It's not easy to keep a lid on the appetite is it? (Dad.. of course you're an exception to this...) And it's difficult to feel like a lethal fighting Ninja when you look and feel like a saggy bag of lard. It's JUST possible that I may have to let that self image (Lethal Ninja) go for a while in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary!
Health wise, I've been undergoing a battery of tests lately, as a result of having gone to the dox to see if he can throw some light on my headaches. I've been getting headaches since a couple of months before we left the UK, and sometimes they are quite debilitating. However, the tests that he did for that, threw up another issue... not new, but different. My PSA reading (Prostate Specific Antigen) is higher than it should be. This could mean that my prostate is larger than it should be for an old fart of my vintage. Not much, but they decided to look closer. The PSA test is a blunt tool, and it is known to be pretty unreliable as an indicator but it's all they have. It could be nothing at all, it could be benign enlargement, or it could be a slow growing cancer... Apparently cancer of the prostate is SO common that 50% of men over 80 have it... but the good news is that it is treatable if caught early. Hence the testing. To put some perspective on this, since I mention the 'C' word here, the specialist I saw last week said that if I had a reading that was 3 times the one I have, and I told him that I'd just landed a plummy job in Vanuatu that meant I'd be away for a year, he'd say 'go for it, and we'll deal with it when you get back'. I have a reading of 3.1 whereas the reading shouldn't be that until I'm over 50. (Not that long till then, so I guess it's caution they're showing)
I've also had a CT scan for the head... which seems to have shown up nothing. Perhaps it's stress they say. NA... this is ME! I'd suggest it was the specs if it wasn't something that's been with me new specs or not. The problem is that the drugs I use to make it all go away have been indicated to cause stomach problems in long term use... and it's beginning to get to long term use now.
We decided that we'd go privately given the possibilities, and I'm seeing another specialist on Wednesday and a third one on Friday.
The moral of the story is that I'll be having the annual check up from now on. It's a bloody good idea methinks.
All the girls are good, although Phoebe's been a bit off colour recently too.
Molly and Josh were in touch last week, and they all chatted (whilst I was at work) for an hour and twenty or so. Great. We miss the older two, and especially right now as Molly had a party for her imminent 18th last weekend. I wish we could all be there too.
The house design is progressing well, and I'm trying to incorporate a few nice features that justify having gone to the trouble of building it ourselves rather than just buying one that someone else did for us. I'll put some pictures of the design on in a while, once we're happy with it. It's a much smaller and therefore economical version of the mansion that we'd dreamed up before, and therefore we hope, more likely to actually get built.
I went to a meeting of the Creative Industries Network last week, and afterwards we went to a local music venue under the Gold Coast Arts Centre. I don't recall the last time I went to see some music, and I put my last 5 bucks in towards buying a joint copy of the CD that the woman was selling. She was a singer with a guitar. FANTASTIC voice, and very competent player too. I felt a bit bad that we're going to burn a copy of her CD, but at least we bought one eh?
Narnia is going really well for me, I'm loving making stuff again for a living, and having that feeling of confidence that I know (more or less) what I'm doing, and I'm not just waiting for someone to see through my sham, as I felt like I was at Moreton Hire. I had initially also had the good fortune to be able to sell some of my products (Silicons and Urethanes, Adhesives and tools) to the production, but the head accountant ruled that I had a 'conflict of interest' so it's all stopped. I now feel pain every time I see another order going past that would have been supplied by me. They're ordering that much that I'd have been turning over something like $8k a month just on the prop dept.
One of the guys in our workshop is a 23 year old lad called Nic, that has also been starting up a little company of his own that makes animation. He's a bit of a clever lad, having been buying and selling camera equipment for some time, and making his own movers. We got talking about CNC machines, and I'd said that I'd like to make one. He said he'd also been thinking about it, and had made some headway (bought motors and controllers etc). He wants to make a motion control camera mover, and the equipment required is very similar...
Anyway, we've been egging each other on, and now we're both making one. His is about 1.5 m x 1m of cutting area. Mine, because I want to be able to use it commercially, is capable of cutting an 8x4 sheet in one. The machine is 3m x 1.5m. I've got the controllers (from an Ebayer in Sydney) and I've got the x axis slides and lead screw (From an Ebayer in South Korea). I have Z axis components coming from the same guy in Korea too. Just the big one (the Y axis) to find. (That may end up having to be new...and therefore quite expensive). I'm really looking forward to having that all up and running, and making some of the many things that it will be capable of cutting. I'm building the framework to enable the machine to operate as a router, a laser cutter, or a plasma cutter. The router will be invaluable for building our kitchen, the plasma for cutting the steelwork around the house, such as junctions between timbers for roofing trusses etc. (Our primary ceiling will be vaulted, and therefore the timbers will be exposed to view - meaning the metalwork will need to be nice)
Last weekend, we had a couple of little kids stay over, the eldest of whom (Natalia) is in the Feeb's class. Letitia, her four year old sister, is a bundle of joy. They're both lovely little kids. On Sunday, their Mum and Dad came to pick them up and stayed for a couple of hours to chat. During this conversation, Steve said that Mrs Laubsher (their teacher) had been discussing Natalia with Rin (her mum...she's from Thailand) and had asked her if she was autistic! Steve had been livid that she's asked this... and that Rin had been unable to get in behind the question to probe about what she'd meant. She just said 'No'. For a second, we both thought that it was weird too... so weird that neither of us thought it could have been what she'd meant. Then I realised what it was... Mrs L is from Johannesburg! Ha ha. Sith Ifrican! She was complimenting her on her artistic ability!
Here's some pics of them: This is Natalia...
this is Letitia...
The pics were taken when we all went to the local park. Chelsea and Tara, local mates came too. This is Tara...
and this is Chelsea;
You know these ones...
This one is from a show that Daile went to in mid June. You can see Natalia and Feeb, and the other really little girl is Arushi. She's fantastic too.
At home...Matilda has become one with the cat lately! This was just after... and just before he attacked her ankles.
