| Liberal/National Coalition | 4,540,987 | 46.59 | -6.15 |
| Australian Labor Party | 5,205,679 | 53.41 | +6.15 |
HOWARD, John Winston | Liberal | 34,472 | 48.16 | 54.13 | -5.97 |
| McKEW, Maxine | Labor | 37,101 | 51.84 | 45.87 | +5.97 |
Indeed it is, Graeme.
Laugh yourself silly :)
(via a commenter, lost somewhere in the jungle that is Friday Q and A, over at Fitsy's joint. Do yourself a favour!)
Blogging has taken a back seat lately. There's been rather a bit going on. Firstly, for those following our infertility and recent pregnancy issues, all is going well. The ultrasound at seven weeks was good and so far all is well. Full post and pics to follow.
In other news, C's father is dying. He had been showing signs of vagueness and loss of motor function since about christmas. They thought maybe the drugs he was on for various things were out of balance so they went to the doc. He recommended going for some tests and sure enough, a couple of tumours on the brain showed up. They've biopsied it and the prognosis is not great.
It goes without saying, my wife is not a happy chappy. The bitter-sweet irnoy of these two things coming at once is hard enough. On top of that, there is some tension amongst her family about the best care for their father. There are a total of seven kids and there've always been some underlying tensions. It also brings back feelings for her of being seen as a kid. She's married now, a kid on the way, but she can't get past the idea that she's being marginalised as "the baby".
We'll see how it all pans out, I guess.
We got our blood test results and its positive. We're pregnant. This is very good news :) C has put it more succinctly than I! BFP, for the unitiated, stands for Big Fat Positive (and is the opposite of the evil BFN monster :)
I'm trying to temper it a little because we have been here before. But, from what C tells me, the results are stronger this time. I've got a call in with the IVF nurse to get it first hand, just to make sure she hasn't coloured the news with her excitement :) The last time it was me who got the call and, I swear, it was so hard not to switch off after the nurse said the magic words. I just want to make sure its all covered.
But, that said, the last thing I want to do is panic her. We're very happy at the moment,as you might imagine, and I don't want to spoil it.
Anyway, we've got another blood test next Wednesday, as well as a scan and stuff a couple of weeks after that. So far, so good!
If anyone is following our little baby making dance, I'd recommend C's blog for the greater amount of detail! But steer clear if you're sqeemish :)
In a recent post she asked me break down exactly what my infertility issues are. This I'd already done a while back. So if you're interested, here it is.
The only thing I would update is around the following;
"...my body produces antibodies against my own sperm. Don't ask me why, ..."
Since then I've come to some greater understanding of the antibodies issue. In short ones own sperm are foreign bodies from the point of view of the bodies. Quite why I don't fully understand, but its essentially the case that your sperm is the DNA of another person. So it makes sense that its DNA is different and your own immune system doesn't recognise it.
This is why the testicles and that entire system are actually separated from the rest of the body by a natural barrier. (I'm not sure what kind, but its not a brick wall, anyway! Some sort of membrane, I guess.)
The problem is that in my case this barrier has been breached. It may have been constructed poorly in the first place or may have been the result of an injury at some stage. (I've copped my fair share of whacks in the goolies over the years, so I can't rule it out.) But, once its happened the horse has bolted. My immune system now knows of my sperm and as the fine people of Krikkit once said, "Its got to go!"
They can't fix the barrier, mainly because they can't find the breach. (Well, in my case no one has actually looked, but their experience is that it isn't practical to try.) They could supress my immune system with cartabolic steroids, but thats pretty nasty stuff and still wouldn't make our chances of natural conception all that flash. So, no joy there either.
Anyone would think the treatment methods were developed by blokes who got all squeemish at the idea of knives near other blokes tackle! But that's a whole other discussion.
This ad plays on TV in Australia. I can't find the English version, but this is just gold!
Oh, my giddy aunt. Bolt's back. 14 posts in one day? Obviously he's not putting much effort into any of them. But we already knew that. Maybe we'll try to get into a few of them, but really, I can't be bothered reading them that much.
It's like a train crash, his blog. You know you shouldn't stare, but you just can't help it. I catch myself gaping open mouthed sometimes. I try to justify it by telling myself its important to engage people like that. But really isn't it true that if you argue with a fool, eventually people can't tell which one's the fool?
And no, I'm not linking to him. I refuse to give him the google juice. Even my tiny little bit!
Well, this is mature! I thought Question Time was inane.
Are they even trying to argue policy anymore?
Meanwhile, check out the Young Ferals conference agenda. If I get the chance I'll get into a bit later, but for now just take a deep breath and try not to cry.
Yesterday we cleared another hurdle in our IVF marathon.* Still a couple to go, but we're getting there.
* Actually, this probably isn't quite right. Its certainly been a marathon since we first started two and a half years ago, but this cycle has gone like the clappers. So, perhaps we should call it a sprint to the line!
Congratulations, Herald Sun, you've done it again! The entire front page dedicated to an isolated bureaucratic fuck up. I have no particular knowledge of VLA's procedures in these matters, but I think its fair to call it isolated. If it wasn't, no doubt the Hun would have referred to "ongoing ineptitude", dragged out a whole swag of other victims and called for the ministers head.
The short version is a kid was sent a letter advising him he'd been named as the father of a child born when he was three years old. Hardly likely, of course, but when questioned the spokesman for the VLA was open and forthright;
Sounds fair enough. He was accountable and wore the hit without even trying to offer an excuse. The paper have no evidence of it being a systemic problem. (And lets face it, there'd be plenty of folks like young Mr Holden who wouldn't miss the chance to stick one to the government and see if its worth a quid if they got the chance!)Victorian Legal Aid managing director Tony Parsons said the bungle was an isolated incident. "We made a mistake," Mr Parsons said. "This went out under the hand of a junior lawyer here. He got the name from a telephone directory, contrary to his training. He has been counselled and has written a letter to the recipient apologising.
We are very careful about the basis of sending those letters out because we are aware how sensitive they are, and this is the only problem we have had in five years. "In this case it is a one-off, inexperienced practitioner who did something he shouldn't have and is being counselled in that regard."
Legal Aid's managing director, Tony Parsons, said on Monday that Tyler Holden's case was a "one-off". But four more men, also named T. Holden, were accused of fathering the same child.But its still nothing more than an isolated incident, though. Its still just the one screw up which unfortunately involved more than one recipient. For God sake, Mr Guthrie, I know you're new to the job, but c'mon! To add a personal touch to the matter, one of the other T. Holden's in the story is a relative. I'm not saying which one and he's not immediate family. My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Holden and he's somewhere in that line. Small world, eh!
