Finished another shift at work.
Still concerned that I am doing everything wrong, but no-one seems to have the time to tell me that.
It's also been confirmed that if I have signed up for any extra shifts I can have them.
Some of the ones I wanted had already gone (those this month, sadly) but I have at least two extra which will pay out before I go to Glasgow.
So that's all YAY!

Got a name badge and a full uniform too, so I no longer have to wear my decent school trousers on the floor. And the work ones have a pocket, which is very helpful - I don't need one in class as I have everything I need close to hand, but on the tills you're not close to anything useful. Well, being a retail chemist you are close to lots of useful things, but you'd get the sack if you helped yourself!



In a far more emotional vein...
Funeral tomorrow.
I hope you will understand when I say I am looking forward to it.
It's a family event for a start. I feel good when we pull together.
Mum will need me and won't bitch - pretty much everything I do will be appreciated and remembered fondly. And the bottom line is I will actually BE a help, not a hindrance.

And it will be the end of this chapter. We can settle down and acknowledge the gap Grandad leaves in our lives. We devoted many hours in caring for him and this interim period has been hectic.

My aunt by marriage is originally from Iran. A few years ago she brought her aging mother, who speaks only Farsi, over to the US to live with them. Recently she received a recommendation from a colleague for a gerontologist who actually speaks Farsi, which was huge for them because her mother has a number of medical issues, including Alzheimer's, and it has been difficult for my aunt to constantly translate her ramblings and get her the help she needs. So she took her to this new doctor, who evaluated her for over an hour.

The first thing the doctor tells my aunt is that her mother most definitely does not have Alzheimer's. She has a severe urinary tract infection.

I'm sorry, what?

Apparently, it is a known problem among the elderly, and elderly women in particular, that long-term untreated urinary tract or kidney infections can lead to dementia. But the type of dementia shows key differences from Alzheimer's, which a standard practitioner probably wouldn't know how to look for, let alone in a different language. This gerontologist was able to see the difference, ran the urine test in-office, and had the results before the appointment was over.

My aunt reports that after two days on the antibiotics, her mother is noticeably more clear-headed already. Very happy all around!

Wow, that's awesome, and scary at the same time really.

I'm stoked!!

Friends who are friends even when I don't really deserve the friendship.

They keep me alive. :)

How could you not deserve it?

Funeral yesterday went as well as it possibly could.
No weeping and wailing, a dignified send off all done in a very proper way.
The afternoon and evening were restrained, but did feel in a way like a celebration of his life, rather than po-faced mourning.

We had a party for Grandad's 80th and said a lot of the things we wanted to then. We felt it was important to say them in his hearing, while he was alive and well, rather than wait until after he died. So last night felt a bit like his 80th all over again, except that this time he wasn't here shaking his head over all the people who wanted to praise him, and marvelling at the amount of food and drink.

Less people this time round, that's what happens when you get to 88.
But his neices and nephews made a good showing in respect of his siblings, also some people from church as well as Mum's friends.

Theresa from Church came. She speaks in broken and heavily accented English despite moving here from Italy 50-odd years ago. Once again she had a good laugh at the fact that my Mamma has one BIG-a girl, and one LITTLE girl! Ha ha ha! Because she has one GREATBIG-a son and the udda, he's-a really SKINNY! Hahahaha! Accompanied by hand movements to show just how enormous one of her sons is.

I wouldn't mind, but we went through this last year when we met her in the street.
At least she didn't poke my flesh this time. Cheeky old mare. I got my revenge by doing an impression of her in the kitchen after she left. This cracked my BIL up so much he demanded I repeat it again later, after a few sherberts. He will probably amuse other people with the anecdote for a while now. Not so much what she said, although that tickled him, but by my spirited impression of her.

Spreading a little joy every day...

All good, all good. Now you can get on and grieve, Sundae. Or maybe it's all done now? I find my grieving comes out in bits and pieces ... it's never done with, really. Sorry, I know this is the happy thread, so I'll just say the dead never leave you, really, and that is good and comforting (for me, anyways).

Having the kind of job where I can go have a nap for an hour and spend the rest of the day reading the newspapers, drinking coffee and watching funny videos on Youtube.

You work for GM? :eek:

What's a GM?

That's obviously a "no". I just happen to be very good at picking employers. Maximum outcome for minimal effort is one of my many mottos. And I have currently reached a level where I can get away with doing about, oh, two hours of work a day? Maybe half an hour, if it is a very good day, probably closer to four on a bad one, but I get much more of the former than the latter.

Other benefits include minimal oversight, as I only normally see my boss about once a week. Oh, and free coffee, because I'm just special like that.

Cotillion works in the insurance business, as a broker, is my guess ...

Alas, no.

However, guessing my career could be a fun game. I could describe an average day, in terms not too obvious to give it away, and see what people come up with.

Start a thread, Cotillion, start a thread.
Meanwhile, back to your regular scheduled programming - What's making me happy? Phlthy's good news! :)

I went into a trance.
I heard an American voice.
It might even have been the voice of American ancestors.

All I know is it was light and funny.
It was all I hoped for.
And I adored it.

Oh yeah, and I talked to Infi :)

Hahahahaha.

I'm a freak about phones. Nervous Nellie. I don't know why...but it took me years to be able to talk to the speaker in a drive-thru so it must be related to speakers! :lol:

It was fun talking to you Sundae. :)

Maybe you have a fear of talking to invisible people.

I hear it's quite common.

I'm shyer than I seem.

But you're onto something there, HLJ. If I can't see the person, for all I know they're pointing at me and laughing and making crazy faces. There could be whole crowds of people doing that, like I'm on some auditory jumbotron. :crazy:

Does that mean that you can see me?

Only when I look through your window.

:bolt:

Oh good. I often feel as if my laptop's webcam is spying on me.

Aden got a b+ to a- on his last english assignment for the year. I'm really happy about this, because he's been struggling with his teacher all year. They're totally at odds with each other, and it's taken great strength of will for Aden to just pretty much ignore her and work with me or by himself on his assessment pieces. She gave him a D in first semester which really didn't sit well with any of us, so that's a great improvement. Overall, he's expecting a B for the final semester and I don't think I could ask for much more.

It's really made me see that he can do anything if he sets his mind to it, so I hope he can store this little journey in his memory bank for future reference the next time he gets a teacher, lecturer (assuming he still wants to go to uni in another couple of years) or boss who doesn't bother looking below the surface.

;)

damn straight! hell i'm living proof of that!!

And even better, he reckons he aced his maths exam today. :)

Mav is doing well with his stuff also. I'm very proud of them both.

Excellent! You got good kids Ali. You're doing it right.

Great Mum (of course), decent boys and also a good father figure.
Dazza is a man I'd like to meet.

^^WSS^^
I'd love to be able to come to the land down under and go fishing with Dazza and the boys.

Well, what's holding you back?

$$$

Someone around this joint needs to win the lotto somewhere and shout us all a trip to the one location.

That way we can all meet and do the things we want with the people on here.

We may need to get some private rooms for a few of the...hmmmm...more excitable posters. lol

Mount Washington hike today. Excellent conditions, lovely country. Very tired. Pictures coming soon.

I went to a party last night with some good friends and had a really fun time, then today we had a visit from some more friends that we haven't seen in ages.

It's been a really great weekend. :)

Another £28 in the kitty from a day at work.
It's growing very slowly though, thats to the DWP claiming back over £30 in overpaid benefits from February. I'm lucky they're not charging me interest I suppose.

Saw two children from school - spooked them too by the look of things - and a teacher and the school secretary. It's nice being recognised outside school.
It also went quicker today, and I feel much more confident.

FWIW here's a mid-term update...

Much to my amazement, Sam has not missed a day of work
and has been keeping up with his classes. It has been a real strain on him.
When he has a day off, he crashes, and lights out at 9 most nights.
Lots of grumpy, tired, late-for-dinner days, but so far, he is keeping up.

On top of all that, he has started his "field work" project.
This is an ongoing stream survey of "pre-spawning mortality of Coho salmon in urban streams".
This project is not so much doing new research as it is to learn how to do research.
Yesterday, he found 1 male and 1 female that died before spawning.
The project requiring about 3 more hrs of his time each week.

Here's a description of the pre-spawn mortality issue:

Acute die-offs of adult coho salmon 
returning to spawn in restored urban streams

Lamp that's wonderful.
Sounds like he just needed time and the right motivation to get himself together, and when he did, he was able to take on more than you hoped.
Good for him.

Tiger has a new speech therapist.
Yay.
Been waiting since beginning of September.
First meeting today went well.

AND he stayed overnight at a friend's on Friday night.
The two other boys changed their minds and went home, but Tiger slept there and had breakfast.

He had tea at home, and bath, and completed his routines. Then went over at 19.00.
K's garden backs onto his and of course Mum is a family friend and is aware that Tiger has Asperger's.
But it's a HUGE step for him. For many five year olds, let alone those on the autism spectrum. The Tiger confounds us again.

Numbers.

Yep, see here, I'm comparing this 17.4 to this 17.2. Same same.
And I'm comparing this 14.4 to this 14.5. Same same.
But then I'm really comparing this 14.1 to this 11.6. Different! That's a mother#$%^ing finding baby, exactly what I was hoping to find.

Although the fact that I did actually :jig: in the office when the computer spat that out makes me wonder if my life hasn't gone horribly wrong somewhere. :D

The other downside is that the whole group has 102 people in it, and the finding is based on a subgroup of just nine. I'm going to have to talk with a colleague to see if that is statistically significant and/or reliable. I have grave doubts.

are those percentages of the group of 102 or decimated people?

Your excitement has led you to have grave doubts? You must be positively enraptured.

My niece (can she really be 11 already?) has her own (parent-sanctioned) email now, and sometimes I come in for work to an email from her. Even her emails are cute!

In case you didn't know, this is a monkey face: (sorry, sad smilie trumps monkey face)...you put a colon, parenthesis, small L, close parenthesis. Here's a wide monkey... : ( l )

She made sure to explain to me I have to look at it sideways.

:lol:

I got the job I wanted!!!!! Woooot!

As mentioned in the other thread, I recently moved further North again and in turn left a very good job with a very good career path.

I moved because my Mum was going to move to be where ever I was and I didnt want to relocate her to an area where I wasnt 100% happy and would likely leave anyway.

So I relocated both of us to Queensland, I had a job offer for a job I was really "meh" about as the hours didnt really suit and I wasnt overly happy with the business, but I was hoping this job would come through because its a big company with a lovely high ladder I can climb as the kids get older and I can work more hours.

My official uniform will be a red shirt and a pair of demin shorts with workboots (I will have to find some stylish ones with heels) and you may see me with a hammer or screwdriver hanging off my belt.

YAY.

Congratulations Ducks!

Excellent DN!

Well done Ducks. I expect the guys will want pics of you in your uniform!

hurrah!

Congrats Dux !!!
Heres some girly work boots for ya

:confused:

What about flair? Will you need to wear flair?

What kind of job is that?

What movie was that from foot? I can't remember whether I loved or hated it, but I definitely remember the 'flair' thing being a big side issue for the protagonist.

Aden had confirmation from his maths teacher yesterday that he has achieved an A overall for maths this semester. That's a huge jump from a low C last semester. I'm so proud of him. He's worked hard to improve and this will set him in good stead as he enters his last two years of high school next year. He was so pumped about it that he actually promised to win the maths prize for next year. I know he can if he sets his mind to it.

Finally my biggest boy is putting his great mind to use, and none too soon either. :)

nb I guess maybe it's not such a big deal to some people just getting an A in maths, but Aden has had a lot of trouble knuckling under in highschool. I put it down to him having incredibly nurturing teachers for the last couple of years of primary school, and so the whole; it's your responsibility thing, hit him pretty hard, plus he had a short foray into dope smoking when we first moved here so that set him back for a bit too, so I'm just really happy to see him making good choices now, both socially, educationally and financially (he has a part time job now too).

Flair comes from one of the funniest movies ever, "Office Space"

Our Christmas tree is UP!!! Yay! Now it really feels like Christmas time here.

Yes I know it's a bit early, but since the big boys are going away this year, we're having Christmas early for them. Probably on the 16th of December. That gives us a couple of weeks to enjoy the tree and get all the other Christmas stuff ready (although of course I already have a head start on that :) )

So I'm curious... what kinds of X-mas trees are popular with Australians ?

Oregon and Washington grow hugh numbers of X-mas trees.
Douglas Fir, Noble Fir, and to a lesser extent the Grand Fir and Spruce
In Montana it's the Balsam Fir that is most popular.

For the mid-west and east, I don't know what is popular.

Same as you Lamp, as far as I know.
Douglas fir is my personal favorite. I think they smell the best and don't have a million sharp needles on them. They're softer.

fix'd

I'm pining for a white christmas.

plastic. lol

Fir trees don't do that well in the climate we live in here.

Many native Australian trees are highly flammable.
You wouldn't want one in your living room.

Worse, they attract drop bears.

Some people have a real pine tree. Many do plastic. Quite a few don't bother.

One of the contestants on I'm A Celeb mentioned drop bears this week :)
Convinced another camp-mate they were real. Then spoiled it by cracking up.

I'm happy at the all round good-ness of people in general.
And Dwellars in particular.

ok, I'll bite.

What's a drop bear?

Is it like a jagular?

They're fairly prolific up north. bit further north than me. They sit up in the trees and they're kind like koalas but not.

Anyway, the locals usually know where they are, but it's the tourists they usually get. You just have to be wary. Kinda like with crocs and not swimming in their water holes.

This is something that is making me happy, but which happened yesterday :)

Yesterday was week 9 of the 11 week semester. Unlike most of the modules, the skills module I teach doesn't have a lesson in week 11. They have to submit their main essay on the Monday of that week, but don't have the Friday seminar, as the purpose of those seminars is primarily to step them into the final essay :p

So, I reminded them, as I was giving them their work assignment for the week, that next week is the last seminar, and I'll be running it as an essay workshop, so bring all notes, laptops if needed etc. And there was a little chorus of 'awwws' from some of the students. One girl said that she loved Fridays and this was one of her favourite classes.

How pleased was I?

Still rather delighted by that.

They seem to have gelled really well as a group, with the research teams I put them into at the start meeting up between classes and doing the study tasks and so on. I'm particularly pleased by that. They're approaching the end of their first semester at university. For many of the students this will be their first time living away from home, in a new town, and most likely an entirely new social group. Giving them a mechanism for linking up with other students and a shared experience (group presentations) can be helpful in the first semester.

It's funny. After last year doing the same module went so well, this time I felt a little less confident with the way things were going. Then it just started to click from around week 5 (from my perspective: they may not have seen that big a difference).