“The feeling is less like an ending than just another starting point.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

Brisbane, Australia

Weather Max 31 Min 19

Where to start!!  A lot of people have contacted me because my blog suddenly stopped and they have wondered why. Unfortunate circumstances have brought me  back to Australia prematurely so my White Christmas in Chicago never happened.....instead I had a hot Christmas in Oz.

Since early in my trip I have had increasing difficulty with breathlessness and my concern was increasing proportionally. My plan was to wait until I arrived in Chicago and to visit the Chicago Memorial Hospital and get checked out. My major concerns related to my previous cancer and my brothers untimely death at my age from lung cancer. While I was still in San Antonio, Texas a few days out from heading to Chicago, my daughter Lee let me know that my mother in law was extremely ill and Lee wanted to spend some time with her. As Lee had arranged to housesit for friends and that couldn't be changed at the last moment, I decided to fly back to help her out and to seek medical attention back here in Australia (a much easier and less expensive exercise than it would be in the States)

After a gruelling time cancelling previous US arrangements and making return bookings to Australia I flew 7 hours with a stop in Salt Lake City  to Los Angeles. I spent the night there and then flew to Sydney and on to Brisbane. I cannot even begin to explain how shattered I was by the time I got here but suffice it to say when I woke the first morning in my Housesit I had absolutely no idea where I was. It took several minutes to piece it all together.

I left the States on the 21st landing on the 23rd (-minus 1 day due to the International Date Line.)

On Christmas Day in the morning my breathing was much worse - possible aggravated by the long trip. I went to the Prince Charles Hospital and spent Christmas Day there and had a cheese sandwich for lunch - very festive. The Staff were dressed in Christmas wear and because it was Christmas Day I had star treatment and what would normally take at least a week was done in a day. All tests showed healthy heart and blood ok but more importantly the Cat Scan I had showed no signs of any malignancy. The verdict is early COPD and I will be visiting some specialists for medication and management of this disease. Fortunately it IS early and IS manageable and my worst fears were not realised.

SO!! Moving forward I will continue with Part 2 of my retirement plans and purchase a camper - smaller than originally planned as my next 12 months are looking pretty busy with a lot of housesitting. Once I am up and running again I will blog my travels around Australia.

It's a disappointment to me that my trip has been cut short but I so much enjoyed the travel I did do and the people I met up with along the way and I look forward to meeting new people and seeing new places when I get my van.

It was great to see Lee and Michael again and wonderful to get hugs from my beautiful boy, Derek.

Remember The Alamo

San Antonio, Texas

Weather Max 5 Min -2

Yesterday I travelled all day on the Texas Eagle Train from Fort Worth and got to San Antonio about 8:30 pm. 

San Antonio Sunset Station

It was very cold and windy when I arrived and by the time I made it to my hotel and got settled it was quite late. I walked up to the convenience store a couple of blocks up and sort of wished I hadn't. The hotel is ok but the area is quite scary. See the pictures below and then imagine them on a cold dark night. I don't go out after dark lol

Spooky house next door

Even spookier house

The plan today was to catch up with my laundry but the only 2 nearby laundromats were closed on the weekend. How strange is that. I would have thought that would be their busiest time.  I'd had a bit of a lie in so it was late morning by the time I ventured out. MY GOODNESS it was COLD!! It was 1 degree Celsius but the wind chill just cut right through you. I walked for about 12 kms in all starting at the River Walk. I first saw this on TV a couple of weeks ago and was looking forward to taking the boat ride through the city. Unfortunately the boats were cancelled due to the bad weather. I've got 2 more days here so maybe I will still get to do it. The River Walk follows the river as it wends it way through San Antonio and the whole area is really quite beautiful. The whole walk is host to lots and lots of small shops and cafes and I can imagine it would be a thriving place during better weather.

Cachetas - a bulldog I met
 long the way. Gorgeous.

What a crazy fountain - fire and water

When we were growing up our main source of entertainment was the Western movies at the cinema and John Wayne was our hero. We all remember The Alamo and actually being there was a goose bumpy moment. I also went to the IMAX theatre and watched a really good 45 minutes filmed reenactment of the Battle of the Alamo. 

The Alamo

I walked around the huge River Centre Shopping Mall and hit the food court. I was craving vegetables but there was no stall in the whole place that had any. I went back to the River Walk and there were many restaurants and I finally found an Irish Pub that served an Irish Stew. This was amazing and it warmed me up no end - made me not want to go back out in the cold.

Full of Veggies - delicious

 Here are some random photos of things 

that caught my eye today.

I might not shop at this place hmmm

Giant Margarita

A very appropriate name - Blimpie

I call this optimism - setting
up outside tables
when its 2 degrees Celsius

Very imposing Hotel - unfortunately - not mine

A good day in Texas - warm & sunny.....whaaaaat?

Fort Worth, Texas

Weather Max 22 Min 14 - yes 22 C - how does that even begin to make sense. Warm again tomorrow then Frosty the Snowman weather.

This is how my day went

• Slept blissfully till 6:30
• Breakfast delivered at 7:00
• Back to bed and watched TV till 10:00 - Will and Grace Marathon and played computer games
• Treadmill in gym for 30 mins
• Shower and shuttle'd to Buc-ee's for a couple of hours
• Walked back to the hotel - glorious weather (****shakes head in disbelief****)
• More Will and Grace & coffee
• Free dinner in the restaurant - result of miscommunication re shuttle a couple of days back
• Shower and Jammies's and in bed - blogging - and dare I say - Big Bang Theory-ing
• Feeling happy and relaxed and at peace with the world.

Buc-ee's is hard to explain - it's a 24 hour truck stop/gas station/convenience store/supermarket/bbq equipment/kitchen equipment/diner/fast food joint/clothing shop/souvenir shop/car accessories etc etc etc - in short - a really amazing and fun place to go.

Inside Buc-ee's

BBQ stuff

hehehe

Amazing sandwich counter - I resisted

Theses cups are waaaay
bigger than Aussie cups

Hot hot hot sauce

Even hotter sauce

I lost track of how many
 bowsers there are. 
They circle the place.

Back at the Marriott - what a great fire
 pit. Pity they only light it when it
 isn't cold ...?

My free dinner - wings and
Chop Chop salad. I ate too much
 but it was excellent.

Tomorrow I'm off to San Antonio and very much looking forward to the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

Perilous Puffer Paradigm. A Positively Preposterous Predicament

Forth Worth, Texas

Weather - bloody cold - whether you speak Centigrade or Fahrenheit - it's just bloody cold!!

The things that trigger my asthma are exercise and cold weather and I've been exposed to  both the last couple of days. I'd brought one Ventolin puffer with me as my asthma hasn't been  much of an issue over the past few years, but somewhere along the way the little cylinder slipped put of the plastic casing.  No problem I thought - in Australia I would just go to the Chemist's shop and buy one for $10 over the counter or $6.50 on line from Chemist's Warehouse. NO PRESCRIPTION REQUIRED.  

 I caught the shuttle to Walmart and explained my predicament to the Pharmacist. Seems in America I need a prescription and that means seeing a doctor. As I had no transport and didn't really know where I was, I followed directions and walked to an Emergency Centre where they did everything short of taking my appendix out. This cost me $125.  (Meanwhile I'm struggling to breathe normally - I wonder what they consider an emergency. They could have at least administered some Ventolin). Then it was walk back to Walmart where my prescription would be ready in 40 MINUTES - even though it had been sent through electronically. Of course that meant I had to wander around and buy things meanwhile. I finally picked up the Ventolin - 2 just in case - and it cost $122. To add insult to injury I am walking everywhere - which is exercise - in the freezing cold - which are both triggers.

FFS! - I was not a happy camper and when you consider I was having difficulty breathing and this all took over 2 1/2 hours - I could have been dead! Also this US$247 is about $300 Australian.  I do have travel insurance and I can claim this later but I was very underwhelmed by the whole experience.

At what point does someone say - big picture - she needs Ventolin - NOW - we'll work the rest out later!!

Ok - rant over -moving forwards. I returned to the hotel and had a nap and then went to the gym to test drive my Rolls Royce Ventolin (hmmm the rant obviously isn't over). All is now well and my 2 gold plated puffers are located in 2 separate suitcases so I don't go through this again.  (I'm really not letting this go, am I?)

I had a quiet rest of day watching TV and will have a good sulk tonight and wake up to a new day tomorrow.

From my Hotel room - looks
like Siberia out there - so coooold!

Ah! Here's my boy.
He makes me happy again xx

The Scales of Just-arse!!

Fort Worth, Texas

Weather Max 12 Min 1

Talking about the weather........how does this even make sense ........Max of 24 C & 21 C Friday & Saturday then -1 C on Sunday.....MAXIMUM!! Thats just crazy. And then -8 overnight.

Talking about arses........you know how deep down everyone has a weight in the back of their mind.....the one that if you go over, you know you have crossed  the line........ and you know you'll never go over that weight because if you do, life as you know it will be over? The immediate response usually involves  bridges and jumping. You know that weight?  Well the scales in the gym say I'm 3 kilos OVER it! The last 3 1/2 weeks I have done NO exercise and every calorie I have eaten has doubled in size and attached itself  to said arse.

Sooooo.....as I don't want to jump off a bridge....I spent 20 minutes on the stationary bike in the gym this morning and 30 minutes on the treadmill this afternoon and walked a few miles in a huge mall and ate only healthy food all day. I figure if I do this every day for the next 3 months my plane will just get off the ground when I return to OZ  :(

The Mall I went to was the South Lakes Mall in Fort Worth and it was HUGE!!  It reminded me of walking around Disneyland. Old style buildings all set up in street fashion rather than under one roof.  Every type of store you can think of there.  I got a haircut .......only cost $15......nice.  I spent a lot of time in Starbucks and also Barnes and Noble. It was a good day!

South Lake Mall

South Lake Mall

Beautiful gardens at the Mall

Movie's - yay - out of the cold.

It was VERY COLD ( 4 degrees C) and I spotted a movie theatre  and made a beeline for it and bought a ticket for the first movie that was showing.  Office Christmas Party - Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Quite good  and some big laughs.

The mall was a 20 minute drive from the hotel and I was taken there by the hotel shuttle. The front desk gave me a card with a number to call when I wanted to return and I was to wait outside Barnes & Noble to be picked up. I called 7 times over a period of an hour and a half and left voicemails and never got a response so I didn't know if someone was coming or not and I had to wait out in the cold. Did I mention it was VERY COLD. I didn't want to catch a cab in case the shuttle turned up. Finally I got hold of a real person and they hadn't  got any of the messages. They had given me the wrong card. Grrrrrrrr. Anyway, a lovely man called Eric came and got me and he was suitably repentant for the miscommunication etc etc.  When we got back to the hotel he gave me a voucher so dinner tomorrow night is free.  Nice :)

PS  after my 3 hours sleep in 36 hours during my journey to Fort Worth I showered and went to bed last night and read 3 words of my book and the next thing it was 6:30 this morning. Bliss.