Hello and thank you and exciting news

I am out of hospital now, resting at home until next Monday. I am feeling much better, after feeling so sore and tired for more than two weeks.

Thank you so much for the lovely wishes you left in the comments section, on Twitter and Facebook. Plus texts and visitors kept coming. I feel very loved. Thank you. Your support is so appreciated. Also thanks to Sydney Shop Girl for keeping you updated.

The rest I expected to get in hospital didn't really happen - time is marked by observations or medication or procedures. Blood pressure (mine is low). Tablets. Dressings (I negotiated mine down from four times a day to twice). And then there's teaching the nurses about ichthyosis and the treatment. I just wanted to sleep. So now I am at home I am just lazing about. It is nice to have been detached from the world for a short time - from the stuff happening in my own life to the serious tragedies worldwide.

Here are some hospital pictures.

Actually this is the sunset behind my house last Friday night.

 And my hand, wet bandaged.

 My friend brought cupcakes to share.

 This one is my favourite. Croquembouche.

 My what slim legs I've got. I did the bandages myself. A work of art!

 Really good magazines. Especially Paper.

This meal contained a banana. Bananas are like gold here. $15 per kilo. Free banana = lottery win!

I felt a bit of a fraud in hospital. I often do. Of course I had legitimate reason to be there, but I saw so many sicker people than me: people that needed the nurses more than me, people that weren't able to smile about their predicament. My care was fairly self managed - but it helped to have meals prepared and wet dressings and enforced semi-rest.

I got some new perspective in there. Not like the perspective by Katy Perry: 'I put on my catsuit and I got a crystal stuck under the bed of my finger. It's not fun' (as I read in Rolling Stone magazine in bed). Oh dear. I got the perspective of relative sickness, and the desire to make plans. I thought... overall I am pretty well, considering. And I am not usually spontaneous. And while I am well and young and only tied down by rent, I thought it's time to save for more than just clothes. And I was inspired by Eden and Mrs Woog flying the Aussie flag. 

So I booked a ticket to BlogHer'12 in New York in August 2012!!!!! 

I heard Empire State of Mind on the radio this morning, sprung out of bed and shouted, to no one but myself, 'I AM GOING TO NEW YORK!'. And then my eyes watered a little - I cried happiness at the thought! I banked my cheque from New Idea today, knowing it would help fund my trip. I called my managers to give them a health update and told them I'd be going to America this time next year.

And I thought about Carrie in Sex and the City and how, for a week, I may be just like her. Then I decided I'd rather be like my other NY heroine - Felicity Porter - wide eyed and frizzy haired, always loving the bad boys.

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