement TV as theirs blew up) and I wandered outside to say goodbye.  In doing so, I was confronted by SO’s latest acquisition – a fridge/freezer he’d picked up from the side of the road.  It does work; but it was so revoltingly filthy, I had previously vowed I wasn’t going near it, much less clean it.  The black, fluffy mould which covered the interior was retch-making, and would probably lead to a nasty dose of ebola if it was inhaled.

Anyhow, I looked at it.  And yes, two and a half hours later, the bloody thing was clean, inside and out.  I’m sure there are antibiotics you can take for ebola, so I’m not too concerned.  When SO came home and saw it, he was overjoyed….. new beer fridge!!!  As a result, he actually offered to cook dinner – grilled fish and vegies – so I took him up on his very kind offer.  Quid pro quo (otherwise known as, ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’.)   ;)