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About this blog

still sorting life out

Entries in this blog

General

Roll on November

As of the first of November I am allowed to travel . It has been a long time coming. I have been fully vaccinated since the end of June but the State government has been slow to release us from the Greater Sydney area.. But that is set to change on November 1st. We will still be masked and social distanced but we can move around again. Now that is something to be happy about.   During lockdown and the past three weeks my life has been very routine. Gardening has been a life saver, some
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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General

Keeping busy in lockdown

I am still in lockdown, just as we were due to come out of lockdown our numbers in our local government area (LGA) began to rise. Only about 25 a day but with all the other late winter ailments that send people to hospital ours can't cope if numbers get too high. So the stay-at-home order continued. I am disappointed that once again I will miss out on a visit from any of my grandchildren for their school holidays. I so look forward to Trevor and Alice coming but once again that is impossible.
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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General

Trying to keep positive

It seems a long time since I last posted a blog. I have been in what feels like imposed solitude since June 26th along with 5 million or so other people. We are in a huge area known as Greater Sydney, we haven't had many cases but because so many people commute from the Central Coast to businesses in Sydney and the surrounding areas whenever parts of Sydney go into lockdown we do too. It annoys the locals as we don't get the benefit of living in Sydney just the side effects. We will not come out
General

Thoughts from my isolation

We in Greater Sydney are in lockdown. This was supposed to be a great week with Trev and Alice here for her first week of the school holidays. They arrived on Saturday morning and left at 5pm on Saturday afternoon. This was due to an order that came out that we were going into lockdown because of cases of Covid-19 increasing in Sydney, the  virulent Delta strain.They had two choices, get out of the Greater Sydney area before 6pm to go home and quarantine there in Broken Hill or to stay here for
General

Feels like snow

No it is not snowing but the wind is howling around the house, the wind chill factor is making it feel around zero and I am only going outside when I have too. Sitting reading or crocheting or even mending which I hate is better than being outside. I wanted to do some gardening today but that will have to wait till the sun is out again. The weeds still grow regardless and I need to go on topping up the potplants but it is not worth risking a cold on a day like today. I get my second Covid shot n
General

Short days of rain

It had to come, short rainy days, dark nights and I have to go out tonight! But apart from that life is back to being routine, I am going to meetings, out to lunch about once a week, keeping up with friends again. There are still people who go out very rarely but that is really motivated by their own fears. There is very little chance of Covid infection. I feel sorry for those who listen to the many rumours floating around about the vaccinations and are afraid to have one but I have had my first
General

"Darls"

In Australia a lot of service type people call older ladies "Darls" short for darling, an inoffensive term of endearment and often a substitute for other words such as "sweetie" (sweetheart) or "pet" which were often used a couple of decades ago. This morning a trolley boy took my trolley back to the trolley bay after asking if he could "take it Darls" and last week another young man offered to help unload my groceries. All this shows I am an older woman now, a fact given away by the grey hair a
General

Rain and sunshine 🔆

I am person who is sometimes short on perception. This in my lifetime has caused some interesting discussion, like the time I prayed for rain and a furious man confronted me outside the church and said: "How dare you pray for rain when I start to harvest my crop on Monday?" So I am a little hesitant to give any kind of opinion or advice unless I know all the facts. So whoever's prayed for rain on the New South Wales coast will they p!ease stop! Elsewhere if you are still in drought go ahead no h
General

A little scare

I had my annual PET scan last Friday, then on Tuesday I got a phone call from my new Melanoma specialist, could I go and get another more specific CT as there seemed to be an "anomaly" on my liver! Well panic stations for me as I contemplated what would happen if this was related to my original melanoma. So I hurried into our nearest town and had the extra CT. As usual the staff there were very kind, used to assisting people who are expecting bad news. But they are not allowed to tell you anythi
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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General

Colouring my world

I wonder if  I gave you a blank sheet of paper and told you to draw me a picture of your world using colour not lines what it would look like? Perhaps you could do that today? Some of you would ask for a coloured sheet because to some people that flat white sheet looks threatening, not like their life feels like at all. A friend of mine is going through a bad time and  I think her background colour would be grey. None of us want black because that can be threatening too, because even at the wors
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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General

Where did that year go and what changed?

I am a very fortunate person, I love life, I have been lucky with my choice of husband, and with my three children. I have six beautiful grandchildren. That is the way I like to look at life. But of course there is much more to my life than that. And if you have read my blogs from the early part of my journey with stroke you will know of my struggles with the journey that Ray's series of strokes took us on.   My experience with the caregiver life along with the experiences I got on thi
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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General

How can it be Christmas??

How can it be Christmas??? There are no carols because singing in church is banned. There are no greetings, no cheeks kissed, no hugs, not the usual shoulders presses that our shyer members use by way of greeting. That applies to the churches,  the shopping centre or wherever friends meet. No contact and social distancing has an impact on all of us do more people are depressed and seeking medical help for it now. There are fewer decorative Christmas lights, only two houses in my street have done
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

4
General

Time flows

In December the TV presenters start to review the year that was. 2020 was a crazy year and unique in my life time. The presenters say this happened and that happened but it makes no sense to me and probably wouldn't to you because this was a year where we each made our own history. This was the year when I spent a lot of time alone. Time of lock down or isolation, whatever you want to call it. It was a time that went slow some days and yet at the same time seemed to go so fast with no landmarks
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

4
Family

Family matters

I have been busy with family the past three weeks. I went up to Armidale for a little break and while I was there my daughter misstepped and ruptured the meniscus behind her right knee. Luckily the injury required rest not an operation, that meant no work, no driving, no more than  a few minutes on her feet. Her husband took care of her the first week then I came home and was asked to go  for a week to drive her daughter to school, take Shirley to doctors appointments, physio etc and do the shop
swilkinson

swilkinson in Family

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Thoughts on Covid

Now what? Will we be celebrating Christmas this year?

Just been talking to our assistant minister, she is my "boss" for pastoral care. We have a talk from time to time. We are both anxious to resume some of our church activities like our Playtime for Mums and kids, our Welfare programs and our night services but the current Covid regulations are preventing all of  that from happening. It is very frustrating. We discussed what we thought the future of our activities on behalf of the church might look like in the new year, with Covid or after Covid b
Thoughts on Covid

Keeping a positive attitude

The Covid goes on. We still have restrictions but not as much as some countries do. We still have cases, in our State, New South Wales it is mostly under 20 new infections a day. It is a great result but it has come at a price. Many people are out of work, many can no longer afford luxuries like holidays so most stayed home this school holidays. Some older people are still feeling isolated as we are regularly told to keep safe, to keep away from crowded areas, not to gather in groups etc. I know
swilkinson

swilkinson in Thoughts on Covid

6

Thank you Steve Mallory

Why are you still on Strokenet my friends ask me. Why are you still talking about stroke nearly eight years after Ray died? Why haven't you moved on with your life? Well I have moved on but moving on does not mean you have to move away from those things that have been valuable to you in the past. . And to me Strokenet has been of huge value in my life and the lives of Ray and my family. Discovering Strokenet made a big difference to the way I lived my life, dealt with Ray's strokes and came out
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swilkinson

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Thoughts on Covid

Continuing on whether we like it or not.

Are we there yet? That used to be a familiar cry from the back seat of the car when the children were little. I wish we had some sort of road map with this Covid-19 so we could see where we are going. More cases in Victoria so they are going into stage 4 restrictions. Doesn't seem as if the general population are taking the virus precautions seriously and so it is spreading again. I guess with less than 200 deaths in Australua it doesn't seem much of a threat but I do wonder when we are over thi

Time spent dreaming isn't wasted

I think I have reached an age where I can justify an afternoon nap. Because of the reconfigured muscle behind my left leg due to the melanoma operation I get tired if I stand too much so I take an afternoon nap fairly regularly. This is ideal in winter when snuggling under a rug feels good and the bleak wind blowing outside makes having a nap under a rug seem like a good use of time. Today is Friday so housework, catching up on phone calls, maybe a bit of gardening and an afternoon nap to top it
swilkinson

swilkinson

6

Venturing out again

I don't know about you but I am a bit scared about venturing out again. After 13 weeks my thoughts about being out in the community have changed so my question to anyone wanting me to go anywhere is : "Is it safe? And is it necessary?" Not that I am unwilling to go anywhere but I also want what I do to be for a purpose. I think before Covid-19 struck I just went out, anywhere, everywhere, filling in time, now I don't want to do that anymore.   I have actually grown used to being home a
swilkinson

swilkinson

3

Hello on a cold winter day

It is the second day of winter, it is cold with a bitter wind, it is raining.I have enough of this already. I was planning on shopping today but can't see the logic of that. Life should be opening up for us now here in Australia, the numbers of people in hospital or locked down with the virus are very small, hardly any new cases, so we can go to cafes or to the BEACH (really? In this weather?) so we should be grateful. But because of the contrariness of life it is also the beginning of the snow
swilkinson

swilkinson

3

Is there a road ahead?

Hi everyone, how are you doing? I am trying to keep busy but I haven't got much to do now, except those fiddly jobs I don't really want to do. I do talk to a lot of people, by phone, on Messenger, even by Zoom now and everyone is struggling during this Pandemic. My friends are divided, some are just carrying on, we will get over this and come out stronger they say, some are frightened, they are alone and who will help me they ask. I have always tried to help people but I'm in self isolation so t
swilkinson

swilkinson

5

Fear of falling

Some of you know that about four weeks ago I had a fall. I fell about five feet onto cement pavers, gashing my head, a wound requiring six stitches. Luckily it was on the opposite side on my head  to where I had the aneurysm clipped last July. In falling I also hit my right shin and my left shoulder both of which were giving me a lot of pain when I arrived in the hospital. So I had x-rays on shin and shoulder,  a CT of my brain to make sure I had not had a bleed and after all that was clear, the
swilkinson

swilkinson

5

Home alone

This is my Covid-19, so far so good,  update.   This is Autumn, daylight saving is over. We are going through a wet period. Okay we needed the rain, in our part of the country rain comes west to east or down the coast from the tropics, we seem to be having both. Our inland and coastal areas that suffered the bushfire damage need the rain so I can't complain about it. But it does eliminate sitting in the sun on the front verandah from my daily activities. The farmers need the rain to gr
swilkinson

swilkinson

7

Hello from home.

A month ago I was embarking on my cruise. I don't care what the world thinks of the Ruby Princess my heart goes out to the wonderful crew those who served us so well and cheerfully, courteously and compassionately. Thanks to the Captain who managed to get us into every scheduled port. And thanks to those passengers who helped my friend with dementia when she lost her way and asked them: "Have you seen Michael, have you seen Sue."   It was the passengers from the cruise after ours who c
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swilkinson

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