Five sleeps to go!

Kids are starting to get excited. Tree is up, lights are flashing.

My brother arrives from Perth today, will be good to catch up as it has been a while.

We have our first 'Christmas dinner' tonight with Alison's dad.

Both kids are now finished school for the year and I finish up on Wednesday.

:)

Looking for a new home

Hi all

With the house now sold, we are searching for our new abode. We've had a couple of possibilities but nothing that has really grabbed us. It seems the ones that Alison sets her eyes on are ones that are very comfortably out of our price range! I think it will need just a bit of steering and expectation management to get her on the right path to a realistic home.

Still, I think we will be able to find the right place so long as we have some patience and a reasonable attitude to what to expect.

We had last night in Sydney, visiting Colleen, Paul and the kids. It was a great time for adults and kids. The adults went out to the Opera House to watch the Whitlams play with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra while the kids went to a BBQ at the local school and then watched a video (staying up until 9:30pm as Annelise told us this morning!).

Earlier today, Alison and I had a quick trip to buy her a retirement ring from Tiffany & Co.. I must say, it is a very impressive place. She has dreamt of being able to visit and buy a ring from there for many years so I am very happy that we were able to do it. Looking at what they had on offer, it was incredible to see what you can get if you have some real money. Ah well, keep on dreaming.

Section below is just for adults!! Just highlight by selecting text below (no kids allowed).


Christmas just 20 days away now. We have the Christmas tree up and carols ringing through the house anytime Alison gets her way with the stereo. The kids are keen and excited although Harrison has decided that he won't be sitting on Santa's lap this year as he doesn't want to mix it with "some stranger that's not really Santa Claus anyway". Hmmmm, we may be lucky to get through this one with him as a believer but I don't think we'll get another year out of it.

That's all for now. Take care.

PS - I have just discovered Mojitos. Mmmmmm. I picked up a bottle of Havana Club Anejo Blanco this afternoon and it makes a very refreshing drink. You'll all have to come around one day to try it. :)

SOLD!!!

House is now sold! And it seems to have gone to a good family who have a baby due in March next year, just after they move in.

We're happy but now need to get serious about finding somewhere to live. It seems very real now that the clock is ticking and we need to move out in a couple of months.

Coundown to auction - this Thursday

Only a few more sleeps to go...

The auction is on this Thursday night; we're hoping that someone falls in love with the place and gets to enjoy it just as much as we did.

Harrison is off his crutches so that's one hassle out of the way.

I'll be sure to give an upon on how the auction goes so stay tuned.

House for sale in Cook - auction

Up for auction on 26 November.

You can see the rest of the house on the allhomes.com.au website.

Feel free to encourage everyone you know to come along and bid at the auction.

I'm Back!!!

First of all, no news has been good news. Ali is well, still getting the hormone treatment, tumours are small and not growing. Each week I keep thinking I should put something on the blog but then, either time gets away or there is nothing much too interesting to say.

As far as news goes...well Harrison will be turning 9 in less than two weeks! Last year still doesn't seem that long ago and I sometimes get the feeling he is way beyond his 9 yrs. He got his report card from school and he was more critical of it than I was! Only about 4 'A's for effort this semester. He has even asked me to prepare some 'homework' for him during the school holidays so that he can stay on top of it all. It's great to see him motivated but he also has the relax mode in hand so no hassles there.

One problem he has had is that he finally got the all clear to play cricket this season with his school (there was a concern that his warfarin may prevent this). He absolutely LOVES his cricket and could be found endlessly throwing a ball or bowling by himself in the back yard. Unfortunately though, he has injured himself. There was a moment where we were worried he had Perthes Disease (as it was something Alison had, can be hereditary, and is likely to strike at his age) however, it seems he has simply torn/strained a small muscle running across his hip. All the same, this means about 6-8 wks on crutches and no cricket for a while.

Annelise is still Annelise. Growing up quickly, getting into make up, music, etc. Her and Alison are heading up to Sydney tomorrow (boys weekend!!!) to go and see Mamma Mia with the cousins. No dramas with Annelise and she is growing up very well.

News flash - we are selling our house. This one takes up too much of our time and at the moment, we just don't want to have to worry about fixing bits and pieces or doing the yard. We have put down new carpet, painted the house (inside and out) and tidied up the yard. The place looks stunning and I hope we manage to get a fair price for it. It should be up on the net tomorrow so I'll post a link when it's ready and you can all look at the photos (or feel free to come along and spend lots of money to buy it). The auction is scheduled for 27 November so stay tuned for news on this.

I'm sure there's other things but at the moment, there's not a great deal more I can think of to talk about (my team lost in OzTag tonight). As always, I'll try to be more diligent with my blogging but then, when there is not really much to say, it's hard to sit down and say that.

Hope you all are doing well and wishing you all the best.

Andrew

Good scan results

Ali had another scan today and good news again! Somehow she's managed to shrink those little suckers down again and now the docs are able to spot two lesions, one at 18mm and the other 15mm. Smaller than last time!

Her hip was looking good too.

I'm not sure what she's doing but everything is moving along better than we had thought possible. Still, it's not something we want to question and we'll just keep on taking as much good news as we can get.

Alison is very excited of course, and relieved.

Just to improve her mood, we are getting the final bit of carpet laid tomorrow. So, after some renovations that have been just completed (well, just about) and the new carpet, the place is looking different. We should have the garage cleared out soon and the kids are mad keen on having a garage sale so hopefully we'll be able to offload some stuff that is no longer needed.

I'm not going to promise to update shortly this time. I know that I was woefully negligent last time and don't want to build up false hopes (but I do hope to get around to it soon).

Bye for now.

We huv returned frum New Zuland

For those who did not know, we have just returned from an 8-night tour of the north island of New Zealand with the whole family and Alison's sister's family. If you click on the picture below and look carefully, I have roughly marked out our drive.
We had a great time and the kids especially enjoyed themselves. As I start to sort through the photos I'll put some up for you all to see. Here's a brief summary of what we got up to.

Wellington (1 night)
We flew into Wellington and stayed just one night. This was too short as it was a very pretty harbour city and we think that there was more around that we could have seen if we had the time. Highlights were the Chinese buffet (kids cost just their age, i.e. 8 yrs old = $8) and the Te Papa museum.

Napier (1 night)
We went north from Wellington, detoured through Martinborough and stopped after a long day's drive in Napier. The highlight here was the black rock beach at Napier and the short visit to Martinborough which had some nice wineries including one that had its premium label as 'The Great Harry' (no, we didn't get any, at $200/magnum it would want to be good...http://www.palliser.co.nz/n98.html)

Taupo (2 nights)
Taupo sits right on a large lake and was adventure city for us. We went bungy jumping into water (only some of us) and jet boating. The accommodation was great and there was plenty of grass and parks around for the kids to play cricket, touch and ride on a small train. The five kids put on a 'Harry Potter' play for us which kept the big people entertained. Highlights would be the bungy and jet boat.

Rotorua (3 nights)
Or as the kids had so much fun saying, 'Roto-sewer'. Despite the smell, we did have a good time in Rotorua. After a problem with our first night's accommodation, we found much nicer digs and settled in for a good stay. We had fun swimming in heated pools, visiting real live kiwis and riding a 'luge' down a big hill. Paul (my brother-in-law) and I even went sledging, which is like jumping on a plastic boogie board and swimming down rapids. Highlights here would be the cultural night where we were treated to a Maori ceremony and hungi, and either the luge or sledging. Having said that, the smell is the thing that will probably live longest in the children's minds.

Auckland (1 night)
Our final night was spent in a typical city apartment, overlooking a busy street with lots of noise. We were right across the street from a reverse bungy ride where passengers are strapped into a three-seat open-air pod and flung 50m or so into the air as they spin around. I think the latest I heard people screaming on this ride was 1am. Looking out the window was very entertaining as we also saw:

• what we presumed was a guy out on his buck's night dressed in S&M gear pole dancing against a street sign to the crowd
• a group dressed as caveman dancing down the street, and
• the cops pulling over cars and doing a full body search of the driver and passengers on the street.

The highlight from Auckland would be the kids finally starting to get the idea of how to play touch footy and a nice final meal at the Grasshopper Thai restaurant.

That's it for now but I will be back with photos soon.

More good results

Alison had another scan yesterday and the results were good again.

The main tumour in her liver is now 21mm, down from the 29mm last time and less than half the 50mm it was at late last year.

Other small tumours in the liver are now no longer visible, the tumour in her hip bone has not grown and there are no new growths visible.

We are all very happy as you could imagine! It was a big relief as Ali had been having some pain coming from the region near her liver so we were a bit concerned.

Onto the day to day life issues, Annelise had her interview with Girls Grammar today. We met with the head of Years 3-6 as part of the entry process.

Annelise was asked what she likes at school; 'art, drawing and playing with clay' was about all she could think of. She was then asked what makes her happy at school; 'not getting into trouble' was her response. I was starting to think we were getting into dangerous territory.

Next question was about what she doesn't like about school; 'stuff like maths and reading, I don't like reading books'. Ooops, not the best way to impress.

The winner though was yet to come. Annelise was asked whether there were any special areas that she was working on at school to do better; 'trying not to get into so many fights'.

At least the school will know that she was not coached to do and say the right things and that she is honest (mostly) and has spirit. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Thanks to all for your good thoughts and wishes and I'll blog again in the next two weeks or so.

Back again after a long break

Howdy all

Apologies for the long break between posts but life has been busy racing by and then before I knew it, over a month had past.

Not much has really changed over the past six weeks or so. Annelise is now seven (24/3) and growing quickly. Harrison is settling into school after a slightly bumpy start.

Alison looks great and feels well. I've been busy with work and not around as much as I should be but things are settling down now.

Thanks to all those people who keep pestering for me to continue with the posts. It's all too easy to put it off and say I'll get to it in a day or so but as you can tell, sometimes that stretches to several days (or weeks...or months...).

Anyway, the short version is that we are all well now and things are progressing very smoothly (that is if you excuse the trip I had to Sydney with a brutal hangover and two and a half hours sleep the weekend before last...still paying my debts for that one).

I will be more regular with my posting from here on in, I promise. ;)

Stay tuned and best wishes to you all.

Some good news at last

Alison had another scan today. Happily, the results were good for a change!

Not only have the tumours stopped growing, they have been shrinking and the largest one is now 58% of the size it was with the last scan.

I'm sure you can imagine it was a very nervous day for both of us but it's great to say it turned out well.

Even getting a flat tyre on the way to pick up Harrison from school didn't put a dent in Alison's day (but then she did have someone who raced out of the office to get him, returned to her car, lent her a car to drive home in with the kids and then kindly changed the tyre on the other car!).

Then again, it didn't really bother me either.

Next week we see the doctor again and will get more news on what this actually means for treatments and in the longer term but for now, we're just happy to take the good news and smile.

School time!!

OK, nearly school time. Alison is more excited than the kids or I but then, I can understand.

For interest, here's a couple of pics of Harrison in his new uniform. There's not quite a gap between his shorts and sock...

Quick update

Hi - just a short one today.

Hormone treatment is continuing and Ali gets her next 'top up' on Tuesday.

Mid February she will be getting another CT scan to see whether the tumours have progressed at all. Depending on the results there are two pathways we are considering.

If all looks good and the tumours have not grown, it is most likely that we will continue with the hormone treatment. If not, then it will be off to Sydney to pursue the SIR-spheres.

Hope you're all enjoying the nice warm weather! For all those outside Australia, it has been HOT! 40 degrees + for nearly a week in Melbourne & Adelaide (46 yesterday) and in the high 30s for Canberra. I'm not too sure what Ali is complaining about as I've trapped in an air-conditioned office for most of the week. Something about it being too hot, kids running around like lunatics and that it's too hot. Did I mention she said it was hot?

Hopefully it will cool down by the weekend.

School is back next week. Can't say that the kids are too excited but then I don't really like it when my holidays come to an end either.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISON!!!

It's Alison's birthday today, she is turning.....I can't say as it wouldn't be polite (but 1973 was a great year).



There will be dancing...



and balloons...



...and fireworks.



Hope you join with me in wishing her a happy birthday and that you have a great day as well.

FYI - for those of you who don't know, Alison has declared that her birthdays officially run for a full week so if you are talking to her, you can wish her a "Happy Birthweek" from now until next Saturday.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009

Hi all again.

Already January is rolling on way too fast. I hope that everyone had a great New Year's Eve and that you are poised for a wonderful 2009.

Since the last post, not too much has been happening. We enjoyed our time in Sydney and Annelise & I made the most of the good weather and beach with swims in the mornings and late afternoons.

New Year's Eve was a quiet one for us. We had a friend visit but only just made it to see the fireworks at midnight (asleep by 12:16am). I was even down at Bunnings around 9:30am the next morning, shows what an old codger I am becoming when I'm even awake that time on New Year's Day, let alone at Bunnings.

Since then the kids have had a few nights down at Mollymook visiting my parents and we took advantage of the situation and had a dinner out at a nice Italian restaurant.

Kids are now home and just doing holiday things like visiting friends etc., while we put up with some warm weather, 36 degrees or so for yesterday, today and forecast for tomorrow. Must say, it's not so bad being stuck in an office working when the temperature is so warm.

For me, work is back on but it feels like I only just left. It's tough getting up and motivated in the morning but then, you have to do what you have to do.

Ali is doing well, and as mentioned in the previous blog, we are moving ahead with the SIR-sphere treatment with further tests due later this month.

Stay well and I'm planning to post some recent pictures soon.