The crazed ravings of Splinter (Tony Castley)
Just bits of information about my life
Another year ….. it seems to go so fast. The day passes without comment now. I don’t expect the children to remember, there is no need for them to linger in sadness ……today is mostly for me.
Its been 4 years now, since I lost my little girl. This year has perhaps brought it into a little more focus. This year I moved states, and removed any chance of having more children. It all seems so final. I wasn’t …. and I am still not ready.
Happy birthday Isabeau ….. mummy misses you.
Down in the ACT we have to learn how to ride a motor bike before they give us a license. Not a bad idea at all.
So today I spent half the day at rider training and tomorrow I will do the same. Good news, I didn’t fall off. Bad news, didn’t to too well with the gears.
Doug and Pete are good instructors that know what they are doing, have a lot of experience and are generally nice guys.
Tomorrow we get to go out on the road.
Update: Well I have passed, tomorrow I get my learners and a 250cc scooter. Wish me luck!
Well I am doing it! I am going to be using two wheels to get to work very soon.
I am selling my old large six cylinder car and getting a Scooter. Yep a scooter! This will save me a lot of money in running costs and give me a little joy on the way to work.
Now I have put a deposit on it and will be picking it up in a couple of weeks, so until then here is the stock image.
Now this isn’t you usual little scooter, this is a 250cc step-over sport scooter.
Ok I have had my first website design published. About a year ago friends of mine asked if I could help update their business website. They were expecting increased focus on the business and realised that the site was not “up to scratch”. Well it was pretty bad, you know the type, put together by someone with little experience using Microsoft Frontpage like a notepad.
Well me being a little particular wanted to do a liquid layout, using XHTML and CSS only. They did not require an active site, just the company information so this should be easy. After talking to my friends I got some great ideas and directions. I did all the graphics (hardest part for me), layout and hand coding. The site layout and navigation was accepted nearly 8 months ago but a new addition to their family delayed the deployment.
So earlier this week we published what we had and put “placeholders” for the infromation yet to come.
I am currently watching the news with some horror. In London a whole world away it seems there has been a large co-ordinated terrorist attack.
Now at this point I must say one thing, the English are just so different from their mainland neighbours. They seem so calm in the face of this compared to the Russians and Spanish that have gone through similar things recently. This is the real Brittish “Stiff upper lip”.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all people in London.
My wife had her surgery today, and it went well. She has been sleeping of the General today and I will get to talk to her and the doctor tomorrow.
After my many, many ….. many problems with my health, struggling with my hormones, coping with my girly works becoming so unreliable that it was making me ill all the time. After fighting peri-menopause, struggling to fall pregnant and failing, and facing the fact of no more children. And after fighting doctors tooth and nail for the last 2 years for some sort of definative answer. After all that ….. today I finally got an answer.
After moving here, I decided to try again, and so I saw a new gyno today. The poor man looked at the novel sized pile of documentation I gave him, and looked more than a little startled. I was a little more forceful with what I wanted from him …… a hysterectomy. He listened to me, asked some questions …. and showed a great deal of shock when I told him the opinions of my previous gyno’s. He quizzed me about my hormonal issues, which I was a little reluctant to mention, for fear that he would insist I try chemical control methods (yet again).
And finally he looked at me and said … “Well obviously its a no brainer. I feel the best management would be a complete hysterectomy and estrogen implant”. Not only is he going to give me the hysterectomy I wanted, but he offered to remove my ovaries, therefore removing the major cause of the other symptoms that I have suffered for nearly 20 years.
I stood at the reception desk to pay my bill, and I was shaking. I held it together until we got outside his rooms …… and then I had a good cry on hubby’s shoulder. This is what I have wanted for years. I have a chance of being able to have a normal like life, and quite possibly, some of the PCOS features in my health will be gone.
So …. in a little over 2 weeks time, I will have my mum here to look after me, and I will be starting the next phase of my life. I am scared, but incredibly happy.
Is it possible to be both?
Well as you can imagine things have been a little hectic. I have started work, the kids have started school and Dani has already put her name down to help tuckshop and the P&C. Only got my broadband back yesterday, man talk about withdrawal. 😀
Work is crazy as usual, but at least I am busy. Seems like my old area is still trying to find enough work for all their people.
The kids are really liking their new schools and both seem to be making friends easily. My daughter is continuing with her Japanese and my boy just loves the new schools playground.
I have some shots of the new house etc more will be coming.
Ok we have just arrived in Canberra. Very good trip, long tiring but now complete.
We are collecting the keys to the house tomorrow and our furniture arrives on Friday.
I will post up some more information after a sleep. 🙂
Ok well things that have been on simmer for a while have come to the boil.
I have been offered and accepted a new role and promotion down in Canberra. This means that in the next 2 – 4 weeks I am going to have to pack up the whole family and move them.
So if I am a little slack on the web site, photos, email, phone calls and the like please understand.
Ok now this is not about my relationship with my wife (that’s actually going very well, thank you very much), I am getting frustrated with the lack of response from parts of the company I work for.
I can’t go into details (don’t want to have to write one of those “I’ve been fired” posts), but it is enough to say I have been waiting for a decision from one management group for over 3 weeks now. This isn’t a little decision this is one that will shape the future of my career and the future plans for my whole family.
I will let you know more when I can say more.
Well it seems I have not had time to scratch myself over the last 4 weeks. Travelling for work, for my wifes family reunion, and having family stay for 2 weeks.
I promise I will start again soon.
Ok so I am back in Canberra for a week. Getting to grips with some more work I have to do down here and as usual it looks like there is enough work to last months. After this week I should have an ongoing plan for the next 3 months at least and from that be able to schedule my time and additional trips if nessessary.
Now this morning was a little bit of a shock, it has been 35-36 degrees in Brisbane with humidity in the high 80’s and low 90’s, here it will be 23 degrees top and drizzling cold rain.
I have brought my camera with me, so expect some photos.
Family re-unions are always fraught with the fear of disappointment. Families fracture and move apart, and when they come back together ….. the pieces have grown and moved on …. so they never quite fit again. Sort of an ancestoral jigsaw. Children have grown up, but older members forget that, they only see the child. So the domineering and overly paternal attitude grates, and threatens to fracture the family again. And heaven help you if you are labelled “a disappointmentâ€. The ties are no longer as binding, and todays generation don’t feel the same driving need to maintain relationships like previous generations. A stressful and fastpaced life means I don’t feel the pressure to maintain anything outside my direct line.
I met up with a long lost cousin. Like me he never really fitted with the family dynamic….. I ran away, he probably did too. I didn’t have many memories…. A tall gangly teenager, with wild surfer curly hair, and a slightly bemused patient smile when he had to deal with the attentions of two preteen girls. An older big brother cousin, who didn’t tease or torment me, didn’t call me fat like my other cousins.
And now …… in ways he’s very different, and much the same. That same bemused smile when I start rabbiting on. A smile that reaches to his eyes, and reminds me so much of a favourite uncle (and godfather). But like me he has changed, like me he proabably hasn’t liked all of the changes. The curly hair is gone, and not quite so gangly. As I have grown, he doesn’t seem quite so tall. But still change is good. It remains to see how this new jigsaw will fit together though.
Merry Christmas to all my friends online. This year has been trying for our family and we are greatly enjoying this Christmas.
Over the next couple of days I will be posting up some pictures of our fun.