Alrighty then.

 So.

It's all been pretty full on lately, actually. I mean, work, of course, but yeah.

My family's business is finally done and dusted. The rent roll has been sold to another agency, the phones have been disconnected, most of the furniture has been moved out/sold and all of the signage has been removed. My mother's been working there for about fifteen years and her father's been there longer than that - it was his business, after all. My grandfather had to sell up to divide the money from the business with his now ex wife (my mother's step mother) and the house is going to be sold soon too, I think. The thing is, the reason it's so stressful for him is because his job is the only thing that's been keeping him afloat all these years, he's never been happy in his marriage to his wife, so this was really all he had - well, that and his garden, but since his aneurysm last year, he can't garden so much now. So, naturally, he's getting on my mum's nerves too with all his phonecalls and incessant checking and rechecking of facts and figures.

My mum's new job starts in a few weeks, so at least that'll provide some sort of respite and a move forward. Although it pays quite a bit less than what she currently earns, so that'll be tough for all of us.

My great aunt (my mother's aunt) is in hospital currently over at Westmead. She was due to have another stent put in from when she had her heart attack before Christmas (heart attack number two), so when they went to go through the femoral artery, they couldn't get into the heart due to a large clot actually inside of the heart. And where they put the first stent in to open up one of the arteries last year is about 80% closed. Already. All the arteries into the heart arteries into the heart are severely compromised so she's naturally still in hospital. They said that had she not come in, she'd be dead by now. She's having a quadruple bypass on Thursday.

Then more bad news.

Era's mother has had an aneurysm right in the centre of her brain. I'm not going to go through much more detail because it's not my place to...And I'm not sure I'd have them all right. But Tina's an amazing and strong woman (she'd have to be to deal with Era!!) and I'm sure that as each day passes, she'll find the strength to come back to us all. Although I've only met her a few times, Tina's actually had some sort of strange impact on me  - she's got that kind of voice that one can't help but listen to ('cause she'll beat you if you don't) - and she was partly the reason that I got my confidence together about going overseas. I really hope it'll all go well.

Era, if you read this (which I hope you do, Doghead), I'm going to give you a call during the week to find out when (fri/sat) you want me to come over and what you want me to bring...Whatever your (and Arthur's) little heart desires.

So yeah. I'm tired and stressed, but very grateful in some ways. Every day comes around and I can usually find something in my life to bitch about (still could right now actually, lol) but my life could be worse...I hope it doesn't get worse, but it always could be. Right now I'm trying to pool my emotional resources and try to be supportive to my friends and family and try to give them a little bit of happy for a while.

Peace.

P.S. It's my birthday on Tuesday. Couldn't be any less excited if I tried. Twenty, Fuck.