What's the question???

Or better still where are the questions. In my last post I asked you my loyal readers to ask me a question that you wanted answered and so far I've only received one question. Now I know that there are more of you out there that want to have a peek into my life. I mean isn't that one if not the only reason you read my blog. I surely know it's not for the witty dialog. I figure you read this blog to have a "sticky beak" (Australian slang for looking or putting you nose into someones life to see how the other half lives) into my life. So, once again ask me a question. Nothing is off limits and if you do ask me a question that is off limits. well I just won't answer it but what the heck you 'll never know unless you ask. As I stated in the last post, every Wednesday I will answer the questions asked the previous Wednesday and then I will answer any new questions the following Wednesday and so on. Get those thinking caps on and find out more about me than you really need to know.

(PS put your question in the comments section of the last post or this one)

What's up Wednesday...

It's Wednesday here in the land down under and I want to try something new. As you read in yesterday's post I listed 10 things you did not know about me. Well now it will be your turn to ask. Starting today, every Wednesday I will answer any and all questions you want to ask about me. So, every Wednesday just leave a question in the comments section and then the following Wednesday I'll answer your questions. Then on the day I answer questions you will once again leave your questions for the next Wednesday and so on.

You can ask me anything and by anything I mean anything. If I decide it is off limits I'll tell you it's off limits but you don't know unless you ask. You can ask me about my childhood, or about my school days. You can ask me about my health or questions about what it's like to live with HIV after 23 years. I'll answer questions about what brought me to Australia and what I had to go through to get here. I'll answer just about anything. I won't answer any blatant sex questions. However you can ask toned down questions like "Have I ever had sex in the office?" and the answer is yes as I told you in the last post, but don't ask me to describe my dirtiest sexcapade because I won't answer you. Those stories are or me to know and for you to never find out. Other than that the field is wide open. So, put on your thinking caps and let me hear from you. I look forward to your questions and I can't wait to answer them.

See you next Wednesday with a few posts in between. Until then enjoy and take care...

What to do???

We have a small problem in the Gardner-Sullivan household. What might that small problem be you might ask? Well I'll tell you what the small problem might be. The small problem is actually a huge problem in so much that James and I are being faced with a hard decision as to where we should live. Ever since my little hospital stay up in Sydney we have realised that living in our quaint, quiet, beautiful home may not be sustainable at this point in time.

We moved to Tasmania a little over three years ago after spending six years in the buzzing metropolis called Sydney. James lived in and around Sydney all of his life and that is of course where I met him. We stayed in Sydney during the time in which I was awaiting the outcome of my application for permanent residency in Australia. Once approval was received on the application we felt like we could finally move forward, as we didn't feel like we were able to do such up to that point, because if the application had not been approved I would have had to go straight back to the US within 28 days of the applications rejection. We lived with that fear for quite some time and because of that fear we never felt like we could make plans. We dreamed a lot but never made any solid plans.

Shortly after the application was approved we started looking at our options. A few months before the application was approved we took a short trip down to Tasmania. I had never been and James had not been there in over ten years. I don't know what it was about this place but as soon as we started over the bridge that you have to cross over to drive into Hobart, I knew this was a good place. It just felt right. The more we looked around and during the time that we spent in Hobart the more we knew that this was the place that we needed to be.

We started to look for a house in earnest and we had many to choose from. We also were being very picky. As I said there are a lot of beautiful old homes in Hobart, many of which date back to the 1800's. The houses exude old world charm and add to the quaint atmosphere that surrounds the city and for the matter in every town in Tasmania. One of the key selling points along with the homes was the slow and even pace in Hobart compared to the constant buzz found in Sydney. It is only natural that there be a difference between the to cities seeing that Sydney has over 4 million people compared to Tasmania in which the entire state only has roughly a tenth of the population at around 400,000 people. Nearly half of those people live in and around Hobart proper at a population of 200,525. Based on those numbers I think you can start to get a picture of the differences between the buzz of Sydney and the slow quiet pace that is Hobart.

After four months of looking through real estate guides and making a few more trips back to Hobart merely to search for and to look at houses we found this one. James had flown down to Hobart on a Thursday and I stayed in Sydney with friends from out of town. There were a few houses James had arranged to look at while he was there, and they all looked promising. I got a call from James around lunch time and during that call he told me that none of the houses had been right for one reason or another. He was going to see one more in the afternoon and if that wasn't right he would be back in the morning. I had in the meantime been looking some more on the internet real estate sites and had found one more house that we had not previously seen. This house was just listed with the agent James happened to be using while he was in Hobart. I said why not ask if you can see the place and sure enough the agent said no problem. The house had only been on the market for a week and she hadn't even thought about showing it to James as it was such a new listing she had basically overlooked it. Anyway, long story short I get a call back from James after he sees the house and he says book a flight and get down here first thing in the morning so we can look at the house together. I did, we did and by 7:00 pm that next night we owned our new house.

Moving to Hobart was a huge move for us on so many levels. It was a really big move for James as it would be the first big move for him from Sydney. James easily found a job and we settled in quite nicely. This was our first foray into suburbia and we had no idea what to expect. The last three years we have grown into this house and we have made it a home. We know a few neighbors but we didn't really come here to make neighborly connections. I mean it's fine if we do but I don't need to be best friend with the people next door to make my life complete. We made a few new friends who became very close friends over the next few years. Going out to dinner never found us in a situation where the staff at the restaurant were trying to rush you out so that they could seat the next table. We never have trouble finding a table when we go out for breakfast and once again we don't have people staring over our shoulders waiting to take our table. The local produce, food and wines are some of the best in the world. The air is clean as is the water. All in all this place is pretty damn near perfect, and that is where the needle scratches across the surface of this story.

The problem is there are not enough if no services avaiable to handle the growing population. The biggest area to lack services is in the area of medicaine, doctors, hospitals, etc. The hospital James works at is the largest one on the island but is it is grossly understaffed and unable to cope with its burden. As for it's ability to offer James a challenging work place the only challenge is dealing with the shortcoming and lack of resources. Now you may be starting to see where I'm heading with this drawn out post. You see with the fact that I am and have been HIV+ for the past 21+ years I occasionally need to be able to access appropriate medical services when needed and in some cases that may mean almost immediately. During our recent experience with regards to the treatment of my peripheral neuropathy we discovered that the medical field here in Tasmania is unable to accommodate my needs either through service availability, rapid response time and or a combination of both. Living in Sydney that was never an issue.

Our problem as for what to do is just that, what are we going to do. We love this house/home. We love the quaint gentle approach that we are able to take in everyday life. We love that changes of seasons, along with the temperate weather it brings. Basically we love living unhurried. So now we are in a dilemma as to where we might live and how to go about this transition wth out losing the kind gentle life we have created and at the same time move back into the sprawling landscape which is Sydney.

We do have a few things that work in our favour and those being that we own this home mortgage free and we still own out apartment in Sydney also mortgage free. Let me state from the start we have no intention of moving back into our old apartment. That will not happen! We don't plan on selling either place. We also don't want a new mortgage even though the rentals from both places could easily pay the mortgage on a new house. We just don't want to be saddled again with debt. We could at least rent some a nice big place and pay the rental with the rents that we receive. So again you say what's the problem well in the end the only real problem is we love this home and having to leave it is turning our world upside down.

Suggestions???

Questions, questions, questions, too many questions...

Well here is my first post of 2008 and can you believe it I've gone for a meme. I worked on the answers a few days ago and now for the life of me I can't remember who I stole this from. So for who ever I did get this from I say thank you. As usual this is just a bit of fodder to fill a post that I'm too lazy to create. Just like many of you, some days, I just can't be bothered. However, I suppose I should take credit for at least coming up with the answers. I apologise in advance because this is a long list. So, without further adieu once again here are somethings about me that you may, but more than likely do not need to know. Enjoy...

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? A baseball cap, an empty bottle of Pepsi and an old newspaper that hasn't even been unwrapped or read.
2. When was the last time you threw up? About three weeks ago and I'm not sure why. I was fine at dinner and then a few hours later I made a chai latte before bed and half way through the latte I almost didn't make it to the bathroom. It wasn't the food or the latte because James ate and drank all the same things and he was jut fine. Who knows???
3. What's your favorite curse word? F&*K
4. Name 3 people who made you smile today? James, James, and Marina because I just found out she's made plans to come visit
5. What were you doing at 8 a.m. this morning? Reading blogs and changing mine.
6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Reading blogs
7. Where were you born? Michigan
8. Have you ever been to a strip club? Yes and lets leave it at that.
9. What is the last thing you said aloud? Good morning sweetheart.
10. What is the best ice cream flavor? Hokey Pokey made by Tasmania's very own Valhalla
    
11. What was the last thing you had to drink? Pepsi
12. What are you wearing right now? A t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts
13. What was the last thing you ate? An Ultimate Maple Leaf cookie by Dare
14. Have you bought any new clothes this week? No.
15. Where were you last? In bed.
16. What's the last sporting event you watched? An AFL game.
17. Who won? Not sure as I didn't see the end.
18. Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on MySpace? I don't use MySpace.
19. Ever go camping? When I was a child.
20. Where do you live? Tasmania, Australia
21. What song are you listening to? None but my iPod says the last one I listened to was "You're my Thrill" by Billie Holiday and my iPod would never lie to me. We have a very tight relationship. God I need a life!
    
22. Do you have a tan? No but I'm sunburned from sitting in the sun at the recent food festival.
23. Do you drink your soda from a straw? No.
24. What did your last text message say? Merry Christmas
25. Who's your best friends? Wayne and Lee.
26. What are you doing tomorrow? Nada, zip, zero, zilch.
27. Where is your mom right now? I'm guessing at home in Texas watching television.
28. Look to your right, what do you see? My husbands university diplomas and my various certificates of achievement for my work in HIV community education
29. What color is your watch? When I wear one it has a square white face with silver casing and black band.
30. What do you think of when you think of Australia? I live here.
31. Ever ridden on a roller coaster? A couple
32. What is your birthstone? Topaz
    
33. Do you go in at a fast-food place or just hit the drive through? I don't eat fast food anymore
34. What is your favorite number? 7
35. Do you have a dog? No but we are in the process of looking to get one, just need to decide on the right one and also considering the ramifications of introducing the dog into the house with Miss Brown (our cat) already on her throne.
36. Last person you talked to on the phone? Kay
37. Have you met anyone famous? Amanda Bearse
38. Any plans today? Laundry (me)
39. How many states have you lived in? 3 in the US and 2 in Australia
40. Ever go to college? One year
41. Where are you right now? In the study/office in our house.
42. Biggest annoyance in your life right now? Peripheral neuropathy.
43. Are you in love with someone right now? Right now and for the past 9 years with plans for many more
44. Are you allergic to anything? Bees, and IV iodine they use for medical test(x-rays etc)
45. Favorite pair of shoes? Shoes are currently my enemy because having them on to long aggravates my peripheral neuropathy.
46. Are you jealous of anyone? No
47. Is anyone jealous of you? Not that I know of...
48. Do any of your friends have children? Yes
49. Do you eat healthy? I try
50. What do you usually do during the day? I've sort of turned in to a house husband, so you know make dinner, do laundry, watch television.
51. Do you hate anyone right now? Hate is such a strong word but I can think of a few world leaders that I really, really, really don't care for so much.
52. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? I guess so. I never really thought about it I suppose I do.
53. How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 51
54. Have you ever been to Six Flags? Yes, a long long time ago
55. How did you get one of your scars (if you have any)? The one on my leg is from falling down and smacking my leg on the sharp edge of a stage platform. I didn't get it looked at but should have as it needed stitches. A few days later I ended up with blood poisoning. See what happens when you have that second drink. OK maybe it was more than just my second.

Now aren't you glad I answered all of these questions. For those of you that made it through the list we're practically dating at this point. I don't know what I'll tell James.