Lyndon
Well-known member
I spent an hour last night typing up my intro on my iPad, hit submit, and lost the thing. Not Happy Jan!!! (an Aussie will understand that).
So, to do it again.
I've been watching this site, and getting lots of inspiration, for the last 2 months or so. It's time to get on and introduce myself. I'm a 54 year old from the outer South Western suburbs of Sydney. I'm happily married and have 2 daughters, 24 and 19 (both gorgeous blondes - no, I'm not biased...). We live in rather large house on a quarter acre block only 600 metres from the centre of town, and have loved it here for the last 17 years. We have a large double garage, behind a 3 car carport. We need that many car spots because each of us in the house have a car, and prior to the girls getting their cars we had 4 wedding cars (1950 Mark 5 Jaguar, 1956 S1 Bentley and 2 Series 3 XJ6 Jaguars (81 and 83)).
Until March this year I had owned a transport company in Wollongong (south of Sydney - Google it). Worst purchase of my life. Unfortunately the cars were sold gradually to keep the business running as well as my beautiful ski boat...... At least we have space now for the 4 cars, and I'm working on getting my "man toy" (something from the 70's or 80's from the blue oval boys - I've always been a Ford man, and my everyday car is a magnificent Falcon XR8 - now with nearly 300,000km on it).
Anyway, the reason the business sold (for way too little) was that last November I was told that I had Oesophageal Cancer..
So the business went to a friend that had a similar company that always wanted to buy mine, and I began a rigorous process that involved many Hospitals, many Doctors, and a Professor, and 10 weeks of Chemo until April this year when the Prof went in via an operation using the "Ivor Lewis" procedure (Google it) (an 8 hour operation) to remove the tumuor. I lost 70 % of my stomach and 10cm of Oespohagus, and he remade the stomach above the diaphragm in my chest, after breaking 2 ribs and collapsing my right lung to be able to reach in. I then spent 2 days in ICU, and a further 10 in Hospital, before being allowed home (a record according to the nurses who ably looked after me). Then I went downhill, and spent the best part of 14 weeks recuperating. In that time I lost 28 kg (62lbs for those un-metricated ones). I must admit, I did need to lose some weight, but this was a hard way to do it. I now weigh in at a paltry 76kg (167lbs), and have lost all muscle mass, stamina and power. I am now, however, finally getting better and have returned to new, part time work (16 hrs a week). I have been capable of getting around for the last 2 months though, and hence found this site. Suffice to say I was getting bored (especially with day time TV). On one walk around I got rather disgusted with the state of the garage (I'm very OCD - ask my girls), my workbench (the rubbish holder), and the shed. So after stumbling across GJ, I got inspired, and little by little, as my stamina improved, I attacked various parts of both the shed and the garage.
The shed is just a little 2.4m x 2.0m thing, full of the garden paraphernalia (mower, blower vac, whipper snipper, gardening tools etc). But it had never been organised properly, and I didn't like the look of, or the price of, the "garden shed organisers" at the local hardware. So, with ideas from GJ, I built my own. Did the photos work? (I don't know how to get them to appear here instead of as attachments)
Then, just as the garage neared having space for a car again, we got nominated to be on a Lifestyle TV show here, that did up our Lounge Room for us. But this meant that all the current "stuff" that had been in the lounge room went into my garage! And once the show was finished, it was a hell of a job to get the boss to sort the stuff and take back inside the things she did want. So, now I'm just about there. I have bought new tools to fill the toolbox up appropriately, I've bought storage containers and sorted the thousands of screws and nails that were hanging around (loose and in packets), and I've made enough space on the bench now to be able to attack one job at a time, finish it and put all the tools away.
So for now, I might try getting this intro up one more time (I'm going to be pissed off if it doesn't work this time).
So, to do it again.
I've been watching this site, and getting lots of inspiration, for the last 2 months or so. It's time to get on and introduce myself. I'm a 54 year old from the outer South Western suburbs of Sydney. I'm happily married and have 2 daughters, 24 and 19 (both gorgeous blondes - no, I'm not biased...). We live in rather large house on a quarter acre block only 600 metres from the centre of town, and have loved it here for the last 17 years. We have a large double garage, behind a 3 car carport. We need that many car spots because each of us in the house have a car, and prior to the girls getting their cars we had 4 wedding cars (1950 Mark 5 Jaguar, 1956 S1 Bentley and 2 Series 3 XJ6 Jaguars (81 and 83)).
Until March this year I had owned a transport company in Wollongong (south of Sydney - Google it). Worst purchase of my life. Unfortunately the cars were sold gradually to keep the business running as well as my beautiful ski boat...... At least we have space now for the 4 cars, and I'm working on getting my "man toy" (something from the 70's or 80's from the blue oval boys - I've always been a Ford man, and my everyday car is a magnificent Falcon XR8 - now with nearly 300,000km on it).
Anyway, the reason the business sold (for way too little) was that last November I was told that I had Oesophageal Cancer..
So the business went to a friend that had a similar company that always wanted to buy mine, and I began a rigorous process that involved many Hospitals, many Doctors, and a Professor, and 10 weeks of Chemo until April this year when the Prof went in via an operation using the "Ivor Lewis" procedure (Google it) (an 8 hour operation) to remove the tumuor. I lost 70 % of my stomach and 10cm of Oespohagus, and he remade the stomach above the diaphragm in my chest, after breaking 2 ribs and collapsing my right lung to be able to reach in. I then spent 2 days in ICU, and a further 10 in Hospital, before being allowed home (a record according to the nurses who ably looked after me). Then I went downhill, and spent the best part of 14 weeks recuperating. In that time I lost 28 kg (62lbs for those un-metricated ones). I must admit, I did need to lose some weight, but this was a hard way to do it. I now weigh in at a paltry 76kg (167lbs), and have lost all muscle mass, stamina and power. I am now, however, finally getting better and have returned to new, part time work (16 hrs a week). I have been capable of getting around for the last 2 months though, and hence found this site. Suffice to say I was getting bored (especially with day time TV). On one walk around I got rather disgusted with the state of the garage (I'm very OCD - ask my girls), my workbench (the rubbish holder), and the shed. So after stumbling across GJ, I got inspired, and little by little, as my stamina improved, I attacked various parts of both the shed and the garage.The shed is just a little 2.4m x 2.0m thing, full of the garden paraphernalia (mower, blower vac, whipper snipper, gardening tools etc). But it had never been organised properly, and I didn't like the look of, or the price of, the "garden shed organisers" at the local hardware. So, with ideas from GJ, I built my own. Did the photos work? (I don't know how to get them to appear here instead of as attachments)
Then, just as the garage neared having space for a car again, we got nominated to be on a Lifestyle TV show here, that did up our Lounge Room for us. But this meant that all the current "stuff" that had been in the lounge room went into my garage! And once the show was finished, it was a hell of a job to get the boss to sort the stuff and take back inside the things she did want. So, now I'm just about there. I have bought new tools to fill the toolbox up appropriately, I've bought storage containers and sorted the thousands of screws and nails that were hanging around (loose and in packets), and I've made enough space on the bench now to be able to attack one job at a time, finish it and put all the tools away.
So for now, I might try getting this intro up one more time (I'm going to be pissed off if it doesn't work this time).
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