Thank You.

Thank you to all you beautiful people out there in Blogging Land who have dropped by in the last couple of days leaving get well wishes.  Your comments do help to cheer me up!

Today is my tenth day of un-wellness and while most of my 'flu symptoms have gone, I've been left with a debilitating fatigue which is worrisome, given the fact that I have struggled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the past.  I'm hoping that this bout of 'flu has not been a trigger for another round of the dreaded CFS.

My experience with the illness has been one of total mis-understanding and bewilderment when presenting to the medical profession.  Mostly my medical practitioners have been at a loss to know what to do about CFS. 

In the end the persistence of an alternative health care provider paid off, only to be then diagnosed with SJÖGREN’S SYNDROME about seven years ago.

Once more I was told that not much could be done unless I was prepared to be medicated with cortisone which even the specialist did not recommend.

Alternative medicine offered some relief but after three more years of suffering from the weird and not so wonderful symptoms of the disease I decided to take early retirement.  My work was deadline centred, also, reaching my place of employment meant three hours of commuting each day.  While I loved the work I did my place of employment was stressful and lacking in support systems for its employees.  I still miss the stimulation I received from the work I carried out and the opportunities it offered to be self reliant. Even so, it was something like two years after retiring before I could truly say I was well on the mend and no longer required endless supplements for my health.  About two months before I retired my brother (my second youngest sibling) died from a heart attack.  He was forty three and died two weeks after my fifty fifth birthday.  My birthday was also the last day I saw him alive.  He was supposed to come on a family outing with us the very day he died but opted to go swimming with his immediate family and some friends instead.  He and his son were caught in a rip and in his attempt to rescue my nephew, my brother was swept out to sea.  Of course, immediate attention was centred around my nephew's rescue who was only nine at the time and by the time my brother was rescued he had suffered a heart attack and could not be revived.

I had submitted my resignation to my employer only weeks before and I was having doubts as to whether I'd done the right thing or not.  Losing my brother made it easier for me to accept my decision to take retirement at the time.

I missed going to work dreadfully for a full two years.  I still dream that one day I'll get a telephone call asking me to return.  But I know that while I relish the mental stimulation the work would bring, physically I probably would not cope.

Going on a five-month-long camping holiday around Australia last year has helped me ease into a different cycle in life.  My darling husband, Honey Pie, and I went on the first real holiday in both our life times. 

When the opportunity came up for voluntary redundancies at Honey Pie's work he put in a proposal for acceptance and was successful.

Honey Pie started his career as a tradesman when he was fourteen and a half years old with the N.S.W. State Government.  That was in 1966.

Since then he has never been on unemployment benefits and supported the two of us last year on what he now affectionately calls his 'gap year'.

Our trip around Australia was an experience of a life time.  I would do it again any time.  My only problem with it was that after two months I missed my family terribly.

These days, I have my many crafts to concentrate on, as well as my garden and of course my family which now includes a beautiful three year old Grand Daughter who is a delight to be with.

And especially as winter draws in on us and the Winter Solstice means shorter days, I think long and often about our time, last June, in Broome. I know I could not survive the humidity of a tropical summer but wouldn't it be lovely if we could somehow devise a system whereby six months of the year is spent in the Blue Mountains and the other six in Broome!!!

And you guessed it ... Broome was a favourite if not the most favourite place we visited on our journey!!

Sooo...if any of you need cheering up here are some sunny photographs for you. All were taken at Cable Beach Broome.

Life Is A Pea - 2011

Life Is A Pea - 2011

Life Is A Pea - 2011