I went to consult my ENT neurologist this last week and he said that on no account was I ever to have an MRI. I was refused an MRI a few years ago when I had a bursa on my hip joint on account of the possibility that I had some steel wire in my ear and needed to know just what was in there.
He also said that yoga was a very good thing to do as it would challenge my labyrinths and slow down the deterioration or even improve my balance; and my hearing has hardly deteriorated since I saw him last which was years ago. So it was all good news and I just have to work at staying upright. I have several yoga DVDs which is cheaper than going across the road to classes and I can do it in my own time at my own pace.
The cats are well and Poppy is consenting to be brushed at the moment. Parsifal, little hedonist that he is, writhes in ecstasy and rolls around to present his whole body. Needless to say, he has no loose hair left to brush off. At the moment they are both curled up in my dirty clothes basket in the laundry so I can't (or won't) do any washing at the moment.
Starting the day after tomorrow I think that "The Lane" is going to have some major works done on it as we have all been notified that it will be noisy from 7.00am until 9.00am every morning of the coming week. It would be nice if a street number was incorporated but I am not holding my breath on that one.
My man with the I-Pad came to COTA on Thursday to say that the battery is dead and Apple will not replace it; they told him to buy the latest model instead. My other supposed client has not turned up for the first two lessons and Himself had no official clients so we did some sorting out for a couple of the staff and volunteers and then went and had a cup of coffee. A fun and relaxing morning ... :)
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
From Windows 8
I have received my touch keyboard from Microsoft and am trying it out with a bit of serious typing. It is a great improvement on the keyboard built into the light cover; so much so that previously I have been using the on-screen keyboard in preference.
As I get more used to Win 8 I am not hating it quite as much. It is very different to earlier operating systems and I am finding that editing is very clunky - but that may just be that I haven't yet found all the controls. I am not looking forward to trying to teach it but at least I will have some idea of how to work the thing. The trouble is that I don't remember how I , for example, put in my pretty background, wallpaper and icon. No doubt I will muddle through, which is what I am doing with a client who wants to learn how to work his wife's I-Pad. That he even wants to is a puzzlement as he told me that he has bought himself a Samsung tablet. I guess that I will learn more about my own I-Pad by trying to find out what to do on it.
The kittens are thriving and I have a photo of Poppy watching her favourite programme which I will insert when I have transferred it from my camera.
Later: This is Poppy watching "Miniscule". When she hears the theme tune she comes running; it is her favourite programme on TV. Click on the image to enlarge it.
As I get more used to Win 8 I am not hating it quite as much. It is very different to earlier operating systems and I am finding that editing is very clunky - but that may just be that I haven't yet found all the controls. I am not looking forward to trying to teach it but at least I will have some idea of how to work the thing. The trouble is that I don't remember how I , for example, put in my pretty background, wallpaper and icon. No doubt I will muddle through, which is what I am doing with a client who wants to learn how to work his wife's I-Pad. That he even wants to is a puzzlement as he told me that he has bought himself a Samsung tablet. I guess that I will learn more about my own I-Pad by trying to find out what to do on it.
The kittens are thriving and I have a photo of Poppy watching her favourite programme which I will insert when I have transferred it from my camera.
Later: This is Poppy watching "Miniscule". When she hears the theme tune she comes running; it is her favourite programme on TV. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
In the Pink
I spent yesterday afternoon trying to come to terms with my Windows 8 tablet. I have changed the background colour to pink (what else?) and put my 'Minnie la Rose' picture as my start icon.
I have also discovered how to find My Documents and My Pictures which is a big step forward. One problem is that the shortcuts which my 'how-to' book keeps mentioning do not work so I am having to find other ways of doing things. I am dreading the day when I have to teach someone else to use Win 8, Win8a or Win 9 which is a certainty since Win 8 is a disaster on desktop computers.
However, it has some good games and I am wasting a great deal of time playing a game called Montezuma's Revenge which is more addictive even than Angry Birds.
The day before yesterday I discovered that Parsifal (who else) had bitten through the cord of my mobile phone recharger so I had to go downstairs and buy another one. He has never shown any interest in electrical cords so I was rather dismayed but it was a very fine cord and he loves playing with bits of wire so perhaps he thought that it was just another one of those.
I am going to have to talk to an animal behaviourist and the one recommended by D2 doesn't seem to be available. First he was away for a year and now he is not answering his phone or emails. D2 has given me the name and number of a vet who is branching out so my next move will be to phone her and see if she has any better ideas than turkey chickens and frozen rats. He has lots of toys, chewy food and his own blankie to smurgle on so chicken necks or wings might be all I can do and I am not keen on that because of the hard-to-clean tiling in the apartment.
Any readers with suggestions - I would welcome any comments.
I have also discovered how to find My Documents and My Pictures which is a big step forward. One problem is that the shortcuts which my 'how-to' book keeps mentioning do not work so I am having to find other ways of doing things. I am dreading the day when I have to teach someone else to use Win 8, Win8a or Win 9 which is a certainty since Win 8 is a disaster on desktop computers.
However, it has some good games and I am wasting a great deal of time playing a game called Montezuma's Revenge which is more addictive even than Angry Birds.
The day before yesterday I discovered that Parsifal (who else) had bitten through the cord of my mobile phone recharger so I had to go downstairs and buy another one. He has never shown any interest in electrical cords so I was rather dismayed but it was a very fine cord and he loves playing with bits of wire so perhaps he thought that it was just another one of those.
I am going to have to talk to an animal behaviourist and the one recommended by D2 doesn't seem to be available. First he was away for a year and now he is not answering his phone or emails. D2 has given me the name and number of a vet who is branching out so my next move will be to phone her and see if she has any better ideas than turkey chickens and frozen rats. He has lots of toys, chewy food and his own blankie to smurgle on so chicken necks or wings might be all I can do and I am not keen on that because of the hard-to-clean tiling in the apartment.
Any readers with suggestions - I would welcome any comments.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Parsifal the Bold
Whoever said that Bombay cats are bred for apartment living and are a good choice for the elderly has never met Parsifal.
This was his yesterday:
As I think that I have mentioned in an earlier post, when I go to the loo he hops in the bath in expectation that I will turn on the tap for him to play with the water. Yesterday morning he put a paw into the drain-hole and managed to tangle one of his claws around the metal grid thingy. He sat there quietly with the cold water running over his paw until I noticed that he wasn't doing his usual 'dab, wet and flick' and untangled him.
As it was a teaching day for me I left the apartment at 9.00am and was away for almost five hours. When I arrived home Poppy was very agitated and I couldn't find him at all. I went through the apartment opening every cupboard and drawer and found him on a shelf in my wardrobe. He seemed to have been quite comfortable there on a pile of clean clothes. I had assumed that he was in his black-lined igloo where hs becomes invisible. Note to self: Remember to count heads.
Last evening, in my study, he managed to climb up a set of five shelves containing stationery and computers (I have five) and was aiming to jump from there to the top of my bookcase which contains a precarious pile of throw-away shopping bags which I am now going to have to actually throw away. I rescued him from the stationery shelves amid falling air dusters and CDs.
He is gorgeous and I love him to bits but he is a bit of a worry; and I still haven't contacted the animal behaviourist about his pica, a problem which is contained at the moment. At least he doesn't chew electrical cords; I once had a cat who did and that really was a worry.
This was his yesterday:
As I think that I have mentioned in an earlier post, when I go to the loo he hops in the bath in expectation that I will turn on the tap for him to play with the water. Yesterday morning he put a paw into the drain-hole and managed to tangle one of his claws around the metal grid thingy. He sat there quietly with the cold water running over his paw until I noticed that he wasn't doing his usual 'dab, wet and flick' and untangled him.
As it was a teaching day for me I left the apartment at 9.00am and was away for almost five hours. When I arrived home Poppy was very agitated and I couldn't find him at all. I went through the apartment opening every cupboard and drawer and found him on a shelf in my wardrobe. He seemed to have been quite comfortable there on a pile of clean clothes. I had assumed that he was in his black-lined igloo where hs becomes invisible. Note to self: Remember to count heads.
Last evening, in my study, he managed to climb up a set of five shelves containing stationery and computers (I have five) and was aiming to jump from there to the top of my bookcase which contains a precarious pile of throw-away shopping bags which I am now going to have to actually throw away. I rescued him from the stationery shelves amid falling air dusters and CDs.
He is gorgeous and I love him to bits but he is a bit of a worry; and I still haven't contacted the animal behaviourist about his pica, a problem which is contained at the moment. At least he doesn't chew electrical cords; I once had a cat who did and that really was a worry.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Problem solved
I went out and bought another kitten igloo this morning and put it in my bedroom next to Poppy's igloo. Parsifal immediately abandoned Poppy's and claimed the new one ... which is what I hoped would happen.
Just catching up on an earlier post - my DVD player had died which is why I was getting no sound so Ashe, the technician, advised me to get a Bluetooth DVD player. It was very cheap and works so I have been doing 'Yoga with Julie' every couple of days. And Australia went digital on 2nd of this month and I can finally get a good radio reception up here in my seven storeys of concrete.
Apropos of the Slush file, I found a map of the 'Hundred of Onkaparinga' so, to a degree, we have been able to work out where the Martin Block went. Unfortunately, Great Uncle C's part is mostly off the map. Bro put in the current roads and coloured Great Uncle R's portion and what there was of Great Uncle C's portion. We still don't know how their sister ended up with a fairly large part of the block. My brother's comment:
"The family owned a hell of a lot of land!!"
The puzzle is that our grandfather was not left any of it so how did he end up with any at all ... or was he simply a tenant farmer?
The more I delve into the goings on in the family the more puzzles I turn up. There has got to be a finishing point somewhere but it is so far away that I can't see it. I suspect that there may have been a tweaking of the will as my grandfather and his twin brother were born within wedlock and therefore legitimate and entitled to part of the inheritance even though they were little cuckoos in the nest.
Here is a photo of both cats. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Just catching up on an earlier post - my DVD player had died which is why I was getting no sound so Ashe, the technician, advised me to get a Bluetooth DVD player. It was very cheap and works so I have been doing 'Yoga with Julie' every couple of days. And Australia went digital on 2nd of this month and I can finally get a good radio reception up here in my seven storeys of concrete.
Apropos of the Slush file, I found a map of the 'Hundred of Onkaparinga' so, to a degree, we have been able to work out where the Martin Block went. Unfortunately, Great Uncle C's part is mostly off the map. Bro put in the current roads and coloured Great Uncle R's portion and what there was of Great Uncle C's portion. We still don't know how their sister ended up with a fairly large part of the block. My brother's comment:
"The family owned a hell of a lot of land!!"
The puzzle is that our grandfather was not left any of it so how did he end up with any at all ... or was he simply a tenant farmer?
The more I delve into the goings on in the family the more puzzles I turn up. There has got to be a finishing point somewhere but it is so far away that I can't see it. I suspect that there may have been a tweaking of the will as my grandfather and his twin brother were born within wedlock and therefore legitimate and entitled to part of the inheritance even though they were little cuckoos in the nest.
Here is a photo of both cats. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Restoration
My balance is rather off at the moment and when doing yoga I am having trouble with the standing poses (I keep falling over) so I decided to try out Restorative Yoga today. It was very nice and gentle with mostly lying around on bolsters in various, mostly twisted, poses and breathing love, peace etc. It was all very restful but I usually need to stretch out more. I have a DVD which I can do at home where falling over doesn't matter but one of the poses on the DVD needs a block so I bought one on my way out and will try it out tomorrow if the mood moves me.
Parsifal has started sharing Poppy's igloo and they curl up together and keep warm but she is reluctant to get into it when he is there already and she doesn't use his igloo ever. Most of their beds are never used so I might bundle them all up and put them in the store room. I need to do a grand clean-out sometime and take all the extraneous stuff to the transfer centre. It is a bit hard to get to at the moment as there are road-works set to trap the unwary all over Claremont.
With the cooler weather supposed to be here now that we are into May, Parsifal decided to check out the dryer and I managed to get a photo of him performing yet another facet of his desire to help his Mum with the housework. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Parsifal has started sharing Poppy's igloo and they curl up together and keep warm but she is reluctant to get into it when he is there already and she doesn't use his igloo ever. Most of their beds are never used so I might bundle them all up and put them in the store room. I need to do a grand clean-out sometime and take all the extraneous stuff to the transfer centre. It is a bit hard to get to at the moment as there are road-works set to trap the unwary all over Claremont.
With the cooler weather supposed to be here now that we are into May, Parsifal decided to check out the dryer and I managed to get a photo of him performing yet another facet of his desire to help his Mum with the housework. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Monday, April 22, 2013
The flu didn't fly
I think that it took me longer to get over the post-flu depression than it did to recover from the flu itself. It was only yesterday that I woke up feeling normal and I was talking to the Toe-cutter's wife this morning and it sounds as though she had the same thing as I did.
Poppy has finally discovered the water fountain. Up until now she has considered it to be an emmissary from the devil come to suck out her brains but today she was trying to drink out of the running water. She has never really been interested in running water; not like Parsifal. Whenever I go to the loo and wash my hands afterwards he jumps into the bath and looks hopefully at the tap because the hot-water tap over the bath is the fastest way to bring hot water to the master bathroom and I run it before I have a shower.
Yesterday I went out and bought myself an electric soup maker which I am looking forward to using. It is fully automatic if you get the quantities right so I have to go shopping with a list so that I can see how high the solids come up before I add the liquid.
I bought myself a yoga DVD today, only to find that the DVD player no longer has sound. I don't think that the sound was ever connected when I got the new TV but someone is coming next Tuesday to sese if I am pushing the wrong buttons or if Liam never got around to connecting it in the first place.
Cousin N. has sent me some old photographs of my great grandmother on my father's side with her bevy of daughters and nieces. It took me most of the morning to get them edited and tweaked but it is nice to have them. The photo I already have of my grandmother is authenticated but she was much prettier in the latest pictures; younger and more comfortably situated; still single and still living in the city.
Poppy has finally discovered the water fountain. Up until now she has considered it to be an emmissary from the devil come to suck out her brains but today she was trying to drink out of the running water. She has never really been interested in running water; not like Parsifal. Whenever I go to the loo and wash my hands afterwards he jumps into the bath and looks hopefully at the tap because the hot-water tap over the bath is the fastest way to bring hot water to the master bathroom and I run it before I have a shower.
Yesterday I went out and bought myself an electric soup maker which I am looking forward to using. It is fully automatic if you get the quantities right so I have to go shopping with a list so that I can see how high the solids come up before I add the liquid.
I bought myself a yoga DVD today, only to find that the DVD player no longer has sound. I don't think that the sound was ever connected when I got the new TV but someone is coming next Tuesday to sese if I am pushing the wrong buttons or if Liam never got around to connecting it in the first place.
Cousin N. has sent me some old photographs of my great grandmother on my father's side with her bevy of daughters and nieces. It took me most of the morning to get them edited and tweaked but it is nice to have them. The photo I already have of my grandmother is authenticated but she was much prettier in the latest pictures; younger and more comfortably situated; still single and still living in the city.
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