Still here...

I am still in the land of the living.
Mostly cos no bastard surgeon has got his Porsche-influenced hands on me. Yet...

SO...
My GP did all she could before heading off for two weeks holiday (!) with her Just The Four Boys.
School holidays here. Her boys are aged 15 to 6, so she wont have too much of a holiday I think.
She gave me her mobile number to be able to keep in touch.
Phone answerers at the Rpyal Melbourne were less than helpful.
One clerk snapped at me "We haven't got your referral. And even if we had it then it wont be looked at until next week". To which I replied "How can you be so sure? You haven't even asked my name"...grrrrr.

Two weeks have elapsed by this time.

I finally found a sweet man at Outpatients at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who was so very chatty and informed.
So, Helpful Man was VERY helpful, explaining the whole deal to me. And even telling me that despite my GP talking to the surgeon for 30 minutes he hadn't told her the most important thing. That he was Out Of The Office until the second week in November...
DOUBLE GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Helpful Man has gone on holiday to the States, first stop San Fran. So I gave him my niece's details (Ula Of The Lovely Bottom has moved there recently with her new Google boss husband. He is an Aussie who got a wonderful job so they got married with three weeks notice and took off to live a different life in a different world!).

My GP arranged for another doctor at her surgery to look after my file, so she sent a further referral to St Vincent's. THEY can see me on October 24...but not before. Too busy. The Other Doctor is in my pocket - I taught her to make quilts about 14 years ago.

Now it is more than THREE weeks since I was told 2to 4 weeks.

Tomorow I see my GP again. She is going to send me off for another CT scan so we can see how fast it is growing. That might mean I am going to be shifted from being a Cat One patient to being Urgent. And I thought Category One was the Top Cat of categories, the creme de la creme. Silly me.
My Best Sister in Tassie said she will rouse the family and pass the hat so I can pay to go private if that will speed up the surgery. (We have done that in the past for another one of us who needed surgery in a hurry but not so much the system thought was urgent).

I hope they think this is Urgent. I look like I am six months pregnant, and my back aches. I can't touch my toes to be able to paint them without weird contortions and grimacings. Blokes carry things for me and open doors when I am down the street. Bastards.

This past week I have been at The Sweetheart's. Is nice - he brings me cups of tea and plates of toast.  And worries about me.

I haven't sewn for months. Once I used to turn out a quilt a month. At least.
I am too tired to sit and sew. I get uncomfortable sitting for any length of time. So, I am knitting!!! In fact, knitting The Sweetheart a jumper. That is a very big committment you realise. This is like getting engaged. I hope he understands this. Might have to drum it in to him (by whispering "Engagment ring, diamonds, Dunklings*" whilst he is sleeping).

Is a pattern from The Knitter - English knitting magazine I have discovered, full of imspiration. I am knitting Suviitak from Issue 14. It is the jumper on the front cover, all full of cables and fancy pants stuff.
I think I have a row where the cables are somewhat truncated. But buggered if I am going to pull it back (besides it is 12 rows back, and it is only a 24 row pattern. Only...).

I am using Patons Jet rather than the Alpaca/cotton the model was knitted with. Jet is a 30% alpaca, 70% wool mix, and quite lovely and soft to work with. It is a blue/greyish variegated, and I am alternating two balls of wool so the colours don't 'block' (see - I am learning proper knitting terminology!!!).

I have almost finished both the fronts and backs to the armhole decrease, knitting them separately. However, I shall knit the two sleeves at the same time. Was always the way Mum did it, and the bestest way to get both sleeves identical.
Lincraft have spring sales on at the mooment - flogging off all their wool cheaply.
I went down the street this week (cos remember I am at The Sweetehart's and he lives in the Big Smoke and has streets full of temptation right near where he lives. Even an Aldi...). And bought heaps of wool.

Probably enough - hopefully enough - to whip up another Sweetheart jumper of "Italiano Alpaca 50" 12 ply and "Italiano Donegal Merino"  8 ply (Lincraft home brands). Neither look like their stated plies, will swatch them (technical term again, I am getting good at this knitting lark) and see what happens. One is dusty blue, the other fawn flecks.

And lots of lovely red "Cashmere Plus" (50% wool, 42% soya (sic), 8% cashmere. So it is called Cashmere Plus because it is cashmere plus optimism I reckon), regal purple "Silk Plus" (ditto, with its 60% wool, 20% bamboo, 20% silk), and red/purple variegated Patons "Foxy" that is 100% Acrylics.

Oddly, Lincraft only had ten balls of each on the shelves so I bought all ten of each.
Am thinking some sort of Fair Isle pattern.  They had Patons 1148 for 20c - reduced from $4.95 so I had to buy that. It has an interesting two coloured snow flake-ish pattern.
Though now that I have seen Patons 1148BJ I would rather that...Isn't this bed jacket alluring? Almost like a REAL cardie.
I should whip it up for hospital visiting hours, instead of the fluffy little thing I bought in the Salvos the other day (I think it is one of those cute things that aspiring ballerinas wear to keep their scrawny ribs from clattering when they are bobbing about).

Clever me, I just learned how to pull a pic off a page and stick it back on to my blog. Could do that more instead of making you all click on links. Though how you can expect to get fit if I do it all for you is beyond me.

Better get dressed and see if I can find a Sunday Age down the street. Is probably time for Japanese Grand Prix on the telly, too. And there is Bathurst 1000 today too. I will find links for them, so you can appreciate what sort of cleft stick this petrol head is in:
Grand Prix with Chesty Bond chinned Mark Webber is HERE
Bathurst 1000 is HERE

I was taught to drive by a King Of The Mountain (Bathurst winner) back when it was Bathurst 500. They didn't make it twice the length, they just went metric. The Sweetheart has raced at Bathurst. He is a clever bugger.

It is heading to 5 pm and I am still in bed (and The Sweetheart is watching car races at Winton - he got up at 0600 and headed off in the rain. He will be tired but happy by the time he gets home).
Best get up, showered, dressed etc...

(*Dunklings is the jeweller shop Dad bought Mum's engagement ring from, always seemed to me to be the epitome of engagement ring shopping)