Sometimes things just get in your way and it's very easy to ditch what you're most comfortable with in order to feel like you have a sense of order in your life.
Not a lot has changed for me.
I still live in Werribee with my husband and still work at the local hospital as a midwife. I do now though work in a GP's clinic locally as a practice nurse which is a little different to what I've done for many years. This job is currently three 8 hour shifts a fortnight and I love it for the opportunity it gives me to talk to people of varying ages for a change, both women and men, as I do their care-plans and referrals to allied health, their dressings and their diabetes assessments. I also get to immunise children up to the age of four which provides a bit of entertainment when I get to blow bubbles of distraction to stop their cries of shock and dismay.
I work in the clinic with two GP's, one of which I have known and worked along side for a very long time now. He is a delight and has a wicked sense of humour occasionally and I feel it an honour and privilege to be his colleague.
We now have two dogs, Stuart and Noni who are both border collies. Stuart is a traditional black and white boy and a real woose, whereas Noni, the girl, who is decribed as being a lavender colour is a dog with determination in her eyes, especially if you should have a ball in your hand for she has the instinctive belief that balls are for throwing and her objective in her life is to fetch and fetch and fetch. She will actually hand the ball back to you sometimes, but her ploy is to throw it at your feet and look at you with a "throw that ball" attitude until you weaken and comply with her unspoken demands. I love them both dearly as they have very individual personalities and we often go down to the local beach and neither of them object to the water, in fact, the wilder the weather the more fun it is!
My daughter still lives at home. She is now a child-care worker with not only a Certificate 3 in child-care, but also now a Diploma in early childhood, and will soon be undertsaking an advanced diploma. I like to think she'll eventually look at completing a Bachelor in Early Childhood and Development, but only she knows when and if she will attempt that, as there are many other distractions in her life these days.
At the end of last year (2012), she obtained the distinction of being awarded the honour of 'Best overall worker' within the childcare company she works for and her reward was a trip for two to Port Douglas with accomodation, flights and car hire, no to mention an extra weeks leave to take this well-earned holiday with Kieran (her boyfriend).
Mum still lives not 5 minutes away from us but for how much longer I'm not too sure as she's going downhill at the rate of knots these days.
The 'village' she has been living in for the past 8 years or so is a lovely place with cute cottages and beautifully maintained gardens etc., The not so lovely aspect of her village though is the rate in which people either leave to go to nursing homes or die and this is is happening more and more as the population ages.She forgets to eat and needs encouragement to drink fluids on these hot days occasionally, and this morning just gone when I was there, I was convinced she hadn't showered which is so unlike her. She was insistent that she had showered, but knowing daughters do know the difference between a freshly showered Mum and an unshowered Mum, that I do know.
This week my sister is coming down from her place of residence and our task (aka battle) is to take Mum to visit a couple of nursing homes to see what they're like and hopefully trigger her interest a little.
Somehow, I doubt the interest trigger will happen and she will blatantly refuse to even try one out under the premise of respite but at least we can try.
Well thats enough for now.
I shall blog again soon hopefully reader and may the force be with you!
