Broken Hearts

Yesterday morning our hearts broke. Lily our precious little girl passed away while being rushed to SASH. She was only 1.5 years old and we had her for just under one year. Sadly, we suspect that she had Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). 

For anyone who's been following this blog, you'll know that Lily had some health issues at the very end of 2017. For those of you who want to read more about her past, I had written two posts about her:- Meet Lily - Part 1 and Meet Lilly - Part 2. 

Lily was a crazy little girl! She was jammed packed to the brim with affection and mischief. She was fueled by her love of food, tormenting the dogs, chasing lizards, crickets, grasshoppers, moths and anything else that was smaller than her and moved! 

When she wasn't eating, chasing insects or thinking up new ways to *surprise* the dogs, she spent her time with us. She sat beside me all day every day, it didn't matter if I was on my computer or in the lounge room, she was right there beside me. Apart from her antics, this is what I'm going to miss. She was company for me, even though 95% of the time, she was asleep. It's hard to describe, she didn't need to be awake, she was just always there.

As strange as it may sound, but I would talk to her, I don't know if she understood? Maybe she just chose to ignore me! In any case, I would talk to her throughout the day while she was *sleeping* beside me.

One thing that has really ripped my heart out, is that I didn't say good-bye. I think in my mind, it was going to be like it was on NYE. That she'd go to SASH and they'd somehow weave their magic and she'd come home. I didn't think for a single solitary minute that she'd die. In my mind, she was simply too young.

Last night, the flickering of the tv had me seeing her wander in. Even now, I keep expecting her to wander in, meow maybe, before jumping up onto the chair beside me and going to sleep.

Lily, if there's any way that you can hear us or feel us. Please know that you were loved SO much little girl. Safe travels to The Rainbow Bridge Miss LilyPilly, run, play, have fun! You're no longer ill little girl! We'll meet again in the blink of an eye before you know it. XOXOXOX

Sunburn, Dolphins and Cheeky Birds

This week my wife and I went for a day trip to Nelson Bay, a work colleague of my wife was holidaying there and asked us up for the day. I wasn't sure how the day was going to go as dark clouds seemed to be rolling in.

We had coffee before going out on a dolphin viewing cruise and wandered around the water's edge. There was a fish feeding area which was absolutely teaming with small fish! I'm not sure if you can see them in the photo? Taking photos of fish underwater with a phone isn't the easiest trick! I took about 8 photos and deleted all but one lol

Naturally, where there's small fish, there's going to be critters that love some seafood in their diet as well as maybe some hot chips that get thrown their way! So I wasn't at all surprised to see that there were a few seagulls hanging about! One which later took a hot chip that I offered from my hand while it was hovering in mid-air.

By the time we were on the cruise boat, the clouds were gone and it was boiling hot! Both my wife and I got sunburnt and are still feeling the effects a couple of days later. It's been a while since I've been burnt, I'm always so careful as I'm whiter than white!  

The sun was so bright, trying to take photos of the dolphins when they appeared was actually quite difficult, even with the brightness turned all the way up on my phone. In the end, I decided that I would take video footage and take some stills from the footage once I was home.

There really weren't all that many dolphins about, however, we did get to see a mother and her baby. According to the captain, this isn't a common sight. So I was pretty happy with this!

Again because of the sun, I couldn't get a photo, so I just took a screenshot of the video footage.Trust me, it was a lot more impressive in real life when they were swimming lol!

Once the cruise was over, we were hot and thirsty! So we thought we'd pop into a nearby cafe for a drink before driving back home. A couple of cheeky little rainbow lorikeets had made themselves at home! They were the funniest little things! There were pulling sachets of sugar out of the holder, ripping the tops off and eating the contents LOL! 

Myself and three other people all rushed to get photo thinking that the parrots would fly off. These birds had no intention of going anywhere lol It was very funny! Eventually, a sullen female teenage employee walked over and told us the birds had to go. We all took our last snaps before she shooed the birds away. Watching the birds for just a few moments, for me, was just as enjoyable as the two-hour dolphin cruise lol What's the saying? Small things amuse small minds lol That reminds me of this meme that I saw on Facebook yesterday:-

Anyway, I'll catch you next time!

March Mini Break

Towards the end of last year, we went to Hobart in Tasmania, it was the first holiday we'd had in years! We loved Tassie so much, we've already booked our next holiday which is towards the end of this year to go there again. In the meantime, my wife has a month of leave over March, so we've decided to go down south for a few days for a bit of a mini break.

My wife's been to Kiama before, but I've only been as far as Wollongong, so we're going on a road trip to Kiama for a couple of days in March. To me, Kiama is best known for its blowholes and Jamberoo Action Park. Due to the time of year that we're going down there, Jamberoo Action Park won't be open, but that's ok, there's plenty of other things for us to see and do. There's also loads of smaller surrounding townships and villages with lots to offer tourists.

One place I'm looking forward to visiting is The Treat Factory in a nearby place called Berry. Guess what they sell? Treats! You can check out their online store here and their Instagram page here for some yummy looking photos!

Kiama also has a mid-week Farmers Market on Wednesdays which I'm also looking forward to checking out. I love markets! You never know what you'll find lol 

We've got about a month before we head off on our mini break/road trip, so we're both busily checking out what Google has to offer in ways of ideas! Who doesn't love a road trip?!?!?

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music!

Okay, dumb title, I really can't stand that movie lol In saying that, the hills really are alive with the sound of music.... In my area in any case! So in a previous post I wrote about having six remotes, one of those remotes had just been added to the ever-growing collection and that was the soundbar remote. **All of the Soundbar photos below are stock Samsung images because I'm too lazy to take individual pics :) 

So this is what it looks like, fairly plain and ordinary. You know that saying about not judging a book by its cover? Yeah? That applies to soundbars also lol

We had a surround sound system, which one day, just up and died on us. As they do! Anyway, after its death, I couldn't find anything I was completely happy with to fill its place. In the end, I think I just stopped looking. This was at least three years ago! YES! Three years without decent sound! 

Then along came the Soundbar! What is this strange looking rectangle? I was curious, to say the least! How could this rectangle produce the same quality of sound that five previous speakers did? Impossible! Then one day I was visiting a friend and noticed this rectangle under their television! The sound was amazing! You could hear it from all angles and it really packed a punch when it came to playing music!

I had finally found my replacement! Aside from having brilliant sound when now watching telly, the sound of music was mind-blowing! You're able to connect your mobile device using the Multiroom App via bluetooth or wifi and play all your tunes.

I'm not a fan of Apple or any of their "i" products, so all of my music is stored on my home server. How does the soundbar cope with this? Like a knife through butter! So yes, I'm in love with the new soundbar, even if it means one more remote to contend with and one more app on my tablet lol

**This is not a paid for post or advertisement. Just a post on my happiness with finally having decent sound in my home :) 

The YouTube Trail

If you're anything like me, you have regular channels on YouTube that you watch or subscribe to. Then there are those days where you either search for something or you're watching a regular channel but something in the sidebar catches your eye. I had one of those moments last night.

I was watching one of my usual channels on my tablet in bed, then there was something that caught my eye in the sidebar, so I watched it. To be honest, I can't even remember what it was, the title was far more interesting than the clip lol (don't you hate that!). However, in clicking on this clip I was now on the YouTube Trail! There was another clip which caught my eye, it was called "Casually Suicidal - Sarah Liberti - TEDxAdelphiUniversity". I had to watch this, what on earth was casual suicide?!?

So I watched Sarahs TEDx and while I was watching, I thought to myself "this is something that I should write a blog post about". After watching Sarahs clip, there was another TEDx that was in the sidebar and I also watched it. This one was called "Why We Choose Suicide - Mark Henick - TEDxToronto".  

Both clips were different, yet similar, I won't go into detail here, I'll let you watch them for yourself. Why did I feel the need to write about suicide after stumbling across two clips that weren't at all related to what I was originally watching? Well, in my "About Me" page (which is sooo old and needs updating lol) I briefly mention that around 2011-2012 I was diagnosed with Rapid Cycling Bipolar 2 and ADHD. 

Never in a million years did I think I'd receive a diagnosis of either of these mental health issues. Ignorance had actually led me to believe that ADHD was only something kids had! Prior to my diagnosis, I used to joke with my wife that "If ADHD was around when I was a kid, I would've been the poster child"!!!! 

So how is Rapid Cycling Bipolar 2 different to Bipolar 1 and Bipolar 2? Well, to really simplify it Bipolar 1 or 2 means you live life with more extreme mood swings (and other symptoms) than the regular person. Rapid Cycling is exactly how it sounds, I cycle through moods faster than those with Bipolar 1 or 2, which can make medicating a right pain in the backside for both my Psychiatrist and myself - the one who has to swallow the multicoloured happy pills.

Okay, so back to the two YouTube clips, I said that they were different, yet similar. So how were they similar? Well, both Sarah and Mark touched on the feelings of shame, guilt, stigma etc in relation to thoughts of or attempts of suicide. Having lived on the medication roller coaster now for a few years, has suicide ever crossed my mind? I could say "No". However, to say this would undermine the work that people like Sarah and Mark are doing in telling their stories in a very public way - trying to remove the shame, guilt and stigma from mental health issues.

So Yes, suicide has crossed my mind. It crossed my mind in my early 20's and right up to quite recently. Have I ever attempted to harm myself? No, not since being medicated in 2011-2012. In saying this, medication isn't a safety blanket and shouldn't be treated as one. For anyone who lives with any kind of mental health issue, you'll know that your medication needs to be tweaked every so often and dealing with negative thoughts or thoughts of suicide can take immense mental strength - sometimes when you just don't have the strength to spare! When you're taking the right medication, you're only three quarters there, the other quarter is a deciding factor that only you can make.

If you need to talk to someone, contact Lifeline 13 11 14 or visit their website:-https://www.lifeline.org.au/