Just one of those weeks to forget.. if possible...

[RichardMEL]

Well well bugger me... the tigers actually WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

could my week be turning around??? I won't hold my breath... I might stay up and watch Chennai tackle another game of cricket :p

[kristina]

What a terrible week you had! It can only get better, there is no doubt about it! At least you've had all the mishaps of one year (if not more) sorted out within a week and now you can get on with the rest of the year!

[monrein]

Hope this week is going better RM.  Last week pretty much sucked for me too, but so far this one is shaping up quite nicely and I wish you the same. 

[paris]

Richard, AlohaBeth got stuck in customs---something to do with green leafy stuff        I do hope this week gets much better than last week.          

[MandaMe1986]

Richard, AlohaBeth got stuck in customs---something to do with green leafy stuff       

 
 
She just wanted to make sure Richard was well taken care of...

[RichardMEL]

thanks all

this week is marginally better.. let me see...

- they took my laptop away on Monday - still no word on that (hmm)
- I stayed home on Monday for some building works to happen on my balcony. They're waterproofing the balconies. OK that is fine.. except we just finished 6 months of summer with no rain.. why do they pick now when it's autumn coming to winter to start this? Oh yeah, it rained on the weekend.... So nobody shows up by 12:30 so I called up "uh yeah well we're not coming to do the work today because it rained..." GEE THANKS! I took a valuable day off work to sit around and wait for.. nothing?!! NOT HAPPY.

not that I minded having the day off work so much after last week's crap, but I have so much to do I really needed that full day (because dialysis ruins my other days pretty much) so not happy.

Still everything else has gone OK. I had a good session of D yesterday and they confirmed I'm pretty much not carrying excess fluid which is good. Didn't cramp. didn't crash. gotta be happy with that.

Now I just need AB to get through customs to keep me warm.. it's bloody freezing!!!

[RichardMEL]

Well..

my week got better but now it's gotten worse again. It seems like everything around me is going to hell in a handbasket. Let me try and count off the last couple of days:

Well, it started with yet another loss to my Tigers... yeah, well that's to be expected (shut up, Wattle!! ) but it got worse when our champion player tore his hamstring and is out for 10-12 weeks, and possibly career over. A sad day for "Richo"

But then it gets better.. starting with the workers on my balcony who decided to do their work but NOT leave a note expressing the fact that it was wet and had not set. I get home and look at oh there's new stuff out there. I open my balcony door to have a look (I do not walk on there) but before I can close my door my cat who loves her outside time and clearly missed it zoomed out onto it... and discovered it was.. mushy! So not only did kitty get this sandy crap on her paws, but now there's nicely set paw prints on my balcony!!  lovely! So then I had to try and get this sticky crap off my cats paws because I was worried about her eating/ingesting it and it going solid in her tummy or something and causing problems... so in the act of picking her up and trying to  gently rub this stuff off her paws (she was NOT amused) it was difficult and one of her claws managed to swipe across my fistula (!) luckily it did not draw blood but one of the nurses saw it and totally flipped out at me saying I could have died if it had sprung a leak and all this...

So I still have NO word from HP about my dead laptop. Why they couldn't just replace it (only six months old) under warranty is beyond me, but anyway... so I am functioning on a 9 year old desktop at home that barely works, and an emergency backup (old) laptop that I took with me to dialysis to watch downloaded stuff on.

Of course I kept my downloaded stuff on a memory stick which I could then take from the old PC where I downloaded to, and then use it on the laptop at dialysis.

Yes that's right, the memory stick failed when I got into dialysis. No matter what I did it would not recognise it!! So I had 5 hours with NO entertainment!!!! gaaa! And since then I have put the stick into 3 different PC's and it just refuses to work. fantastic !! (NOT!)

Oh yeah I did have some entertainment at dialysis yesterday when there was a hospital wide power outage. WOOT! We had 30 minutes battery on the machines and they were starting to sort out who to take off if the batteries failed and all that. Luckily we got power back in 20 minutes *phew*... that was different.

Oh the power outage also affected my work and some of the servers there refused to come back properly.. so that caused issues for my boss (and because I was not there it was more difficult for them).

Then I had a date last night with a nice lady but I honestly don't think she finds me very interesting so that was a bit of a non event 

This morning I found out my brother lost his job and they just told him to clear out and he's very depressed.

So... just waiting to see what will go wrong next... I'm sure there's more to come

this is just not a good week at all

[RichardMEL]

oh I forgot to add I got a text from a dialysis friend saying her fistula stopped last night so she's stuck in hospital for it... yeah I might see her tomorrow at my unit which is nice (she's pretty good looking ) but geez, that sucks!

I think it's something about me

[paris]

Sweet Richard, I am so very sorry. It seems to be raining trouble over you.  My mother's favorite expression was "going to hell in a handbasket',  so I feel how frustrated you are right now.  You do seem to be having a long streak of bad luck.  It isn't you    It is just stupid things happening in a long string.  Including Beth being stuck in customs!!  I think now she is just trying to avoid her brothers wedding     I do hope things improve as the week goes on.  And I hope your dialysis friend is doing ok.  Sending you lots of love,         

[RichardMEL]

thank you 

[Wattle]

now there's nicely set paw prints on my balcony!! 

Celeste was just marking her territory! I think the paw prints would be cute. Didn't you ever write in wet cement as a kid??

I hope your week gets better Richy. I wont mention the Tigers       

[BobN]

Richard, sounds like you need a laugh,

We just had a little party in the office for a colleague who turned 50.  I put together a top-10 list of "Ways To Know When You're Turning 50" for the occassion:

10.  Your therapist starts calling you for advice.
9.  "Performance anxiety" now refers to golf.
8.  Your main form of aerobic exercise is getting up to change the channel.
7.  You think a mosh pit is something found at the center of an exotic fruit.
6.  You wish the old ticker had quartz movement (the guy is a watch buyer.)
5.  You read obituaries not to see who died but how long they lived.
4.  Unless you've been knighted you want to smack anyone who calls you "sir."
3.  You're shocked to discover that "chemical peel" isn't the name of a stripper.
2.  Your underwear starts creeping up on you...and you enjoy it.
1.  Twice in one night refers to bathroom visits.

Hope this helps.

Hang in there bro.

[monrein]

I don't know if those helped Richard but they made me laugh.  Thanks Bob.  Laughing is always a good thing and over 50 there are so very many opportunities.

[dwcrawford]

Richard, tell me about your Chef.

[David13]

Sorry to hear about all the difficulties, Richard. 

Look at it this way:  Maybe you are having all your bad luck for the year all crammed into one period, and then the rest of the year will be just peachy!   

[RichardMEL]

lol thanks guys(n gals) 

Yeah I hope I am paying off karma at a massive rate so that when things turn around they will be awesome!!! Well, I can dream!

Now Dan a man doesn't kiss and tell... unfortunately there was no kissing - so I guess that means I can tell?? lol. The chef is a lovely lady and we had a hungarian dinner (hmm, ya think my phos levels will be through the roof after I indulged in chicken schnitzel stuffed with cheese and shaved turkey??  hey but it was SOOO worth it!). Anyway yeah we had a lovely dinner and chatted, and she even gave me some fresh cookies she baked (under instructions to share with the nurses at Dialysis today) which was extra kind of her but you know when you're with someone and you just get that vibe that they're "just not that into you"? Like she was perfectly nice and polite and all that, but just a few things she said really gave me the impression that that was it for us on anything more than a friendly level. You know when you end a conversation/date and they say "Yeah we'll catch up soon" or "I'll be in touch" and you know it's just lip service... it was sort of like that. I'm not angry or anything.. I mean that's the way life is.. if she didn't feel anything click there or whatever... well that's the way it is but yeah, a little disappointing I guess.

However I did get awesome levels of phos into my system so I got something out of the night!!!

 

[RichardMEL]

Well this picture from yesterday's game seems to sum up my last few weeks. Yep, sitll things going crappy!!

Seems like I won't get my laptop back for at least another week... what crappy service!!!

BLAH!

[dwcrawford]

Oh Richard, Get your life straightened out.  My job is to complain.  Yours is to be positive.

[RichardMEL]

Oh Richard, Get your life straightened out.  My job is to complain.  Yours is to be positive.

lol.. yes I am trying Dan (you do not complain, by the way! Trust me.. I've seen complainers!!!). I think this is just a reall rough patch for me, my family and people around me.

I had my primary nurse going off at me yesterday saying I need to list at another hospital because hospital X had 6 transplants last week or something and ours hardly do any. But I remind her "It's a naitonal list. It doesn't matter what hospital I am at" - hmmmm.... I think she is just frustrated because she wants so badly for me to get a kidney - which is very sweet of her.

My brother wants to donate, but he's just had several massive blows personally losing his job, and some other stuff. I am not sure this is a time to put anything like that on him further, though I am seeing my neph later this week and will discuss it wioth him and see about a referral. Gee, I don't know anymore.

I want a drink!!!   
     

[dwcrawford]

I don't know if I would want a kidney or not...  I'm supposed to think about registering but haven done that at all.  I'm still trying  to process this.

Let's go hit the bars!

[willowtreewren]

I'll join you!

Richard, things will surely start to look up soon.

Aleta

[MandaMe1986]

I want a drink!!!   
     

I will take one too!

[dwcrawford]

My friend Javier just left.  He sat right here and drank 3 beers right in front of me....
Oh well, he did bring my lunch.

[RichardMEL]

Well here is a bit of an update on me. The reason I am still not here as much as usual is because...

Back on May 7th or so HP, who had my laptop since April 27th(it died on April 23rd) informed me they were waiting for a part to fix my laptop (hello the hard drive failed.. is it THAT hard to find one?? puhlease!) and that it was due on May 14th. I was annoyed - not just because of the delay but because *I* had to chase them up - NOBODY bothered to call me!!! GRR SO anyway I waited till May 21 (A week after) to *AGAIN* call them, because guess what - no contact!! Well, they happily inform me that the part somehow is now due on June 3rd. OMG!!!! What kind of a shoddy operation. Hello Hewlett Packard!! Guess who will never get me as a customer again? So I informed the nice young lady whose misfortune it was to answer the call that I was not trying to shoot the messenger (her) but I was very disappointed - as much in the continued delay but yet again nobody bothered to inform me - the customer and could she please note it with her supervisor(s) because I was not very impressed. I made it clear I was not angry with her - she's just the phone bunny and she was OK about it but I was really not happy and well this results in me not being able to access IHD easily for a number of reasons.

Added to that my beloved football team is imploding from within (7 games, 1 win) and a scandal involving the players supposedly wanting the coach to be sacked is just a disgrace if true. It has not been a fun week.. something which Wattle and other opposition supporters must find wildly amusing.. sadly I don't even get jibed anymore.. just a look of intense pity!

It is perhaps a blessing that I won't see them play tomorrow night in a big game that is an annual game put on to celebrate indigenous culture in this culture, and is a really great initiative. (more info on 'Dreamtime at the 'G: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime_at_the_%27G). Instead I will be heading off for my Brother's birthday evening to a concert of, ironitcally, indigenous music.

Dialysis at least is going OK.....

[David13]

Hello, Richard.  I understand your frustration with the customer service issue.  Don't these people understand that good customer service can mean the difference between a return customer and a customer who will go out of his way to avoid their product in the future?  I guess they think that all companies are the same, so why should they bother because the customer is going to get the same lousy service at the next place, too.  I hope this isn't the case. . .   

On a lighter note, I hope you have a great time at your brother' s birthday bash!