More good news!

It seems to be the time for good news in the Font household ("at last" I hear you cry!). There were two viewings on our UK house yesterday and Gemma phoned this morning to say that one of them had gone for it! Over the moon to say the least. We had decided to reduce the rent to 560 per month but the couple who viewed it had seen it advertised at 580 and were happy to pay that. Gemma has also reduced her fee to 7.5% which is great - anything is a help at the moment. The couple who are taking it sound really nice. The woman is a lecturer at Uni and her husband is a full time Uni student. They've just sold their house in Bridgend (not sure of the reason behind that) and are looking to rent for a couple of years - excellent! They're due to complete on the sale of their house on 24th August and will possibly move in slightly earlier than that. The sooner the better for us obviously.

Still smiling with the good news!

Well its still all smiles in the Font household after mums good news last week. I had been living on a lot of 'what ifs' over the last few weeks (as I'm sure my mum had!) and its a big relief to be able to plan things with that worry. I had planned to get the next flight home with Danielle if the results were negative so that I could drive mum back and forth the hospital etc for treatment and to basically be there for her. Grays mum and dad are due out in 6 weeks and I wasnt even sure if I'd be here for that. Thankfully now we can really start planning things. I'm gonna try and get mum back out as soon as possible too. It'd be fantastic if she could come out for Christmas but I dont know how realistic that is. Flights are costly at that time of year and I know that mum might worry about how she would cope with the heat (although last Christmas wasnt hot at all - more like a UK summer!).

TAFE is going ok. The course is split up into 4 modules with 4 different teachers. Two of the lessons I'm really enjoying, one of them I've decided to study full time from home (project management) as I cant spend enough time in the classroom (have to leave early to pick up Danielle) and the other one is a bit of a nightmare right now. Matthew (the teacher) is very very bland - your typical computer geek actually - and his teaching leaves a lot to be desired. We've only had two lessons so far and both of them were spent the same way - the first 30 mins doing a question and answer session (I liked that) but then it went drastically downhill. He just sat us all in front of an online tutorial for the next 3 hours. The tutorial itsself was very basic and it would take a lot for someone to actually 'learn' from it - plus you could work your way through it in a max of 30 mins but we were sat there for 3 hours - not good at all!

Its Sharons daughters 19th birthday today. For her 18th Sharon & Noel had a big get together at their house and I really cant believe that a year has passed since then. The time here has flown by.

27th July - Fantastic News!

The results are in and they’re ALL GOOD! Mum is now CANCER FREE! Over the moon to say the least. She has to take tablets for 5 years to reduce the risk of it returning in the other breast but apart from that she’s all clear. No sign of cancer in any of the lymph nodes. They did confirm that the lump was cancerous and also that the tissue around the lump was cancerous too so it was definitely a good move for her to have had the entire breast off.

26th July - "D' Day has arrived for Mum

Well today is the day that mum gets her results. I’m feeling as nervous as hell so I can only begin to imagine how she must be feeling. It’s the longest day ever too because I’ll have to wait until about 1am until I know how it went (this time difference sucks!).

I’m gonna give her a call in a minute and then I’ll update here I think. The update after that will be when we’ve had the results! Fingers crossed its good news.

25th July - Second week in TAFE

Well this week has been a bit up and down so far with TAFE. Yesterday I had a blinding headache all day and so the teachers just really pissed me off. Both Tuesday teachers are really boring so that wasn’t helping. Today has been better though thankfully and I feel as though I’ve learnt a lot (which is more than I can say for yesterday!).

Mum gets here results tomorrow so fingers crossed for that – not really much else I can say about that. Obviously I’m dreading it but also looking forward to knowing what the situation is.

Mum had some great news this week. Shes finally been accepted as a registered child minder. It was really all down to the doctor saying she was fit enough to work (this was before the cancer was diagnosed) which he obviously did. It’ll be a while before she gets some kids to look after but the great thing is that this will give her the ability to earn her own money and give her a bit of independence which is exactly what she needs.

We have a mortgage advisor come to the house last night. Its looking more and more likely that we will have to sell the UK house as we have no tenants still, so we wanted to check out our options. We were surprised to find that we are in a position to be able to buy an investment property if we wanted to (the rules are all different in Australia) so we’re seriously considering that. Needless to say as soon as the bloke left I was on the internet checking out properties. If I hadn’t have had to go to TAFE today I have no doubt in my mind that I would have been viewing a few too. I’m in TAFE again tomorrow but Friday I might give it a shot!

Grays back on days now – YAY! He did have Monday and Tuesday off though. Monday was just a recovery period – he hardly slept over the weekend as he was so used to doing nights. Tuesday he took off to take Danielle for an Xray. She fell off the horse on Monday night while doing her first proper jump, and the flaming horse stood on her arm bless her. Alls good though, its just swollen and bruised. She got to go to school with a sling today (just to rest it) which she was obviously very happy about!

22nd July - Grays finally finished nights!

Its Grays first official day off nights tonight and its nice I must admit (if not a little strange!).

I took Danielle swimming today with Sharon & Katie while Gray stayed at home and sorted the garden out (which desperately needed doing!). We then popped into town and picked up a couple of sweater (2 Puma Sweaters for $60 – bargain), and later on we went to Sharon & Noels for tea (and a few beers – very nice!).

I’m just updating this and then I’m heading to bed. Grays gonna throw a sicky tomorrow and hes promised to take Danielle to school in the morning so I can have a lie in (I cant see it happening myself but we’ll see!).

Bed time for me!

21st July - a quick catch up

Gray worked his last night shift last night – thank god! Its been driving me nuts – although I must admit that its gonna be weird having him here in the evenings again.

My first week in TAFE went well. Pretty boring because it was just orientation but I’m sure next week will be better when we start getting into the nitty gritty of it all. Initially I was going to be finishing at 2.45pm each day so that I could pick Danielle up but I’m a bit worried that I’m going to miss too much work. It would mean me missing over 7 hours per week of a 16 hour course – not good. I’ve managed to work around this a little bit though. Sharon is going to pick Danielle up from school on Wednesdays, take her home and then I’ll finish TAFE at 4.30pm, pick them all straight up and take them to gymnastics. That’s a big help. Also when I went to TAFE on Thursday I found out that that teacher teaches exactly the same class in the mornings, so hes said that I could go to that one if it makes it easier – excellent! So, the only day I have to finish at 2.45pm now is Monday and to be honest I don’t really like the bloke whos doing that lesson so its no real hardship!!

Not long now until mum gets her results – Thursday 26th is the big day. I’m fairly positive that things will go well – haven’t got a clue how I’ll react if they don’t but the chances are I’d be on a plane as soon as I could to ferry her back and forth the hospital and to give her the support she’ll need.

Danielles swimming is going well still. After Tuesdays squads she asked if she could go back down the Sharks because it was such hard work. Thankfully she stuck with it and did really well Thursday – she did an entire hour without using her flippers (very hard work!). She also got to try out her new hand paddles which she was very impressed with.

Gray slept until 1pm today and then we all went for a quick bike ride at Penrith Lakes. That’s where Steve Redgrave won his gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Its lovely there – very peaceful.

Had UK visitors at the weekend

Well we had a lovely weekend this weekend. Paul Lounds and his girlfriend Paula are travelling around Australia and so they stayed with us for a couple of nights. It was really nice to catch up with someone from home. I showed them a few sights - not much though as its pretty cold here right now plus they werent here for long.

I heard yesterday that I didnt get the job I applied for. Probably a blessing in disguise really because the hours just werent suitable. I've decided to remain focused on my TAFE course now (which I started today). Web design is the way I want to go to try and make some decent money so thats what I'm going to do. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit of freelance work while I'm doing the course plus my websites will hopefully benefit throughout the course too and start brining a bit more cash in.

We were hoping to get mums results through today but unfortunately they're not ready. We've got to wait until next week now which is horrible. Not much more I can say about that really - its just a case of waiting and seeing. Mum seems to be coping pretty well with it all though and appears to be positive. I hope thats not just a front though.

The cold has really set in very quickly here. We now have the fire in the living room on pretty much all the time that we're in the house, plus I've just started to put the oil burner heaters on in the bedrooms too. Grays still on nights at the moment and he struggles to get to sleep when he gets in in the mornings because it is so cold. It was minus 3 this morning and is due to reach minus 7 tomorrow apparently! Not looking forward to that at all I can tell you.

A busy week in the Font Household

Grays been on nights again this week (which is a right pain!), and Danielles on school holidays still (even more of a pain with Gray on nights) so I've been trying to keep us busy outside of the house.

Saturday I took her to watch horse jumping in Castlereagh which is just down the road from us. It was really nice - only trouble was that I spent the entire time there (about 1 1/2 hours) waiting for our burgers - it was shocking! One woman actually threatened to sue them because they'd given her some pasta dish with mushrooms in after she told them she was allergic to mushrooms! Not good. We took Danielle swimming later to practice her turns and then it was a lazy night doing nothing.

Sunday we literally didnt do anything. Gray spent most of the time sleeping and we just hung around the house.

Monday I had an interview at Windsor. It was advertised as part time admin work (office all rounder) so I thought it sounded ideal. I was interviewed by two people (a bit daunting) but they were both really nice. They had over 100 applicants for the position and they cut it down to 9 which I'm really pleased about as it means my resume must be effective. The only problem is that the hours are actually 1-5pm not 10-2pm which would have been ideal for me. Having said that though, if I was offered the job I think I would try and work around the time issue because it sounds great. They're going to cut it down to 4 next, then it'll be another interview with another man, and then a decision will made. While I was there Danielle went to Hayleys for a few hours which she was obviously very happy with.

We have also finally sacked our Estate Agents in the UK. Since Gemma left there (the girl who was managing our property) things had just gone down hill. They didnt reply to emails and when they did it was like talking to a child. The boss (Darren) would email in text talk and it would like as though he was pissed - not good - definitely not professional. I was on the phone to them at 10pm Monday evening telling them to hand over the keys to a friend of mine who was collecting them (who was actually going to hand them over to Gemma (the girl who used to work there) as she has now set up her own Rental business. Fingers crossed we'll get someone in soon because we desperately need the money. We struggle to survive on Grays wage here as it is, having to pay a UK mortgage too is just a nightmare. We havent had any rent in for the house for months. Not good.

Tuesday I did a Market Research group in Kellyville for 2 hours. Basically there are a group of you sitting around a table, they are recording the meeting and we discuss the product they're proposing to market. In this case it was BBQ Sauces. I'd definitely do it again as I got $70 for just talking!!

Today I've woken up with a head full of cold and a cough - its been lingering for a while but has really kicked in this morning. I was awake at 4.30am so got up and watched a bit of TV on the settee - managed to fall asleep for two hours there which made me feel better. I think I'm gonna have a lazy day on the settee in front of the TV all day today - probably take Dan swimming at 4pm but that'll be about it.

Mums still in hospital. She'll hopefully be leaving today if her drip comes out. Its taken a little while longer than normal for it to come out - not sure of the reason behind it - just one of those things I guess. Shes also been on anti-biotics and pain killers because shes got a bit of an infection where the drain goes in. When I spoke to her yesterday she said the pain killers seem to have kicked in as she was feeling a lot more comfortable. She cant wait to get home now which is understandable. I'd be happier with her going home too because with her being so far away (in Port Talbot - about 1 hour 20 mins from home) shes not getting any visitors (well actually Tony & Gill visited her on Sunday but they've been the only ones). When she gets home she'll hopefully have lots of people rallying around her. Dave will be due back on Sunday too so thats good. She seems to be dealing with the fact that shes lost her breast quite well I think. At the end of the day she just has to remember that with the breast gone, so too has the cancer (hopefully for good!). She has to go to Bridgend Princess of Wales Hospital (where Danielle was born funnily enough) on Tuesday to get the results. The signs are looking good so far as they only removed 4 lymph nodes during the op so fingers crossed its good news.

Back to my lazy day in front of the TV now! :)

Danielles such a clever girl :)

Forgot to mention that on Saturday Danielle had her gymnastics grading (while I was getting ready to go into Sydney for a hen night!!!). She did really well and came away with the gold (again!). Very proud of her.

Last night she also went to Squads and was put up into the next group - its full on traning now bless her - an hour of flat out swimming - thats a lot for anyone let alone a 7 year old! She did really well though bless her.

Mums just phoned!

Mums not long phoned - great to hear from her. She sounded really well. Apparently they only took 4 lymph nodes (which is a good sign!) and only has one drain. Others on the ward have had far more removed - one poor woman actually had all of hers removed.

I'm a little concerned that they've told her she might be able to leave tomorrow or Saturday - thats only 2/3 days post op. I wouldnt mind if someone was gonna be there with her at home but Dave has gone on holiday and wont be back for another 10 days. She does have lots of friends to keep an eye out for her but I just wish I could be there to take care of her (mind you my cooking probably wouldnt help!! haha)

Mums just text

Well after sending 8 texts to mum while she was out of it she finally replied today :)

The op went as well as they expected which is great. Hopefully I'll get to speak to her later on.