Kangaroo Tail Soup!

This is what we had for tea tonight!

Ingredients:

• 1 Kangaroo Tail, cut in joints
• 60g Barley, well washed
• 3 large Brown Onions
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 3-4 Carrots
• 2 blades Mace
• 2 Turnips
• 1 whole Nutmeg
• 3-4 Stalks Celery
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons fat
• Cayene
• 3 Litres Stock or Water
• 150ml Claret
• Chopped parsley

MethodPeel and cut the vegetables into rough pieces. Melt dripping in a large saucepan. Add vegetables and allow to cook slowly without browning for 10 minutes. Add the tail joints, stock, barley, bay leaves, mace and nutmeg. Bring to boil and simmer slowly for 2-3 hours.Cool and remove any scum or fat from the surface, then strain. Returned to washed saucepan, season to taste with salt and cayene and bring to just boiling, then add wine, but do not boil again. Serve with chopped parsley.

 (The soup was delicious. The meat tasted like beef but was a bit gristly.)

Saint Lillian of the Afflicted.

Do you know?......Lillian has only gone and paid for Celia to have  TV for a week.'Well, it'll be something for her to do, she gets so fed up."Lillian is fab!

The long road to recovery!

Dulcie was all ready to come out to the dining room when we arrived today.We found an empty table and sat down. She had pork in plum sauce and Will and I had left over 'Curried Goat.'....that's goat in a curry!After lunch we collared Damien to find out what was discussed at the case conference.They are pleased with her progress."She is not on the oxygen any more," he said.We know that....we've been in twice a day since last Thursday...'we've probably seen her more than you!' I thought.She was now borderline as to whether she would qualify for oxygen at home but as she still got breathless after exertion she still might need it at home....they needed to do more tests.Will asked about a time frame for her coming home....Damien was cagey....and gave no deadline.We reiterated we were keen to get her home and we were prepared to make changes to the house to get her back."Am I right that there will be care for her at home?"Flippin' heck! We've told him 'yes 'twice before!We asked about getting an OT out to the house to discuss our plans. "Could we get one this week?" Basically we couldn't."And there is the issue of the 13 stairs....."I cut him off.....'yes but we have discussed and are prepared to get a chair lift.'"And she is down to 40 kgs...""Yes, but she eats everything and we have been bringing her biscuits and cakes and even a pie yesterday."In the end I wanted to scream...."You let frail old Doris out who sat there crying 'Help me! Help me! Will somebody please help me!' ....Dulcie would never do that!.....what is the matter with you?"The OT reckons in a few weeks she will be able to climb stairs.We told him she just wants to go home...she has lost her spark and fears she will never get out of there.It was not what we wanted to hear but at least she is progressing.

Renal Scan...part two.

I was awake before the alarm and as instructed emptied my bladder by 8.30 and drank 800 mls of water by 9.00.I arrived 10 minutes early as they had asked me too, at 9.50. It was a different receptionist. She took all my details."Did you drink the water?""Yes," I said."How do you feel?""Fine," I said."Take a seat when you are ready," she said. I thought about that as I sat down. Why not just 'take a seat'? Why add the 'when you are ready'? If you are standing at a receptionist's desk and they say 'please take a seat,' has anyone in the World ever said "Oh no, I'm not ready!" I doubt it.I sat down...the clinic was just a converted shop. I noticed a poster on the wall about the owner, Terry. It said Terry had grown up with a brother and had opened the ultrasound scanner clinic with his wife....his own wife, not his brother's wife. He had a good sense of humour, it said and former patients would pop in on their way past just to say hello. Terry was bigging himself up wasn't he?The door slid open and in came a man carrying a washing basket full of crumpled towels. He had balding dark hair greased down with brylcreem....or perhaps it was just grease...he wasn't smiling....it was Terry. Terry looked miserable and a little bit seedy. He disappeared around the corner with his crumpled towels.I didn't want Terry poking me with a lubricated stick. Luckily I got Jane.Jane led me into a back room, the lights were dimmed."If you could lie on the bed for me and unzip your trousers."I wondered for a moment if I had come to the right place.I lay down on my front."No, if you could lie on your back please," said Jane.I thought my kidneys were nearer my back....I was right...I found out later, but she wanted to check my bladder first.She squeezed some cold gel on my tummy and poked about with the ultra sound thingy. I realised that the big screen on the wall behind her, with the weird screen saver playing, was actually pictures of my bladder.After a few moments she said "Good. Now I need you to go and empty your bladder. You will find the toilet through that door." She pointed at a different door to the one I came in. I opened it and found I was outside again in a little yard. Across the yard was a door with 'Toilet' on it.I went in. It was a bit smelly and seedy....like Terry. I did what I had to do and washed my hands at the basin. Looking in the mirror I wondered if this was where Terry smeared the brylcreeem on his hair. I pulled at the paper towel and the whole roll started to unravel at once. It poured out of the dispenser and I was frantically trying to stop it. When I had, I then tried to, even more frantically, stuff it back in! It was hopeless So I ripped it off, dried my hands on the huge bundle of paper towel and stuffed it in the bin. I regained my composure and stepped out and back into Jane's room.She squeezed at the gel tube over my tummy and it spluttered noisily."Hmmm, I'm running out," she said.She poked about again and took some more pictures before asking me to lie on my side. That is when she started to look at my kidneys but she poked the wand just below my ribs on the side."Does that hurt?"It didn't but then she moved it and it did....but I didn't say anything. I had to turn over and then she did the other side. It did not take that long at all."It says here you have to have some arterial scans too. Have you made an appointment?"I hadn't."Well, I am the only one here qualified to do those scans," she said. "It will take a bit longer than the scan today."'What? Not Terry?' I thought...How lucky! I live to face another day without Terry poking me with a lubricated stick.I made the appointment for Saturday.....8.50 am."You have to fast for this one," said the receptionist."Eh? How long for?" I asked, worried."About eight hours. You are allowed to drink though."Hmmm, no golden calamari at the markets then!.........bugger!  

6 Months Down Under!

Dulcie was still in her bed when we arrived at lunchtime. She had already been to physio.She looked settled but we got her up and out into the dining room.Lillian was sat on another table with the 'talker'. When she saw Dulcie coming out she mouthed 'she said she wasn't coming out today.''Like hell she is,' I mouthed back.'Well done,' mouthed Lillian.Will and I had brought pies for lunch. We got one for Dulcie too. She ate her hospital lunch and then some of her pie.Will went for coffee and hot chocolate before we started our game of cards.Nina came with the empty biscuit tin. "I've brought it for a refill," she said. It was a bit cheeky."I loved the jam ones," she said."Well, I'll make more of those," I said."Could you write out the recipe and put it in the tin?" She asked. "I won't be here this weekend...shall we say next week?"Nina is not backward in coming forward."What are we going to do when you've gone?" She said walking away.We had a game of euchre. We overheard Nina telling Doris's daughter that Doris could go home tomorrow. We couldn't believe it. Doris is much more frail than Dulcie.When the card game was over I found Nina and asked if it was ok to take Dulcie outside for a bit."Escape!" said Nina."Do you want my camera as collateral?" I asked. She smiled. "We'll bring her back.""I know you will," she said.We wheeled Dulcie outside, for the first time in three weeks. We sat in the fresh air for about half an hour and then took her back.Dulcie had mentioned missing her radio and listening to the news so when we left we went up to Garden City and bought her some wireless headphones with built in FM radio.We had half an hour at home before it was time to go back for tea.She ate all her tea and then ate some soup that Danny had brought. We don't know how she fits it all in.A 'loony' walked in. He was wearing a  hospital tunic. We had never seen him before."Have you eaten your tea?" He asked Lillian. "Did you give it to the guy with horns? He is called Dracula." He went and talked to Maureen. "Are you eating your soup?""No," she said."Can I eat it?"Maureen burped loudly..."Pardon me," she said."Did you eat your soup?" He had moved onto Celia. "It puts hairs on your chest. I want hairs on my chest. I want to have a competition to see who has the hairiest chest and when that is over a competition to see who has the hairiest 'boo-tocks'. (That is how he actually pronounced it.) We will line everyone up and ( he mimed pulling down his pants) then the Queen can come along a see who is the winner."He walked out leaving us all open mouthed.Dulcie liked her head phones but found it a bit complicated to work them. Hopefully she will get used to them.It is six months today since we arrived in Australia.