1. OMGEEEE! Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland with my beloved Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I am giddy with excitement!
2. My local pizza shop and the fabulous pizza making person who didn’t laugh when I ordered the gourmet vegetarian with pepperoni. And chilli. Best pizza ever.
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman and her clever garter stitch baby blanket pattern. I’m very close to finishing the blanket and it’s been a very enjoyable project to work on.
4. Kermit, my little green ipod, which will accompany on my morning run. I have lots of David Bowie loaded up and ready to go just for the occasion.
5. My husband who didn’t complain at all when I said that I just wanted to lay on the couch today.
6. My poor old diabetic cat, who never complains about having injections twice daily or about the crippling arthritis throughout her body. She just purrs and loves any attention, no matter how fleeting.
7. Ilford for continuing to produce photographic chemicals, as I have just used the last of my now obsolete Agfa stash.
8. Eurovision Song Contest, for providing an infinite supply of tragic fashion and completely laughable musical talent. And Abba. I was rooting for Poland this year. Oh well.

I’ve just had a week of being sick with a throat/chest infection. I was so sick that I actually took two days off from work. My new (well sort of new) assistant did a stellar job of keeping everything together while I was gone. I’m so effing impressed with her that I’ve decided to bake a batch of my world famous chocolate chip cookies for her as a thank you.

We had planned on hitting the city today to visit my favourite camera store, followed by lunch at the Lindt cafe before dropping in on my sister. Those plans fell by the way side because I’m still not feeling 100% and it is so windy out today that I declared the city a no-go zone. That and I’m lazy. Heh.

So today is all about drinking tea, watching tivo and knitting. Sounds good to me!

I have always detested Mother’s day. My own mother did an awesome job of being horrible to myself and my siblings for as long as I can remember, and having to honour her on this day each year by playing happy families and pretending she was number-one-mum was just as traumatising. I don’t speak to my own mother anymore and in recent years, Mother’s day was just another day but now I find myself hating Mother’s day because it represents what I don’t have.

My appointment at IVF Australia was interesting. To cut a long story short, the doctor found 6-8 cysts on my left ovary but none on my right ovary. He isn’t convinced that I’ve been ovulating at all so he is running with the diagnosis of PCOS. I have been prescribed a course of fertility drugs and instructions to return to discuss my options if I am not pregnant after three more cycles.

This is possibly the most retarded thing I’ve ever seen…

I saw the movie “Inkheart” last night — good movie, highly recommended — and have been thinking about the characters I would like to read out of various books. Having just finished ironing the husband’s shirts for the week ahead, I’d definitely want to help myself to a housekeeper — any one but Mrs Danvers from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca would do just nicely! I’d also love Dorothy’s silver slippers* too… that would make getting home from work in peak hour traffic a snap! I could write for too long about the shoes and dresses I’d love to snow drop out of so many books but I guess that all goes without saying.

Would it be wrong to read Bella out of Twilight, and read myself into Forks instead? Actually Bella can stay, I would just like to hang out with Alice and Jasper. Maybe Carlisle could be persuaded to change me? He might even agree to turn someone for me, if I found someone that I thought I could live with forever and ever. *grin* Or perhaps I’d read Lestat out of Interview with the Vampire, demand that he makes me immortal, then I’d read him straight back in again. That would be my plan B – I prefer Stephenie Meyer’s vampires over Anne Rice’s vamps. Anne’s are just too flawed and I like the idea of sparkling in sunlight over burning! Can you see a pattern forming here? Heh.

I’d also be tempted to read Dr Who and his TARDIS out, just so I could do a little time-travelling and get my fill of genuine Victoriana. Corsets and terrace houses and gas lamps, oh my! And what girl wouldn’t want to read herself into Mr Darcy’s life – I think I’d make a very fine mistress of Pemberley! Or perhaps I’d read myself into the Princess Bride’s Florin; I hear it’s nice this time of year. My inner ten-year-old self would love to be read into any of Trixie Belden’s adventures. *snort*

The possibilities are endless…

* Dorothy’s slippers were silver in the book and red in the movie.

When I saw my GP before Easter, she suggested that I cut sugar out of my diet. The idea is to give my endocrine system a kick to try to even out my erratic cycles. It wasn’t easy to avoid the chocolate eggs that were EVERYWHERE but I managed to stick to it. Every time I wanted something sweet, I had a piece of fruit instead. And now I’ve just had a 28 day cycle. Maybe there’s something to it?

I’ve got an appointment with a fertility specialist on Wednesday. I haven’t seen one yet so I’m not sure what to expect. The husband is away again for work so I’ll have to go alone. I asked about changing the appointment but the clinic is booked out until the end of July. I’d rather go now by myself than wait months. I hate the waiting. Besides, I’m the one with the problem so I guess the doctor won’t need to see the husband at this point. I’m actually sort of pleased in a way, because it means that what is said between me and the doctor will stay between me and the doctor. You see, I’ve recently discovered that there’s a mole in our midst that has been leaking secrets to the inlaws. As if I’m not under enough stress already… honestly, I feel like I’m living under a damn microscope.

Stress. Work is a killer at the moment. We are still short staffed and the GM + CEO have declined our request to readvertise the position that became vacant last December. I can’t take any leave until they hire someone to cover me and since they won’t be hiring anyone, I won’t be taking any leave. I guess I’ve brought it on myself in some respects – I go to work every day, I’m early every day, I work through lunch every day, I work late every day. Why would they need to hire anyone else if the work is getting done? Clearly I need to orchestrate some strategic ball-dropping in the coming weeks. Speaking of the coming weeks, it’ll be interesting if swine flu goes to level six. Being a major hospital, we’ve had to work on our contingency plan which mostly involves displaying cough-ettiquette/hand-washing posters and stock piling oinkment infectious disease masks.