Pityriasis Rosea

Mid January this year I had a small red circle on my left hip that looked like ringworm.  I couldn’t imagine why I would have a ringworm but decided to treat the offending patch with anti fungal cream.  The day after I first applied the cream the small red patch had grown in size to double the prior day and was red and angry and a bit sore.  Over the next few weeks the patch got bigger and bigger until it was 5cm long.  The raised edge lessened and the patch was dry and scaly.  I decided the time had come to go and see the chemist to get a different cream.  The chemist had a look and said he thought it was bacterial, not fungal, and that was why the cream had not worked.  He said I would need antibiotics and so I booked a Dr appointment.

By the time my appointment came around a week later I had developed about a dozen other red patches on my body mostly on my stomache and breasts.  Each was the size of a small coin.  The Dr took one look and said the sore on my hip was called “The Herald Patch”…. and is called so because it ‘heralds’ the onset of my inflication - Pityriasis Rosea… which apparently is a viral infection that teenagers and young adults catch.  Hmmm… so here I am just weeks away from being 43 and I have a teenage virus…. great!   Anyway….. PR usually lasts 8 weeks and is likely to cover your entire torso, upper arms and legs, neck and sometimes face.  Great!… NOT.   There is no cure, no treatment, just a waiting game.  The Dr gave me cortisone cream to use on any of the sores that were itchy or very sore… but I found the cream was like vasaline and very unpleasant to have plastered on your body.

So… here I am 7 weeks down the track and I have about 100 of these…. they are worst on my breasts and stomach…. they have crept down the tops of my arms, under my arms, on the back of my thighs, the back of my neck and into my hair and now on my chest and creeping up my neck.  I ITCH…. I itch all over.  Apparenly only about 5% of people itch.  Apparently it is supposed to be gone in 8 weeks but as I head into week 8 new small spots are starting all over my back and along my arms.  I looks like I may be one of the lucky 5% who have a longer inflication….. I may be even super lucky to hit the 6month record!  I just hope I am not one of the 1% who keep it or get it several times!

Bs 21st Dinner

Last night B, M, Cliff and I went to Wagamama Noodle Bar in Fremantle for B’s 21st birthday dinner.  Cliff and I had previously been to the Subiaco restaurant and it was a nice meal.  The Fremantle noodle bar apparently has been open since December however it would have been one of the most disorganised restaurants I have every been to.

They do not have their liquor licence yet so only soft drinks could be ordered (not that that was a problem).  The staff were very inattentive but they took our order after 10 minutes of menu looking.  Cliff’s barramundi however was not available so he had to re choose.  Our meals came one at a time over 10 minutes… Cliff had to wait until we had almost finished our meals to receive his.

B had a chicken soba noodle soup… she said it was very tasteless.  M had teriaki chicken with rice and salad which he said was nice.  Cliff had beef salad and the beef had a lovely flavour and was very tender.  However, although we love chilli this salad would have had no less than 2 whole red chillies cut up and dispersed throughout it making it extremely hot to eat.  I had the chicken kare loman noodle soup… which was spicy and delicious.

Shonky desert - $9.80!!

It had lemon grass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, served with ramen noodles. garnished with a marinated grilled chicken breast, bean sprouts, cucumber, lime and fresh coriander.

We shared side meals of Chilli Squid, Ebi Gyoza which are deep fried prawn dumplings, sweet potatos chipped with black sesame seeds and a wasabi mayonaise dipping sauce.  Cliff and I also had Miso that was serves with Japanese pickles.

We had to wait about 20 minutes to be able to catch the eye of a wait staff member to order desert.  They seemed to avoid customers like the plague! I did not order desert but Cliff had a fried banana with icecream which he said was nice but was not served with the honey/cinnamon sauce it stated on the menu.  M had two scoops of ice cream - coconut and lychee which he said was delicious.  B had a rich choc mud cake with icecream which was supposed to be served with wasabi chocolate sauce (but came with plain choc sauce).

Over all we gave the experience a 5 out of 20!  The service was poor, the meals were not served as the menu said.  The worst meal was B’s desert which was a horrendous $9.80 for a small slice of what seemed like a Woolworth’s mud cake with a small scoop of plain ice cream which would have cost them under a $1.  This desert was, by far, the worst I have ever seen and for $10 you really expect a cafe style mud cake rather than something you’d buy in your weekly shopping!  Each of the mains was around $20 but I think was very overpriced for B’s main of tasteless watery soup with noodles in it and a couple of slices of chicken.

The meal total (with a softdrink each) came to $162 and I don’t think we will eat there again soon!

(The photo of B was taken as we left the restaurant, with the chefs in the background.  Her expression says it all!)

B turns 21!

B is 21 today!  It is amazing that 21 years have passed since the day she arrived in this world.  My pregnancy was fairly awful with her, having already lost several pregnancies prior to hers and then having all sorts of issues for until 32 weeks when, finally, the specialist said the baby seemed ok… though had short legs for her gestatioinal age!

Her birth was no less drama than the pregnancy because at 32 weeks she decided to rotate so that her head was up under my ribs with one foot down in my pelvis and the other one up near her head.  The doctor at this point did not realise this and indicated that I was obviously a neurotic mother who just “thought her baby wasn’t kicking” and sent me off to King Edward Memorial for CTG testing.  The nurse strapped on the baby monitor to my stomach and told me that I would see the babies kicking as marks on the paper coming out of the monitor.  Half and hour passed and there was no mark on the paper.  After a couple of hours eventually it appeared the baby was alive however, strangely lethargic and definitely something was wrong.  It is amazing in hind sight that I was not sent for an ultrasound, instead once a week for the next 9, I had to return to the

Brother & Sister....B & M - B

hospital for another CTG to check for movement.  My specialist met with me every fortnight and still he would not believe that ’something was not right’.  I could hardly breath when I was standing, let alone sitting down B was so high up under my ribs my diaphragm almost didn’t allow me to breath.  When I sat down it was as if I was sitting on a stick for the sharp pain that would occur in my pelvis.  Apparently “just normal” said the doctor.  At this point he told me B would be a “whopper of at least 9 1/2 lb”.

Finally at 39 weeks at my constant “whinging” Dr Turner said “ok, I’ll just do a quick ultasound to check the babies position because something does not feel right”.  Yeah well I told him this 8 weeks ago!  I couldn’t believe that the ultrasound was in his room all this time and instead of just doing a quick check weeks ago.  Of course, he was totally shocked to see the position that B was laying in….. big head up under my ribs with a foot up next to her face and a foot down bouncing off my cervix.  Yes, well… I could have told the specialist this if he had bothered listening to me 2 months before.  Having a foot bouncing on your cervix does cause ongoing pain… particularly when you sit!  Having a babies head the size of a rockmelon wedged up under your diaphragm can cause difficulty in breathing!

Me & B

Dr Turner said not a word to me but picked up the phone and rang SJofG hospital to book a caesarean.  It seemed that B’s grand finale also was going to be difficult.  Dr Turner put the phone down and explained that it was impossible for the baby to be born naturally and that I was to pack my back and be at the hospital that afternoon for a caesarean the next afternoon and that I needed to be in hospital in case labour started.  After months and months of exercise classes for a ‘normal birth’ I was shocked that I was sitting there being told my baby’s exact arrival date and time.

Dr Turner’s “bed side manner” was just shocking - he did not explain about epidurals and generals and the pros and cons of each.  Instead he insisted I book an epidural for the caesarian.  At my doctor’s disgust I booked a general anaesthetic and that I wanted B’s dad to be there at the birth.   Apparently this was against regulations for a general anaesthetic!  In the end B’s dad was asked to stay out of the theatre until moments before she was lifted out of me.  One of the nice assistants took photos - she was born on a Friday at 4.29pm.

When I woke in recovery I was handed B bundled up in a white cloth.  She had a heap of dark hair and she was just perfect.  B, unlike her pregnancy, was the perfect baby in all ways.  She was a very content and happy baby.  She grew into a content and happy toddler who did not go through the terrible 2’s but was placid and smiling.  She walked on her 1st birthday.  By the age of 2 her hair was long down to her waist.  She happily went off to pre-school the year she turned 5 and not a tear was shed.  In fact, B’s past 21 years as followed this pattern…. now as a young woman she is not only my daughter, but also my friend and she brings much happiness into my life.

Our Prado

Since we are planning a two week trip to remote parts of WA later this year Cliff decided it would be good if we learnt how to 4WD properly.  Although we’ve had a 4WD for 10 years and go ‘off road’… it has only been onto gravel tracks or hard bed sand tracks up in the Goldfields etc.

Our first day was a ’sand’ beginners course.  We learnt to un-bog our car, how to go through deep holes without flipping the car, and after reducing tire pressure from 32 down to just 14psi we learnt to climb up and over soft sand dunes.

On day two of the course we drove to a bushland area north east of Perth near Mundaring.  We learnt how to check and cross water crossings safely.  When I entered the water though I was travelling a little to fast and the water swirled up and under the car and pushed up my number plate (which we had to fix afterwards).  The water was quite deep… just up to the bottom of our doors.

The talked about how to go through deep ‘wombat holes’ which were 4 offset holes spaced apart with two on each side and each about 1.5 metres deep.  I watched the 4WD trainer do it in his car and then a couple of ‘victims’ followed and it was then I decided NOT to do this one.  So, Cliff, being far braver, decided he WOULD do it.  It was totally freaky and he got half way through with 3 wheels in deep holes with the front left wheel over a metre in the air and our 4WD on this mad tilted angle.  He was just shy of the ‘roll over’ point of no return.  The two trainers took a few minutes to work out how to get him out of the situation.  Cliff managed to do it… I was shaking so much.  Cliff said it didn’t seem so bad IN the car but everyone watching was gasping and saying “omg”.  Cliff was a little shakey wen he got out of the car…. watching the video back later was pretty freaky.

Next we learnt how to cross deep ravines.  We had several very angled declines with a dry creek bed at the bottom and then a steep incline.  Our 4WD being a Toyota Landcruiser Prado does not have as much entry and exit clearance of the Landcruiser or other bigger 4WDs.  I did two of these crossings and Clif did the 3rd which was the deepest ravine.  It was very, very steep and the car scraped underneath all the way down and up the other side.  There were a ‘few bits’ hanging off underneath afterwards and one of the side steps got a scraping too.  All in all it was a fantastic and fun day and I much preferred the bush day to the sand day.

Viet Royal Restaurant

Today was cycling day.  J & P and I decided to travel a litle further afield.  We headed off at 9am from the Lakehouse along the freeway cycle path to the CIty and then turned right towards the South Perth Foreshore.  We stopped for coffee at the Dome.  P & I shared half a BLT and J had a very tasty pumpkin, coriander savoury mufin that had pepitas on top.  It was quite unusual in taste and it reminded me of punpkin soup!

We then headed off past Burswood casino and on to East Perth.  It was a beautiful day, sunny, not yet 30 degrees and the river was as flat and still as a millpond.  We decided to keep cycling and kept to the paths along the river and wet areas through to Maylands and eventually almost to Guildford and if we ran out of time catch the train from the city to Brentwood rather than tackle the fierce side wind along the hot stretch of the freeway.  It was now 11.50am and we decided to head back towards the city for lunch.  P suggested Vietnamese at a restaurant she’d been to some weeks before.  It was a excellent choice!  The Viet Royal is at 81 Royal Street, East Perth.  It was already after 1pm and there were only a couple of tables in use.

Lunch!

We ordered Phad Thai (bottom left), Chilli Garlic and Tofu with veges (top left) and Ginger Chicken (top right).  We also had steamed rice and ate with chopsticks.  J & I had a glass of Amberley Chenin Blanc and P had a Beer.  I decided after my lunch cycle day when I had had a beer and felt awful on the ride home that I’d have a wine instead!

The lunch was delicious although the vege dish was very salty and J found it very chilli hot.  The Phad Thai was just great but lacking in veges.  The Ginger chicken was J’s favourite… phad thai is my favourite all time noodle dish and I always use the lemon squeezed on top when I eat it.

After a leisurely lunch we got back on our bikes.  Our odometres where showing 40kms travelled so far that morning and as it was no around 2pm we decided to cycle back into the city and head to The Esplanade train station.  We caught the train 2 minutes later and stood near the doors with our bikes for the 10 minute journey (much more pleasant than cycling along that stretch of the river… my least favourite part of every cycle!).  Getting off at Bullcreek station we then rode the 10 minutes back to the Lakehouse with enough time for a cold drink before we all head off to pick up kids from school.

I took M to get his hockey gear after school as his first training session is Thursday night.

Cliff downloaded a couple of geocache sites in Dwellingup.  Unfortunately we discovered that they didn’t download the ‘hints’ that you get when you view them online.  The first one was in a gravel quarry area that BHP used to mine for Bauxite.  We found the area of around 10m2 and searched high and low and found nothing.  We were sure it would be hidden under rocks and eventually, after about an hour searching it was found in the first place we had looked.  The plastic container contained lots of goodies.  We didn’t take anything or put anything in the cache but signed our ‘tag’ and the date we found the cache.

The second cache was about 10kms West of Dwellingup along a bush track.  This one was much easier to find and only took us about 10 minutes to locate.  I found this one first hidden under a log.  C found it without help to and she got to open the tin.  We put a little toy frog into this cache and wrote out ‘tag’ in the book inside.

Barry tours Dwellingup

About 8 1/2 years ago Cliff and I took all of our kids (B,R,M,S & C) on a camping trip to Rottnest Island.  While were were there we bought ‘Barry Quokka“.  ‘Barry Quokka’ of course was a touristy purchase representing on of the stuffed locals.  Quokka’s are small, cute, marsipials that reside on the island and our stuffed Quocka….. was named ‘Barry’ because it rhymes wth ‘ Barry Crocker’ is an Aussie singing icon).  Anyway… it makes us laugh!

After our trip to Rottnest we made it a famiy tradition to take ‘Barry’ with us on every family camping trip or holiday that we went on.  Barry is widely travelled…. to date he has been camped at Rottnest (re-visted), Coral Bay, Shark Bay, Busselton, Walpole, Margaret River and he came with us to Dwellingup this past weekend.  He has also flown to New Zealand (family holiday in August 2007) and with Cliff to Canberra, where he even sat in our Parliament’s speakers chair!  He has been to Albany, stayed at the Casino… he pops up everywhere we go actually! Barry gets to go on all of the attractions he has - been on the tree walk at Walpole, sat on a whale harpoon launcher in Albany.

Just hanging out - Lane Poole, Dwellingup 1 March 2009

His escapades are endless and we get some very strange looks while we place ‘Barry’ for photos.

It is quite hilarious because Barry just seems to turn up everywhere we go.  When at home he resides on my dressing table but come the time to pack to go on holiday…. Barry finds himself in someone’s luggage.  Sometimes I sneak him in, sometimes Cliff does and sometimes the kids ask to take him.

Sometimes it has been too embarrasing to take his photo (like in the Speaker’s Chair in Parliament) because the crowds are too big but afterwards we kick ourselves that we didn’t just DO IT.  Barry is getting a bit ‘thread bare’ after 8 years of travelling but hopefully he has a few years left in him yet!

The 'S-man' - Fashion Statement or Human Fly?

From time to time my kids surprise me with their bizarre fashion statements.  Normally teenagers, especially boys, don’t like standing out in a crowd.  They don’t like to wear leary t-shirts or shoes that are ‘different’.  then….. out of the blue weirdness happens!

Last year M got this weird hat… it is sort of blues brothers meets old man driving!  It is black and seems to be a permanent fixture on his head.

Step-brother S decided he liked THAT hat so at Christmas I managed to track down another one.  However, S’s is white with thin black stripes.  The two of them are quite comical and neither bats an eye lid when adults (or anyone) pokes fun at them for wearing their old man hats.  In fact they seem to take this with delight rather than distane.

So…. Saturday comes around and S has pocket money burning a hole in his pocket.  He decides to head to the city wth his sister C to go to ‘Skunks’ which is (apparently) a very “cool shop”.  An hour later he arrives home with his prize!  Of course ‘THE HAT’ and ‘THE FLY GLASSES’ had to come camping with us to Dwellingup.  Cool huh!

Lane Poole Swimming area

Lane’s Poole Reserve in Dwellingup is a beautiful national forest reserve with the Murray river running through it.  The reserve is named after WA’s first forest conservationist Lane-Poole who, in 1918, got an order put through government to stop indescriminate logging of our forests.

The River meanders its way through the forest park.  It has many dammed areas where day visitors or campers can canoe or swim.  Cliff and the kids (M, S & C) decided to brave a swim in the muddy bottomed pool.  The water was quite cold apparently!  I stayed on the river bank and took photos of them while the 4 of them swam to a group of rocks out in the middle.  They told me that it was further to swim than it looked!  Can you just make out their 4 head in the centre of this photo?

Dwellingup State Forest

Cliff rested on a slimy log that was caught amongst the big rocks and when M pused him, he was unable to hold his grip and slid along the log on his stomach and I could hear them all laughting from the bank.

It was just as hard getting OUT of the water as it was getting IN.  The bank was quite high and because the bottom was very muddy you needed to hand on to trees at the waters edge to pull yourself out.  C ended up all muddy.

We all crossed the river, jumping from rock to rock, to get back to the other side where our car was.

Dwellingup beetles

There were some interesting beetles in the leaf litter everywhere we looked.  They were all exactly the same type of beetle.  Dark green with brilliant orange/red patches on their back.  The green was brilliant, similar to a Christmas Beetle green.

The drive back to the camping ground was also beautiful.  We stopped several times and took photos of the magnificent trees.  It was quite breath taking.

Car, Kids Tents & Camper Trailer

A few weeks ago we decided that we’d go camping over the Labor Day long Weekand even take the kids with us!  The camping trailer has made camping so easy.  We keep it packed with all the essentials - kid’s tents, chairs, camp table, gas cooker, air matresses etc.  So all we need do is back the car up and hitch it on and do some shopping for food to take with us.

We decided on Dwellingup as it is only about an hour and a quarter away (South) and the camping ground is in the State Forest so it is beautiful any time of year.  We last camped there in July 08 when it was very cold and the ground was nearly vacant.  The camping however in July was just brilliant and there is nothing better than sitting around the camp fire at night.  Camping in March however is another story!  As it was a long weekend the camping ground was

Camping Trailer set up (kitchen side)

absolutely packed with campers, caravans, people and dogs!  We had to drive around a few times to be able to find somewhere to even set up.  It wasn’t an ideal spot right next to the access road, but good enough for a couple of nights.  The camping trailer’s tent sets up quickly and the kids all had their dome tents up within half an hour.

We had just jumped out the car when the March flies found us! (another reason why March is NOT the best time to camp in Dwellingup!).  I reckon over the course of the 3 days we swotted and killed about 200 March Flies…. nasty buggers that hurt when they stick their proboscus into you and then make you irritable from having to smack yourself a lot in order to kill the blighters! (They are about 4 times the size of a blowfly) Then as the sun goes down and the March flies head home to bed the mozzies flock in to feast.  Insects aside, the weeked was fantastic.  The kids spent hours riding bikes around the gravel roads in the forest.  It is a nice and easy ride into the Dwellingup townsite and they always do this within about an hour of arriving to buy a magazine or puzzle book and and icecream.