Best Laid Plans: Part 2

What was I saying about life not going as planned? Last night my brother was rushed into surgery to have his gall bladder (along with a 1.5 cm stone) removed. Well, "rushed" is a strictly figurative term in this case because he was actually kept waiting in pre-op for about 4 hours because of an emergency case. But they had only diagnosed the gallstone the day before and had him into theatre last night at about 8pm. I was there when he was wheeled back up to his ward to see him give his victory point of the finger and smile as best he could through an oxygen mask. I know what it feels like when you're waking up from being under -- those drugs are actually pretty good and you feel very relieved that it's all over. Despite being pretty groggy he was joking around so much we had to struggle not to wake up the other patients.

We've decided that with news of Oma's stready progress we can stick to our initial plan of leaving on January 11. We'll probably just change our side-trip plans to get to Amsterdam earlier and stay a little longer. This will mean we can proably just get everything organised before our departure, although I have to say it's getting pretty tight.

Best Laid Plans

Life doesn't always go as planned. Just when we thought we were getting on top of our plans to leave, we learnt that Lotte's Grandma (Oma) has taken ill after a fall. It's now quite serious -- she was admitted to hospital yesterday and had another fall today. Of course Lotte needs to be there for her Oma and really all we can do at the moment is think about how it would be possible for her to do that. We're now contemplating leaving just after Christmas, and Lotte may even have to go sooner if worst comes to worst. We just hope we get some better news soon.

BSG on iTMS

So my wish has come true. Battlestar Galactica is now available for download on the iTunes Music Store. Now if they only made video content available to countries other than the US, they would have something just as revolutionary as Bittorrent, but completely legitimate. And a whole new way of making money through online distribution without the huge cost. I hope the studios figure that out quickly.

BPPV

Yesterday was I took one of the last steps in my quest for some answers about my dizziness. At least one of the last steps I will take before I leave for the UK. I went and saw a Neurologist. He was very thorough, and gave me a bunch of different tests as well as some I had already done. I gave him my whole history and he spent quite a while going through some other questions. He's diagnosed me with something called BPPV -- Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. He's pretty definite about it. The way he described it was that one of my ears has got some little crystals in it, almost certainly because of the vestibular neuritis / viral labyrinthitis. I found a more detailed explanation on this page.

The ear that works tends to "push" me towards the ear that doesn't work, resulting in spinning or movement. Anyway he reckons I need to try some home treatment exercises, which are also described on the page above. He also reckons that it works for almost all people within like a week, and that it probably won't come back! I hope he's right.

No Conference For You

I never got a reply to my request to attend ASCILITE this year, so I guess that meant no. The paper that I didn't present went down well, though, I hear! It was presented by the first author. It's sad though -- the first time I haven't been given support to attend this conference. I know it sounds like sour grapes, but it really does make me feel like my decision to find another job was worthwhile. Clearly they don't see professional development as a big priority where I am now, and particularly the academic kind.

Dining Al Fresco

Last night I was feeling like crap, so Lotte decided to cook up a really nice summer meal while I slept, and when I awoke she'd set up a table outside for us to enjoy our meal in the fading sunshine.
Our poor little courtyard is looking a little worse for wear at the moment, but it was very pleasant just to eat in the open air. The house was way too hot. After we'd stared at the overgrown weeds taking over the carefully planted herbs and natives, Lotte decided we really needed to attack them right then and there. We've probably got a good day's work to get the rest done but we did make a start.

Halogen globes are dangerous

Okay, this is beyond a joke. For the THIRD time one of our halogen globes has just burst for no reason, and this time it really hurt. I had just entered the smallest room in the house and about 10 seconds into a leak heard a loud *pop* and felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck. A split second later a shower of hot glass hit the ground all around me. One of the pieces had lodged itself into my neck and I could smell my hair burning. Not happy. I'm going to figure out who makes these globes and write them a letter. Something ain't right.