Hello everyone as many will know I was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease last year although the first sign of a tremor started way back in 2015, being told at first I had a Functional Tremor although back in 2016 or 2017 I was prescribed some kind of Parkinson’s medication for a short trial, which didn’t work. I was also told that the tremor wouldn’t get worse which of course it did.

When I went back and asked why I was getting worse I was referred to the movement disorder clinic which turned out to be one other neurologist who agreed it was a Functional Tremor and shouldn’t get any worse. It did.

In 2021 Tim and I decided to pay to see a private neurologist the other visit were through the public health system, this guy wasn’t sure he thought possible Functional Tremor with some Parkinson’s overlay and referred to another neurologist this time in Westmead, Sydney a 2hr drive from where I live.

This neurologist thought a Dystonic Tremor with some kind of Parkinson’s thrown in and arranged for me to see another team of movement disorder people, this time there was something like 15 in total who checked me out discussed my case amongst themselves and decided it was more Parkinson’s then anything else.

I was also started on Parkinson’s medication the first lot didn’t do much so she tried another type which helped more but still not satisfied I was changed to another, then another which is the Madopar I am taking now which works pretty well. I still shake and it has spread to my feet and I still breakout in sweat and have balance problems when tired but overall I am doing better.

This will be the first post of a few about Parkinson’s Disease.

Well how would you like to hear about what it was like to be a servant in the late 1800’s. There were servants that lived in as in their wages include food and lodgings, these servants would start their day around 6.00am earlier on wash days.

Tasks undertaken by the servants included house cleaning but also they might be expected to deal with deliverers of milk, bread, meat and vegetables that would be delivered to affluent homes. They may also have to mind the children and do the mending and sewing under the direction of the mistress.

From 7.30pm provided she had completed her daily duties she would be permitted free time and could go out, she would, however, be expected to be back and I bed by 10pm. There were no days off and she was expected to attend church on Sundays, sitting a few rows back from the family.

Some servants would be accepted into the family, respected by the mistress and master and loved by the children.

During the troubled 1890’s housemaids made around 10 shillings per week, cooks made between 15 & 20 shillings, laundresses got between 15 -17 shillings, nursemaids and general servants got paid between 6 & 12 shillings per week.

During the 1880-90’s there became a servant problem with many mistresses finding it difficult hiring servants as due to the increase in industry many preferred to work in factories. They could live at home and spend their free time with friends. This shortage made it hard on those who were servants who had more work to do.

For a little while this year I will continue to share some Aussie Slang words and phrases, why because I am only up to S in my list of slang and I can’t leave it there.

She’ll be right: To turn out ok

Shit House: To be of poor quality, unenjoyable as in this car is a shit house, a broken, run down mess. It also means toilet………Der

Der: I don’t think I have covered Der before it means stupid or obvious

Snag: A sausage

Spag Bol: Spaghetti Bolognese

Here we are at the start of another year, and to carry on from before the Christmas posts starting with a creature post and this weeks creature is the Platypus. Yes I did a post about it back in 2019 but here is another one.

When first discovered by Europeans this odd looking mammal was described as a cross between a duck and a beaver. Today we know it is as unique to Australia and one of two egg-laying mammals, the other being the echidna.

It has a rubbery bill, streamlined body and flat club-like tail that stores fat. The claws on its front feet are used for digging burrows in riverbanks, while its webbed legs and feet make it quite a swimmer.

The platypus is one of the worlds few venomous mammals the males have a sharp spur on their ankles which is connected to a venom gland in the upper leg. The venom won’t kill you but the pain is suppose to be excruciating.

Hello all this years Mondays are still my facts day, kicking off the year is a few facts about the Earth’s Beginnings, no one really knows how the universe came to be.

It is believed to have started around 14,000 million years ago with the Big Bang.

10,000 million years after the Big Bang our Sun and planets and solar system formed a galaxy called the Milky Way.

Each planet has a fixed path around the Sun, closest to the Sun is Mercury, then Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and lastly Neptune.

The Earth orbits the Sun at a distance of 149.6 million kilometres which makes it just the right temperature for water to exist as a liquid as well as ice and as a vapour.

The name Earth is believed to be 1,000 years old, all the other planets were named after Greek & Roman Goddesses the word “Earth” is an English/German word meaning “ground”.

NEW YEARS EVE

Had a good night but managed to stay in bed till 5am I dosed on and off from 3.30am till I got up.

David and Leigh came over to drop off the bag of empty cans and bottles for Tim.

It has been a much cooler day

Had a good night remember getting up to pee at 11.45pm and seeing Jessica and Sam before I returned to bed.

I rang Kathy at 7.15am as she hadn’t rung me she sounded more asleep then awake so it was only a short chat.

Tim had some kind of disagreement with Jess about Sam’s gender as in he wanting to be referred to as a girl. Tim doesn’t want to do it which caused the problem. Tasha said she is with her dad I also agree he shouldn’t be forced to call Sam she or her.

Although I do not agree with her saying that if Sam and Jess don’t want to respect Tim the can piss off and not come back till they do. This will hurt me as I love seeing them.

Had a good nights sleep up and dressed at 4.50am. Going to be another hot day and I am out of shorts so I will stay in my pj pants today, not like I am going anywhere.

A quiet day spent doing bugger all just no motivation.

Tim however agreed to take Blain for a driving lesson this afternoon and Tasha has asked if he could take him 5 days a week to get Blain’s hours up and help his conference, he said he would.

I am down to my last clean pair of shorts and these ones are too short for my liking but they are all I have at the moment.

I turned the air con on around 9.15am due to the heat.

The cleaners arrived around 11ish and did a good job.

Had a little sleep in, not getting up till 5.20am, in for another hot day.

Tim got up at 8.30am and shut the back sliding screen door, because he doesn’t get that there is a nice breeze blowing through the house. He thinks it makes no difference if it is open or shut he is wrong.

Turned the air con on around 10am as I was fed up being drenched in sweat.

A wet morning and of course I have to go to the doctors. The raining had stopped by just after 7am.

While talking to Kathy this morning I suddenly noticed that our car wasn’t parked in its spot nor was it on the lawn. Turned out Blain had parked it in our carport.

I walked up to Tasha’s for her to take me to the doctors and of course she was in a right mood. The appointment went well he has changed my diabetes medication again as my blood levels are so good.

I was sweating so much my feet were slipping in my thongs so I took them off while at the doctors.

Sue called in to see us, she just wanted to share how good her trip to Qld to see Kirsty and family.

I sent an email to Dr Babu about my feet moving so much enquiring if the new medication “Alziras” is the cause or is it just a progress of my condition.

Had a good night, although I was somewhat restless around midnight but in managed to settle again and slept through till 4.25am after peeing I decided to go back to bed for a but but ended up getting out of bed at 4.55am.

I finally heard from Snapfish and they are going to redo the lost project for free and I should have it by the end of the month.

Kathy and Summer came over as Summer wanted to see Tasha.

Hello everyone, I had planned to do a post yesterday with Jo-Anne’s thoughts but it didn’t happen after going to the doctors I just didn’t feel like it.

When I was having my wash this morning I thought why is it some mornings when I look in the mirror I thought I looked ok as in ageing well, although yesterday when I looked at myself I thought differently. Now I do not think I look older then my years generally speaking but there are times when I wonder if I am being a tad vain.

My grandmother always told me to make sure I moisturise my body not just my face but my neck and chest and upper arms and I still do each morning, although now I also have to moisturise my legs as they are drying out causing me to scratch which causes the skin to break and bleed, something I find very frustrating.

I like to dress nicely when I go out wearing if possible a nice dress or skirt some jewellery, including my train broach that I wear in honour of my Dad. I also like to wear some lip colour either lipstick or lip-gloss and perfume.

                                                         My word of the year is ACCEPTANCE

ACCEPTANCE:  The action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered.

                              The process of fact of being received as adequate, valid or suitable 

                               Acceptance in human psychology is a person’s assent to the reality of a 

                              situation recognising a process or condition (often a negative or 

                             uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it or protest it.

 As many people would know I listen to audio books downloaded from my local library, I use to listen to audio books when I was driving but when I stopped driving I  stopped doing it then a few years back I started to have trouble holding a book and reading it and due to Covid I wasn’t able to visit a library I took to downloading Eaudiobooks and this is something I enjoy and I do get through a lot each year as you can tell.  This is 2023’s list of books listened to, 

BOOKS LISTENED TO IN 2023

THE BARRAKEE MYSTERT ARTHUR W UPFIELD

THE HOUSE OF CAIN ARTHUR W UPFIELD

THE GREAT MELBURNE CUP MYSTERY ARTHUR W UPFIELD

WINGS ABOVE THE DIAMANTINA ARTHUR W UPFIELD

DEATH OF A LAKE ARTHUR W UPFIELD

MURDER MUST WAIT ARTHUR W UPFIELD

THE MOUNTAINS HAVE A SECRET ARTHUR W UPFIELD

BONY AND THE WHITE SAVAGE ARTHUR W UPFIELD

THE SANDS OF WINDEE ARTHUR W UPFIELD

WINDS OF EVIL ARTHUR W UPFIELD

BONY AND THE BLACK VIRGIN ARTHUR W UPFIELD

THE BONE IS POINTED ARTHUR W UPFIELD

MR JELLY’S BUSINESS ARTHUR W UPFIELD

AN AUTHOR BITES THE DUST ARTHUR W UPFIELD

DEVILS STEPS ARTHUR W UPFIELD BUSHRANGER OF THE SKIES ARTHUR W UPFIELD THE LAKE FROME MONSTER ARTHUR W UPFIELD THE WILL OF THE TRIBE ARTHUR W UPFIELD BACHELORS OF BROKEN HILL ARTHUR W UPFIELD

VENOM HOUSE ARTHUR W UPFIELD

DEATH OF A SWAGMAN ARTHUR W UPFIELD CLUE OF THE NEW SHOE ARTHUR W UPFIELD CAKE IN THE HAT BOX ARTHUR W UPFIELD

BONY BUYS A WOMAN ARTHUR W UPFIELD

BONY AND THE KELLY GANG ARTHUR W UPFIELD

TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ HEATHER MORRIS

CILKA’S JOURNEY HEATHER MORRIS

THE CODEBREAKERS ALLI SINCLAIR

GULPILIL DEREK RIELLY

OUTBACK MIDWIFE BETH McRAE

WALZING AUSTRALIA TIM BORTHWICK

THE CHILDREN’S HOUSE OF BELSEN HETTY E VEROLME

THE TUNNELS GREG MITCHELL

OUR VIETNAM NURSES ANNABELLE BRAYLEY

BAREFOOT IN THE BINDIS ANGELA WALES

THE KELLY HUNTERS GRANTLEE KIEZA

MIDWINTER MURDERS AGATHA CHRISTIE

THE SOLIDERS STORY TERRY BURSTALL

IMMIGRANTS AND SPIES BARABRA MACKAY CRUISE

RAT CATCHER KIM KELLY

THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND ADAM COURTENAY

THE MIDWIFE MURDERS JAMES PATTERSON &RICHARD DiLallo

THE LOST AIRMAN SETH MEYEROWITZ & PETER F STEVENS

THE QUEEN’S COLONIAL PETER WATT

INSIDE STORIES TIM BOWDEN

STUBBORN BUGGERS TIM BOWDEN

LARRIKIN’S IN KKAKI TIM BOWDEN

SURVIAL TIM BOWDEN

1913 PAUL HAM

KOKODA PAUL HAM

HITLER’S DAUGHTER JACKIE FRENCH

PENNIES FOR HITLER JACKIE FRENCH

A STUDY IN SCARLET ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

SIGN OF THE FOUR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

VALLEY OF FEAR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

HIS LAST BOW ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

SONG OF COMFORTABLE CHAIRS ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

THE HOUSE OF UNEXPECTED SISTERS ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

STRANGE CASE OF THE MODERATE EXTREMISTS ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE CATTLE ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

THE JOY AND LIGHT BUS COMPANY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACSMITH TOM KENEALLY

SEARCHING FOR SCHINDLER TOM KENEALLY

SCHINDLER’S LIST TOM KENEALLY

Here we are at the last day of 2023 and this year I will end with a post about New Year’s Eve.

So when was the first New Years Eve, well wouldn’t it be the year after the start of life on Earth. Anyway the first know record of New Year’s celebrations goes back to around 2000B.C in Mesopotamia. It occurred at the time of some equinox which is around the end of March.

So we all know why it is New Year’s Eve but did you know it was only since the 1300’s that the word Eve has been used to refer to an evening before an event, such as Christmas and New Years.

When did the first of January start marking the start of a year well that was back during the reign of Numa that the Roman republican calendar would mark January and since January was named after Janus the Roman God of all beginnings.

Google tells me the first country to welcome the new year is Samoa followed by Kiribati and Tonga, as they are close to the International Date Line. This is also the reason Australia is also one of the first countries to welcome the New Tear.

Google also tells me that Rio hosts the world’s largest and wildest New Year Celebrations. Of course the classic ball drop in Times Square or the fireworks displays at Central Park are also big celebrations.

Here in Australia NYE can be celebrated on boat cruises, in parks or at the beach, all we just have a barbie at home with family and mates. Sydney’s celebrations are televised allowing many to celebrated in their home even if alone.