For once I have no exciting news regarding the infection. Just plugging along with antibiotics. I think they will be extended for an additional few weeks but we’ll see. I worry that they’ll decide to operate just when J leaves. Banish that thought!

We had a simulated Thanksgiving dinner tonight, one day late. J got a frozen rolled turkey breast, and we opened a bottle of bubbly. We had roast sweet potatoes, asparagus, turkey, and not very nice supposed Spanish rice. I was hoping for yellow rice like I was used to in Florida, but it wasn’t. I wanted to make corn muffins, but I’m still not up to cooking. But it was nice even though we forgot the cranberry sauce.

Speaking of bottles of wine, we have been drinking wine I have ordered from Naked Wines. This is not a plug and I have not linked to it. I started off mostly as a way to explore little known and independent winemakers. The scheme collects money from you monthly and you order what you want when you want. But the way, I can only drink whites, since reds give me migraines and I’m nervous about rose. I tend to wait till I have a decent balance and/or J is coming, because I don’t drink much when he’s not here. So far the results have been mixed. Many of these wines are not ones you would find in your neighbourhood bottle shop, and are newly established, or with limited distribution. Living in Canberra and being disabled, I can either order wines I know from previous experience or advertising, or rely on the retailer to point me at what he wants to sell. The wines from Naked have been an exploration. All are Australian, of course, but range from the Hunter to Margaret River. Some just neutral (“that’s a glass of white wine, all right”) to pretty damn good. I wanted to try Pinot Grigio but J doesn’t really like it. A good Riesling or Chardonnay is his taste, and mine too although I am a bit more adventurous. I have to watch my consumption because I will happily keep drinking as long as the bottle is open, but I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t probably drink at all with my health issues, but life is pretty boring otherwise. Food and drink are my only luxuries so I buy top shelf brands of liquor and sometimes indulge my palate otherwise. J and I did a lot of wine tourism in California and had our favourites which of course you can’t buy here. Mostly these wines cost me in the $12-20 range. I think if you’re going to drink it and then it’s gone, don’t spend a lot. We did limited experiments with high priced vs pedestrian wines and decided out palates were not sufficiently fine-tuned to notice a large difference to justify the price. Dom Perignon is very nice but worth five times of a more typical bubbly, no. And I’m not comparing to the $3.99 bargain bin.

I also indulged myself with online browsing of real estate. I looked at property in Yass, which is a little way north, to see if house prices were any lower. They’re not. But I found this absolutely over the top mansion on quite a few acres which captured my imagination. No price, up for auction. It’s a nineteenth century (I think) two story, simply huge house. I’m sure it needs expensive work, putting in a new kitchen and bathrooms but the rooms are huge. Grand reception rooms, each bedroom has an attached sitting room, all with fireplaces. I’m sure that means there’s no other heat but it’s so romantic and brings up visions of balls with ladies in lovely gowns and your fleet of servants serving grand dinners. Sitting on the verandah, overlooking the rolling hills. Romantic, but completely impractical. Sigh. Good night while I think of thundering cats running around that huge house.

Apologies to all. I promised more regular posts and then fell off the edge of the world. In mid September my knee became very much swollen, painful, red, and hot. It was almost as bade as it was before surgery. When I saw my infectious disease doctor at the beginning on October, he hustled me into hospital again. I had another needle aspiration that removed a lot of fluid and had a pic line inserted. I started getting very large doses of penicillin every four hours. After a week I asked if I could receive the treatment at home because all I was doing in hospital was lying in bed all day. I was given permission, came home, and am on the same regime I was on before, but this time I’ll be getting antibiotics for at least 6 weeks. I’m going through the Canberra Hospital instead of Calvary. It’s farther away but it has the better medical facilities, I think. That’s where I had my knee removed and replaced 8 years ago. At this stage I’m still due three more weeks of antibiotics, and I go in tomorrow to have a second ultrasound of my knee with possible needle aspiration. My knee overall is looking better. It is no longer red and hot, but is still swollen on the inside of my leg. To add to the mix, a cyst I have had on the top of my head for over a year with no pain or other activity, suddenly decided to burst open, leaving my hair full of gunk and a hole where it had been. It’s been seen to as well and I have a bandage on the top of my head.

Once again J has gotten more than he has bargained for, and has provided taxi service across Canberra weekly, if not more frequently. Most of my healing is due to his care, and his bringing me goodies like fresh figs and takeaway Indian food. I was hoping to put up my Christmas tree this year but there’s no way I could get it down by myself. In fact, summer has arrived suddenly and it’s in the 30’sC this week and continues windy. This is fire weather and so far we are the only corner of Australia not to be enduring bush fires. I was hoping when J was scheduled for a visit that we could go down to the coast for a couple of days but I am on the hospital’s schedule which means daily nurse visits.

I cannot promise to post as frequently as I had planned. I hope I can do better at least, now that I’m no longer in such pain. I hope you are all getting prepared for holiday festivities but it will be a quiet one here I expect. I still sleep a lot. I missed the World Series in hospital but I’m glad Washington won.