When it's not one . . .

it's the other one . . .

If you have kids you must know what I am talking about. Well I don't have kids, but it certainly apply to the girls.

I more or less didn't work this week-end, what should fit Lynne's quote again.

I got Bubbles to the Vet as planned on Thursday and she got some meds. On Friday she vomited again and I thought about taking her to the emergency Vet, but then it stopped. On Saturday afternoon, it was from the other end, really bad, so we took her last night.

I hadn't noticed as she was still active but she had a high fever. She got an injection, the Vet said to come back the next morning and not to feed her. Last night was a bit difficult because she wasn't happy, she was hungry, grumpy and on the "why me " side. Not getting her food is her worst nightmare. We let her on the sofa with us, what caused Rhea to be very upset because 2 people and 1 dog is all the sofa can take, so although she was laying down at my feet and I was cuddling her, she wasn't happy.

This morning, I took Bubbles to the Vet again, her temperature was a bit lower but she still had 102.7. She got another injection and was allowed a bit of food. She got some rice with tuna fish and when she understood I was really preparing it for her, she was moving her tail so much, poor thing. We are due back tomorrow morning for another check up. In the mean time, just cuddling them both. The weather is cloudy and really cold, the girls got their walk this morning but as the humans, they are happy at home.

We started watching the new Revolution series on Sky, but were moderately impressed.

Happy Easter to all of you and take care everybody, xxx

Freaky freak

Sometimes I don't write much on a Lucky Snapping challenge,  but that doesn't mean
I don't think about it. This quote from Lynne about " life passing by so fast " follows me since Monday. Nowadays when I am in the park, I have nothing to do excepted freezing and today was no exception, so I was using that time to reflect.

When I was little, my dad once explained me that if you put water in a bucket, hold it by the handle and make it turn very fast, the water won't fall. Even as a little girl, I've always been the type " I believe what I see ", so I tried and of course the water stayed in. WOW.

Funnily enough, this silly experience from my childhood has kind of shaped my life, because I've always noticed that I am like the water in the bucket and in order not to fall, I need to turn fast.

It's true that when I slow down, like the water, I start falling down, I am tired, sleepless, restless . . . Sounds to me like the symptoms of addiction withdrawal, lol. I need to keep busy to feel alive but I don't necessarily mean work, I can obsess with craft, photo taking, sport . . . you name it ( no, not housework, never happened and surely never will  ). It doesn't mean I can't read a good book, I love reading, but I won't read a book, I will read 1 a day.

Actually, writing about that really starts freaking me out as it looks like I am a completely obsessed person. I have always did all what I touched to the max, may be that's what people call passion, but yet passion is wanting not needing, isn't it? Well, I don't know. That's who I am anyway.

So until  the end of the week, I have as plan to think about how I could change that, at least a bit.

As of the busy side, I went to be at 12:30 and at 1:30, Bubbles was already placing her first call to go to the garden. She did that roughly every hour and a half . . .  I don't understand how a dog can be sick that much at night and during the day, being sick "normally". And she doesn't fake it, she is really sick.

Anyway. So tomorrow I had a full day plus Rhea acupuncture, I am now also having the Vet for Bubbles.

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Spot on . . .

Everybody is sick here, the 2 legs and the 2x4 paws. Dennis is lucky to be back only tomorrow !

Last night at 4:45, I heard a bark downstairs , it kind of woke me up half but I didn't want to get up and when Rhea was doing her best to get me out of bed, I told her to go back to sleep. But then, I suddenly realized, rushed out of bed and went downstairs to open the garden door to Bubbles. She calls when she is going to be sick and Rhea does her part too. They are really great for that.

So it's 4:50 and I am watching my Bubbles in the garden, when I suddenly notice I am only in my PJ's, barefoot in the kitchen and I am absolutely frozen. Too late. By the time I pick my coat and Dennis' slippers in the landing,  my nose is already runny and I am sneezing. Amazing how quickly it goes. Same story at 6 and at 6:30, for Bubbles and Rhea this time, but at least I made sure to wrap in my coat and wear Dennis' slippers immediately.

So Bubbles is sick from front and back, Rhea sick from the back and I got the cold of the century. Nice start of the day. I went to the park twice, wrapped up like never, -5 with an icy wind. I don't remember having been so cold during the winter.

I worked today but not as much as I would have liked, between the going downstairs to open the garden door to the girls and the blowing my nose the rest of the time.

I called my parents as usual at 6pm and when mum said " there is something strange on the computer ", I though " Oh No". She added that if I was busy I could help tomorrow, but I though I better do it now. Thanks God I can enter into their computer from mine, but I sometimes face 2 problems, I have an English Mac, they have a French Windows, so often the terminology is a bit tough.

Anyway, I could see the problem perfectly : The Google screen was sooooo big, that I only could see the GOO and add to scroll to the right to see the rest.
I asked my mum what she did to get that. I wonder why I ask, because they never do anything, LOL, they say they have a Murphy too. Well . . .

It wasn't going well with my repairing because I didn't have a clue what was going on and I was trying to search on Internet for ideas. We were already on the phone since 45 minutes and I couldn't hear myself thinking because my mum wanted to explain again and again why it wasn't her fault. I am sure you can see the picture.

To be honest I was kind of pretty depressed because I didn't know how to help them and time was really flowing. But then something happened that was absolutely in sync with Lynne's quotation for this week :

“ Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”

I eventually found the problem. I didn't know but you can zoom on Internet, so to zoom back, they just had to do CTRL and - as many times as needed.

With TeamViewer, I get full control of their computer and their mouse, but obviously not of their keyboard. So It took a while for them to find CTRL, then I checked on a french keyboard image where the - sign was. In case you are interested, it's below the 6.

So I told my dad, Press CTRL, keep it on and then press -
. . . Big silence . . .  then a scream from both of them: " Yeah, it works, Google is back to normal ".
Me, starting to breath again. Then the Java update was blinking but my mum was thinking it's a hacker and she didn't want to touch it, so I decided to install for her. Downloading time 30 minutes. . .  Sigh . . . OK.

So we started talking about something else, what they did during the day, how the weather was and they had news from my brother . . . when suddenly I hear my Dad shouting :
" Can I remove it ? "
Me, thinking noooo, don't touch anything anymore: " Remove what, Dad ? "
Dad : " Remove my finger from CTRL ? "
Me : " ?????????????   . . . Yes, of course ".

And that's when I had this bliss moment, because at least 20 minutes had passed by and he still had his finger on CTRL. It was absolutely hilarious, though I didn't want them to hear I was laughing but it made me realize that my work didn't matter, I needed to concentrate on them.
We continued chatting whilst Java was downloading and we managed to kill the battery of one of my phones ( 1 hour and 23 minutes is all what it can take) so I had to call them back with another one ( thank God we don't pay phone calls to France). We talked another 20 minutes and by the time we hung up, I actually felt I had a great break from my work and my mood was much better.

Somehow a lot of the Lucky Snapping challenges be they from others or from me, manage to be spot on the week they need to be for me to find examples.

Take care everybody, xxx

Spring, I doubt it . . .

Still raining, though less than the other days. Spring doesn't want to start soon, it would seem.

Rhea had her 1st acupuncture session this morning. The lady is very pleasant and Rhea liked her immediately. It also helps that she does home visits. Rhea got 9 needles for 10 minutes and she was extremely calm and relaxed, no fear whatsoever. After that I thought I let her relax at home and take Bubbles for a walk. When she heard I was getting reading she came with a look on her face saying " In your dreams I miss my walk", so I took her out. Her recovery doesn't stop amazing me.

Dennis comes back tonight. It's the second week he was away, this is the kids week-end and he goes away again next week for 3 days, so he booked an earlier flight as a surprise so we can spend some time together. Yeh !


5 things you didn't know about me - Nr 3 and 4

In fact, I spoke about Nr. 3 this morning with the acupuncture lady. As you probably know, I suffer from terrible migraines and I always heard that acupuncture could help a lot. Only problem is I am terrified of needles, so I never tried. I was saying this morning that after having the audacity to have acupuncture done on Rhea despite my own fears, may be it would be time I try myself.

There were a lot of people influencing my life, but I am going to talk about the 2 who gave me my 2 main passions : Travel and Nature.

When I was 10 or so, during summer holidays we used to go camping with my parents in the French Alps but we were always spending a couple of days to visit one of my great-uncle and great-aunt who had a Chalet near Grenoble. It was a big old chalet in the middle of the mountains, the floor was cracking under each step. There was something very mysterious about it. Large fields with wild flowers surrounded it and of course the mountains.
My great-uncle Andre was a retired teacher and he certainly knew his ways with kids. We used to go for long walks in the mountains and he would tell me the name of the plants, the trees, he opened my eyes and taught me how to look properly. For a little girl being brought up in the city center of Marseille, it was what paradise must be. It is one of my most wonderful memories and he gave me this unconditional love for nature. I also always said when I grow up I want to live in a chalet in the mountains and I haven't given up on that yet.

When I was in my last year at the University, I had an Animal Biology professor who was pretty amazing. Sadly I can't remember his name, but I still can see his face. He was a kind of shy and mysterious guy, but extremely kind. One day I went to his office to borrow a book I didn't have enough money to buy and he had on his desk a kind of weird mummified brownish thing that I didn't want to know what it was but absolutely had to ask. It was indeed a shrunken head.

Passed the 1st shock, lol, I asked him how he got it and that was the start of endless meetings in his office in which he explained all his travels from the Amazon to New Zealand through Guyana. When he talked about his travels, he was a different guy, he eyes were lightening up, he was smiling and talked with passion. To me who hadn't gone more than 700 km from home and only by car, he was the most fascinating guy ever and from that moment, I knew that I would travel the world. At the end of the year I graduated and eventually left Marseille.
 Something like 15 years later, I decided to go back to the University to say hello to some of the professors. Each time I popped my head through the door and said hello, they had a big smile at me. Each time I said " do you know who I am " they answered " of course I do ". It was like being back home again.
The only one I couldn't locate was that special professor as the door to the lab was closed. So I asked about him and I was told that my travel mentor had died of a heart attack, a couple of months after we graduated. It was a very big shock because I looked so much forward to meet him and tell him all the places I had been to in these 15 years, but I also felt cheated because " Indiana Jones can't die " and if he does, it's because he got grabbed by a crocodile or kidnapped by an obscure tribue . His death made him somebody mortal and it was hard to swallow.

I never forgot him and many years later, I started writing a detective Novel, located in my University, with him as a main character. That way, he is still alive.

Take care everybody, xxx
 

Not much different . . .

. . . from yesterday.

Everybody's fine, humans busy working and doggies busy playing or sleeping.


5 things you didn't know about me - Nr. 2

This one I am sure you don't know because nobody knows, I don't think I even ever told Dennis.

In early 1975, I was on my way to be 19 and at the " University de Provence " in Marseille I was studying Biology, Botanic, Geology . . .  you get the idea. You certainly remember how stupid one can be at 18 or so,  or may be you all were good girls ?

Anyway, on that morning, we were due to have a Geology exam, we were a small group of friends, who had spent the night revising but we felt we weren't ready. It was 8:30, how can you delay such an important test only half an hour before it ?

Easy peasy, we came up to the conclusion, we had to simulate a bomb alert and I was elected to be the one to place the call to the police. There were obviously no cell phones at that time, thanks God, because stupid as we were, we surely would have used one of ours.

We all went to a phone booth that was inside the campus and I dialed the police number. I remember at that time it was 17 for the Police and 18 for the Fire Brigade. When the police picked up, I took my deepest voice ever and said " There is bomb that is going to explode at the University, you have to come right now." I even think I added " Thank you", lol and then I hung up. My heart was beating fast but everybody said it went really well. We were all delighted and went sitting on the grass, waiting for the police to rush in and evacuate the University.

At 8:35 they were not there, nor were they at 8:40, 8:45 and 8:50.

At 8:55, we decided it was time to make our way to the exam room.

We all passed on that day and never talked about the bomb story again.

Take care everybody, xxx
   

Just another manic Monday . . .

Yes, to paraphrase the Bangles, that's what today is.

It was again a 3am start, it is pouring down since 3 days, so the park is just pure mud and I have tons of work.

For her Nostalgia challenge, Kathi is asking :  

Tell us 5 things we didn't know about you!  

I talk so much on this blog I sometimes have the feeling you know me better than
I know myself, LOL.

One thing I can't leave home without:

Even if I just pop out of the front door to drop something in our bin, I would never ever go out without my cell phone in my pocket. My parents are in France, my in-laws in Wales and Dennis travels a lot, so my phone is my only connection to them, making it the most precious thing I own.

Even when I go shopping, my phone will be in my pocket and never in my handbag, just in case it would be stolen.

Now, you certainly didn't know I was so obsessed with my phone, did you ?

Tomorrow I will talk about the oldest piece of clothing in my wardrobe . . .
Ah Ah that's a topic . . . 

Excepted that, I am fine, the girls are fine too with Rhea still improving and Dennis is fighting his way through snow in Zurich .

Sorry, really need to go back to work.

Take care everybody, xxx

Going into rehab . . .

. . .  yes, I can hear you thinking, Gosh what happened to her ?

Well it's not me, it"s Rhea, LOL. We visited our Vet yesterday and I told him that Rhea was waking me up so often during the night, just to get some attention. He said that may be the pain killer we give her is responsible for that as it contains a bit of morphine and some dogs can get addicted to that and display strange behaviors. He said it would be a bad idea to have her going cold turkey, so we are going to go down with the amount for the next 3 weeks and see how she is, then go down again . . .

This dog will have done everything to me. I shouldn't say that, she might pop up with something else, LOL.

I contacted the lady Vet regarding acupuncture and we should have an appointment next week. Thanks God she comes to visit, so it will be so much easier for me.

It's raining today. I got wet on my way back with Rhea and as Bubbles kept on repeating " it's my turn now ",  well I got wet with her too, lucky me.


Let's reflect - March : Laugh

A joke for you today. I found it extremely funny but please be forgiving, I translated from a French joke my mum told me, so may be I killed it.

A very sophisticated blond is in the waiting room of her GP, She really looks gorgeous, her nails done, her Channel clothing and shoes and a beautiful Hermes bag. When her turn comes, the doctor asks her what he can do for her.

The blond : I have been stung by a bee and it is most painful so I thought you could give me something ?

The GP: Of course, where have you been stung ?

The blond's face becomes completely red : Oh, this I cannot tell you.

The GP : But if you don't tell me,  how do you want me to help?

The blond : No way, it's too embarassing !

The GP : I am your doctor, you can tell me anything.

The blond : If my friends would hear about it, they would make such fun of me.

The GP : Do not worry, anything you tell me is absolutely confidential.

The blond : Ok, then I tell you. I was stung just when I was exiting Lidl.


That's it for today, Dennis comes back tonight so I am off to supermarket, then clean the house . . . you know, the usual fascinating stuff we need to do. . .

Take care everybody, xxx

Great Day . . .

Yes, today has been a great day, the living proof that even if things start badly they can change.

Rhea woke me up 5 or 6 times last night so when I got up at 8, I wasn't of the best mood and I had a bit of a headache, but then I had breakfast and it started going away. Then I took her out for a little while and when I took Bubbles out, I saw something that made my day. There were 2 dears around the middle of the slope ( You know,the view I used to show you constantly last year ).

Of course it was the only day I didn't have my camera with me, LOL, but somehow it was even better because I just looked and enjoyed. They were massive, jumping around and my jaw really dropped.  Bubbles was sniffing around somewhere else so she didn't see them and they didn't feel threatened. They then disappeared the way they came. It was amazing because the last time I saw one it was very early in the morning and today it was 2 and at 11am or so.

Then I had a great day regarding my work, managing some genius moments. I love having genius moments, because for just a moment I can believe I am really one. It was really rewarding because I got such good ideas and when I implemented them, they all worked. Pure delight.

From time to time, I checked Lucky Snapping and I watched cartoons or series that you uploaded. I am sure this influences me a lot as going through these and all the photos you show, it really gives me a better mood.

Then the Neurologist called for Rhea and he said the culture came back negative, so she doesn't have a spinal cord infection, what's really good news.  The plan is to let her recover slowly ( though nobody got a real clue about what she had ) and then to put her back on anti- inflammatory meds for her arthritis. We are also going to start acupuncture with her next week. I wonder how she will react to that, will be a surprise.

Last thing that happened was tonight. I tried earlier having a look at flights for my parents and there were pretty expensive, but tonight we managed to find some and we booked them on the spot. They will be here for my birthday, so they are really happy.

As I said, a really good day. I had a couple of good laughs with Allo Allo from Borqna and also Shaun the Sheep from Kristina, I got a couple of nice emails, thank you my CyberFriends, I feel so much better today and I am sure you play a big part in it.

Take care everybody, xxx
    

From a ghost . . .

A valuable part of me organizing a challenge once a month if that it forces me to emerge at least once a month !

Where to start ?

My energy has been swallowed 80% by Rhea and 20% by work.

I told that Murphy was around, that was really nasty. Dennis who had to go to Brussels on the Sunday night had taken my car and left me his as it's much easier to put Rhea in. I got up on the Monday at 6, prepared stuff for Bubbles who was going to stay at her dog sitter's house, put the 2 dogs in the car and left. Just after I dropped Bubbles I heard on the news that there had been an accident the previous night close to Ringwood in the New Forest ( where the specialist clinic is ) and they had closed the M27 and the A31.
If you know me well, my problem number 1 is orientation, I have absolutely none, so you can imagine the panic I was in. Hopefully I had the Sat Nav in Dennis' car, trying to find the clinic address on Internet on my phone, what took ages. I knew how to use the Sat Nav a bit so I tried to put the post code in. It still sent me to the M27 so I decided to follow as I didn't know what better to do. After 5 miles and 45 minutes, the M27 was effectively closed but they were saying " Follow the diversion ".

Well they threw us out of the M27 but there was no diversion. So I turned right
( I surely should have turned left ) and told the Sat Nav to find another route and I started driving. I was a bit worried it would bring me to the A31 and I didn't know how to tell it not to. Well, that's exactly what it did and after a good hour of driving who knows where, I ended up in front of the A31 closed road. So I asked it to choose another road and I thought if it brings me to M27 again, I am finished. I wanted to stop the car and cry. It didn't bring me back to M27 but I drove through the New Forest on roads that were hardly wide enough for one car, I didn't have a clue where I was and I think it was Rhea who managed to keep me calm because I knew I had to make it one way or another. The clinic is in the middle of the fields, so no way to tell the Sat Nav precisely, but when I arrived close, thanks God I recognized a bit. We were 1 hour late whereas at the time I left we should have been an hour in advance but they already knew about the problem and everybody was late.

Rhea was then examined by the neurologist and it was very difficult because I could see for example she had no reflex on her knee when hit with a little hammer, no reaction when pressing between her toes, if he was holding one paw she couldn't stay on 3 . . .

He confirmed she had a coordination problem that was coming from the spinal cord so he said he would do a MRI on Wednesday. I then drove back home ( M27 had reopened at 11 am ) and picked up Bubbles. Monday and Tuesday are kind of blur as I just spent it worrying. It was even harder because although I kept Dennis posted, he had such an important meeting, I didn't want to worry him so he would be distracted, so I kept a lot of things for me.

On Tuesday night I left Bubbles again with her dog sitter as there was another dog she knows spending the night there and I thought she would like it.

On Wednesday morning I was at the clinic at 8 and we left at 5. She had her MRI and her biopsy. I hadn't left the clinic because I wanted to be there just in case. They kept on bringing me coffee and biscuits, there were really sweet. Then we were allowed back home. I had waited all day on a waiting room chair ( not recommended ) as it was too cold in the car and I had worried so much that I decided to leave Bubbles another night and concentrate on Rhea.

That's what she looked like when I got her back.

I didn't know my girl had beauty marks on her back. 

She picked up to the surprise of everybody and she started walking a bit. She even asked to go out so I was bringing her in front of the house, to smell the grass along the side walk. She even had a special outfit so it's not too cold and she doesn't damage her skin on branches.

She certainly had success with that.

Last week we got 2 out of 3 results and they are not bad without being too good. From the cells they picked up from the swollen tissues around her spinal cord, they found no inflammation and they found no sign of tumor. It would be great if they hadn't added that it doesn't mean she doesn't have any, it means that on the cells they picked, there was nothing, but if they had picked other cells, they might have found. The only way to be sure is to operate but so far, we don't want to.

The last result we are waiting for is to see if she would have an infection, but the culture results are not back yet.

What still causes us trouble is that when I brought her back to our Vet, he noticed that although she walks, she still doesn't have any reaction on her knees and toes, so she does have a problem, we just don't know what yet.

The reason I've been so much away is that since we discovered the problem, I haven't had a normal night. At the beginning, I was sleeping on the sofa and she was waking me up constantly because she was sour, what's understandable. Then Dennis came back and we still slept on the sofa and Rhea still woke me up. Then when she was well enough, we slept upstairs but for 3 nights in a row she was crying at 2 am so we had to get up and let her with us.

Now they sleep upstairs, but she still wakes me up. She isn't hurt, she does need attention. So I am pretty much exhausted and I just don't know what to do with her.

On the top of it, work is still there. Dennis left this morning at 3, another short night. I still have loads of things to do, so , yes that explains it all.

We woke up this snow this morning, I couldn't believe it. Not much, just 1 cm or so, but it was bitter cold, what I call " cold to cry " with a glacial wind and when I went out with Bubbles, I had a special thought for all people who don't have a roof above them. Instead of spending so much money in Afghanistan, we should at least make sure that every single person in UK has a roof and enough to eat. It can't be so expensive.

So as of my challenge, I think I will need a bit more time to think about " laugh ". I guess I will dig in my memories.

Take care everybody, xxx
  

Sorry . . .

you made me feel guilty, Borqna, but thank you for your kind message.
OK, some news although I don't have much.

We had our 1st appointment Monday and on Wednesday, Rhea had her MRI. On it you clearly see that some tissues around the spinal cord are very swollen. They have taken some to do a biopsy and also some fluids. It can be 3 things, infection or inflammation of the spinal cord or a tumor, meaning she would need chemotherapy.
We don't have the results yet, only Monday. Rhea is back home since Wednesday night, she was very tired after the anesthesia and was crying a lot, same on thursday. Today she was a bit better, but she is still very uncomfortable.

Murphy has been with us all week, you don't want to know, but Dennis surprised us in coming back late last night, what was really nice.

That's all I can tell now, will know more in a couple of days.

Take care everybody, xxx