Lumps Begone!

It has been a quiet week this week. On Monday I spent the afternoon in hospital having a couple of lipomas removed under a general aneasthetic. I have been quietly growing these for a couple of years and the big one was getting to be a real pain in the arm. (sorry)
I also was needing to be a size bigger in tops to accomadate the larger arm width, which is wide enough already, thank you very much.
It had also created pressure on a vein in my arm which was turning into a varicose vein and I didn't want to go there either.
So out they came. This is the big lump, it looks like a well developed bicep. This is the smaller one in my shoulder, just knobbly but will just keep growing.

A forty five minute nap later and they are gone!

The scars look nice there as this shot was taken Wednesday once the pressure bandage came off. Three days on and the bruises have come out, so they look more brutal now. The surgeon said the big one was 6cm across and the smaller one about 3cm.

No more bicep. I celebrated yesterday by buying a new top - in size 16!

Stiches out Tuesday, they are starting to itch!

Big Bold Christmas Do

Last night was the annual Christmas Party for KISA's work. Last years' was bloody magnificent and they were doing the same this year, only with a dress up theme, so we were really looking forwatd to it.
The dress up theme was gangsters, dolls and g-men, and absolutely everyone of the 400 who attended, bar just a handful, dressed to the theme. Which got everyone off to a good start as they were in a party mood by the time they got there! The evening was a huge success and we had a wonderful time.
We got out our best clobber, visited the hairdresser for a bit of beard trimming and finger waving (thanks Lianne!), strapped on the gun and off we went! They served drinks and posh nibblies in the foyer and after an hour or so threw open the doors to this magnificent sight. It really is an amazing venue when you consider where we live. World class.

They had a backdrop to the stage with the gangster pictures. Absolutely fabulous.

The gangsters started filing in. We had a seating plan, as we had requested who to sit with etc. With so many attending it was a necessity really.

Here is my gangster. Actually he was under cover, as he had a badge inside that coat.

There was a James Bond Tribute group, with dancers. Not sure how "I Dream of Jeannie" ended up in this but I guess most of the audience would be too young to notice. Guess they needed a belly dancing costume for this song!

Bit of gangster action happening here...those are 1000 dollar bills in that case!

Our table shot, missing the white haired doll, she must have run off with that gangster with the big bills..

After dinner and the speeches, etc there was dancing..lots of dancing. The band was called Bust A Groove, and came from Brisbane for the gig. They were great.

These dancing girls came from the floor! Was a really great night. Sore throbbing feet on me! KISA does love to dance!

There were buses home so no excuse to drive. We left my car there and went back the next day for it. Our bus left at 12.30am, seemed to be an early night but we were there for 6 hours! The time really flew. All over, hope they do it again next year!

How the Mighty are fallen....

At the end of August, we returned the Land Rover to the lease company, and bought ourselves a Toyota Landcruiser 76, sedan type car, henceforth to be known as The Beast. We had only had it a week or so, when we flew suddenly to the UK for Phil's funeral.

Since he got back, KISA has been adding little touches here and there to it, to make it into the vehicle we will be able to take anywhere this country throws at us. And we intend to do so. Hopefully next year. If work allows.

Anyway, on Friday the latest thing, a cruise control, was fitted. A necessary device that pays for itself within two avoided speeding tickets, and Mr Plod lurks everywhere with his trusty speed cameras.

Less than 24 hours after installation, we were driving out to Christmas Dinner at Seaforth, when the dials on the dash started doing wierd and wonderful things. First the airbag light came on. Then the wipers went kind of wonky, like they were drunk (it was raining). Then all the dials went off, even the speedo, so we had no idea what speed we were going, but that didn't matter as the car wasn't going very fast when KISA hit the pedal anyway. He turned off the lights and the aircon and the dials came back on again. We arrived at dad's and unpacked the car. Dad suggested we put it under the car port as we were staying over, and when KISA tried to start it again, it was just click, click.

We figured we would worry about it in the morning and went inside for our meal and a well needed drink. It was quite scary and memories of the recent cruise control issues Toyota had came to mind.

The next day The Beast jump started with Dad's car, and we headed home. About half way there, it all started happening again. The mighty Beast couldn't even climb a hill without slowing right down, and just before the outskirts of town, it just died and rolled slowly to a stop.

We rang our roadside assist and the place that installed the cruise control, because it was a logical assumption that something had gone horribly wrong during the installation.

The roadside assist couldn't start it and said we were entitled to a tow, so we opted to have it towed to Autobarn's workshop. The manager of the workshop had offered to come in and look at it (even though it was sunday and he was not at work). My sister came to pick me and the food we had in the car up to take me home to get my car. The Beast about to get hauled up on the tow truck. How undignified!!

It was in Autobarn for 3 hours and the guy said that he found a clutch wire had been disconnected and not reconnected and that the battery was now drained, though still ok, so we needed to take it home and charge the battery. Which we did. The next morning, it started and we drove it to the harbour just to see if everything really was ok. On the way back, the power started to go again. Though the dials were ok. We took it back to Autobarn and they ran some tests on it.

It turned out that the chip that ran the alternator had blown. So this TINY thing, brought down our mighty beast.

All credit to Autobarn. We couldn't prove that they caused the chip to go and they couldn't prove they didn't. They didn't charge us for a second of the 6 hours they took to find the fault and everything is working honky dory now. I was also impressed that the workshop guy gave up half his Sunday as well for us.

Christmas Dinner

I know it is 42 days early, but we had our Christmas get together with my family today. We are unavailable over Christmas, and my sister and her family are tied up most weekends till the day and D&M are away from next weekend till the day as well. So we all got together at Dad's. We cooked a course each and did a Secret Santa draw. Though santa had a senior moment and got it a little muddled, it all worked out in the end.

The table was laid and the best crystal glasses brought out. We had a few drinks, then attacked the presents.

We were very happy with what we got..I got a copy of this. KISA got some superb wine.

Some of us took a lot of trouble with our hair and we all wore our finest clothes.

The wine was good and the company great.

After a few drinks and nibblies, we had a seafood marina soup as a starter with some garlic bread, followed by lamb shank casserole and mashed sweet and regular potato, and a lovely tiramsu for desert with a fruit and cheese platter to finish. It was very yummy. In fact, some of us were quite moved by it..

By the end of the night, the wine was talking, but I don't think Dad really believed it was THAT big!

KISA and I slept over, and after a light breakfast decided to head off early, as we had been having some car issues and wanted to get them sorted. We had a wonderful time.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!