KiwiCat's updates

Six and a half weeks ago I had the second  hand surgery. Since then I’ve been healing up and going to the hand physio regularly.  While I’ve been disappointed by the limited range of movement, I’ve been pleased with the removal of pain and the nice way the scar has healed. I’m back to over 80 words per minute in touch typing, with 98% accuracy – at least in short bursts, I tire after about 3 minutes of continuous typing and slow down – so overall I’m happy with where we’re at.

Today I had my 6 week appointment with Simon, the hand surgeon. He took one look, frowned, and basically said ‘we can do better’.

With some local anaesthetic in place he has done a bit of prodding and pushing and has confirmed that the problem is a particular tendon. He thinks it’s caught on or by some scar tissue. He wants to give it a few more months for the scar tissue to settle down, then see me again, potentially looking at another surgery to free up the tendon. In the meantime I need to be carrying on with the physio and it might free itself and save me another operation.

In other unrelated news, I want met curtains in the office to handle the light coming in from the side or reflecting off the neighbour’s window behind my sreen. And while of course I could uy them, I’ve decided to make them myself.

It’s a folly but it’s making me happy and it was done quicker than I expected.  On to the bigger window next.

I keep catching myself forgetting to do things. Or doing things that in retrospect don’t make as much sense as I initially thought.

Case in point: it is *not* 30 years since 1997. It is 29 years. Next year will be 30 years, but not yet.

Mind you, no-one pointed this out, of the various people who congratulated me. I just suddenly thought of it in the middle of the night.

So. I have just had my 29th anniversary.  I guess I’ll just have to make sure I’m around to earn those 30th anniversary congratulations next year 🙂

Today marks 30 years since my first day of paid employment as a public servant. On 12 March 1997 I began working 3.5 hours a week as a library assistant for a take home pay of $60 which used to be handed to me in cash in a small brown envelope.

How things have changed.

I rarely carry cash anymore, and certainly wouldn’t want to receive my pay that way. Not to mention the fact that I’m almost never in the office and the post is always slow now they’ve cut delivery days.

When I started that job I knew I wanted a career in libraries but not that I would basically work for only two institutions over a 30 year period.

That sounds tedious, but it absolutely hasn’t been. Thirty years on I still love my job.

Here’s to many more anniversaries to come.

Today my son is 9 years old. Not 10, as he wants to be, but in his 10th year.

Yesterday we had a family get together and dinner. Today we had the friends party.

Nine years ago the weather was atrocious, today it was beautiful. A lovely celebration.

Meanwhile our kittens are growing at pace. Leroy has learned to use the cat door, and on Friday after a couple of hours stuck outside while I was busy at work Daisy reluctantly made it inside too. Once she can use it confidently we can finally be done with the litter tray. That will be another cause to celebrate. For now, though, she’s inside more than out, and Leroy often comes to join her. Growing requires a lot of sleep.

It’s been a mixed week. Overall I’m doing well, but I’ll admit I’m frustrated I can’t scale the mountains just yet.

As many people have pointed out, it’s not exactly reasonable to push myself through a work day only to have to go straight to bed afterwards and not really have any energy for anything else. It doesn’t stop me wanting to – I’ve been sitting around doing nothing for too many months – but I have come to accept that working shorter hours now will serve me better.

In a similar vein, in spite of my conscientious exercising of my finger the fact is that I’m not going to get full mobility back. It won’t stop me continuing to push what I can do, but the truth is the muscles and tendons have been still and unused too long. I can type, and crochet, and manage a lot of things that I couldn’t for the last 6 months, and that’s huge. It’s just a touch disappointing.

The garden, too, has had it’s struggles. The pear was prolific and the orange is promising another good crop, but the cherimoya is sad…

…the feijoa is covered in marble sized fruit…

…and the fig has no fruit at all.

On the other hand our mystery fruit turned out to be a nashi and there are three golden shapes amongst the leaves…

…and while most of the peaches have rotted on the tree I did manage to bottle a few.

I’ve also finished a crocheted blanket that has been waiting since last July.

Next week I’m going to work shorter days all week, try to build up some stamina, and go forward from there. The trees in the garden need pruning and feeding and watering and next year they’ll do better for a bit of care. Like the trees, I’ll do better for getting more rest. It’s been a crazy few months, and my body just needs a bit more TLC.

I can do that.

It’s been a week of “I didn’t”.

I did go to work for five days, but I didn’t manage to do full time as I’d hoped. I needed naps most days, and by Thursday my energy was definitely flagging. I’m pleased with what I achieved but I will need to think about next week and what’s realistic.

I didn’t go for walks. I’ve just been too tired.

I didn’t get photos of the garden, something I’ve been planning all week to do and post.

I didn’t get more bottling done. I got so far as making the sugar syrup and sterilising the jars, then ran out of energy.

All in all it’s been a good week, and I’ve done a lot. I’ve worked, I’ve spun, I’ve crocheted, I’ve been to church and to the beach for my father-in-law’s birthday…

There’s a possibility that I sometimes expect too much of myself, loathe as I am to admit it.

Perhaps next week my stamina will improve. For now though, I have to accept that this is the most I can manage in terms of keeping this blog up to date for this week.

It’s 7pm… that’s bedtime, right?

Yesterday was my first day back at work, which was intellectually great, but rather tiring. I’m pleased to be back.

My finger still has a long way to go to get proper mobility back but it’s getting well exercised, carefully of course, and I can sort of type with it. It doesn’t hurt to tap a key, it just doesn’t land on the right one without careful management, so mostly I’m typing without it. One more thing to work on.

But today’s goal was to bottle some pears. I’ve never done that but now we have such a prodigious harvest it would be a shame not to.

In our rapid curve learnings about pear crops we were advised that the ones without stalks weren’t worth chilling and ripening. But it seeed so wasteful, and we need to test these things for ourselves, so we went halfway. We didn’t chill them, just ripened them on the bench.

The results were mixed. Some went off, some had bugs in them, some ripened beautifully and others probably needed a little longer. But undeterred they were peeled, quartered and cored, then put into the syrup to soften.

Another thing I should probably avoid in future is pieces that vary so much in size, but it was a learning exercise 😀

It took forever to get it sll done, primarily because I’ve barely been in the kitchen since we moved and I’m not familiar with these elements. They seem to either be colder or hotter than I expect, and with less control than my old ones. I miss my induction hob.

Anyway, we finally got there. I filled one jar. What was left over wouldn’t fill a jar so we’ll have them for dessert tonight.

All in all I’m pleased, and know a few things for when we start on the next lot. I’m also pleased these pears aren’t ging to waste.

Now for a rest.

Today I drove for the first time since early November, after the hand physio gave the go ahead. It’s been quite the wait. I could have driven over the weekend but my only outings were to church and to dinner at my parents place, and both times I let my husband drive.

My short drive today was to the District Nurse and there I got more good news: my major surgery wound has finally healed enough that they can discharge me. No more dressing changes, no more dressings at all. Not or that, at least. It’s been a long road, the wound opened up and has been stubborn about healing fully, but we got there.

So now there’s just my finger.

We’re down to a simple gauze dressing, it’s healing up well. I see the hand physio again on Thursday and will continue to have regular appointments with her over the coming weeks, but that in itself almost feels normal since I was seeing her weekly from July to September. My current mobility is very limited but I’m working on it.

Also, this Friday I return to work, not just for a couple of days but properly. Even better, while I still can’t use that finger, I can use the others so typing is getting easier.

One final thing: following a request from a friend, I investigated and it turns out I can add people to a mailing list to get an email when I post here, without them signing up to a WordPress account. If you want me to do that for you, let me know, and if you don’t have any other way to reach me directly, use the contact form on the left.

Today the doors got opened and the kittens got their freedom.

They’ve had a couple of outings in a leashed harness, but today they’ve been able to wander and explore. All the doors are open.

Daisy was immediately at ease, curious and happy. Leroy, by contrast took about 2 hours to relax, slinking about with his tail down, startling at every new sound, and getting upset when Daisy was out of sight. But eventually they were both having fun.

Now, after lunch, they’re both back inside, sleeping off a busy morning of exploration.

Given that we moved in spring our plan was to just watch what the garden did, without much interference. We haven’t watered or pruned, just let things be.

The plum, apple, nashi (yes, that’s what it turned out to be) and lemon all need some attention. The peach seems to be fruiting fine, but the tree still needs some care too. The pear, though, has done rather well.

The harvest basically filled a large chilly bin. There’s some wind damage, and a small number have bugs, but most seem healthy and practically fell off the tree at a touch.

We’ve never had a pear tree before so some quick research told us it would be best to chill them before ripening at room temperature. So into a borrowed fridge they’ve gone.

All going well we’ll be able to eat some and bottle the rest.

The tree will obviously also benefit from a feed and a prune, which means next year’s crop ought to be awesome. But for now, we have no complaints at all.