Just outside the side fence, we have two gum trees flowering: one bearing yellow blossom and the other red. The bees love them. Since the red blossom is far too high above ground these days to photograph, I fished through my albums to find a past photo for you. Here ’tis.

gumnuts

I went to the doctor today to get my … oh-oh … just had to rush off and down a blood pressure tablet … umm … to get my routine blood test results. My blood pressure is fine. The blood work came back fine – kidneys, blood cells, liver, etc. The only thing outside the range is my thyroid which usually runs about 4.7.  This has always been okay until the upper limit came down from 5.50, so I’m now always above the minimum. (I’m not taking medication for this.)  I’m still awaiting the results of the 24 hour urine I presented to pathology on Tuesday – I’m going back in two weeks for that result.

The latest word from the doctor, re antimony levels, is that the local residents are now showing normal urine results. Apparently the expert opinion is that the antimony was hanging about in the air and has now settled after all the rain we’ve had.  The doctor feels my some of my arsenic levels might be from too much seafood. We will keep an eye on it, of course.

While there, I decided to show Mary Jane my fingernails. Earlier in the year, while checking my nails in the waiting room – as you do – I noticed they were an orangey colour, like I’d been peeling oranges. One of my liver markers was elevated, so I thought it related to that. I forgot about it, until this week, when I noticed that the nail colour has returned to normal from the cuticle up the bottom third of the nail.  Mary Jane expressed surprise, asked if I was taking any herbs (I’m not, apart from the odd chamomile tea.) and got out her mobile phone and took photographs. She emailed the photos to someone who would know about such things.

I’m still taking the Coloxyl twice a day. When I asked her about the onions, she looked dubious and said coriander is good for detox and it is best added to juice. So, that’s almost sorted then. I still haven’t had my PAP smear, and my BreastScreen came back clear. All in all, I’m feeling great. I’ll just keep exercising a few times a week, watch what I eat, and generally avoid working too hard. I’m good at the latter. 🙂

Now, what else … I have been a bad, bad girl. I haven’t touched my novel for ages. I can say that will change, but who knows!

Reading: I just read a Clive Cussler novel, which makes me feel confident about my writing ability but not my story-telling. I like good old plain writing. Last night I finished re-reading Margaret Rose Stringer‘s memoir And Then Like My Dreams. Reading it for the second time was even better than the first. It is a very revealing look into M-R’s headspace.

Online learning: I’m loving the Times of Richard 111 course, learning so much. I haven’t been paying as much attention as I should to the Writing class, winging my way through the assignments but printing out stuff for later study.  Getting closer to having to produce that marvellous piece of paragraph writing. I quit the How To Change The World course. It was all a bit too far over my head and I didn’t like the assignments as they expected a hands-on approach. There was too much reading, and I got too far behind. Addressing poverty was about Extreme Poverty and looking to third world countries, ignoring poverty in the backyard, more or less saying it wasn’t extreme enough. I also got annoyed when success in these countries was judged on the ability to create a middle class. Well, hello, what about the ones still on the bottom, their poverty was probably worse. One of the lecturers said that there is now more food grown in India than ever, but it still does not get to all the people who need it.

That’s about it. Everything else is pretty much the same here. Still working just the basic three days a week, for a few hours or so, cleaning.  I suppose I’ll have to do my tax return soon. The only taxes I pay are the GST, though I believe there is talk of doing away with the mature worker offset and the low income offset.

I still want to finish the tasks in the Blogging University, and I’m going to start Lisa’s Bite Size Memoir challenge, too.

I also have to declare this an Awards Free Blog, since I have now been awarded two awards – one by raroto over at Duniya Ku and someone else did too, but for the life of me I cannot remember who! Was it you? Own up!  I stumbled across it. I even clicked on it to make sure it was me.  You’re all very welcome to nominate me for Awards. I’ll carry out the associated task and link to your blog. But I wont make myself pick favourites, sorry.  Anyway, I thought I would be getting ahead of myself if I declared myself award-free beforehand. Enough said.

I haven’t been doing any family history.

And that seems all I have to say for now. Thanks for calling in and reading.