Sunday

Overnight in Brisbane last Sunday

Sooz has gone off to Chanting, the first time in a few weeks as Son has been away, taking a group to India.  But she is back now and as I let Sooz out of the car, the first of the other Chanters was arriving. She looked as happy as Sooz did and as they greeted each other in French they almost skipped off down the path towards the Centre.  There are a few French speakers in the group, including Nic - who has just been away for a few days to Lady Elliot Island with daughter Ca, but she will be there tonight as well.
My very hot flat white has just been delivered by one of the bar staff and if they keep up this level of barista-ing I may become a tea drinker or go back to waiting at Zarraffas to wait for Sooz on Chanting and Meditation evenings. Yes I could ask them to remake it but there are no guarantees that it would be as good next time. Instead, I'm going to sit here and sip it pretending I've been so busy, I completely forgot about it and now its gone cold ... well, tepid. I'd been looking forward to it too - it's been a couple of days since I had one. Maybe we can stop off at Zarraffas on the way home.
I've had a few days off work last week and we're still trying to work out what's causing my shortness of breath. I've had it for a few weeks now but it really made itself known last weekend when we went to see Matilda (thanks again M!). Walking from the car into the hotel foyer almost wiped me out, as did clapping at the end of the show, and the walk back across the park to the hotel after dinner.  It scared me enough that I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day!  He sent me off for a chest x-ray and a swab (I am going to try never to have one of those swabs again ... as is Syl who has also had one recently ... it's for whooping cough!).  The x-ray was clear and when I saw the doctor on Wednesday, she wasn't sure what the issue was - my chest sounds clear so she's thinking it's not an infection - but she did think it might be helped with some Ventolin.  So, I'm taking that ... even though on Friday night I woke up in the wee smalls with "sponge-breath" where it feels as though I'm breathing through cloth on my chest.  At that point I decided I would finally bite the bullet and take myself off to the Hospital for them to have a look at me.  I was being fairly optimistic, I thought, when I parked in a 4-hour spot so when the parking station told me when I put my ticket in at the other end that I had been only 4 hours and 5 minutes, I was pretty pleased.   So, what more do we know?  Not a lot except they were able to confirm what I knew ... while I'm resting there's no problem, but when I start to move around, I don't breathe as well.  Hmmmm.  So, further investigation with my GP is needed - to see if it is a chronic lung something or other which is a carry over from before I became a non-smoker 20 odd years ago.  The Hospital Doc suggested I might need a puffy thing ... but probably not Ventolin. I know Sooz uses something she calls a Preventer ... so we shall see if I end up with something like that.   Or whether the whole thing will just magically go away.  That's obviously what I'm counting on.

Song lyrics often tell the whole story and this time it's "hot hot hot" ... and it was supposed to be so hot today that The Markets meet was cancelled for our group. Instead we had breakfast with the girls in the air conditioned comfort of Food Fantasy at The Big House ... and it was up to its usual standard.  It's good because you can have little tastes of whatever you feel like (even ice cream if that's your penchant) and there are things there that everyone can eat.  We five are a fairly diverse grouping when it comes to preferred dishes so it was a good choice by Syl who is definitely more of a grazer than the rest of us.  Now if only they could manage to get their coffee machines to produce a decent beverage ... although at one point there, everyone was just grateful that cups finally made a reappearance.
I know I've been off the air the last little while because I had forgotten that Chinese New Year is still with us.  My first clue was that wonderful dragon hanging from the Food Fantasy ceiling ... and the Year of the Rooster decorations in the foyer.  I'd also forgotten that it's Sand Sculpture time in Surfers Paradise - until we saw the tentacles hanging off one of the buildings as we drove down the Gold Coast Highway to see Sooz's Mum yesterday.  We were a little later than planned but we did get there ... we were on a mission to deliver some clothes Sooz had found for her Mum ... and while Sooz was shopping for them, I was finding my two new friends ... Rex and Sarah ... at Target.

Creatures great and small ... including Rex and Sarah!