So after all the hassle with my right eye, I was set to write on the blog again on my birthday. How wrong was I…

Didn’t plan anything for the day. Getting 30 years old didn’t bother me, but it didn’t excite me either. Like all years in the last decade, I couldn’t be bothered to throw a party. Planned on having a quiet day. Just one necessity: picking up my new drivers licence at the town hall. But not before 1100 of course! ;-)

I was barely awake and still hiding under the blankets when the phone rang around 0800… A smile. It was Sally. Very sleepy I answered the phone and listened to her excited voice. After the birthday wishes she kept asking what I wanted most for my birthday. The first couple of times I was still thinking *I don’t know…* but after the third time she asked, and I was still looking for an answer I started to wonder… *I should say ‘you’ of course…* but the answer didn’t leave my lips. To stunned to believe that could actually be true… She was in Australia, I was in Holland. She couldn’t be here… Or could she… My thoughts were stopped by the sound of the doorbell… OH MY! She is here!!! Moments later I was holding the greatest birthday present ever in my arms! :-)

I still couldn’t believe it… it was like seeing a ghost again… So strange… How could she be here? I knew she was in Sydney for the weekend to go to the ballet with her family, and thought it was weird she didn’t reply to the SMSes I had send her, but I never expected anything like this! So still very stunned I sat downstairs at the table, with my girlfriend, family and Bastiaan; Who had been so sweet to pick Sally up from the airport and bring her to my parents place.

The next two weeks after my birthday were lots of fun! Luckily I was able to get some days off from work so we were able to spend some more time together. With my extra days off we even had the possibility to go away for the weekend. And after not that much thought we did. We would spend a long weekend in Paris! Why not? Incredibly relax! We took the Thalys and were in down town Paris just 3 and a half hours later! Lovely hotel very close to the Arc de Triomphe, some shopping on Saturday, some sightseeing on Sunday, and to top it off, dinner and a show at the Moulin Rouge! Definitely a “must do” if you are going to Paris and haven’t been at the “Moulin” yet!

Last week we stayed in Bastiaan and Judith’s place in Amsterdam. They were on holiday to Tenerife and were so sweet to let us stay in their apartment, so Sally could check out Amsterdam very easily while I was at work. Amazingly sweet gesture and for us an opportunity to have some fun days in Amsterdam before Sally had to go home last Saturday. Departure is always a very sad moment. Especially as she is going so far away. But luckily I will see her soon again, as I am flying to Australia again on the 15th of December! I can’t wait! :-)

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Oi, long time no write… very long time no write! No, no writers block again, it was just a quite serious eye inflammation followed by a very sweet girlfriend that kept me away from the computer for some time!

First there was the eye inflammation that started early October… I woke up early on a Monday morning, turned on the light and felt a strong pain in my right eye… Strange… The bright light was painful… I ignored it as much as possible, got up, walked into the shower, looked in the mirror and oh my… my eye is very bloodshot! Still I wasn’t to concerned, had a bloodshot eye in Barcelona earlier in the year (without the pain though) so went to work and struggled all day with the painful eye… every time I looked into a light, or outside (early October we still had some quite clear days) there was this stabbing pain in my right eye.

I coped with it for 2 more days… but on Wednesday morning I had enough… I couldn’t handle the pain and annoyens any longer. Because besides the pain I started getting headaches and general pain on the right side of my head… especially on the end of the day it was quite bad. So called my General Practitioner and after explaining my problems I was able to get an appointment just a couple hours later.

Went to the G.P. and his conclusion was very secure… internal eye infection… OK… one hour later I was at the hospital to get the confirmation. My G.P. didn’t have a pupil widening medicine that was required to do a thorough investigation of my eye. The doctor in the hospital reached the conclusion quite quickly: anterior uveitis or iritis. In other words, an inflammation of the iris of the eye.

Definitely not a good thing to have, but having it just once shouldn’t be a problem. But if it returns, it could be much more serious. Normally this eye inflammation occurs with people who have rheumatoid arthritis… or a whole other line of funky diseases… So no reason yet to worry about that, I am just crossing my fingers this was a one time thing. Indeed, was. Yesterday I was officially told I was “cured”! :-)

But before hearing those magical words, there was almost 8 weeks of 2 different eye drops and one night time ointment. Doesn’t sound to bad like this, but unfortunately for me, one of the eye drops was a pupil widening medicine, to make sure the pain would not come back. No pain was nice, but because I had a constantly wide pupil, I couldn’t focus with my right eye… so seen from my right eye the world looked very blurry for 6 long weeks (last 2 weeks I could skip that eye drop). Not painful, but very annoying. Left work every day with a busting headache… the main reason for not putting on the computer after work. I was tired and just wanted to relax and let my headache drift away again…

Then, 2 weeks ago, I finally thought about writing on the blog again, on my birthday even!, but I wasn’t aware of the greatest birthday surprise I would get!

More about that tomorrow! ;-)

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