Brickwalls and forebears

For years, ever since I started researching my family, I have been trying to track the family of my maternal great-grandfather with absolutely no success. The really frustrating thing is that the family settled in Victoria, Australia, and there should have been some records in the Births, Marriages and Deaths for the state. The trouble is that he had a very common Welsh name and the only fact which I knew was that my great-great-grandfather had the same name as my grandmother's father and that he was a tanner. That should have been enough - but it wasn't.

Now suddenly there is information coming in from all sides and I am trying to sort out what is relevant and what pertains to other men with the same name. It is very confusing but better than a blank wall and eventually I might finally find out who everyone was. I don't even know my great-grandfather's mother's name, or his siblings.

Genealogy is a funny thing: information seems to come in fits and starts and suddenly you can move forward a step or two before finding another brick wall which might take years to crumble. I could put some guestimates onto my family tree but I prefer to verify everything. There is one slightly shady area and I have inserted a caveat there, as the tree which I took the information from had a very muddled part to it and only the fact that cousins had married enabled me to sort out the relationships.

And now a word which I was sure must exist but had never heard of and which I needed to know:

"Ante-jentacular [a] Pre-breakfast. Goes nicely with post-prandial (after dinner)." I have an ante-jentacular cup of coffee every morning and needed the right word to describe it.

hopefully the last mention of my hip

I had an ultrasound to my hip last week and yesterday went back to the rheumatologist. the outcome is that I have ruptured the gluteus minimus tendon and the inflammation has caused a large bursa. All things considered, it has not been so very painful but I have had a cortisone injection into it and hopefully it will become painless. I will, of course, continue exercising and stretching it; stretching is my only hope of maintaining full range of movement.

For Mothers' Day D1 gave me a dictionary of obscure words and instead of giving you cyberhints I thought that I would slip in an occasional interesting word. The one I am giving you today is not all that obscure but the commentary which goes with it appeals to me. [Taken from 'The Completely Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler].

"Antipodes [n] Diametrically opposite. The term has hitherto been used quite incorrectly to mean Australia. The author is glad of this opportunity to set the record straight by explaining that the antipodes are in fact the British Isles - a place on the very underside of the earth where wiry little pale-faced men and large plump rubicund men hang upside down, wearing cloth caps and bowler hats respectively. The preference for tight-fitting headgear derives from an obvious necessity."

Down with Mercury

Well, my TV well and truly died. It was the LCD control and that part is no longer available. The TV was not quite four years old.

So I went out and bought another one; bigger and better with an extended warranty and a surge control. It doesn't need a set top box so I have offered the one I have on FreeCycle and so far have had about 20 responses. How does one choose from a list of people whom one doesn't know from Adam. Certainly, a couple were rather abrupt and assumed that I would let them have it just because they wanted it. Those people are on my never never list. I have offered it to someone who is coming to collect it on Saturday morning. If that arrangement falls through there are plenty more to choose from. I've emailed everyone and said that it has been promised. The moderators on FreeCycle don't like people posting a "taken" until it has actually been collected.

And Yahoo has never been so slow ... it took ages to send out the emails because, other than harvesting the addresses, each had to be done separately although I pasted the message.

I turned up for the MRI scan of my hip on Sunday evening but when I filled in the questionnaire I realised that the tiny piece of stainless steel wire in my right ear made me ineligible as the MRI is, of course, a huge magnet and it could rip my right ear right open. So no MRI. I will be seeing the rheumatologist again in about a week and I guess that we go from there. I had a CT scan of my sinuses done ten years ago and will take the plates with me for her to see. However, even if the wire doesn't show I know it is there and can't risk upsetting my balance; the consequences are too dire. If I have to put up with a painful hip that would be preferable. At least my pinky finger is much better and the capsule seems to be unthickening. The alternative is to see if the ENT specialist still has my original 40-year old notes. He probably has since he had to do some surgery on the left ear ten years ago and I last saw him in 2006 - archived probably, but still available. They would almost certainly document exactly what was done and with what. Probably ...

I did my WII with the new TV this morning (the TV was only delivered yesterday) and couldn't believe the brightness of the colours compared with the dead set. Watching the news doesn't give the contrast but seeing something which I have been looking at since before Christmas I could see the difference. It is startling!!

Your cyberhint for today:

Many men are just as put off by women who leer, insinuate, curse, post lurid messages and photos and indulge in other forms of vulgarity, as women are by crude men.

More Mercury Mayhem

Three days ago my TV was taken off to be fixed or trashed, depending on its state of health. The man who collected it said that four or five of that particular brand had died in the last couple of weeks but that mine was showing slightly different symptoms so it just might be fixable. Next time I'll get an extended warranty - four years is too young to die.

I can still do my WII because I know the routine off by heart but somehow it is not the same if I can't try to run past all the other runners on the screen ... and cheer whenever one trips over and bites the dust.

I saw the rheumatologist during the week. Naturally my hip was feeling a great deal better but I realise that it is going to take ages if left to itself so I am off to have an MRI scan next Sunday evening and we will go from there. However, she injected my sore pinkie finger and hopefully it will remain sort of improved. It is not perfect and the joint is obviously in a dire state but less pain would be good. She said that she really wondered when she got a referral for a hip along with an X-ray of a pinkie finger so I had to explain about being asked if I had any other joint problems which could be looked at while I was there.

Not much else exciting. I will actually have a client at COTA this coming week - I have had none for the last two weeks but with Easter, ANZAC Day and school holidays, a lot of grandmothers will have been grandbaby sitting. And talking of grandmothers, my neck-to-knee bathers have arrived and I am very pleased with them. They are exactly what I wanted - just like the kids wear to keep the sun off when they are swimming but bigger. The sad thing is that because the heater on my pool is not working I can't road-test them yet; not that I am going to need them until I move house.

I had a letter from Multiplex saying that the units will be ready in the middle of next year so I need to get serious about deciding what I am going to take with me and disposing of the rest. That is going to be hard - I love my furniture and had a lot of fun buying it but it won't all fit.

And of course, there is the problem of Boy-cat and his refusal to use a litter tray ...

Planetary mayhem

D1 tells me that Mercury had gone retrograde and it is upsetting communications worldwide. Funny - I thought that it was a volcanic eruption in Iceland. However, my TV has died and I am waiting for the service people to let me know when they can come and collect it to give it a heart transplant. I can do without the TV - there is nothing worth watching - but I am missing doing my WII. Blame Mercury if I get unfit because I certainly can't walk very far without my hip starting to hurt.

I am seeing the rheumatologist the day after tomorrow and hope that she can fix it for me. My GP asked me if I had any other rheumatic complaints while I was about it so I showed her my right pinkie finger so that has gone on the referral as well and I was sent off to have it X-rayed. Not that it shows anything much but it is painful too so maybe something can be done for it as well.

The weather has turned hot again - 29 degrees C yesterday and hot again to day. I sweated it out yesterday morning and cut back most of the creepers from the inside of the back fence and sometime when the sun is in the right place - which means at dusk - I will use the hedge clippers to cut back the creepers which are growing into the back lane. I am not so fussed about them as the trucks going past tends to limit their growth outwards and I don't feel that I have to make them look particularly tidy. I'll have to mulch the clippings, of course, and that is a horrible job but I cheer myself with the knowledge that I will only have to do it one more time and then it will be someone else's problem.

And now for your Cyberflirt hint:

Save your most intimate secrets for someone you know personally.

Brrrrr ...

Today is cold! Sort of cold anyway, compared to the weather we have been having up until now. The thermometer attached to my air conditioning says that it is 20 degrees centigrade. I don't doubt that outside in the sun it is a good deal warmer but it is a sign that winter is on its way. I thought about turning on the heating but keep remembering my last power bill and instead go and put on another layer of clothing. I should go out and sit in the sun.

On Thursday I decided to get myself a pair of elbow crutches because using a walking stick was giving me a sore hand, so I am now the proud owner of a pair of ergonomically designed crutches. Naturally, having forked out for them, my hip is feeling a lot better - about back to what it was like before I re-injured it, but I suspect that a lot is due to taking the weight off it for a while so I will continue to use the left crutch if I have a lot of walking to do or if I have to climb hills or stairs, both of which make the hip hurt.

I am back to doing my full WII workout; for some reason jogging on the spot doesn't bother the hip but it doesn't like being stretched and will stiffen if allowed to. That would be a recipe for disaster as it would be easier to injure. I will be seeing my doctor in three days and feel a bit of a fraud but I really do need to find out exactly what is happening in the joint and to get it right or it is going to put a damper on any future plans to travel.

Your cyberflirt hint for today:

Words which send the message that I'm "Iffy" -non-conformist; loner; excitable

Ouch!!!!

The hip which I sprained about six months ago has flared up and I am hobbling around with a walking stick. I can't see my doctor until next week but contacted D2 who is an emergency physician and she has told me to take strong anti-inflamatory medication, painkillers if necessary, and keep using the stick to keep the weight off the sore hip. Then I need to ask my doctor to refer me for an MRI and then see a rheumatologist - she can recommend a good one and can get me an immediate appointment. So I am almost immobilised and it is very irritating; I want to be out in the garden; I want to do a bit of retail therapy; and I don't want to stop doing my WII because it will start moralising at me about the benefits of regular exercise.

And speaking of the WII - I accidentally set my weight goal for 2 kilos up instead of down and although it recognises that I am just in the overweight class it is concerned that I am losing weight and therefore moving further away from my goal. I can't find a way of re-setting my weight goal except by either putting on the weight so that I reach the goal I set, or by waiting out the time limit, when it will ask me to set a new goal. Aren't computers wonderful ... there is no arguing with them.

... and your cyberflirt hint for the day:

Even if sex is on your mind, keep it out of your profile.