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Transformers: Age of Extinction 3D
As a family, we went to see this movie this afternoon. I normally wouldn’t be too bothered to see this in the cinema but this was Lego Lover’s big movie and he really wanted us to all go together. Funnily enough, he never did see the previous installment of the series in the cinema and this time we see it on opening day. That almost didn’t happen as it should due to a curious ad at the Supanova convention last weekend. On entrance we were issued with wristbands of different colors, depending on which sort of ticket we purchased. On the wristband was essentially an ad for this movie and the date of June 27th. Hmm…it all seemed a bit odd to both the Scientist and me, because new release movies generally start on a Thursday here. If there is a change, it’s almost always earlier in the week rather than later. I jokingly commented that perhaps the wristbands were imported from the US. Either I was correct or the convention got wristbands that were meant for use in a different region.
Anyway, Lego Lover has been eagerly awaiting this movie for months. And if not for the release of The Lego Movie a few months ago, it would be his only cinema experience for the year. Until today, we could count his cinema outings on one hand. Today makes six in his fifteen and a half years. Half of those movies have been Transformer movies. All but one of those movies have been with the whole family. Game Fanatic didn’t want to see Toy Story 3 with us so stayed home a few years ago. I would have been perfectly happy to wait for the dvd of this movie to come out, but Lego Lover really wanted us all to go together so that’s what we did. We arrived well in advance of the starting time, partly so we could get discount tickets and partly to make sure we got seats at the time we wanted I needn’t have been concerned about missing out on tickets as the cinema was mostly empty. Perhaps this was due to it being a mid-afternoon showing, before school let out. Â I’m not sure if we were in the same cinema as for the Lego Movie or not. But we had the same experience at the beginning when the ads and previews started to run but no picture. Last time the audience (very small) sat through the whole set of ads and finally I went out to the front to advise of this. Today, the Scientist went up, quite a bit sooner. This seems unlikely to be a coincidence considering the previous time was in April which leaves me wondering what is being neglected at the cinema. I don’t have a problem missing the ads but I imagine the advertisers would.
We got special 3D glasses for the movie instead of just using ones we had from previous movies. The only special part was the small accents on the side of the ear pieces. I guess they might be collector’s items…although more valuable if they hadn’t been used already. :) I had forgotten how very long these movies are so it seemed like it went on for longer than the previous ones. Apparently I have easily forgotten how long the action packed movies are. Plenty of bang for our bucks, to be honest. That’s not to say I didn’t like it. It’s not really the type of movie I go in for, but it did have plenty of entertaining parts. And for those that were less so, it was always interesting to pick out some of the movie cliches typical for an action film. There was even a really cute nod to an interest of Game Fanatic’s included that we all really liked.
Lego Lover, really loved it and was talking non-stop about it with his brother on the way to the car, then to all of us at home, then later on when I took him back out to buy Transformer toys in the toy sale that just started today. It makes me happy that he loved it so much and also happy that he wanted to share it with his whole family. The funny thing is we were talking just today about his extremes of very happy and very unhappy as a younger child. He was never much in the middle until he got older and matured. But today his joy reminded me of his younger days…just pure bliss. And now, of course, he has two new toys in the series and is so pleased with them too.
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Paid to walk
Last week I did five four-hour shifts where I walked through buildings on a local university campus to count people in rooms. Every half hour, I would stop at each room on my route and check the number of people in the room. Many of the rooms were almost always empty and many were used quite regularly. I found the numbers started dropping as the week wore on though. By Friday most of the rooms were empty or nearly so. It was slow going at the beginning of the week though. The person I followed up from was late getting back and so I started late. Then I got to the buildings and found I didn’t have the map I needed. Fortunately the supervisor rushed to return it to me. It took about three rounds before I was caught up and I found I was going pretty much straight through the shift. On Tuesday I no longer required a map, except to provide codes for some of the doors, and by Friday I was getting through the route in just under 20 minutes at times.
The work was fairly mindless after I got used to it but it was physically taxing. I had bought some new cross trainers a couple of weeks ago and I must say they worked quite well for me. Even when my feet were sore in the morning, they shoes seemed to support me well enough they didn’t hurt when I got started. But by the last three rounds, my feet were always tired and I found my pace slowed down quite a bit. Still I managed to go back the following days and do it all again. But I must admit to being happy to be done with that right now. The cumulative effect of the entire week left me feeling pretty run down by the weekend and only today am I feeling renewed energy. I was going to exercise yesterday but decided it might be good to take a break, especially considering how much exercise I’d had through the week. I used an app on my old phone and it tracked about 11 kms over the four hours, which would have been about the same through the week. I will return to my exercise routine today, though, as I am feeling much better than I have in days. I was expecting to do another week of this at a different campus the week after next but it seems I won’t be after all due to some mix up either on my part or someone else. I’d have liked to have had the extra money but my feet are feeling relieved to have the break. :)
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Getting fitter
It’s been three weeks since our gym memberships expired and I’m pretty happy with our current situation. While a member of the gym I felt obligated to go there and do exercise there instead of something I might prefer at home. This means I have more time for taking the dogs for walks, riding my bike (one I get it serviced) and mixing up my exercise while at home.
I’ve now used the treadmill three times and feel a lot more comfortable with it. The first time it felt so different from the ones at the gym and I felt really awkward on it. But now I seem to have a better feel for it and I’m more used to the controls. I’ve even tried running/jogging on it for short periods of time. I’d been doing a job on the Wii Fit program so the Scientist suggested I would find it better on the treadmill. It is easier on the joints as it has considerable cushioning with several springs on each side. Far easier than jogging in place on the solid floor. The hardest part of the jogging is trying to get going. I don’t feel I can go directly from walking fast to a jog so have to put the speed up a bit and go fast before slowing it down to a better speed. I don’t know if I will do that much jogging as it’s still a bit rough on my knees. Perhaps when I’ve lost a bit more weight.
I’ve also been using the spin bike more. I find it is better to use it for shorter periods of time right now but I’m hoping to build up stamina. My biggest thing is trying to get the seats and handlebars in the right spot as it’s quite uncomfortable to go too long with things in the wrong place.
I’m using the Wii Fit program on the Wii U once or twice a week right now. It’s not something I would depend on for a proper exercise session but it is a bit of a change of pace and it is a way for me to challenge myself against previous records. On my iPad I have an app that has exercise programs. It’s pretty basic in some ways but does include a sort of video showing how to do the exercise. Not a great one but it’s something helpful. I’m currently focusing on the abdominal muscles as they are again pretty weak. I am also looking at some online yoga and pilates programs and see if anything there might be useful.
Meanwhile, I seem to be back on the path to losing some weight while I’m staying pretty fit. I’m pretty close to dropping from the obese to the overweight category. I did this a few years ago within far less time but managed to injure myself so frequently that I didn’t keep on it and regained all I lost. Hopefully going so slowly will mean I can stick to this for the long term.
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Bitterness
The night before last I peeled a banana and a bit of it got on my finger, so I licked it. It was highly bitter to taste and I was worried the banana was going to be horrible. It wasn’t. The following morning I was eating breakfast and I again got this bitter taste in my mouth. This time it wasn’t just that first taste but pretty much every bite. I had a piece of leftover pizza for lunch yesterday and again, bitterness. It was obvious at this point that something wasn’t quite right so I did an online search on the problem. One of the first results that turned up was pine mouth. Apparently there is a “condition” where some people are affected after eating pine nuts by getting a bitter and/or metallic taste in the mouth. It seems  show up a day or two after eating the pine nuts and lasts up to a couple weeks in most people. Then it just goes away. It doesn’t seem there is any agreement on the cause, except that it seems certain types that are grown in China cause the problem. It doesn’t affect everyone who eats them either, which is another curiosity. There were a few pine nuts in my pasta at Jamie’s Kitchen the other night. It seems too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Last night, the Scientist and I had our Tuesday night meal of Mad Mex food and Froyo frozen yoghurt. I might have done better to get something small at Mad Mex because it was all bitter and metallic to me. The yoghurt was a bit different. I realised here that I could taste it at first but then I got the aftertaste, which was bitter. I don’t know if that was specific to something about the yoghurt or not. This morning my cereal was similar but now I am left with bitterness long after finishing my food. It’s all very curious.
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Parenting, food, concert, parenting
Yesterday was a pretty spectacular day. Neil Finn concert, after all!
The early part of the day was fairly ordinary. Got up and had breakfast…rather late but still it was breakfast, particularly as it was my usual bowl of rolled oats with cocoa, brown sugar and milk added. Finished some solitaire daily challenge puzzles on the Microsoft app. Exercise was not quite a usual. Started out using our Wii Fit for half an hour and moved on to an app on my iPad. It was tough but it went well enough. It’s nice having more options than when I was going to the gym regularly.
It was well into afternoon and we still hadn’t seen signs of Lego Lover stirring. I realise this is part of the teenage years but I do feel he takes this rather to extremes. Showered and dressed to go out. Wore a skirt but had no decent shoes to wear with it so stuck with cross trainers. Was reminded by the Scientist it might be good to remedy this situation. Too late on this occasion. Nearly time to go and finally we see signs of the Lego Lover being awake. Time to leave.
Arrive in Perth and park. Realise parking on streets is still free on Sundays. No $11 fee for parking in the parking lot next to the Perth Concert Hall. :) I purposely skipped lunch with expectations of a meal in the city. We walked up Barrack Street and considered a Korean place we’d eaten at before seeing Leonard Cohen a couple years ago. Decided to look further afield. Down through Murray Street and onto William Street where we found ourselves at Jamie’s Kitchen. We haven’t been back since our anniversary last May. I thought it might be rather busy but it the queue wasn’t that long. Lucky us, getting the last free table! It was tempting to go for the same meal as last time but chose a ravioli dish in the entree portion. Meanwhile. bread selection with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Cheap starter that doesn’t fail to satisfy. I could eat a meal of it alone and I’m not really that much the bread lover. My entree arrived and the Scientist’s seafood plank was landed onto the tomato cans placed on the table. Entree was rather small this time and wasn’t quite enough but was totally delicious. I savoured each bite, especially considering there weren’t so many. That’s okay, leaves room for dessert. :D The pannacotta special which I adored  last time was now on the menu but I opted to try the epic brownie this time while the Scientist went for the trifle. Desserts arrived and totally met expectations and more. A most satisfying second visit to Jamie’s Kitchen and looking forward to trying more the next time. I might add the Scientist had attempted to book a table beforehand but they weren’t accepted at that time of day. Left to it, I found my way there anyway. :D If it had been too busy, though, I would have been happy trying sushi next door or another local eatery.
It was now late enough to pick up our tickets but too early for much else. We walked back to the concert hall and collected our tickets and learned our cameras were not welcome this time. Not too unexpected since this was an indoor show but rather disappointing when we had front row and center seats. Ah well, less time looking at the camera and more watching the stage. We walked across the esplanade to the Swan River for a little while then returned my camera to the car. I’d had ideas of staying outside but the weather had cooled considerably and the warmer lobby of the concert hall became our temporary hangout. It was interesting to see the cafe there with food served in one end of the lobby and tables in a side room for dining. They also had smaller treats like Maltesers at a premium cost. More interesting were the small tubs of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in the fridge. After the super sweetness of my brownie, that wasn’t going to happen. But still interesting to see. The merchandise table was being set up. Not a lot on offer for Neil Finn but a few items that looked decent for support act, Joshua James. Eventually sales began and I chose a tea towel to add to my collection. It’s not as nice as previous ones but it will do. Overprices water bottles purchased and I was surprised at the flimsiness of the plastic. It felt as though it would crumple in my hands despite being full but I suppose it’s a good thing to use less plastic.
Finally the doors open and we show our tickets. Front row seats, here we come! For quite a while we were alone in the front row but most seats except two to the left of the Scientist were filled shortly after the support act began. Joshua James was pretty good…played some good music but a bit limited on the chatter. Interval time. The four people to my right who arrived shortly after the show started were gone already, for drinks, I presume. A few minutes to go and seats were filled except those two at the Scientist’s left. Finally the pair arrived. I recognised the woman from other shows.
The show itself was like a dream. Sitting right there in front of stage I felt I could reach out and touch but obviously resisted the urge. Neil played seven songs from his new album. They sounded really good live. The one song I was hoping to hear was White Lies and Alibis and my wish came true. Perth was the first show to hear Animal vs. Human and it was good. The live factor almost always is a bonus with Neil’s songs. But there was more. Songs from the Split Enz days  like One Step Ahead and Message to My Girl.  Songs from the Crowded House days like Don’t Dream it’s Over on just piano with backing vocals. What a fine performance that was. He went from strength to strength and no weakness on this night or maybe this tour by accounts I’ve heard. Only Talking Sense from the Finn album with his brother Tim was sensational. Solo Finn songs like Sinner and She Will Have Her Way. Two encores and a splendid finish with solo Neil on Love this Life and then  Better Be Home Soon, which meant it was truly over.
Obviously we must be too considerate and polite because the three setlists taped to the stages were quickly extracted by other fans before we had thought of it. Usually we get these at request but we were just that close we could reach for them. Sigh. That’s okay because I have my treasured setlist from his show with Paul Kelly last year, thanks to the Scientist. Crowds left the auditorium taking us with them. We lingered behind a bit and the idea of hanging outside the stage door occurred but we didn’t go there. Maybe a shame as there aren’t many opportunities to hang out there now.
Time to go home.
Arrived home just before midnight. Lego Lover is up. Game Fanatic is up. It’s late so the Scientist is soon off to bed as today is no holiday. Game Fanatic goes to bed and it’s just younger son and me left. It’s a frustrating parenting moment because Lego Lover has now restarted his continuous talk on his favorite subject of the moment. It’s a topic revisited constantly in our house and there’s not much to add. I’m not terribly interested right now as I am still wanting to enjoy the moment. Because he doesn’t understand body language well at all, I tell him bluntly I don’t want to hear about it now. I am still feeling rather annoyed that he barely was up by the time we’d left earlier in the day. At the moment I just want to keep the night alive with the lovely buzz I was feeling. Instead, he paused briefly and carried on. This is how it is with my child with high functioning autism. He doesn’t get what I want and his need is foremost. I abandon my buzz for a bit and hear him out. Eventually he does go away and I feel guilty because this happens often enough with him. My attempts to curb him don’t really work so it is what it is. I love him anyway and decide that even though it’s not my thing he’s talking about, it is his thing and he feels such love and joy of it that I can’t help but be endeared to him. As it is, some of his older habits have fallen along the wayside and I miss them sometimes. I hate to think of the time I will miss these moments, difficult as they sometimes be.
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Self-destructive tendencies
I forgot to mention in my last post the day I tried really hard to do myself injury.
In the morning, I had gotten up and hadn’t yet put on my glasses. I had put my iPad onto what I thought was a flat surface. Obviously I was mistaken as down came the iPad and a couple other bits from the surface onto my right foot. The iPad escaped any harm. My foot was in quite a bit of pain initially and I was left with the mark where it landed along with a sort of scrape type injury. I think this is the same foot I once dropped a bowl with spaghetti on years and years ago. I’ve had osteoarthritis in that spot ever since.
In the evening I took the dogs out for a walk. Most of the walk is on a footpath next to the main road and all was going fine. The dogs were being reasonably good. The last part of the walk, I planned to take a shortcut on a sandy/dirt pathway from the road into our neighborhood. I took the first step down a slight gravel path and my left leg went flying straight out while I landed on my right hand and shoulder. Fortunately the dogs stayed right there even though I’m sure I let go of their leashes briefly. Once the initial shock wore off, I carefully got up to see if I was okay to continue. Fortunately I escaped with a bit of a scrape on the hand and a slight graze to the arm and was able to get home from there. The next day I had quite a bit of pain on the shoulder and took a tablet I had from the bruising I’d had from another fall. After that it improved each day and it’s all fine now.
I haven’t had a stab at anything else since then but I suppose one day I might try again. :D
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Happy 2014!
I have been missing in action for the past several weeks. I’m here but for some reason I’m at a loss of what to write quite a lot of the time.
We’re just getting through the last month of summer here and it’s been fairly mild for the last couple of weeks. Not to say we haven’t had some hot days but nothing extreme like has occurred in many of the eastern parts of the country and none of the nasty floods that have hit the north of our state. I wouldn’t mind, however, having a small share of the rain from the north. After such a wet late winter, it’s been almost completely dry here since the end of October, I think, perhaps a bit earlier.
January wasn’t a great month for us. The year started off well enough but there were a couple of things happening, family-wise, that left January a rather negative month. I can just hope the year improves from this point.
At the end of the month, our gym membership contracts will run out and we are cancelling our membership with the club. Not that we are unhappy there, but the Scientist reached his goal months ago and I have started to lose much interest in going. My aim at the beginning was to go at least twice a week and aside from a couple weeks at Christmas, I have more than stuck to that for the better part of the eighteen months. Now I am more interested in doing exercise outside the gym like just walking or dog walks, cycling, etc. We also now have a spin cycle and a treadmill in the house, so should be set for even the winter and the really hot days left in the season.
Speaking of the gym, I am still working on my weight and fitness levels. I think the fitness is still pretty good but the weight stalled for quite a while and I have had to overcome some of the psychological aspects of that before getting going again. I also had some shoulder bursitis and tendinitis issues that I couldn’t quite get sorted with physiotherapy alone and had a steroid injection just before Christmas. With further physio, some of the shoulder issues have improved enough so I just need to make sure I don’t overdo any particular type of exercise again. Anyway, after some ups and downs, I think I am back on track for the moment.
I saw my new immunologist for the second time on Saturday. She had requested I have certain blood tests done and the results were back well before the appointment. They also sent copies directly to me. Overall, the results were all fine but I can’t help but be a bit pedantic about one thing that showed up. I’ve been getting a high titer ANA back every test since the first one back in 2004. This time was no different but there was a completely different sort of pattern to the ones that have appeared before. It was a different lab so my feeling is it was misread. My doctor wasn’t bothered about, didn’t really seem to know the pattern differences either. My usual pattern is rare but associated with Sjögren’s syndrome (which I have) and also autoimmune liver disease. Because of the pattern, previous doctors were keeping watch for a couple of liver-related antigens in blood work. These never were positive in the past but one associated with autoimmune hepatitis did come back a weak positive this time, which is rather funny, I think. At the moment, it isn’t so much of an issue due to it being weak-positive but mostly due to the fact almost all my liver functions tests came back in normal range. Only my albumin was slightly low…so also isn’t an issue at this point. At the moment, I will just go back for yearly reviews as I’ve done since my symptoms haven’t been anything major as yet.
Today I went in for a whole blood donation and was asked to give plasma instead. I was a bit surprised since it’s been so long since they’ve requested whole blood. Plus I thought they really wanted it this time as I got more reminders than usual. I’ve become acquainted with some of the staff at the center since I began donating, to the point that some of the staff skip quite a few of the questions. But the last couple of times, I have gotten new people and they have gotten into detail on some questions. Strangely it came out today that nobody thought to note down the Sjögren’s syndrome on my records before. The lady that interviewed me had never even heard of it so then went on to check it was okay to donate. Which it was.
Our board games have sat rather untouched the past two months. At first, Lego Lover wasn’t interested in playing but then we missed it one weekend or another and just haven’t got back to it. Meanwhile, we’ve had a few more games arrive lately so we need to get back into it.
There are probably some other things I need to update but honestly can’t think of anything now. I just wanted to get back into it keeping track of things a bit more before more time passed.
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Getting around to…
I’ve had on and off issues with my shoulder for years now but finally decided it was time to do something about. I saw my physiotherapist today and she says it’s rotator cuff impingement and bursitis. Also some of the muscles on the upper back around my shoulder blades are really tight. She showed me some exercises to do using thera-bands that I should have around from when I was doing rehab on my knee. She also did some massage work on my upper back and it was so sore and tender there and I didn’t even realise it. It seems I am probably in early enough as my range of motion in my arms is still pretty good.
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Allergy attack, for sure
My vertigo isn’t gone yet but it seems to have taken a step back the past day or so as my allergy attack has become more obvious. I’ve not often had the most typical of allergy symptoms and this time is no exception. Most of my symptoms run along the lines of massive itchiness, fuzzy head/dizziness/vertigo, tiredness, tingly and sometimes numb head,  lips and mouth, etc. It reached the point yesterday where it was worth risking massive dryness from Sjögren’s syndrome to take an anti-histamine. It didn’t exactly do a whole lot for my symptoms yesterday but it also didn’t cause as much dryness. Possibly it’s going to take a couple days to get much effect.  Funnily enough, I now have a more typical runny nose…I might even start sneezing next. :)
I obviously did not go to work yesterday although the Scientist had offered to drive me there and pick me up. I decided I wasn’t likely to be that productive and I think I made the right decision. I’m hoping tomorrow will bring considerable improvement and will see if I can work a few hours if that is the case. It won’t cover all my hours but would be better than none this week. We are in for more rain this week so it might just wash the nasty airborne pollen away for a while….meanwhile creating a blooming environment for even more pollen to be created in the next few weeks.
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Pilates
I think I’ve added a new favorite to my exercise classes at the gym…all video classes, of course. I came across a Power Pilates class for over 45s and I decided to try it out. I really liked it and it felt great on my back. I have found it better than doing yoga when I’m exercising earlier in the day when my body is still feeling rather stiff from the night before. The other day I went to the gym before heading off to work and I thought the yoga would be just what I needed but found I just couldn’t do it that day. I switched to the Power Pilates class and it worked out really well. Â Yesterday I tried another class that was mostly pilates and that was also quite nice. I’d thought the class was one I’d done before but discovered it was mostly moves that were new to me. I’m really looking forward to trying it more and hope the Elements people who make the videos will continues to do pilates-specific classes since it’s a nice complement to the yoga classes.
Most of my exercise routines have been with these classes lately and I’ve really been focused on the yoga and pilates classes. One thing they seem to be really helping is my abdominal area which has been in bad shape pretty much since Game Fanatic was born. It’s only been a few weeks but I notice many of those muscles are getting stronger and my tummy isn’t pooching nearly as much as it used to. On top of that I’ve managed to lose a bit more weight even though I am not doing as much cardio as I was before. I think it’s helping in the strength area in similar ways to the weights. Whatever is happening, I am really liking it and with the yoga and tai chi classes, it’s going quite well for me.