January 27th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

So I went back to the physio on Wednesday. My knee was definitely still not feeling 100%. I was sceptical about going back, especially since the appointments aren’t cheap and I wasn’t sure how effecting they would be. Shortly after I arrived, she had warmed up the ‘bean bags’ and she asked me whether she could do some ‘needling’. Um, excuse me…WHAT? ‘Put some needles in, it won’t hurt’. I have an injection every week anyway, so I figured this would be okay. She massaged a little first and then whipped out some needles and electrically charged pads:

Dry needling

People on Twitter *raved* about this treatment. She also did some ultra sound and taped up my knee with some funky pink tape:

Pink tape

She claims that all the rugby players ask for the pink tape! When I had to go pay, instead of charging me R400.00 for the two appointments (as quoted) she only charged me R240.00 for both! That’s the lovely thing about seeing the physio that owns the practice. I was so glad I had opted to pay cash, otherwise I would definitely not have gotten a discount. Yesterday when I woke up my knee felt SO much better that I felt like skipping instead of walking! There was such a huge improvement I felt like I could have been imagining the pain all along. I was so relieved and happy that I had gone for the second appointment after all. My knee still feels a little tender at times. I would say it is about 98% there! Wooooo!

In other news, the party is growing really close. Only 6 days away! Today I decorated the boxes for the party packs and managed to procure another favour to put in the boxes! It was a real bargain! Thanks so much for this, Ilze

Party Pack Boxes

Party favours

There is very little left to do for the party. We just have to get some chips (crisps) and punch ingredients and collect the cake on the day. The party boxes need to be folded and stuffed, but I’m putting that off since we don’t really have anywhere to put them once they’re all folded. I can’t wait!

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January 25th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

I never though I would say this. Perhaps I’ll change my mind. Here goes.

I prefer not having a housekeeper.

There. I said it. Pick your jaw up off the floor. It is there in black and white. I set up a chore chart. Rudi and I split the chores. It’s a two week chart and the chores are alternated each week. At first I thought this really wasn’t going to work. Rudi started skipping chores on day 2. My heart sank at the prospect of having to find someone else again. It turns out Rudi will play catch up on chores that he has skipped though. Sometimes the assigned chores are not 100% necessary on the day. For example:  I have the bathroom on the chore chart twice a week. It isn’t always necessary to do the entire bathroom on the day, so sometimes you get to relax a bit on your chores. We do laundry and ironing twice a week. Doing it regularly and alternating it means that it is never a HUGE mountain of ironing that needs to be done and that in itself is usually half the problem. I’ve also taught myself a faster way of ironing things. WOOT!

When I walk out of the house and it is generally tidy I feel so proud of us. Visitors could practically pop in at any moment and not be met by a complete disaster and I wouldn’t be embarrassed. I feel a sense of achievement when I do my allocated chore for the day. I’m so awesome I’m ahead on my chores this week! I only have to do laundry tomorrow, but I started it yesterday already. Actually, that was completely selfish. I started the laundry early, to ensure it is all done and ready for Rudi to do the ironing in his allocated slot. This means that the unfinished laundry won’t be left over for me to do when it is my turn to iron later in the week. Sometimes you have to work smart!

Not having a housekeeper means a lot of positive things as well. It means I don’t have to worry about the contents of my home being compromised (again). I know what has been cleaned and that it has been done properly (or when it hasn’t!). I know where everything is packed away. I save quite a bit of money every month (almost R8000 a year!). We don’t mess as much as we know that there is nobody else to clean up after us. We are teaching Babyice to clean up after himself as well. I’ve done thing that I have left for the housekeeper that never got done anyway.

Not having a housekeeper is paying off. You could never have convinced me of this before it happened. I hope it stays this way

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January 24th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

Over the weekend I got really sick and tired of my knee not feeling better. Taking anti-inflammatories and putting on patches only offered temporary relief. I would wake up in the morning and my knee would feel better, but it would just deteriorate during the day again. My right knee also started complaining because I was using it to compensate. I had been out of gym for almost a whole week and I am keen to go back.

First thing Monday morning I phoned for a physio appointment, even though my knees were still feeling okay. By the afternoon my knees were both sore and I headed off to the physio. I explained to her how the pain started and she asked me a few questions. One of the questions she asked was whether I had bought new shoes. She then examined me and quickly determined that I had injured a ligament in my left knee. She said that there were small tears in the ligament fibres and while massaging her she found that there was fluid on the ligament as well. Even though both knees hurt, while she was examining me only one spot that she touched on my left knee really hurt. This is where she focused the massage and she later put the sonar machine on both knees. She warned me that she was ‘activating the muscle’ and that it might be tender afterwards. As I walked out of the physio I already felt better. I was so glad I went. I was also happy to finally know what the cause of my discomfort was and that it wasn’t something serious or permanent.

As the evening wore on I started to feel the ‘sensitivity’ that the physio must have been referring to (I hope!). This morning my knees were both sore when I woke up, instead of them feeling much better and then deteriorating. I have been taking Mybulen today to help with the pain. It doesn’t feel like it is getting any better mind you, but I suppose it could get worse before it gets better? She said I probably injured my knee while training. It could be because my posture was incorrect, or that I stepped while my knee wasn’t aligned properly. She advised me of some exercises to do to help strengthen my ligaments. It happens to be one of the exercises I’m not crazy about. Go figure.

I’ll be going for one more physio session tomorrow (200 bucks a pop!) and apparently I can head back to the gym on Friday. Except I already have plans with Leebeesa for Friday evening, so I guess we’ll have to postpone it to next week. We’ll see. I’m just really hoping that this pain I’m feeling right now is part of the healing process.

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January 23rd, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

We spent the weekend with my grandparents (my biological father’s mother and his stepfather, whom I have always known as my grandfather). When we reunited with them last year my grandmother said she would love to have us for a weekend. Even though we were willing to drive through for a day, she seemed to insist on us sleeping over, so we set aside a weekend for it.

It was really lovely to be there with them again. They opened up their home and we were told to make ourselves comfortable and treat it like our own home, which we did. We arrived Saturday morning and my grandmother had prepared a lovely meal for us. She had made cottage pie (which Rudi LOVES), a curry noodle salad (which *I* LOVE) with a green salad. She couldn’t possibly have an idea about our food preferences as I haven’t eaten anything she has made for about 20 years. Somehow she got it spot on!

It was very hot in Gordon’s Bay on Saturday. We went to the beach, but when we got there everyone was standing out of the water as there had been a shark warning. We weren’t even there for 10 minutes when people started getting bored and venturing back out into the water. Babyice LOVED jumping into the little waves breaking on the shore, even though he thought running away from the “water coming” was funny at first. We helped him build a sandcastle, but he wasn’t too interested in that. He would much rather run in the water. That child LOVES water. Rudi bought us all a chocolate ice cream which we enjoyed on the beach. We went rather late in the afternoon and it soon got a bit boring and we decided to go back.

I was lying on the floor (trying to escape the rising heat) and noticed that my grandparents had an air conditioning unit up against the wall. I enquired as to why it wasn’t on and they said it hadn’t been working for about two years. This piqued Rudi’s interest, since he had worked in the industry for a while. He promptly started fiddling with it, went outside to check the condenser, etc. Within about half an hour we were sitting in an air conditioned room! My grandparents could have kissed his feet! He was most certainly the hero of the day. We were all very grateful for the relief from the heat!

After Babyice had been put to bed, (which was a triumph in itself since he had had his afternoon nap really late and bad mommy left his dummy at home) we whiled away the time with one of my grandparent’s favourite hobbies, cards! They taught us a game they often play. It was very easy to learn and we soon started getting competitive. When we looked again it was 23:00! We said we would quit around 23:00, but ended up playing a bit longer since we were having a good time. At the end of the night when all the scores were tallied up, I had won! I was quite chuffed

To be honest we didn’t sleep very well. We slept on a double bed, with Babyice on the floor. We made his a nice comfortable bed on the floor with a thick duvet. There definitely wasn’t enough space for 3 of us on a double! I think the unfamiliar surroundings and heat both contributed to us not being able to sleep. Babyice didn’t seem to mind. He was his restless self, rolling around all night, but he didn’t wake up at all. We woke up less than refreshed, but we didn’t let that stop us from having another lovely day.

My grandmother served us a lovely lunch and while Babyice napped (after being driven to sleep in the car), we played cards again. This time the professionals annihilated us and Rudi and I ended up in the last and second last places. All too soon it was time for us to go home again. I wasn’t particularly sad, since I had missed my bed, but in a sense it made my heart sore. They are not getting any younger. My grandfather had to have bypass surgery last year. The scan they showed me of how his artery looked when he had the heart attack was scary! Even for a layman. He has also had two black outs recently which resulted in bad falls. He has low blood pressure too.  I hope that I can see them regularly now before it is too late. My grandmother says she misses my father very much. She doesn’t really hear from him at all. It doesn’t seem that they will be my link to him, should I wish to pursue seeing him again.

We had a lovely, relaxed weekend. It was very nice spending time with them. I know they appreciated getting to know me as an adult and to meet my family.

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January 20th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

I get excited over silly small things…

Recently my sensible, sturdy cover for my Blackberry broke. I can only assume I had dropped it one too many times. I finally had an excuse to buy myself a pretty, sparkly cover from Pop Skin:

Pretty cover

The cover is decorated with Swarovski crystals. If any of them come off you take the cover back and have it replaced for free. If there is something wrong with your cover, you take it back and they fix it free of charge. They have loads of designs to choose from. I actually had trouble making up my mind about which one I would want.

I was terribly excited about getting this! My phone is once again my preciousssss

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January 20th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

I am yet to order Babyice’s birthday cake. I’ve been looking for a picture to put on it. I found a picture, but it needed some editing. I remember that Leebeesa edited some pictures for her nephews birthday and she was happy to oblige

This is what she has come up with. I think it is AWESOME!

Cake Print

She did an awesome job! The original picture looks like this:

Original

She did a great job editing it and minimizing the white space that would have been all over the cake. I am super impressed!

Thanks a million Leebeesa!

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January 19th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

I just had to share this story:

Rudi and I were in a Spar (a local supermarket) to pick up a few necessities. Rudi had gone to stand in the queue while I kept an eye on Babyice. Babyice made a run for it and I was left chasing him around the store. It’s a rather large store and as I also had things in my hands I found it hard to grab him once I had caught up with him. He ran away giggling, constantly looking back to ensure I was still chasing him.

Eventually I caught up to him at the very till that Rudi had been queueing. Another couple were already standing behind him and in between us.  At this point I had freed my one hand and grabbed him around his waist. When he struggled to get free I said ‘If you run away again I’m going to smack your bum!’. The young couple turned around to look at us. They saw me on my haunches, an armful of products and Babyice trying to run away with the bottom of his shirt in my hand (he was managing to escape!). I tried to get Rudi’s attention and asked him to please take the products out of my hands. The guy in front of me took it from me, turned to his girlfriend/fiance/wife and said ‘You still want a boy?’

I think I might have bought him a couple more years free of fatherhood!

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January 17th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

On Friday when we went to gym my left knee started protesting to being on the elliptical after just a few minutes. Frustrated, I got off after 10 minutes thinking a cycle would be easier. While on the bike my knee continued to complain. It was uncomfortable to say the least and I only felt it while I was training. It is not an excruciating pain, but enough to make me want to stop training. We opted for upper body exercises for the rest of the session. I really didn’t enjoy Friday’s workout AT ALL. I specifically avoid any impact exercises because I want to protect my knees. I am no lightweight and I don’t want to damage anything in there. I need my knees! I opt for no-impact exercises like the elliptical and cycling to ensure that my knees are protected at all times. I don’t even walk on a treadmill. I was a bit confused as to why my knee would suddenly complain after I trained almost all year last year, with a personal trainer even!

So we rested over the weekend and headed back to gym yesterday. I had absolutely no complaints or tenderness with my knee over the weekend. When I got onto the elliptical within the first 3 minutes I could tell that I was going to be able to go the full 20 minutes. I haven’t been able to complete the full 20 minutes since last year September/October. It always felt like “too much”. I would get nauseous, breathless or feel overexerted after 6 minutes, never mind 20. Last week I kept going for 15 minutes at a time, but last night it felt good. I was actually SMILING at Rudi from my elliptical. My knee protested quietly, but it didn’t feel as bad as it did on Friday, so I continued. I managed the full 20 minutes and then moved on to cycling. Again I could feel my knee hurting, but not enough for me to want to stop. I completed a 20 minute/8km cycle and then stopped training. My knee didn’t bother me at all last night, but I have been constantly aware of it all day today. It does not hurt per se, but it is uncomfortable. I can walk without hobbling/limping, but something isn’t right. I popped a Voltaren this morning, but it doesn’t seem to have helped at all. Tonight is our night off at gym anyway, so I’ll be resting my knee, but I’m worried about training again on Wednesday.

The last thing I need is an excuse not to go to gym. I want to go. I want to feel improvement like I did yesterday. I want to keep doing this and I want to achieve my goals. I don’t want to injure myself.

I asked for advice from my Twitter followers since there are a diverse bunch of athletes and recreational runners/cyclists (yes, WHAT?) on there. The general consensus seems to be that my knee might be inflamed (hence me popping the Voltaren). I was advised to get one of those elastic brace type things that you put around whatever joint is bothering you to give it some support. When I was very young I used to get pain in my knees and the doctor said my ligaments are ‘pap’ and that I should do certain exercises to strengthen them. Of course I never complied, but I haven’t had any problems until now. So after work I think I’ll go get one of the elastic thingies to wear while I train and some Transact anti-inflammatory pads to try and fix whatever is wrong there now.

I really don’t feel like going to the doctor for this. I’d much rather fix it on my own. I’ve always been aware that my knees are at risk because I am heavy, so I’ve never done anything strenuous to them. I’ve only really started training last year and had no problems whatsoever. I hope this is just a minor complication, a little inflammation that can be fixed and that will be the end of it!

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January 16th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

So I spent the large majority of my weekend doing housework. Not only did we have to clear the backlog of ironing that had been created by the absence of our housekeeper, but I did a lot of the things she had been neglecting to do.

The kitchen is a daily battle. Even though I have the luxury of a dishwasher, not everything goes in there. I have an old school dishwasher (it’s already about 5 years old) and it doesn’t wash pots. Sometimes I try my luck and put them in there, but they usually don’t come out clean. I also don’t put Babyice’s bottles in the dishwasher since it turns the plastic milky and it makes them look dirty when they are not.

On Saturday morning we woke up and I started working. Over the weekend I did the following:

• Unpacked/repacked the dishwasher 3 times
• Washed dishes (more than once!)
• Stripped all the bedding, washed it and hung it up
• Did more washing and hung it up
• Put new bedding on
• Ironed (!)
• Washed windows
• Washed marks off the walls that have been bothering me forever
• Cleaned the bath
• Packed away ironing that Rudi had done
• Packed Babyice’s drawers straight
• Made a potato salad for a get together
• Cleaned the washing machine

Rudi helped by:

• Vacuuming and mopping the floors
• Removing washing from the line
• Taking out the rubbish 3 times (!)
• Cleaning out the broom cupboard
• Cleaning the bathroom
• Ironing a lot of the back log (but not packing it away…I did that)

I’m really glad he helped. Even with him helping it was a fuckton of work and I am DONE FOR! It doesn’t seem like a lot of work when you write it down, but it WAS. So. Much. Work. Rudi did help quite a bit, especially with the huge pile of ironing on Saturday, but I still did the majority of the work. Unfortunately this housekeeper thing also co-incided with my PMS week. Rudi went to shower on Saturday and left his clothes on the floor. I nearly died. I decided that I was not doing a single thing further until he had picked up his clothes or that  I would leave them there until HE picked them up. I am not his mother. It’s one thing having to do the housework, having someone make it a  lot more difficult for you is quite another. Another thing he did was throwing empty wrappers down on the kitchen counter, walking past the bin while exiting the kitchen and just leaving them there. WHY? Our house seems to be more constantly tidy (since there is nobody other than ourselves to pick up after us), but I think we need to change our mindset and make less of a mess to begin with! This is much more challenging for Rudi than it is for me. I am always the one cleaning the kitchen, so instead of piling dishes into the sink, I pack them straight into the dishwasher.

Last night I managed to rope Babyice into picking up his toys. He doesn’t respond to ‘Pick up your toys!’, but he will follow a list of commands if you tell him ‘Put the monkey in your toy box, please’ and then ‘Put the car in your toy box, please’. He picked up all his toys by himself last night (while instructed to do so). I’m definitely going to keep that trend up!

I think I’m going to work out a roster for us and split the chores evenly. Hopefully we’ll get into a flow of doing things that will prevent us from spending our weekends doing housework. Otherwise I foresee many a fight over this!

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January 12th, 2012 | Posted by acidicice

After the drama with my housekeeper in 2011, I had hoped that we had put the drama behind us. Obviously not. We found someone to replace her. She was recommended by a family friend and we were told that she was trustworthy, so after allowing her to clean up one or two Saturdays we gave her the keys to come in while we were not there. It is so much nicer for someone to come and clean up while you aren’t home because you and the entire family are not under their feet the whole time and you come home from work and walk into a house that ‘magically cleaned itself’. You know?

This housekeeper had some positives, but also a lot of negatives.

Positives:

• She cleaned thoroughly, moving furniture and dusting everywhere

Negatives:

• She would not tidy cupboards, even when asked to do so
• She would often leave the ironing unfinished
• She cleaned two houses a day to maximize her income, but did not finish the work at ours
• She didn’t do washing
• She used the tumble dryer on a sun shiney day in summer
• She had someone with her helping her and still didn’t finish
• She would not come in on her designated day without notification and when questioned would change the day she was coming in

Ok. So I could only think of one positive. I suppose on the one hand I was looking for a reason to let her go. Her mother would usually come in with her to help her with the work. Her mother stopped coming to help her because she has a problem with her knee and having to walk up from the main road to our house would leave her in pain and unable to assist her on the few days that followed. We had agreed that she would come to our house on Wednesdays while we were at work. Her last two working weeks in December she did not pitch up on Wednesday. The first time I did not hear from her at all. I called her, she did not answer or return my calls. I sent her a text message, she sent me a please call me and she then asked if she could come in another day that week. I agreed. The next week she didn’t pitch again, this time she sent me a please call me ON the day and then changed her day again. I requested that she let me know if she needed to change when she was coming in so that we could plan accordingly. While we were on holiday she was meant to come in on her regular day, but she contacted me in advance and requested to come in the Monday instead of the Wednesday. I agreed since we wouldn’t be there anyway. Yesterday we came home and she had not been. No contact, no notification, no warning – NOTHING. I was completely fed up. I sent her a message telling her that I understand that she is having trouble coming to work for us without her mother’s help and that we will make another plan. I thanked her for her service and assistance when we needed her and advised her to leave the key with the employer that originally recommended her.

Now we have nobody. The kitchen is still in a state. There is a mountain of ironing to do. I didn’t get time yesterday between gym, cooking and caring for Babyice. I don’t iron. I CAN iron. It’s not rocket science, but I’m not excellent at it. It takes me ages to do one item of clothing, maybe I am too much of a perfectionist. I hate that my time in the evenings will now be spent doing housework instead of playing with my son.

Replacing the housekeeper would be difficult. We would need to build a relationship with someone again. We would need to have someone come in on weekends while we are there, IF we are there. Do we put our social lives on hold for the housekeeper? Already next weekend we are not home. Rudi did ask someone to come in on Saturday (even though we have plans around 14:00), but subsequently cancelled as he is convinced we can do the housework ourselves and get DSTV instead of having a housekeeper *sigh*. I don’t want DSTV. We wouldn’t have time to watch it anyway since we’ll be busy with housework!

I know having a housekeeper is a luxury. I realize this. I was not living above my means by having one. I was providing someone with a job. I am not lazy. I do a lot of housework in between the time the housekeeper would come once a week. I was feeling really down about it this morning. Luckily some shopping for Babyice’s party cheered me up. Rudi said he would do *some* ironing tonight. I’m not sure how far he will get. If I remember correctly he tried to iron once before when our housekeeper was on leave and he wasn’t very good at it (clothes still creased!). The point is that he is willing to try and help. At least I have that! I’m sure I will still end up doing the majority of the work, but I guess it is a sacrifice I will have to make.

I usually pay for the housekeeper since I’m the one she helps out the most. It costs me R150.00 per day or R600.00 per month. It’s a decent amount of money. Maybe I’ll spend it on personal trainer sessions once I’ve gotten used to the housework I told Rudi we should set up a schedule for the housework to chop it up into smaller pieces and then alternate who does what to make it more fair. He won’t always want to iron and I don’t always want to clean the toilet! Let’s see how things go. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll start hunting for a replacement again.

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