How's your day, blog 109 Paper Back link

How’s your day? Blog 109 the Paper Back

© Peter A Taylor, Thursday, May 16

 

As promised I have the link to the paper back of the collection of ‘How’s your Day’.

 

https://www.createspace.com/4272144

 

55,000 words of inspiration, entertainment and snippets into my life share an interesting point of view. Written by me, vision impaired and profoundly deaf, these blogs take you with me over the past two year’s .Written from the beginning, when my sister kept asking

‘How do you do this ’and ‘everyone wants to know how you are.’

To travel with me on the world’s first experience to try and cure Leishmania, the parasite that is killing me.

So grab a cuppa, sit up in bed or by the fire and read. This is ideal for those who like to feel the book between their hands, smell the print and not deal with technology.

I would love it if you place a recommendation on the create space site once you have read it. The book will not be available through Amazon for at least a week. You are directed to my shop.

This little gift will bless your friends who need a lift of positivity.

Go direct to the shopping cart and order.

 

https://www.createspace.com/4272144

 

It’s been a hell of a week with no energy to pull the skin off a rice pudding.

My dear friend planted my garden with seed potatoes, and 9 rows of winter veggies, all ready for the rain forecast for tomorrow.

We will be awash in Turnips, cabbage, Cauli, broccoli, celery, carrots, and more with Marigolds planted at each row for pest control.

 

thank you for passing on this great news.

Enjoy your read.

 

My collection of 101 blogs of How's your day ? now on Kindle

How’s your day, Blog 108, 101 blogs on Kindle

© Peter A Taylor, 10, May 2013

 

101 blogs on Kindle for Amazon, A collection of how’s your day? Blogs.

 

From the first blog to the end of the experiment, over two years of snippets into my life, are now available on Kindle.

For the cost of ¾ of a cup of coffee, you can laugh, be inspired, agree or disagree with social comment and provoke your mind set. In a few more days this little book of 55,000 words will available as a paper back from creates Space for Amazon. This will be a great little gift to bless someone with who needs a positive look at life.

The link to go straight to by a copy of this little beauty;

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CNJ5DBC

 

For those of you have read some of my blogs and enjoyed, you can now have a collection for yourself and a ready gift for others.

If you like my collection of blogs, I’d appreciate you leaving a recommendation on Kindle.

 

I am feeling better today and thank all of the great messages of support. Two of my fat caterpillars have set to chrysalises and the other two are munching away as full as a fat boys sock. In a few days these fat tasty grubs will become stunningly beautiful and fragile butterflies. May they make it back to the Northern Hemisphere for the summer?

 

Here is another opportunity to link to my collection of blogs.

Happy reading

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CNJ5DBC

 

Please pass this on to your friends and contacts who would enjoy its collection.

Thank you.

How's your day? blog 107 Not all beer and skittles

How’s your day? Blog 107, not all skittles and beer

© Peter A Taylor

I write to share with you how my day is going from a request by my sister over two years ago. Her friends asked how I am and how I keep doing what I do. For those of you have read some of my blogs , they are comments and snippets of my life as I travel the terminal health route and on the way lost my hearing and 80% of my sight. The strange thing is, I continued to live.

 

I understood my role as a writer was to inspire others as this seemed to be the genre I had fallen into by default.

 

My speaking presentations focused on what you can do and not what you can’t  and of course I can’t change my circumstances but I have the choice to change my attitude.

 

Through the past 17 years of constant treatment, being poked at , bits cut off and used as a lab rat, I’ve maintained my ability of resilience to stay positive.

 

My wellness is a full time job and one must be diligent not to let negatives creep under doors or slide in through window cracks. It is most important to avoid depression even when became profoundly deaf and communicated by touch. The vortex will suck the humanity from your very soul.

 

This week my return to the hospital for my 3 doses, one a day proved as tough as usual. A toilet before leaving the house was painful and on arrival at the hospital I had a pinched hernia in my groin. Oh stink, A bit of morphine and a relaxant later, the offending intestine was pushed back behind my abdomen wall and yes, the surgeon agreed it should be operated on. A good result.

 

The next morning as I settled into my windowless room to begin my treatment , yet another blood sample was required. My central port would not produce so I agreed to use my arm. As the nurse prepared to stick me, my face creased and I placed my palm over my eyes as I began to cry silently.

          ‘Oh Donna, what have they done to me,’ I cried in a tired weak voice.  both

Wrapping my other hand in both of hers, so warm and comforting, I regained my composure quickly. This nurse is one of several who have treated me over the last 11 years.

It was a sign I am emotionally and mentally exhausted.

The Registrar arrived and requested the blood for a cross match as my cants were low and I need a blood transfusion. Oh how simple as this explains my set of being. I’m just worn out from the struggle to make the best of what I’ve got. On the final day of treatment now dose 913; the fresh blood followed giving me some colour to my face.

 

As much as I press on in this unknown and uncharted territory I try my best to remain positive, active and productive. It’s not all beer and skittles. I am forever grateful and we thanks each day to my partner for unconditional support and love, the reason why I continue to live.

 

To finish on a brighter note. Checking my garden after the last storm was a surprise. This summer I planted two Swan Plants to attract Monarch Butterflies. All summer I saw them visit my garden but no one sat on my plant. Yesterday I noticed one of the plants had blown over. As I righted it, I noticed the other was severely eaten. To my delight I have four fat striped caterpillars hanging in the rain on tee one bush. Pushing the other into the eaten one will give more chance for the caterpillars to get to the correct size and grow into the astonishing beauties that we all love and admire.      

 

How's your day? blog 106 Coromandel to the Gold Coast

How’s your day? Blog 106, Coromandel to the Gold Coast

© Peter A Taylor, 30 April 2013

With his wave board under his arm, Rodney strode into the calm pristine water of the inland harbour. It was our last day of our break, the Tuesday after Easter.

‘Another day in paradise,’ I said with a warm smile of gratitude.

‘Yes, today I’ll go back and drift silently to hear the water swirl against the rock wall and the Tui song as the Pohutakawa are full of them today.’ Rodney sat astride his board and glided into the warm crystalline water.

 

Dozing in the sun under my straw hat seemed like the world was miles away and I wasn’t sick in this dream land. I’d swim like a fish and perch on the point looking into the magnificent ocean as centuries of myths and legends drifted over my feathers.

 

It was time to eat and now in Cooks Beach nothing was open except the beach store and she’d run out of pies. We headed to the next point, passing Flax Mill Bay, stopping to take photos of the sand. It is yet another little sheltered bay nestled behind a large headland where tracks from tractors launching boats were the only intention that people lived here.

 

It was over the hill and to the ferry crossing. A ferry trip to Whitianga only 200 meters across the inlet saves a car journey of 45 minutes to get to by land.

‘Two return tickets, please,’ I asked and offered my $10 to the old seafarer who piloted our little boat to the opposite shore. The jewel of the Coromandel, Whitianga has a population of mostly retired folk of 4,000 people. Surviving on the tourist trade and upmarket beach homes, this area swells to 40,000 during the season.

 

We approached the local museum as it promised relics of Kauri Gum fields, loads of ship memorabilia and information about Captain Cook. To my surprise the volunteer lady, short and generous of body and personality with black rimmed glasses, looked over her spectacles.

‘That will be one senior and one adult.’ She smiled a tourist sort of smile, putting out her pudgy hand to take my money.

I’ve never been called a senior before but did appreciate the concession entrance fee. We walked through a replica Kauri workers hut, saw rooms of settlers and half a ship, well the back end of the ‘Endeavour’.

 

We stumbled on to a lovely wooden pub with a water feature filled with scarlet Carp and walked over the bridge to order icy beers. While waiting to take our boat ride home after the cruise to the outer coast line, it was back to the pub while the Ferry Driver had his dinner break.  Slightly wet from the wade in the long shallows from the shore shelf, we indulged in Potato wedges and sour cream with beer inferno of the outdoor open fire place.

 

One day at home to repack and I left to visit my Mother in Surfers Paradise for her 83^rd birthday. What a treat to also see my younger sister and my Aunts, Uncle and cousins. It was a farewell lunch as all the seniors are ill with all sorts of things and I was not feeling too sharp myself.

 

On the tenth floor of the Golden Gate Building, overlooking the famous Surfers Paradise beach with the surf crashing loudly and little Rainbow Parrots perching on the balcony hand rail looking for tit bits, was a treat. Whatever window I looked from there was a view of the Hinter land, or giant palms from the neighbouring High Rise gardens and swimming pools for Africa.

 

One thing about living on the tropical coast is the fruit. Giant golden Paw-Paw as sweet and juicy served with Prawn’s as fast as your thumb and crunchy as lettuce, made a salad with spinach leaves, Coriander leaves and slices of Cucumber drizzled with fresh limes. What a delicious taste sensation like real holiday experience.  NZ grilled Salmon for dinner, chicken and seedless grapes were the food I loved to graze upon. My family had done be proud.

 

To my delight I met my grand niece, an animated well mannered 9 year old and my grand nephew is now 12. They will remember me now as they are old enough.

 

This Gold Coast trip was a point of closure and significant. I caught up with my lovely sister for the entire time as she is Mum’s care giver. We sat on the famous beach one day having an early morning coffee. Since the last cyclone, the beach had been swept away and instead of walking on to powder sand, we plunged down a three meter drop with walls of sand held only by Mari grass.

 

Walking into the surf as waves crashed out a few meters away the water at 24 degrees Celsius was sheer heaven. We stood in the shallows splashing water up our arms and holding our shorts legs up from the surge of foaming water. Again the sandy bottom was clean. If I had more strength I’d have loved to languish in the waves as I have done on this beach on and off for many years. It was time to board my plane and come home in time for more treatment. I had not recovered from the previous treatment but I guess I will work this out over the next three weeks

How's your day? Blog 105, Hostage to Health

How’s your day? Blog 105 Hostage to Health

© Peter A Taylor, Monday 22, April 2013

My new blogger .com address is http://peterataylor.blogspot.co.nz. This is the last day you will find me on Posterous.com.

 

Driving toward Cooks Beach on Easter Monday  invited us to look upon flat and well managed Dairy farms, The Mercury Bay Vine Yard  and very little else, that is until you round the bend and over 300 holiday homes of various sizes fill the vista.  Cooks Beach is another long stretch of paradise, calm waters and a head land at each end.  The southern end of the beach with a narrow channel opened into the serene waters of an inland harbour. Children were swimming over pristine sandy bottom, the water about waist height and warm for 5- meters. Hosting a myriad of fishing boats of all sizes, the narrow channel took the boaties past the iconic Pohutakawa drooping to the water and one claiming a large rope from which children were swinging into the crystal clear water.

 

This area was named when Captain Cook   discovered while searching the area to view the ascent of Mercury, the constellation. A phenomenal feat when his only instruments were sexton and stars to guide him. This event only occurs every 140 years or so (Google to get the correct info). Hence the area is called Mercury Bay and this beach is where the ‘Endeavour’ his ship anchored to trade with the local Maori.

 

This Idealic curve of the harbour invited Rodney to use his wave board and paddle for further investigation. Lying on the sand I caught a few rays and rested under my large straw hat. My energy had not yet returned as expected.

 

Hearing the soft splash of the paddle and with one eye open, Rodney slid his red board from the water onto the sand.

          ‘This place is remarkable. The harbour is huge. I past a boat ramp with a house sited among sprawling Oak and Pohutakawa  with a view of the bush on one side and the beach on the other.’ Drying off in the sun, Rodney spent with excitement and exercise, I watched the kids jumping from the rope through my binoculars.

 

          ‘This is how I remember growing up as a kid in Napier, playing and swimming on the beach,’ Rodney smiled at the memory.

          ‘My experience was similar except my beaches were up in Northland and the Whangarei Heads,’ I answered.

 

The only two places to eat in Cooks Beach is ‘So Vino’, the local wine bar with an outdoor garden or the local get a bit of everything sort of shop for a pie and a liquor off licence. The take-away was not open.  We bought two lamb pies from the shop and decided the local cafe wine bar would be our coffee stop. 

 

The coffee was bitter. As we sat with a grimace we looked at our surrounds, the garden.  We both came up with the same ideas that this space would look fabulous with lights around the giant palms, a smart flower garden, and pull out the gone –to-seed herb garden and dump the cane table with the hole in it. We had the expertise to make this; the only bar on the eastern Coromandel a hit during the season. This opportunity is ideal business for a couple with one being the cook and employing local staff during the season. There was room and potential for outdoor entertainers under the three sails. Once ticked up this little place would hum. It probably is the choice of many on the coast during the season. Sadly we had arrived at the end of the tourist time when passion was spent. However while we finished our coffee 4 couples and a set of parents with two little children all ate and drank wine.

 

Then like a slap up the milking side, reality hit me. Sitting on the op shop outdoor sofa, so wide my short legs couldn’t touch the ground, I remain hostage to my health. Here I am sitting with weak limbs trying to recover from treatment and hostage to the hospital every three weeks. A great opportunity ruined by reality.

 

The redeeming factor was the extremely high standard of the photographic exhibition on the inside walls. A National Geographic photographer friend of the owner exhibits during the season.

 

The last of the dusk sun squeezed out from behind large ominous clouds turning our sky into a 15^th century Christian renaissance painting. This spectacular back drop was the sign to head back to our sanctuary when the majority of other campers moved on or returned to the city to start work the next day. The heavy dew bought with it the deep bush fragrance I loved from my childhood when growing up on dairy farms. The time had come to savour a gin and tonic and to discuss our successful day.

 

                                                   

 

 

 

How’s your day? Blog 104, more Coromandel

© Peter A Taylor, 19, April 2013

 

 

 

My new blog address is http://peterataylor.blogspot.co.nz

 

 

Putting on my magnets (my cochlear implants) I delight in the glamorous birdsong of the Tui, about the size of a black bird. This nectar feeding beauty with  a long curved beak ,sleek blue / black  is identifiable by the two fluffs of white feathers at its throat. Previously called the Parson Bird due to these white wattles were plentiful among the bush surrounding our camp site. Already warm at 8 am this would be another hot day.

 

Over 700 people had invaded the camp site by Easter Saturday. For sanity if one needed an excuse, we ventured to the Hot Water Beach shop for a Flat White Coffee. The jury is out on how good it is but miles from a cafe on a windblown beach, it beat the daylights out of instant substitute.

 

The slob of the shop, a large red Labrador cruised to stare at us looking for a tasty morsel. Clearly a cup cake or end of a sausage roll was not falling from the generous table. So what’s a fellow to do? Next trick is to roll over on his back , legs both front and back spread , exposing his bulbous tummy for a good old scratch. He looked like the sort of old Codger who frequents the Returned Services Club. Chortling with mirth making his multiple chins wobble, entertaining stories of dubious credentials all for the wish of a free beer. Moving from table to table his standard operating practice was finely tuned.

 

Opposite this display of shameless behaviour, is the only Art Gallery in the area. We love art, especially outdoor sculpture. Crossing the empty road we entered the world of Moko Art, www.moko.co.nz . Breathtaking was my first response. From the corner of my eye, among a group of Bromeliaeds, red ceramic flowers on steel rods appeared to belong to these alien looking plants.

 

Koru stems again ceramist, (young fern fronds still curled at the tips) sprung from the white stoned pathway. A group of stainless steel Stingrays suspended on rods appeared to swim across the sleeper posts and white gravel, ready to settle under the great glass bird bath hosted on a huge piece of sleeper. Among the two meter high steel cacti, ceramic depictions ranging in height of up to two meters stood powerful Nikau Palms. Indoors was an amalgam of extraordinary art prints, jewellery made from cutlery with the dessert spoon cut in half to make wings of a beetle and curved forks for legs. Jewellery, exquisite blown glass bowls and vases, semi precious gems and much more took our delight for over an hour. Another room displayed original art paintings, miniature wooded surf boards of stunning grained woods and unique walking sticks on lace wood with deer antler handles. This gallery grown in a mature garden of Dragon trees, huge Nikau Palms, succulents and fragrant Daphne and Gardenia bushes enhanced the display of unusual and unique pieces of sculpture. Mokau Art became the highlight of the art on offer for the eastern Coromandel.

 

Avoiding the other travellers, we made our way to the closest beach called Ha Heir. My first time on this coast line was a triumph as we drove to a classic scene of safe turquoise coloured water in a half moon shaped bay  on a hot cloudless day . All this landscape of natural beauty is framed by the headlands and Pohutakawa. Rodney found a magnificent piece of drift wood to carve a new walking stick or Druids staff. I remained sitting near the shore line, sifting white fine sand through my fingers and absorbing the Ozonated air from the gentling lapping wavelets as Rodney climbed rocks for wood and photo vantages.

 

Food was not as available as city slickers like. We searched in Ha Hei village shop but the Pies were gone. To my seafood fancier delight I found the best Mussel Fritter ever in the ice-cream shop, come taka way. Rodney was satisfied with a fresh frozen berry crushed into an ice-cream. With our bellies full, our tan factor complete, it was time to return to the camp for an afternoon restorative Nana nap  and follow with the delightful and tasty Bombay Sapphire Gin and Tonic.

 

The posterous site is closing on the 30th of April. This is my new address
My new blog address is http://peterataylor.blogspot.co.nz