Another Birthday

Wk 4 of term already and it was testing week, a pretty easy week really just administering tests in one session and then marking them in the next. What blows me away is that 6 yr olds don't even bat an eyelid when you give them a test paper 6 pages long, they are so used to the process already. And to think that our Aussie colleagues will just be returning today after their long summer holiday. Hope they all got home safely after all that terrible weather you have been having.  In the same paper we read about bushfires and floods. They'll have had a pupil free day I expect, long staff mtgs and pd before being able to get on with the real preparation (though of course they've all been putting in hrs at home while on leave). 

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday despite having to work. I had a lovely day really. My class of 4 yr olds are doing a birthdays theme so we had balloons and played pass the parcel. We ate Tim Tams for morning tea as a tribute to Australia Day and had birthday cake for afternoon tea. I have lots of beautiful flowers in the apartment. We seem to have been out a lot lately so Eric cooked me a lovely dinner and we stayed home. Peter came over and joined us, providing ice cream for dessert. What a day of over indulgence.
To mark the end of the working week about 30 MAE colleagues had $10 steaks, the house special, at Wine Bos in Bugis. We were able to see some of the Aust Open Final between Djokervic and Murray, but really there was too much talk going on to follow it. Need to remember in future not to be the last to leave when groups this size get together and have a few drinks. The last to leave get left with the remaining bill! I'm sure it will all come out in the wash this week.

On Monday I met up with the walkers, after they had walked around West Coast Park, and had lunch with them. I had been to see the Orthopaedic Surgeon in the morning for results of the MRI. He revealed that I have a hairline fracture, just a crack really, in the lateral end of my left femur. No wonder I was having so much pain walking downhill! This has been troubling me since November and since I have not had any falls he had me do a BMD, worried I might have chalky bones. But my results are actually in the upper range for both spine and hip density so that was the best birthday present of all. I think it must be a stress fracture and originated when I was doing a lot of stair climbing in preparation for the Nepal trek. I guess it hasn't healed because I haven't rested it. The good news is that with more rest and a knee support brace I have now been fitted for, I should mend in a few weeks. Thank goodness. Meanwhile I will try to keep off it more and just swim and walk in the pool.

The news reminded me of a weekend, many years ago, when we were teaching in Melbourne. We were booked in to the ski lodge at Mt Baw Baw, a resort you could only access at the time by chairlift. I had injured an ankle mid week and been put in a back slap and on crutches but was still determined not to miss out on a weekend with friends.  The chair operator at the car park on the Friday night had this incredulous look on his face as I hobbled toward him through the snow to the bottom of the lift. He said something like "I've seen plenty of people coming down off the mountain in your condition but you are the first I've helped get up there like this." Silly. Who would try trekking in Nepal with a stress fracture before they start?