Recovering and escaping from APEC

Recovering (cont)

Cold Turkey of opioid painkillers, I can appreciate why they don't recommend it. The 2 weeks were very harsh, within 2 days my bowels started working all by themselves without laxatives which is awesome as such but I really think they over compensated - liquid 5-10 times a day is not necessary or fun. Also my stomach delighted in reversing anything I ate or drank so I pretty much stopped doing that for the first week. Full body pain episodes - its like being stabbed all over much like that sensitive pain when you get the flu multiplied by like 300. Insomnia and just generally feeling lethargic also added to the experience. All this subsided over the week and I'm back to normal now, and I can cum in minutes again - Yay! My friends have commented I'm back to my usual self, saying I was kinda slowed down when on the medication - nice if someone had mentioned that when I was on it.... I'm still in a bit of pain but it's tolerable and I'm dealing with it in more natural ways like massage etc... Also to add to the effects I have some liver damage most likely due to the medications which all trash your liver - all my numbers were like more than twice they are supposed to be. I don't drink alcohol hardly ever and had like maybe 3 standard drinks over the past 12 months, and all my hepatitis screens are clean as always so there isn't much else it could be. I have to go back to the doctor to have another test to see how its going now I'm off the meds, I have been taking some supplements that are supposed to be good for liver regeneration.

APEC Escape (cont)

So as I mentioned before we went away for the long weekend. I hired a car and on Friday morning we went and had breakfast at the Last Drop Cafe in Surry Hills, its on Boronia Street and I highly recommend it - its one of my favourite places. Then had to go back home because I forgot my joggers. Then off we went to Katoomba. Nice fast trip til we got past Penrith then it was a crawl up the hill through the two and then one lane section averaging like 5km an hour - so we were in traffic for like 1.5 hours like that. Did the turn off at Leura and went to the Railway Station and Toy Museum got there about 2.30 in the afternoon and as you can see from the pictures the fog had well set in already. The museum had old train station signs and so forth, all the toys you remember from your childhood and some nice gardens.






This is opposite the museum, you have to pay $2 to get to see this apparent best view, I took the picture because with the fog I thought it was funny.



When we got back to the car I discovered a bee at somehow got in - it seemed quite ill - I just flicked it out onto ground with a brochure.



We then followed the road back a bit and took the turn off labelled Leura Falls. Bit of a walk in the slight rain and some more pictures - but where the main track goes you cant really see the falls much without continuing around much further as it goes to the top of the falls not the best place to view it from.







Back in the car we continued along cliff drive to Katoomba. Fog was too thick but then to bother to go try and see the Three sisters, so in the part rain we set up our tent on the powered site I had booked. I had bought a new tent during the week as the previous one stayed with one of my ex's, I also bought a new airbed - it inflates in under 1 min! So with little heater, the laptop, butane camping stove and the toaster we had a late lunch and some fun then went shopping for dinner which we cooked in the bbq area, by then the fog was so thick visibility was only a few metres. Played some Sam and Max on the laptop and hit the sack to the sound of rain on the tent. Up very early we packed the tent in the rain and headed to Megalong for a buffet brekkie and a bit of horse riding. I am a fairly seasoned rider - I learnt to ride when young on Pablo one of the worlds most stubborn Shetland ponies. It was a neighbour 2 farms over from where I grew up that taught me. Once I had mastered that I was put on a proper horse which was so much easier to handle. My boyfriend had never been riding before but he got the hang of it before long and manage to get the rhythm going for trotting as well. We never fell off but whilst we were waiting to get going they were setting up those going for full day rides and one of the guys got on a horse which was evidently in a bad mood, he was pulling back on the reins pretty hard and more so as the horse began to rear up trying to get him off. The horse whilst rearing and jumping back slipped in the mud and fell over landing on top of the guy. He decided he wanted a different horse.

Riding done and fairly wet we got back in the car and headed to Jenolan Caves - You cant go directly there as apparently the road turns into a dirt track which is closed off with gates only accessible by the waterboard. We drove back through blackheath and on to Jenolan. We had to park a fair bit up, which walking down wasn't an issue and on the way down we saw these sights...

The Carlotta Arch




We had some lunch which took 40 mins in a line to get, and wasn't that good. Slowest service ever. Then back in another line to get cave tour tickets. We took the next tour leaving which was the Lucas Cave which is supposed to be one of the more strenuous caves with over 900 steps. But stairs don't bother us much, anyone who has visited me at my apartment will understand why :) We did the free audio guided tour of the nettle cave in the time we had to wait for the Lucas tour. Below are pictures I took inside the cave.











Cave tour finished back up the hill to the car park - in hindsight I think the little bus running about was a courtesy bus which we should have taken advantage of. I required a rest half way up - was about 1km of about 35 degree incline all the way up much of which was quite slippery. Back in the car and off through Oberon where we stopped to buy butter for sandwiches which turned out to be half used for some reason but we were almost at Bathurst when we looked at it and I was not driving an hour back. On through Orange and Wellington to Dubbo, where we set up our still wet tent in the dark. Dubbo was nice and dry so the tent dried out overnight. Getting up late we packed the tent after I cooked a bacon and eggs breakfast. We headed to the zoo, all the golf carts were taken so we took the car around. We didn't take many pictures. But made sure we took a picture of my favourite animal - the meerkat.



A swan, which I don't care that much for but it was a good shot.



The island with monkeys



Paul's Favourite - African Elephant






Zoo tour finished we were back out on the Newell Highway and off to Parkes, to see "the dish".





We watched 2 of their 3D movies - the Mars tour one was really lame and the CG a bit too simple. We had drinks and snacks in the cafe then back on the road. Back through Orange and on to Bathurst which on the way I got pulled over by a copper who gave me a speeding fine - I was trying to get ahead of a bloke with a trailer before the overtaking lane ended. Once in Bathurst we had dinner at GT Angus a fancy steak restaurant. I had an Angus steak and Paul had the Wagyu which he has always wanted to try. I also want to try Wagyu and I tasted his which was very tender and moist but I think I'd rather have it in a Japanese restaurant as it's really the style it should be served in, plus I like my steak blue.

Back on the road for the last haul, I was starting to feel a bit weary but was glad to be back home despite having to carry the gear up the stairs to our Level 4 apartment.