Cricket, more cricket, and more and more cricket, and then football, and even more football

I watched the Boxing Day Test from the MCG, Aussies v NZ from 1st ball till lunch time then went for coffee at Mika on E Street (band!?), then more of the Test up until almost the end. 80,000 fans too, a record for the Boxing Day test for a non-Ashes game.

Now South Africa v England 1st Test is on which started as soon as Aust v NZ finished and there's the Big Bash too but I've turned the TV off. 1130pm is the first EPL game, Spurs v Brighton which I shall watch as I'm a Spurs fan. Maybe stay up later to watch one of the other games. I'll see.

I was half tempted to go to the beach after such a lovely swim at Bronte on Xmas Eve but I think I've left it too late, tho' I've been down late in the evening. It was the same on Xmas Day, umming and ahhing then doing nothing.

I went to Bondi Beach five years ago to experience my first Xmas Day there. My second Xmas Day in OZ was at Palm Beach in 1979 with my brothers and mates from the private hotel we all lived at in Neutral Bay. The Royal Hotel, RIP, expensive apartments now. I should have bought one. We had cheese and ham sandwiches and cans of lemonade for Xmas Dinner and it was great. We should have bought an Esky and some grog the day before but nobody thought of it.

We never thought of things like that either. I lived the Royal for a year and it never occurred to buy an Esky or even a bar fridge or just keep a few bottles of water. So, hungover, I would go down to the communal bathroom and cup my hands under the tap for a drink of water. My brothers, by then living in a flatette around the corner in Lower Wycombe Road, lived on cans of stew and they had one plate and a saucepan lid.

Later on, living in an old unit on the corner of Ernest and Miller Streets, Cammeray, we had no cupboards and no fridge. We used to keep our clothes in heaps on the floor, sorted heaps mind you. We weren't savages. Once we had a rat in the kitchen so Neil bought one of those "Tom and Jerry" traps, baited it with, yes, a lump of cheese, and in the morning, I did not believe those traps actually worked until I saw it.

Christmas, 1980 and our parents made their first trip to OZ to see us. They were so pleased to see how excited we were to see them. They did not stay with us but with a family friend in Castlecrag who lived in one of the Burley Griffin homes.

They came down to our flat straight off the plane and started organizing things. Cardboard boxes for pants, socks, vests and I think a broom stick supported by two other "sticks" to make somewhere to hang shirts. They bought us a fridge. And the garbos refused to pick up our rubbish as we did not have the right bags or bins. Solution? We had none but Mum and Dad put the rubbish in small bags and distributed in the street bins.

A few years later I was studying at UNSW and enduring two hour lectures sitting on the hardest and most uncomfortable seats I'd ever experienced. Twenty years later I was coming back to Rozelle one New Year's Day and I got off the ferry at Darling Street where people had watched fireworks nearby.

One woman picked up a tent from among the rubbish strewn about and I got three fold up cushions which I put in my car. Every time I went to the beach I had something soft to sit on at Neilsen Park where there was hard concrete. Why did I not think of that when I was at UNSW?

They are all gone now, not the cushions, which are still in my garage somewhere, but Mum and Dad and the lady from Castlecrag.

And so this is Christmas......Merry Xmas Everybody.....Lonely This Xmas.....I Wish It Could Be Xmas Everyday

I rushed round Bondi Jn looking for the PO and just made it by 457. Using my phone as a Sat Nav and when I'm driving it's no problem but when I am walking I am completely stuffed up. It sends me all over the place telling me I'm 50 mr away 40 away etc, wrong wrong wrong. Head up Oxford St but it's on Spring St. Eventually guy in con store told me where it is.

Congratulating myself on getting everything sent to UK by reg post $27 and then I found I'd left one important page in my bag.

Say no more about the least best clerk in Sydney.

Lovely Xmas Eve swim at Bronte tho.

Diary of a hypochondriac

No more toothache (I hope), three appointments now completed but need one more to put a filling in over the crown, or into the crown. I can eat on the right hand side now for the first time this year so perhaps there really was a problem even before the real pain.

I've been worrying about kind of vague pain in the pelvic area which I've naturally investigated - blood tests, urine tests, ultrasounds - and my GP recommended no more investigations. Good advice as usual. He thinks it is IBS which is very believable.

My blood sugar is up, the only thing found on the blood tests so I might need to get serious about keeping that where it is if not down. New Year's Resolution # 1. Drinking - there's another NYR no doubt allied to blood sugar control?! Maybe do more to get fitter, even go to the gym? NYR # 3? I'm doing plenty of walking mind, mostly with Tosca.

Now for some work on my OU course - Writing the Short Story - which I'm enjoying especially whilst I continue to malinger from work.

T.O.O.T.H.A.C.H.E. panic is now just about over although I am in the process of having a root canal on the bad tooth. My lovely dentist Linda took away the pain last Wednesday. Every bloody minute whilst I was waiting for the time to leave home was like an hour, must have looked at the clock a thousand times, willing it to move.

Today I went back for the main part of the root canal although there's still another appointment in a couple of weeks to finish it off. Today was a 90 minute affair, mostly pain-free, more uncomfortable really having the "dam" over my mouth which made me look and feel like Hannibal Lechter.

It's expensive of course, and if I say my Xmas present is a root canal, what could be a better gift!?

Full on toothache - make that T.O.O.T.H.A.C.H.E! but then again I am prone to anxiety and hypochondria. No, this  time it is real. I rang up at 1030 and made an appointment with my dentist for 4pm.

I've had toothache since Monday when I made an appointment for Friday but the pain was more intermittent and I also thought it might be sinus-related. I guess it could be right upper or lower but now I'm almost 99 per cent sure it is from a crowned tooth on the right lower. I took two Prodeine and I am trying not to put any pressure on it.

I wonder if the worst thing to happen to a hypochondriac is to be actually ill and in pain?

Tuesday, 26 November 2019

Nearly four years since my last entry. Why? A friend suggested that I write a blog and then I remembered I already HAD a blog. What has changed in the intervening years? Not much, judging by the last post about "AFDs" because I have just managed two in a row again, and two last week.

I know that I drink too much. My doctor knows that I drink too much. My therapist (OK, psychologist but therapist sounds just so much more Californian) knows that I drink too much (and tells me). My drinking friends don't think I drink too much but then they drink more than me which isn't a good yardstick.

I started a new unit with the OU this week, Short Story Writing at Griffith uni where I have already completed three units. I am not sure if I will complete the unit as my record is bad, not all bad as I completed the first six units OK, and the next three with difficulty and then started withdrawing from units, four in all I think. It wasn't because I lost motivation, well, not completely, but I started working again and the time I spent at work replaced the time I spent studying.

I shall see how I go as I've done the reading for the first week and as it's a creative writing unit I'm hoping there will be no need to write essays, and more importantly, no need to reference and cite sources. This course uses the Harvard system and I'm only familiar (drawing a long bow) with the APA system.