Nov

Mini Picasso

Hi all,

This week I discovered that my Dad and the Internet share something really awesome in common – they’re both 40 years old this year. This past week (on Thursday, to be precise) 40 years ago, Professor Leonard Kleinrock, sent the first message via the Internet. Although it was a mere two letter word, ‘lo’, it represented the birth of a technology that would revolutionise the world as it was known then, now and into the future. Thanks to Prof Kleinrock, I’m sending you all this message tonight. Many of you are probably wondering what on earth was the Prof thinking by sending the word ‘lo’ – well he in actual fact was typing the word ‘log’ to login to another host elsewhere. However, before be could hit the letter ‘g’, the Internet crashed! The saying, ‘the more things change the more the stay the same’ springs to mind.

As if the Internet wasn’t awesome enough already, this past week probably saw the biggest change to the Internet in its 40 years; ICANN approved international domains. Huh? Ok, for those of you not well versed in Internet terminology and functioning, let me clarify. ICANN is the acronym of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers who manage domain naming conventions and other standards relating to the Internet. For example, through ICANN’s governance, the domain www.planetlederer.com is assigned to my Daddy. Until this past week, ICANN only accommodated Latin characters for domain names. If you want to know what Latin characters are, look at your keyboard and you’ll find them. ICANN has now also approved the use of non-Latin characters; the primary driver thereof was to accommodate the hundreds of languages in the world that don’t make use of Latin characters. Examples are Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek, and so on. Once ICANN have implemented this change life will be much easier for those people in the world not using Latin characters to surf the ‘net – until now Chinese people will have had to type www.gov.cn to reach their country’s official webpage. This proved difficult for people unfamiliar with Latin characters. In future their domain will look something like this: ???????????????. Much easier for them!

Well enough about the ‘net and back to me!

On Monday at OT I treated Lauren to one of my new little tricks – sticking my finger in her belly button! Its something I love doing with Mom and Dad, and as I lay on the treatment table I spotted Lauren’s belly button under her shirt, so I decided it was time to treat her to a belly button tickle as well. There were giggles all round!

Tina Otte popped in for a visit on Tuesday morning. It was really awesome to see her again. Her and Mom chatted about some business matters, but I took full advantage of the situation to show off my skills and charm her which resulted in my getting lots of hugs and kisses – mission accomplished! In the afternoon I had an appointment with the ophthalmologist – last week while seeing Dr Nicoletta Mom told her that I keep touching my eye and fiddling with my eye lid and eye lashes. She couldn’t see anything untoward, but being an AVM survivor it was worthwhile having it checked out by a specialist. You’ll recall late last year I visited the ophthalmologist to check my eyes for general functioning and confirmation that there wasn’t an AVM brewing on my retina. In order for Dr Mayet (the ophthalmologist) to be able to see my retina clearly and examine my eyes I had to take eye drops two hours before the appointment, 4 times every ten minutes. This resulted in my eyes being fully dilated and my looking like a zombie! Needless to say this was quite uncomfortable and because my pupils couldn’t adjust for the light, bright light would hurt me.

Dad meet us at the Doctor’s rooms and while we waited I managed to throw up on Dad’s shoes and shirt! I really didn’t mean to, but the eye drops were starting to make me feel unwell. Next I started running a temperature and I got extremely irritable and behaved like I had ADD! Nothing could hold my attention. The receptionist calmly informed us that this was a known side effect. Mom was fuming! We also booked the first appointment of the day, and were given it, but upon being at the rooms discovered there were two patients ahead of us. Normally this wouldn’t have trouble my Mom and Dad, however on this day they were really not impressed as I was having a negative reaction to the drops. Mom and Dad then asserted themselves (strongly) and got into the Doctors rooms quickly. A bottle of Calpol was procured for me, and soon I was felling a little better.

Apart from the horrid discomfort of the eye drops, my eyes are fine and there are no concerns about my constantly touching my eyes. The drops’ effect unfortunately stayed with me for a few more days, which left me perfectly miserable.

Despite being miserable from the eye drops I still attended my music class on Wednesday and once I had a drum in my lap and I was holding onto some rhythm sticks I was able to put the discomfort out my mind for a while and have some fun. In the afternoon Mom and I headed to Blanford Manor for Mommies’ Club, and met up with all my friends. They all thought I looked a little scary with my eyes permanently dilated, but I told them not to worry.

Thursday morning Mom took me to physio at Di’s place. After a good work over we headed back home. I had my usual afternoon snooze and then decided to get artistic. Mom popped my wooden exercise box on the floor in the kitchen, which I then climbed onto and proceeded to draw on the walls. I loved it and felt like a mini Picasso at work. Inspiration flowed through me and my thoughts oozed out of my crayons onto the kitchen wall. What a cathartic feeling! When Dad came home I could hardly contain my excitement at showing him my artwork – he was most impressed. He even compelled me to draw some more – I obliged.

Two of Dad’s colleagues, Cornel and John, arrived on Friday morning – they were heading out to Midrand for a CEO road show and they all decided to travel together. I was asleep at the time, but in the distant I could hear Mom being an expert host, as always, serving up coffee and tea and cup cakes. Long after my Dad and his colleagues left, I woke up and Mom and I headed off to Clamber Club. I wasn’t going for a class; it was actually a meeting that Mommy had, but when I saw all the little kiddies playing and exercising I couldn’t restrain myself, so I joined in. Back home later in the afternoon, Dad, Cornel and John arrived home; this time I was awake and I entertained them before they ‘hit the road’ to miss the afternoon traffic.

On Saturday morning I was still feeling under the weather from the hectic week (general anaesthetic a week ago, and horrid eye drops four days ago), but I was keen to get up and about. First we visited with Moné for her birthday; we could only stay a while as I had swimming at midday. Swimming wasn’t too bad, but I think the week had finally gotten to me, so I had a good ole throw-up after swimming and then felt miserable and whimpered all the way home. We stayed home for the rest of the afternoon, as I started running a hectic fever (39°C).

By Sunday I still wasn’t all that well, so Mom and Dad made an executive decision that it would be a day of rest and staying at home. I was somewhat disappointed as it was Kyleigh’s birthday party at the botanical gardens, and I really wanted to go, but I also understood my Mom and Dad’s reasoning. As I’m writing this this evening I can confirm that I am starting to feel a great deal better having rested for the day. Hopefully the week ahead holds better health for me!

Love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 Ok, everyone wants to know where I get my blonde hair from; in this picture of Mommy and Granny (taken in 1980) you can clearly see my Mommy’s blonde hair