Six Remotes To Watch TV!

Sadly I'm at that age where I (vaguely lol) remember when televisions didn't have a remote control. If you wanted to watch another channel, you had to get up off your backside and physically change the channel by turning a dial or pushing the channel number button. Or if you had kids, you told them to do it lol

Fast forward to the present! If you want to watch tv at our house, you have to use at least 3 of the remotes pictured. Starting from the right we have:- Foxtel, DVD player, DVR, Soundbar, the ACTUAL tv and finally the Telstra Roku box.

When did it get so complicated that up to six remotes were required to watch something that you're probably not all that interested in to start with? Firstly you need the tv remote to switch the telly on, then you need to choose one of the other remotes. Will you watch Foxtel, a dvd, free to air or something recorded or will you watch Netflix or something on demand? Then you need the soundbar remote so that you either don't blow yourself out of the room or so you can turn the volume up because you can't hear it....... Because naturally, none of the volumes are the same across all platforms and devices!

It's exhausting just thinking about it! I might go and read a book.... Paperback or Kindle?!!? Geez!

Meet Lily - Part 2

New Year's Eve fell on Sunday, December 31st, 2017. Yep, Sunday, the day that a whole lot of stuff is closed. New Year's Day, the public holiday that follows NYE, another day where a whole bunch of stuff is closed.....

What does NYE have to do with Lily? Well, I woke up at 7am on the morning of NYE to Lily being in bed beside me, this wasn't unusual. However, she was howling. This was and wasn't usual, as sometimes she would meow for breakfast, however, this was not meowing, this was a whole other sound. I sat up and as I gently picked her up and she screamed in pain. I immediately put her back on the bed and started checking her for visible injuries, I couldn't find a single mark on her.

My wife was still at work (night shift) and due home shortly, I sent her a text letting her know Lily had to go to the vet. Then I realised it was Sunday.... Our regular vet was closed. I looked online for the next closest vet, they were closed, as was the next and the one after that. While I was doing this, somehow, Lily had managed to drag herself off the bed, through the lounge room and out to the dining area where I was and she had howled all the way. I didn't want her moving, so I sat on the floor with her until my wife arrived home. I also checked her for ticks, again I couldn't find anything!

When my wife arrived home, she started ringing the vet clinics hoping for an after-hours number, thankfully our regular vet had the number for SASH (Small Animal Specialist Hospital) on their answering service. We had no idea that there was now a SASH in our area! So My wife rang them to let them know we were on our way while I got changed and grabbed the cat carry cage. 

All the way to SASH I drove as carefully as I could as Lily was clearly in a lot of pain. I had no idea what was wrong with her, she had no wounds, no ticks that I could see (which cause paralysis), the only other thing I could think of was that she had been bitten by a snake.  Once we arrived, they took her straight away. We waited, we could hear her howling. When the vet came out, she asked more questions and said that they needed to keep her for the day to run tests and would let us know throughout the day how she was doing. 

My wife went to bed as she had worked all night and had to work again NYE. I spent all day researching snake bites as the vet said that if they couldn't find any ticks, that she had possibly been bitten by a snake. The afternoon swung around and I received a call from them, the blood tests were back, she hadn't been bitten by a snake and she didn't have any ticks. She had been given pain medication and was asleep, they asked for permission to take x-rays. I agreed. Later that night, I received another call, the x-rays didn't show any issues with her skeletal system, however, she was full of gas. This prompted me to tell the vet about her intestinal health when she was a kitten. The vet said they'd call me in the morning.

I woke up early, not sure if Lily would be coming home today or not. I waited for the phone to ring. When the vet did ring, he didn't really have any further news, except her pain had decreased some. He wanted to run further tests, again I agreed and waited for the next phone call. He said that at this point his greatest concern was that she had Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) - it was fatal.

The next call was late that night, they still couldn't find out what was wrong, she was however now able to sit up as well as take a few steps, which she wasn't able to do the day before. Although she was still in ICU, she was stable. They wanted to keep her another night and wanted her to see a specialist the next day.

The third day a specialist rang me in the morning. Lily had now eaten a small amount of food, the specialist asked me about her health issues as a kitten. She couldn't explain what was wrong with her as she had a mixed bag of symptoms, she also mentioned FIP. My worst nightmare. After advising the specialist about her previous health issues, she wanted to do an abdominal ultrasound on Lily, she said she'd ring me with the results. 

So later that afternoon we received a call from the specialist. She basically stated that Lily could come home. The ultrasound was clear, although she couldn't rule FIP out, she didn't believe that Lily had this as she was now walking. She wanted to see her a week later for a follow-up and wanted her to eat a special diet. The specialist, although she hated to say it, felt that Lily had been bitten by a spider or insect as insect and spider toxins don't show in blood tests like snake venom does.

Fast forward one week. Lily has been on a strict diet, which she's not enjoying one bit! She's had no further symptoms either. So off to SASH. After chatting with the specialist, she said she'd like to do a blood test to compare to her admission bloods. The results wouldn't be in until the next day. She was happy with her progress and reiterated that she believed in her experience that Lily had been bitten by an insect or spider. Although this caused her a great deal of pain, I'm so glad that this seemed to be the issue and that FIP wasn't looking like the cause of the problems! The following day, I was advised that her bloods were all good and that she could go back to her normal diet.

The poor little thing has had so many medical problems in her short life!

Thankfully she's all better now, her fur is still growing back, they had to shave her neck, abdominal area, back and leg - she sort of looks like she's been at war with a lawnmower and the lawnmower won!

Given that she loves her food, she's extremely happy that she's allowed to eat her normal diet again. We felt so cruel when she had to eat the prescribed diet, she didn't like it at all.

Well, fingers crossed that she's grown out of getting stuck in strange places and the only way is up regarding her health. She's such a spoilt kitty cat as you can see in the photo above, she squeezed in between both of my pillows for a snooze.

Till next time!

Meet Lily - Part 1

This is Lily, the worlds laziest cat! She's just over 12 months old and we love her to bits! So here's some background info on the worlds laziest cat, we adopted her when she was 6 months old from Claws 'n' Paws Rescue. She was living in a cattery with 22 kittens all of which were 6 - 8 weeks old. She had been in care since she was 6 weeks old, but couldn't be adopted out because she had recurring worm infestations and other gastrointestinal issues. So the poor thing spent the first 6 months of her young life in a cage.

Then we came along, and there was no question, she was purrfect for us! She had to be desexed before adoption and then about a week later, we were able to collect her. Due to her being so unwell for the first 6 months, the vet did let us know that her growth had been stunted. This wasn't a problem for us, she was like a pocket cat!

When she came home with us, although she had been exposed to the cattery owners dogs, they were small.... We have two Labradors. For about the first week and a half should either of the dog's venture near her - which they did because they both love cats, they got a snout full of claws! Are you noticing a theme here regarding sleeping positions? She does like to sleep on her back!

So what kind of personality does Lily have? Okay, well aside from being extremely lazy, she's a total busybody! So far we've found her in the washing machine, so the lid is always closed now! She's fallen in the pool, she's fallen in the toilet - the bathroom doors are now always closed! I found her in the dishwasher, I was trying to push the lower drawer in and it wouldn't budge, sure enough, Lily was in there! Shes jumped in both the fridge and the freezer too! The only places shes not been stuck are the dryer, the oven and the microwave as those are always closed.

The worst 'stuck' moment was when she didn't come home for her dinner - the second time. Given that she's a rescue kitty and has had so many intestinal issues, she's is quite a hound when it comes to food! She really does put the Labs to shame!

A couple of days before, she was an hour late for dinner - the first time ever! I was frantic! It was a hot summer day and after calling and searching for what seemed like forever, she casually wandered inside an hour later. Her coat was warm, so I assumed she had fallen asleep in the sun somewhere. Anyway, the worst "stuck" moment happened a few days later.

It was dinner time and she hadn't turned up, my wife was freaking out a bit and I reminded her that Lily did this just a few days before and to give her an hour. So we had dinner, as we finished our dinner we heard the rumbling of thunder. So off we went! We walked down one end of the street calling out her name while lightning went straight to the ground!

Nothing, so we turned and went the other way. We walked down a street and as we turned to go back the other way and my wife said "did you hear that?!!?" At first, I didn't. I stood still and called her name again while I scanned nearby gardens. Then I heard her! However she wasn't curled up in a neighbours garden, she was down a stormwater drain! Just when I thought she already been "stuck" everywhere possible! 

I tried to coax her out so that if she did this trick again, she could get herself out. However, she wouldn't have a bar of it. My wife went home and got a sachet of food and even THAT wouldn't change her mind. The thunder was getting louder, the lightning more frequent and the skies were about to open up and little Lily was down a drain! So I ended up pulling the grate off and reaching in and pulling her out by the scruff of the neck as it was the only way I could reach her. Literally moments later, it poured with rain!

Needless to say, she pretty much chose to stay inside for over a week! Touch wood - we've not had anymore stuck issues since!

A Country Practice

I don't know what possed me, but the other day something reminded me of the show A Country Practice (ACP). This was the kind of show that if you weren't watching it, your tv must've been broken! According to Wikipedia ACP had "8-10 million viewers weekly". At the time the Australian population was 15 million. It aired from 1981-1993 on channel seven and 1994-1994 on channel 10.

ACP launched the careers of many Australian actors, some who are still acting today. I found a few episodes online and just had to watch them, oh my god! You don't realise how much society both changes and stands still as time passes! 

One episode I watched featured Brendan the male nurse, he was referred to as a p00ft@ by a patient who also then continued to refer to him as girly for the remainder of the episode. Could you imagine if this kind of dialogue was aired today?!?

The other episode I watched featured a woman who was ill, she stated that she knew that there was no more that modern medicine could do to make her comfortable and when the pain became too much, she would take an overdose of her pain medication. She went on to say that it was her body, her choice and that animals aren't allowed to suffer at the end the way she will. Thirty years on and we're still having this same conversation!

Between all the drama happening in the hospital and out on the farm, some snippets that had me either in awe or laughing like a lunatic were that every time Shirley was at home - usually under her pyramid, she was downing glasses of wine like water and lighting up cigarettes at every given opportunity LOL! One episode had a number of the actors performing CPR on a patient, lol they all looked like they were convulsing!!! Then there was Frank, the police officer, he attended a car accident. There was an open can of beer in the car of which he tipped out. The"beer" was so clearly water lol They could've added some food colouring lol

I might go and see if I can find some more retro tv shows to watch LOL!

Rant and Cross Stitch Progress

Thanks to the current run of disgustingly hot days, I've done some work on my Old School Is Cool cross stitch from CloudsFactory. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't have all the floss colours required for this project, so I purchased the ones required online. Now, this isn't a whinge about paying for postage because I have no issue whatsoever with that, it's a bit of a whinge about the size of the parcel!

So I purchased nine skeins of floss from Spotlight. Now unless you're ordering a huge amount of floss, it pretty much weighs nothing, however, it arrived in a 3kg bag!!!! Not only did the postage cost almost as much as the contents, but nine skeins could have been posted in a much, much smaller bag. Apart from the ridiculous price of postage, imagine how many people aside from myself are purchasing floss online from Spotlight and are being posted this size bag, which is then thrown into general rubbish and goes into landfill! In the future, I'll no longer be ordering floss from Spotlight unless I'm purchasing other items which require a box that can be recycled.

Rant over, onto my progress. I've finished one out of five cassette tapes and started a second. I still haven't decided what titles I'll put on them as yet, but as those are backstitch and I leave that until the very end, I've still got plenty of time to think about it.

This is my first-time stitching on opalescent aida and I'm not sure I'll stitch on it again. You can't see the sparkles in the photo, but they're there. Some of the sparkles are also over the holes and create some resistance on the needle and to the floss. The aida itself also has a sticky feeling, liked it's coated with hairspray... Who knows? Maybe by the time I finish, the feeling will no longer be an issue for me.

Our new Annette Sym - Symply Too Good To Be True recipe books arrived as well, we also ordered the Healthy Snack Bible and for some reason, it was missing from the order, so I've emailed them about this. Apart from this book being missing, the newly revised editions are great! Both the photos and instructions are clearer, and the nutritional information tables have extra information as well. So if you're wanting to change your diet as well as controlling your portion sizes, I can't recommend these books enough!