Onward and Upward....

I would have to be one of happiest people on earth tonight. Sue was finally taken out of Intensive Care today and is now in the Neurological Ward at St Vincents Hospital. We went to visit her tonight and when we got there she was sound asleep, still with some drips attached to her tired frail body. The nurses asked us to step out for a while so they could reposition her in the bed. After about 10mins we went back into her room and to our sheer delight she was awake and very aware of who we were. Although she is not speaking as yet she smiled, nodded and made some small facial gestures as we spoke to her. Thank you for everyone out there and the universe for your prayers in getting my Suzie back. Even though it will probably be a long road at least we are heading in the right direction. Even though there have been a lot of tears this past week tonight's happy tears were the sweetest I have ever tasted.

I now feel I can share some of my photos from Bali - I just couldn't get my brain to think of anything else until now. While we 8 girls were in Bali 5 of us decided to get a tattoo.  When Sue and I turned 50 we decided to get ourselves a tattoo - she got a Chinese water symbol - she is a typical Aquarius and very attached to water. I got mine on my ankle, it is my initials and I designed it myself. As most of you would know I am a bit of a crazy person when it comes to Buddhas so I felt I had to get a Buddha tattoo - but what design. Finally I found a drawing of the "Lotus Buddha" and decided this was to be my gift to myself. The next decision was to the position. Considering that you should never get a tattoo of Buddha below your waistline I decided to get my tattoo behind my ear - yes you heard right - behind my ear. It didn't really hurt, just vibrated in my head a lot. I got Alice to hold my head when the tattooist first started because I didn't want to move. But all was OK and I love it and I don't feel I need any more.

Here we got - ready or not!!!

Now that wasn't to bad.

My new Tattoo - Lotus Buddha

Update on Suzie

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers and best wishes for my darling Suzie. I feel like the past week has been one of the longest weeks I have ever had. But this morning we have had a bit of a positive move. The Drs. bought Sue out of her induced coma around 11.00am  and she is now off all sedatives. Her eyes are very alert looking straight into our eyes and watching the movement of others in the Intensive Care Unit. She is not responding to any commands as yet, but I figure having been away for the past week it may take time for her to start responding. I think we still have a very long way to go but oh it is so lovely to see her eyes. So if I may be so bold as to ask, could I still get you all to say a small pray that my Suzie comes back to us as she left us. This past week has been a sad way of me really seeing how fragile and unpredictable our lives can be. With this in mind I ask you all to do a favour not only for me but for you and your loved ones. Please make the most of every day, do things you love to do, take time out for yourself and please please tell those you love just how much you love them.

Suzie

Hi everyone - yes I am back from a wonderful time in Bali and I promise I will upload some photos at some stage. But firstly I have a favour to ask each and every one of you. Those of you out there that are regulars to my blog would know of my cousin Susan, as I have written about her and our closeness many times. Susan is much more than a cousin to me - our mothers were not only sisters but best friends and Susan and I were born only 6 weeks apart. We have been like sisters all our lives - sharing all the childhood, teenage and grown up experiences together. Somehow when one of us is feeling low the other one can sense it and will automatically make a call. Well last Saturday Susan took ill and between then and now she has been put into an induced coma, helicoptered from her town 2 hours from Melbourne to a hospital in Melbourne and endured many many test while in intensive care at St Vincents Hospital. She has been diagnosed with encephalitis and the Dr's are keeping her in the induced coma for a while and pumping her with some heavy duty drugs to fight the infection. In my heart I know she is not going to leave me or her wonderful family. My request from you all is if you don't mind could you say a small pray to whichever God you have to please return Suzie to us the way she was before this event. She is a wonderful woman, always caring for others and never asking for anything in return. My request is also very selfish because I want my Suzie back as she is my backbone.  

Suzie & my son Shane in Outback Australia

Fish Food

Davine, Alice & Melissa feeding the fish

Weird feeling.

At last I have been able to uoload some photos.

Ahhhhhhh Bali

At last I can get to my blog and at last I am back in beautiful Bali. Our flights here were great, no problems considering that the day before most flights had been rescheduled due to volcanic activity from Mount Merapi in Indonesia. But we got here after our 4 hour flight from Melbourne to Darwin and then after about an hour stopover we then headed on our 2 hour flight to Denpasar, Bali. As I mentioned last time this is my 4th visit here and I still love it as much, if not more from my first visit. I love the peacefulness, the hustle and bustle of people trying to sell you something, the weather (as long as you have a pool close by}, the smells (some are a little bit challenging), the sights, the bargains and of course the people, they all have a smile even when they are not trying to get money out of you.  Yesterday we just did our first little venture shopping in Seminyak - just have to get back into the swing of bargaining, which might I add I am not very good at, I keep forgetting what my last price was!! Alice, Melissa and myself also went and had our feet chewed - sucked on - cleaned (what ever you would like to call it) by some "Garupa Fish". It was a very weird sensation, sort of like puutting you legs in a big tank of bubbling soda water. The accommodation we are staying at is called "The Villas Hotel & Spa - Seminyak and has to be the most beautiful place I have ever stayed. The shot on the opening page is our villa. We have a 3 bedroom villa with our own pool and chef that comes and cooks our breakfast each morning. I will try and attach their link and some photos but no photos can do it justice. It is absolutely amazing. This morning we are of to have a massage and then I am going to check out some wholesales for my jewellery and maybe get some batik fabric. Oh I do love it here. So for now Salamat Jalan.

** Sorry I can't download my photos - connection way to slow - will try next time**

Bali

Only 4 sleeps and I will be in Bali. I just love Bali, this will be my 4th visit. The first time I went it was my ex-husbands and my first holiday out of Australia. We certainly were not very adventurous and really only did the tourist stuff. The next time we travelled to Bali we had two children who stayed with my Mum and Dad in Tassie while we had our adventurous Bali holiday. We travelled around the island by motorbike. Now you might say that doesn't sound very adventurous, but believe me being on a motorbike on Balinese roads can sometimes boarder on lunacy. My 3rd holiday in Bali was with my daughter Rachel and two of her friends, Jessica and Casey. That was a hole different experience but lots of fun. Now this trip is different again. I am holidaying with 7 other girls. One of the girls Alice is having a significant birthday and we sure will help her celebrate her milestone. Hopefully I will be able to update my blog a couple of times while we are there.

Bali 1977 - Oh I was so young!!

Bali 1984 - OK legs back then and I had two kids.

Bali 2004 - Jessica, Rachel & Casey. The spare seat is me!!

Hung Branch

This past weekend we had a huge amount of rain in Melbourne. My house is close to the usually shallow, slow running "Diamond Creek". But that all changes when we have a big downpour. It's amazing just how much this little creek changes into a very deep and quite furious river so quickly. After one such storm a few years ago this so called creek took out not only the foot bridge, but also the vehicle bridge as well. Well a brand new foot and vehicle bridge were built and have both survived quite a few downpours. That is until this past weekend!!! The vehicle bridge was fine but the foot bridge didn't fair quite as well. It's like some huge platypus or beavers have moved a forest to make a dam.  I just had to get down there and get some shots. The water has now subsided until next time.

Now you might be asking why I have a photo of a "Hung Branch". This was part of the aftermath of the storm I mentioned above that we had a few years ago. After the creek had subsided, somehow this branch was left hanging from the power lines (not that the water was this high). I drive past this branch a couple of times each day and it transports me back to the times I drove past it with my dear old Dad. Every time we drove past it my dad would say "It's still up there". Dad had very little eye sight but he could always see his branch.