yawn!

G'Day,
I'm tired. Friday, today is my first of 4 days in a row to work. Today I was Tea and sweets lady. Not a bad job, especially when the hospital is not too full as it was today. I like doing this one. Quite a bit of patient contact, and 98 percent of people are nice, so I enjoy that.
As far as being tired goes, that might have something to do with a sore neck and shoulder. I ordered a new mattress and pillows for my bed yesterday so I hope that will go a long way to solving the problem. Whinge, whinge, whinge! Tomorrow I am early cook. Ha! they call heating and serving precooked food and making sandwiches and salads cooking. The actual title is food regeneration. Theres a bit more to it than that but basically it's not cooking. There are lots of rules and regulations though that we have to follow because the food is pre cooked, like proper temperatures for storage and serving and what we can and can't serve because of listeria bugs and salmonella etc. Special diets etc. Getting to know all of our longterm patients likes, dislikes and peculiarities. We actually have a lady in at the moment who can eat neither gluten or dairy. Doesn't leave much does it. I never thought I would learn or remember it all when I first started there 13 years ago but it has become second nature. I easily memorize who (30 long term patients and many of our frequent fliers in acute care) has what in their tea or coffee. Ask me what I did yesterday and my poor old brain would only remember 1/4 of the details. Its funny how your brain sifts through and forgets the trivia.
Tonight when I got home @ 6, there was as usual nothing taken out of the freezer to cook for tea. My adult children can't think that far ahead for them selves, no matter how many times I ask them to. I guess being Friday night they were hoping for take aways. Pete was at work too and the last thing on my mind trying to get out the door in the morning is not what to have for tea when I get home, so I didn't take anything out either. The main thing on my son's mind is the computer and on my daughter's mind is Brett, her beloved. I had some frozen pizza bases so I put topping on them. I of course had to consider Brett's dietary habits as he doesn't eat lots of stuff, So I had to make three different pizza's for everyone to share. And she has the hide to tell me that I make her do all of the house work if I ask her to do anything! I'm such a hard cruel mummy. I know I'm lucky to have had her be good and not do the naughty teenager thing but now it has finally hit ( she is 18) it's hard to put up with. And yes I know that at her age breaking free and moving away from your parents is the norm but that freedom surely should mean taking financial and adult responsibility and independence with it, she would still like to be looked after. So Pete and I go to work, come home and run the house and pay the bills and she and her brother get the benefits. Whinge! Whinge! Whinge!
Rufus our pup is back. So my house is complete again. We took him to the river on the way home and he didn't think much of the water even though it was a hot day. He took the most interest in his lead which he likes to carry around with him and see if he can con someone into going for a walk with him. There is a place in Wagga called Wiradjiri reserve where I like to go. It is a bend in the river so has a nice deposit of river sand and is the closest thing around here to a beach. The reserve is called Wiradjuri after the local aboriginal tribe which is the largest aboriginal group in our area and covers much of this state and down into victoria as well. I am proud to have a small bit of their blood lines flowing through my veins. I had an aboriginal grandmother 5 generations back on my Dad's side. Though most people would probably laugh at such a tiny amount. It's one of my favorite places. You can actually see the reserve below Wagga on the Google earth site. I remember what a treat it was to go there to play when I was very small with my sister to paddle in the river and dig in the sand. I had a cousin that would go there with us and it was funny because she had this magnet inside her that always made sure she always fell in the river while climbing over logs at the waters edge, no matter what the weather. I think she was even clumsier than me. There used to be big beautiful river red gum trees there and over the years they became unstable with floods washing the soil away from their roots so they had to be removed. There are still lots there though. Anyway when I was a child I would marvel at their size and partly exposed roots that you could climb in and around. River red gums are gorgeous trees and live for hundreds of years. There are big ones down there at the reserve that were most likely there before white people came to this country. Their wood is a deep rich red hardwood but it wasn't used for furniture until recently because it warps and splits. It gets used a bit now though as someone discovered you could use it if it was carefully and slowly dried in a kiln. Years ago it was mostly used for railway sleepers and fence posts or very hot burning fire wood that was known for burning out fire boxes. (Sleepers are the wooden beams that the tracks sit on.) Most of the sleepers around here are presently being replaced with cement ones and there is a new factory opening up in Wagga to manufacture them. River red gums are however in decline as they depend on seasonal flooding for their survival and that doesn't happen often any more as the river is controlled by dams and is used for irrigation, and of course there is the drought we have been having for the last 6 or 7 years. The ones along the Murray river are especially in trouble as the water has become salt affected from changes to the water table and the use of agricultural chemicals. I guess our river the Murrumbidgee would be the same though. I was trying to find a picture to add of a huge red gum tree at Oura beach near Wagga as an example that I have, but I couldn't find it. I will include it later if I can find it.
O.kThat's All tonight. Bye Love Linda.