It's Tuesday

Good afternoon everyone, I wasn't sure if I would get around to writing a post today but here I am as you may have been able to tell the last few days I have not been up to doing anything special so all I am doing is writing about my daily life,not that my daily life is all that interesting but what the hell, it is what it is.

It has been raining a lot the last few days, I would have liked to have gone for a walk this morning but when I woke at 6.30am it was pissing down rain and there was thunder along with it so I went back to bed for an hour. However, after I got up it was still raining so no walk today and before I knew it Blain was being dropped off by his mum and thus the chance to go for a walk has now passed.

Due to the wet weather Tim has been taking the car to work in the morning and he was going to take the motor-bike in the afternoon like he did yesterday but instead today he took the car again this afternoon.

Tomorrow Blain is suppose to go to his aunty Jessica's house while his mum goes to a doctors appointment, but he doesn't want to go and is complaining but I feel that he will be find once he gets there so Natasha should drop him off as it is only for an hour or so.

Tomorrow I will be going to the nursing home to see my nan with mum and we are taking both Liarna and Temika with us, in fact Temika is super excited to be going to see great-nan. Sandra said she has been asking for the last couple of weeks when can she go and see great-nan at the nursing home.

For some reason I have been feeling so tired, worn out without any energy which is why I went back to bed after my alarm went off and I got up and went to the toilet and realised it was pissing down rain. Since getting up I have really not felt like doing much of anything, although I did go and do some shopping for Jessica and took it to her, why well because she said she didn't have fuel to do and do it but I think it may have more to do with the fact that she doesn't like to take Leo shopping with her.

I wonder if I am getting sick with something maybe just a bug of some sort, I guess I will find out in the next couple of days. 

Monday's dribble

Hello Monday, I woke at 6.30am and went to the toilet and wanted to go back to bed but even though I tried I was unable to go back to sleep so I got up and went for a walk. During the walk I developed a cramp in my right calf and all I could do was push on and keep walking, it has now been going 4 hours later and I still have a cramp in my right calf.

I am not sure if Blain is coming here for the night I will find out later in the day, I don't mind one way or another if he wants to come here that is ok but if he wants to go and stay at Jessica's that is also good with me.

Yesterday it rained all day and I was unable to go and do anything, I did, however, do three loads of washing which made me think about the days when people didn't have clothes driers. I think many of us take clothes driers for granted, I don't use mine very often I prefer to hang my clothes on the line and have them dried in the sunshine. My daughter Jessica, however, always uses her clothes drier I don't think she ever hangs her clothes on the line.

I spent the day home alone for the most part Jessica picked Leo up around 9.45am and Tim was at work so I was home alone and it was great I had a wonderful time doing nothing much caught up on some programmes I had recorded.

Oh yeah I mentioned on Saturday that Tim and I went out for lunch at the Eastern Tiger all you can eat restaurant and I will tell you we had a bloody great time, Tim who often doesn't eat much does when we go to the Eastern Tiger he like me has many small amounts of food. It is the only time I have pavlova and I do like pavlova but no one in the family makes it so the only time I have it is when we go out to eat.

It isn't even midday and I feel like going back to bed I am tired and I ache all over and have been coughing on and off and yes I have a headache as well which sucks, I hope I am not getting sick or anything like that.

It's the weekend

Hello Saturday, this morning I was up at 6.30am dressed and ready to go for my walk only to find it raining when I opened the back door, so I thought about going back to bed but decided against it and instead sat here are the computer and started reading blog post, only read about 40 different posts this morning, Kathy rang to see if it was ok for her and the girls to come over for a visit and of course I said it was.

So Kathy is here at the moment with Sydney-May and Summer who are busy playing with Leo, yes Leo was here last night as Blain was picked up from school by Kelli and is spending the weekend with his dad . He will, however, be back here Monday night and I may have him each night for the next 5 nights unless his other grandmother decides she wants to have him or if he decides he wants to go and stay at Jessica's one night. Leo is staying again tonight as Jessica said she has plans.

It was the last day of the school term yesterday, children are off for two weeks then back for the last term of the year. Sometimes the school term seems to go past in a flash and other times it seems to drag on.

Tim said last night he would like us to go out for lunch today as it is our wedding anniversary on Tuesday we will have been married 31 years, so I had to ask Jessica if she would come and stay with Leo while we go out as we are not taking him, he is not a big eater and it would be a waste of money as Tim wants to go to the all you can eat place in Cardiff......aka.....the Eastern Tiger.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped at the day care to give my sister something and Leo wanted to go in and say hi to the staff, this is the day care he attended my niece Denni goes there along with Landon and my great niece Hayley, it is the same day care that Temika went to as well and Sydney-May went there for a year also. All the staff remembered him and thought it was amazing how much he has grown and how well he is talking now when he was at day care he didn't say a lot and was not only shorter but a bit more chubbier, well the staff there thought he was I am not so sure about that.

At least Leo isn't as much of a computer hog as Blain is he likes to watch telly, and play with toys more then Blain does, although when Blain has his Xbox here he will have times when he is in the bedroom playing his Xbox but there are other days when he doesn't go near it.

Well I better post this and go and get changed to go to lunch, not going to wear what I have on as I am wearing house clothes.

Seeing a doctor

Hello everyone it is now Thursday afternoon and it has been a cold wet day a real change from the last few day which have been very warm to bloody hot.

Kathy-Lee told me that little Summer is sick at the moment she has conjunctivitis in both eyes, a chesty cough, runny nose with a fever and is quite lethargic so a trip the doctors was in order, she has been prescribed antibiotics and will be home from day care tomorrow. Kathy said she just wants to either sleep or lay on the lounge and watch telly.

Anyway this morning I was reading a post by Diane who can be found here: http://ouiinfrance.com/

about doctors in France and this along with Kathy telling me about Summer being sick and the fact that I had to go to the doctors this morning myself I decided to write a post about seeing a doctor in Australia.

When one wants to see a doctor here, one would ring the doctors surgery speak to the receptionist and as long as you are not a new patient it is somewhat easy to find a time and day that suits, when mum rings the doctors she can usually get in to see someone either the same day or sometime in the week. I find it the same with the practice at Mount Hutton that I go to, the Charlestown practice I usually make my appointment online which means I can search for a time I like with a doctor I like without having to say no that doesn't work I can't do Wednesdays or Fridays.

I know of no doctor who runs on time all the time it is pretty common to have to wait between 10-45 minutes after your appointment time.

Of course seeing a specialist is different, first you have to see your GP to get a referral to the specialist, if you are seeing a someone through the public system the GP will fax the referral off to the hospital and you will get a letter through the mail telling you when the appointment is. If you are seeing someone privately you have to ring the specialist and make an appointment yourself. I do not see someone privately I always go through the hospital as I can't afford to see someone privately.

Now you may have noticed that I said I go to two different doctor surgeries this is because the one at Mount Hutton is a bulk billing practice, this means that I don't have to pay at all the cost is covered by the government, the Charlestown practice doesn't bulk bill everyone and unless you have a pension card or the doctor decides to bulk bill you, you are expected to pay the cost is $75 for a 10 minute appointment and you get $37 from Medicare (the government) so that leaves you $33 out of pocket and I don't always have the money so at times I will go and see the bulk billing doctor.

Once you have checked in with the receptionist you take a seat in the waiting room and the doctor will call you in when they are ready for you, the doctor doesn't wear a white coat or anything they are just dressed in normal clothes. There is no paper work to fill in unless you are first time patient many doctors surgeries may have closed their books meaning they are not taking on new patients. I however, have been going to the Charlestown practice for 48 years and yes I am only 52.

My mum has to pay when she takes Dawson to see his specialist and it costs her $600 a visit and she gets about half of that back from Medicare, so seeing a specialist can be bloody expensive.

Most surgery here is either carried out through the public system costing the patient nothing but there can be a long wait for that to happen, if you have private health insurance you can have your surgery done in a private hospital but even though you have health insurance you still usually have some out of pocket expenses.

Private health insurance isn't cheap either, fees can start at $15 per week for a single person and increases the older you get the more cover you have and if you have a family it is more for me and Tim it would cost more then we can afford I don't exactly how much as I have not checked in a long time.  

Wordless Wednesday

History Tuesday?Australian Politics

Ok here we are at Tuesday and of course that means it's History Tuesday and today I am just going to talk a little about the history of politics in Australia why you wonder well because we now have our 5^th Prime Minister in only 5 years what the hell is with that.

The head of state in Australia is split between two people, the Queen and the Governor-General of Australia. The Queen of course really has nothing to do with the running of the country and her representative aka the Governor-General is responsible for appointing ambassadors, ministers and judges and giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and of course bestowing honours on people.

The Governor-General is also the President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Now I have no idea what the Federal Executive Council is just so you know, so don't ask me. I have learnt that these posts are held under the authority of the Australian Constitution, generally speaking barring exceptional circumstances the Governor-General exercises these powers only on the advice of the Prime-Minister, so really the role of Governor-General is often thought of as a largely ceremonial position.

The Prime Minister is the highest government minister, leader of the cabinet and head of the government they hold office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of the Prime Minister is the most powerful political office in the country. Although the office is not mentioned in the constitution and exists through an unwritten political convention.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances the Prime Minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives.

National elections are held at least once every three years the last one was is 2013, at this time we elected Tony Abbott when I say we I mean the country in general although no one you ask will admit to voting for him.

Last night there was yet another leadership challenge and Malcolm Turnbull is now our Prime Minister the which means we have had five Prime Ministers in the last five years. These are as follows, Kevin Rudd who was challenged and kicked out by Julia Gillard, who was then kicked out and Kevin Rudd was back in but was voted out at the election by Tony Abbott who was challenged and outed by Malcolm Turnbull. This is a joke if you ask me why do we bother having elections if the party can just vote out the leader and over night we can have a new leader of the party and new Prime Minister

The has been one case where a senator was appointed Prime Minister that was when John Gorton was appointed this happened after Harold Holt disappeared, he had to resign his senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.

Senator George Pearce was acting prime-minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas as well.

Malcolm Turnbull is our 29^th Prime Minister...................

Kathy-Lee's 30 what the hell

                                     

Last Thursday my eldest daughter.......aka..........our precious daughter..........aka...........Kathy-Lee turned 30, what the hell how did that happen, how did I become the mother of a 30 year old.

Anyway I had a party for Kathy-Lee yesterday, there was about 16 people here from both sides of her family, as in her side and her partner Michael's side, as I invited his parents and brother and sister in-law, his brother couldn't attend as he is away working.

Michael had gone away camping but it was only 45 minutes away and after Natasha told him off and his parents said something to him he decided he would come back from camping to attend and the whole thing was a surprise for Kathy.

Although she did say at one point she had wondered why I had made so much food and why dad (Tim) had cleaned the lounge room, and by clean I mean he took everything and dumped it in either the spare room or his room/office.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and of course there was plenty of food, as I was up at 6.30am I went for a walk and bought bread and shredded ham they didn't have diced bacon and after returning home I made a potato bake and a chicken and bacon pasta bake along with home made fried rice, snags and of course bacon.

There of course was cake this cake in fact and it tasted pretty good I bought it from a local supermarket that does cakes so it was both nice and affordable.

I also managed to do 3 loads of washing and change the sheets on the bed, vacuum the house twice, watched 2 children and go for my morning walk. After everyone had left and I was getting sheets to remake the bed, time says you look as bugga as I feel, I look at him and asked him what have you done all day, he said he cleaned the lounge-room and I asked him what have I done all day, he smiles and said everything else.

By then end of the day I was exhausted and I did manage to drink ¾ of a bottle of wine.