It’s been quite some time since I’ve put together a Friday Fragments post, let’s see if I remember how this goes!
Today has been the hottest day ever on record in Sydney, 45.8°C (114.4°F) at Observatory Hill in the city. My Twitter stream and Facebook newsfeed are full of screenshots of people’s weather apps and pics of car temperature readings, some showing as much as 47°C (116.6°F). We’ve dealt with this glorious weather by bringing the rabbits inside, closing all the blinds and curtains, cranking the air-con up and hiding. Except my husband, who has gone to the Big Day Out music festival. Madness.
The rabbits weren’t too pleased to be bundled inside into temporary accommodation, especially as the dog considers them to be some kind of live entertainment for her and likes to lie, just outside their enclosure, watching them.
Hot weather alternate accommodation
Caramel checking out the box while Tiny and Carrots keep watch and Toffee hides
Chubs and Fuzzles in the plastic hidey-hole
Tiny does not approve
Carrots, otherwise know as Adventure Bunny, saying hello to Clara
At one point they decided having the dog hanging around was all too much and took to playing a game of sardines in the one decent hiding spot. They ended up with 5 of them squeezed into the one box with only Carrots left out in the open.
My Dad is back at the rehab hospital having fully recovered from the lithium toxicity. His knee is also doing well, the physiotherapist has managed to get it bending to about 90 degrees.
TRIGGER WARNING for gory details for the next bit, skip if you’re squeamish.
The back story to this is that at 12:30am-ish on Dec 8th my father, who lives alone, fell in his bathroom and put his knee through a vent tile in the side of his bath. The tile smashed, sliced big flap of skin off his knee, broke his knee-cap and took a chunk out of his quadriceps tendon. He dragged himself to his bedroom to get his phone, rang my mum, and then to the lounge room to find the phone number for the building manager because, well, it seemed necessary at the time apparently (the carpet has NOT recovered despite two cleanings). Mum called the ambulance and went to Dad’s place and then to the hospital with him. I’m eternally grateful that I didn’t have to do that part.
Anyway, there was surgery and worry over whether there was enough blood supply to the flap of skin that had been sliced (there was) and uncertainty over whether the tendon repair, at 4cm shorter than before, would hold (so far so good). They got him back onto his feet at the hospital and then moved him to the rehab place on Dec 14th but Dad seemed to get weaker instead of stronger and increasingly confused and lost his appetite and his tremor got so bad he couldn’t feed himself and he couldn’t find words when he tried to speak and it was all very worrying. Then they tested his lithium levels (Dad’s bipolar, that’s why he’s on lithium) and went “OH! Sky high. That’s why.” and carted him back off to hospital on Jan 2nd to put him on a drip and flush it all out of him.
The walk-in wardrobe wall building has been plodding along, there’s a bit more gyprocking and tidying up to do on the inside and then we’ll be able to move my chest of drawers in there and tidy up our bedroom properly. We’ll probably leave the new windows installation, cornices, plastering, painting, skirting boards and architraves, and carpeting until we’ve finished all the other bits of the house, but at least the room will be functional.
Walk-in wardrobe wall almost finished
Adam and I began project Get the Budget Under Control this week (or, as I referred to it on Twitter, project Watch Every Penny and Be Mortified About How Much We Spend On Crap We Don’t Need), we’re recording every cent we spend so of course I took the kids clothes and back-to-school shopping the day after we began. I swear, after totaling up all the stuff she “absolutely definitely needed” Caitlin is not getting any more new clothes or stationery for at least 2 years. (To be fair slightly more than half of it was school uniforms and shoes which she did need.)
That’s all from me folks, if you’d like to read up on what other people have been getting up to this week then click through to Mrs4444’s place for lots more Friday Fragments.
