Musings over dinner

The other day I went out to dinner with most of my immediate family at one of our favourite Chinese restaurants. My paternal grandmother passed away earlier this year which sucked. She was ill, so it's kind of a relief she went when she did, but we miss her a lot, especially my grandad. My maternal grandparents passed on a while ago - so I never got to meet my maternal grandfather and my maternal grandmother passed away when I was in high school.

Same for my husband, his father passed away not too long ago, his parents we don't really know as he was separated from his family. Hubby's maternal grandparents have also passed on. 

Basically, we never really had a chance to show them a grandchild but we thought we might have had a chance to show my grandmother before she went. 

Hopefully we'll still be able to present something to my grandfather, so they can meet each other. My aunt is always bringing her grandchildren around to hang out with him and I know he's stoked for my sister's impending baby as well. Then, at the Chinese, the family who runs it is known to us. We mostly see the owners, the parents, because they're always there working away but their children had mostly moved away for studies and things like that. 

So that night, we saw their daughter who we haven't seen for maybe, five years? She's had a kid too. 

It was the most perfect little baby - sleeping through the racket in the restaurant, wrapped up against the chilly air in adorable mittens, full shock of fluffy hair. 

Served up Yummy Mummys.... But have we had enough?

My mother told me about a reality show called Yummy Mummys, with a foot note that it's probably just going to be for laughs. Holy hell, it's something but I'm not sure if I can even make it through this first episode!

I'm not really a fan of reality television because let's face it, it's lazy, it's all staged, it reminds me that the Kartrashians still exist... You know, that kind of thing. My idea of a good reality show is Drawn Together. 

Anyway, this show is centred around three mums to be from Melbourne and one clique invader from Adelaide. 

Jane - a model - seems to be a quieter person than the rest, she's already a mother and seems to have the best dress sense.

Lorinska is a primary school teacher who doesn't seem to understand motherhood, she's afraid of breastfeeding due to a unfortunate incident when she was a kid but also thinks she'll just pop back into her pre-pregnancy size immediately. She does have some classic reaction faces though.

Rachel is my favourite so far, she's a state retail manager but is a bit more down to earth and has a sense of humour about it all. She kinda reminds me of a shorter version of Sarah Jessica Parker.

Over in Adelaide though we have a horrible caricature of a rich useless brat. This is Maria who feels that every mother should have a giant powder room, matching outfits for her, her man, baby and dog, and has apparently stock piled for a baby apocalypse judging by the amount of baby shoes and things she's hoarding. She's a self confessed label slave and monograms all of her designer bags to make sure everybody knows. 

Am I being too harsh on Maria? Nope. 

Gender Studies of Inanimate Objects

So today I wanted to chat about something that that happened recently and what  kinda peeved me off. I know, a long list but it's something that's always bothered me.

I used to work in a fast food joint when I was much younger and it was always a pain to have people ask 'what's the girl's/boy's toy' when it came to ordering food for their kiddies.

Maybe it's just me, but I would have assumed the nutritional content would be more important than structuring your child's preference around their gender. When I became the manager, I was always telling the cashiers to ask if the customers wanted for example: the Bratz toy or the Hot Wheels toy.

I mean, it just makes more sense. That's generally the next question anyway - what is the boy's toy? What's the girl's toy?

Why not hit two birds with one stone by coming out and saying what it is brand wise, so the kids can choose what they want instead of what they think they're meant to have?

All this was many moons ago, lost in the winds of time much like my innocence and care factor.
Surely in 2017 we're leap years ahead of this, right?

Right?








Um, no. My husband and I were peckish before going into a movie the other day and were short on time, so we went to Macca's and got a happy meal each (because I could smuggle them in my handbag...oh so naughty) and the teenage cashier asked us if we wanted a boy or a girl toy.

Mission In Vitro Fertilisation: Testosterone Gel Protocol

At my last planning meeting, my ob/gyn suggested a random method that might help boost egg numbers. This involves some HRT with tablets, a spray and oddly, a testosterone gel.


You apply it once per day at the same time, making sure it has enough time to dry/be absorbed before touching anyone or getting dressed etc. You generally apply it where it's not going to be rubbed off or in contact with another person straight away, or within 6 hours.
So this could mean areas like your stomach, thighs, shoulders or even your butt cheeks.

My ob-gyn said thighs or butt, the nurse said stomach or shoulders, the internet says upper arms or stomach and the 'information sheet I received says upper arms, shoulders and stomach and also contains a warning for me, advising not to apply it to my testes or penis which I am positive I'll be able to avoid seeing as how I don't actually have any. 

Anyway, it comes in a pump form dispensing 50mg of clear gel. 

Does that seem weird to use this? Isn't testosterone a male hormone? Why - yes, yes it is.
So why use it in IVF?

New Born Baby Bombshell

So yesterday I got delivered a bombshell - my elder sister and her husband are now expecting a wee baby girl at the end of the year.

Unfortunately, my husband and I wasn't able to be present to hear the news in person but the next day my mother was able to come around with the card telling us we're going to be babysitters and showing an ultrasound picture or two and a little gift of candy. 

I honestly thought that even with our struggles, we'd beat them to doing it because they'd never really mentioned that they were trying. Mind you, we haven't told anyone either so that makes sense. Of course, we're super happy for them. I'm a little worried that even with this news, I'm still going to get the expected Spanish Inquisition of 'when am I going to have a baby' bullshite.

There is a chance I might get overlooked in this though. Being the middle child, I am pretty much overshadowed by her. She's smarter, more financially stable, more confident, more successful and heck, a lot fitter than I am.
She can even paint her nails without cocking it up like I do inevitably!
People and relatives may just swarm over her news and ignore asking me about it.

Then I can get back to lurking in my shadows and being creepy, like my usual status quo.
I feel like I'm throwing her under the bus in this but I really hope this is the case and people give her the correct attention appropriate to her situation and not spend it asking me when I'm going to get up the duff like it's *just* that simple and I get to rack my brain to think of an answer that won't destroy me emotionally or attack this person or relative verbally like I'm already doing in my head.

Clinical Symptoms of Passive Aggressive Nurses

Alright, another rant.

Every-time I get to thinking I've been too harsh on my fertility clinic.. they do something stupid.
I know they're human, but sometimes they seem to unintentionally hate on me.
I can be pretty annoying, I will give them that but still.
Perhaps if I psychoanalyse myself, I'll discover that I'm venting my rage at them due to feeling semi-helpless about my own situation but no one wants to read that, this is the internet!

So.. after my last appointment with my specialist ob-gyn, I again had to order a metric butt-tonne of medications and what not, so I spoke with the clinic and we arranged for me to come in on Monday just gone to collect the items.

The person I spoke to seemed competent and helpful. So I turn up on Monday morning at the time we discussed to pick up my swag and collection of old fashioned terminology and buzz words.. I tell the receptionist what I'm doing there. She's like cool, wait over there in the naughty corner.

Perhaps she forgets I'm in hearing range, and literally like six steps away from her because she says to the nurse that comes out "I don't know, she's probably here for a test result or something."
This is after I have said to her, less than two minutes ago that "Hi, I'm Lucky Tiger, I'm here to collect the medication that I paid for last week.'
The nurse then comes over to me and asks what I'm there for.