Tag: Tony

  • NZ Art Guild Challenge – winner, most creative

    The NZ Art Guild runs regular challenges and I try to do all of them as a way of stretching my artistic wings. The most recent challenge was to use one of 5 suggested songs (all by New Zealand musicians) as inspiration for an artwork. Here are the details of my entry:

    Title: My husband, my hero
    Media: watercolour and digital. Watercolour portrait, then hand lettered lyrics in black. Scanned and added semi-transparent white text in my own handwriting font over the top. Size: 10x13cm
    Inspiration: Dreamin’ by Scribe. One of the verses says “And I wouldn’t of made it if it wasn’t for you. You picked me up every time that I fell. When I was going thru hell, you told me that I would prevail“. My husband Tony really is my hero; he uplifts me, he understands my need to shut myself away and do my art, he sticks with me through all lifes up and downs.

    This piece was voted “most creative” entry for the challenge, and got some lovely feedback, with one person saying they could see my love for my husband shining through – I am so glad it shows. Tony, this one really is for you.

    My husband, my hero

  • Quick family interlude

     

    tony-0021We interrupt this blog to bring you – family photos. Tony recently went to a medieval themed dinner for St John’s and received an award for 9 years of service. He hired a Friar Tuck costume and had a good evening with his fellow volunteers. And our grandson Rory attended his first Playcentre Christmas party, and had a lovely time playing with his friends.13-dec-08-sany0145-3

  • Out of Intensive Care and home again…

    Tony is out of hospital and back home with us. What a relief. They did a basic treadmill test to make sure it was safe to release him, gave him some new medication and waved us goodbye.

    He’ll be off work for 4 to 6 weeks because, being an ambulance officer, the rules around driving are very strict. And besides, they don’t want to do a ‘proper’ stress test till then anyway, as they want his heart to heal a bit in the meantime.

    So, a huge wake-up call, but all safe and sound. All I can say is, thank goodness for the medical teams — our family has a lot to thank them for.

    Celebrating Mum's 84th
    Celebrating Mum's 84th
  • Mum home … but husband in Intensive Care – far out!

    Thursday night I went and got Mum out of hospital. We got home about 6.30pm and settled her back in. Her kidneys are on the mend and she’s feeling quite good. It had been a long week and I was really tired.

    I’d been asleep about 30 minutes when Tony woke me, saying he had a pain in his right arm and a sore throat. Kept an eye on him for a few minutes, then decided to ring 111 for an ambulance. Of course being an ambulance officer himself he’s a hopeless patient!

    We were in the Emergency Dept by about 11.30pm. One of the nurses look at me a bit quizzically and I said “just don’t say a word”. By 2am they were sure it was cardiac related and decided to transfer him to Base Hospital, which is another hour away. So, it’s a 3 hour round trip to visit him…

    Turns out he had an actual heart attack, and the pain lasted through much of Friday. He’s a lot better today – off the drip, off the morphine, and feeling much brighter. He’ll be in Intensive Care all weekend hooked up to a monitor then on Monday they’ll do a treadmill stress test to see if he needs to be assessed for a stent or bypass or whatever.

    Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire…

  • *this* is what inspires me


    I live in very rural New Zealand. Yes it’s a bit run-down, yes it has some problems, yes the old freezing works is a bit of an eyesore. But you know what? When I look at this photo, freezing works ruin included, I just see the beauty. How can I not be inspired with such stunning views around me?

    One photo is looking up the river towards the old works, the other is looking out to sea. That’s the local volunteer coastguard rescue boat you can see, having a practice run. Tony is a medic with them. Where would we be without volunteers…