My 40th...

Looking just a bit worst for wear..... here is me well into it at my 40th

Two Dozen roses

I’ve never received a dozen roses before...... much less two... A magnificent display now graces my writing table, the delicate scent wafting past me as the day warms. Each long stemmed flower is perfect, no doubt picked late yesterday - perhaps this morning as the ends of the stems are crisp and bright green still.

I’d always been a carnation girl. As a treat to myself during uni days, I‘d buy a single carnation and babys breath and arrange it on my study desk, staring at it rather than the dreary papers i was meant to look at. ( ahh the days before computers, when assignments were had written.) It was an affordable luxury - under $2 at the time - the price of a bus fare.

When Adrian and I were courting ( and I feel so old to be able to say that) He’d always bring me a bunch of carnations on a Friday evening before we went out. back then, I felt roses never lasted, were pretentious and a little ugly when compared with the radiance of a carnation.

I sit now and drink in the beauty of my roses. A statement to be certain, but one of acceptance. I am fully embracing my new stage in life, my new age grouping. The rose reminds me of youths momentary flare, but even as it dries, is still beautiful. Stately and graceful, powerful and delicate, soft but barbed. The rose represents a woman who is ready to step into her power.

I farewell my love affair with carnations; for they truely are a young girls flower; highly perfumed, frilly and fluffy, but handled roughly quickly becomes ragged and unattractive; discarded quickly and the next cheap one brought on board.

A dozen roses, so many statements within that cluster,beautiful on its own, magnificent together.

Virus be damned....

It would seem that after over six weeks of Adrians mystery illness getting worse and worse , that we may have an answer… and certainly not something we had anticipated. Its not something we have really talked about much as its been traumatic - but hopefully we see the light at a less serious tunnel this time.

With the stress of his work and just general stuff, Age has gotten run down and tired and very open to picking up whatever was going round - which he obviously did. A bad chesty cough went deeper and lower and evolved into a lower lung infection - which in old terms was pneumonia. We don’t go much for Doctors - so Age had a day or two off and lay around in the sun dosing up on love and Vit C and garlic.

Only marginally better, trudged off to work, but suffered fevers, aches and pains and never really got better. One night I got home from one of my courses to find him picking up the pieces of a kitchen drawer which contained our Dolton - which to the most was left unscathed ( phew!!) the drawer however was smashed from the sheer impact of him collapsing into it after a coughing fit left him with no air - and he blacked out. His coughing became spiratic but violent. One late night we ended up in hospital ( thats another story - bleeding hopeless public system… 8 hour wait.) A trip to a doc saw him come out clutching antibiotics which didn’t really do a great deal but stuff his stomach up and make him feel even worse. Another collapse in the kitchen while I was at a class resulted in the kids being taught how to call the ambo and other emergency care - and another smashed drawer.

The worst part was that he was getting more exhausted, stressed and the coughing seemed to trigger seizures. After collapsing in the street and finding out that the myth that you falling lightly if you black out is crap ( huge bruises and blood) - off to another doc and tests done - all seeming to be fine - except the exhaustion…so more antibiotics…..( just for good measure) Adrians seizures are unexplainable at the best of times - so really hard to pin that one…

A few more collapsing tricks later and all we had was the vague diagnosis that it was viral and all connected with the asthma and tumour…..

You need a good sense of humour on this journey - and Adrian is the master jester of this situation. I queried if he was going to demolish any more drawers then could I have a new kitchen? One morning he collapsed in the bathroom and when I rushed in to help him, Adrian accused me of hitting him on the back of the head! He was deadly serious as he stood there with cuts on his head and just goes to show that he DOES love me that he didn’t immediately launch an defensive attack back at me!

Anyway, not really any better and now forced to be the passenger where ever we go as there is little warning of a black out; you can only imagine how impressed Age is about the whole thing. Of a little comfort though, is the self diagnosis of Whooping Cough. A little known disease in adults - but after a bit of research on medical sites and listening to other adult patients recordings of the cough - its little doubt that this is what it is. No cure - just rest and it sticks around for 100 days.. Concerning is the link to his asthma and weakened lungs, compromised immune system and possible links to the seizures.

We are hoping that our week holiday doing NOTHING on board a cruise ship will prove a huge curative for him - 11 days and counting….

I’ve read a number of reports that it is a contagious disease, both Morgan and Lilly have had a slight cough a week or so ago and I have had a silly half hearted thing late at night - but we’ve put those down to stress rather than anything else….. so a check for anyone who has been near us in the last 6 weeks.. we might have passed something unwittingly to you.. that is, if you go in for the ‘passing diseases on’ theory..