It’s so much worse when you *know*.

It’s so much worse when you know.

May 272008

Life is full of tragedies. Mostly they pass us by unless you’re personally involved. Millions die all over the world from war, disease, starvation, or plain neglect and we neither know nor care, except on an impersonal; “Oh those poor people… ” sort of feeling. If we’re stirred at all, we send off our donations to the charities, maybe put tins into collection points or maybe even give our old clothes and discards to Op-Shops and the like.

Afterwards, feeling relieved we’ve ‘done our bit’ we put their problems out of our minds and get back to the day to day business of living.

Yet sometimes a story pops out that makes you thankful for what you have and how grateful you are that your life has maintained a semblance of normality when others see their world collapsing around them.

Sarah Galley-Stedmans 2008

One such story has appeared in online version of the Daily Mail and relates how 39 year old Sarah Galley-Stedmans has already begun choosing cards celebrating the special anniversaries in her daughters life.

She is selecting cards for her 16th, 18th, 21st birthdays etc despite daughter Darcie only being 4 years old currently. The reason as you might suspect is that she has learned she is dying of inoperable cancer.

Sadly the cancer was only discovered as she was in hospital at what should have been the happiest time of her life so far, delivering her baby.

Initially given just 18 months to live she has, with the help of new chemotherapy and radiology techniques managed to remain fairly fit and active for the past four years though in that period her marriage broke down as the stress took its toll. I don’t think she wants anyone to feel sorry for her, she isn’t crying out for support or assistance, she’s just telling her story because she can.

I’d say that for many amongst us, those complaints and whinges about the trivial everyday problems we cope with, pale into insignificance when you realise the sort of pressures this woman is having to deal with. How hard must it be to tell your 3 year old that mummy might have to leave her soon to go to heaven?

Yes it’s one more relatively small tragedy amongst a hundred million others… but sometimes it’s the sharp focus those ‘small’ ones provide that help bring everything else into some sort of perspective. It’s a hard life, but we have to be grateful for each day we make it through and pray it’ll all be worth it in the end.

Source: Mail Online

Kids grow up so fast these days!

Gripes, Health, Society No Responses »

May 252008

Following on from the furore about the exploitation of 12 year old girls by using them in sexually explicit photography, we now have the case of a 12 year old girl in Victoria who told a judge that she thinks she is a boy and is being allowed to change her sex!!

Amazing though it seems, a judge has given permission for this girl to be given hormone treatment in order to prevent her sexual development into a mature female. S/he is also going to be allowed to change her birth certificate, passport and Medicare card details to give her a boys name.

Whilst s/he won’t be allowed to undergo surgery before age 18 she will be allowed at age 16 to begin testosterone therapy to help her develop a male physique and facial hair.

I’ve said it before and will say it again… and no doubt will repeat it many times into the future… the law is an ass. For all that 5 ‘experts’ have sided with her, there must surely be room for doubt that this decision is (on her part) irrevocable). People aged 12 are repeatedly told they are too young to decide, for instance, which parent to live with in the case of a divorce, too young to have sex, too young to drink alcohol or take certain drugs… yet this girl is deemed old enough to decide she wants to change sex?? Give me a break please!

I think this decision is itself tantamount to child neglect. The sheer androgynous physique and psychological attitudes of prepubescent girls should be enough for any psychiatrist to doubt the stability of this child’s decision making process especially when what has been described as one of her primary fears is of oncoming menstruation! Well d’uh!!

Perhaps she *is* a ‘boy trapped in a girls body’, but I hope for her sake this idiocy is abandoned until she is mature enough to be able to make a considered choice. Adults are supposed to protect children from making irrevocable decisions that that could change for the worse the entire course of their lives… not encourage them by compliance!

Edit:
More on this story with information supplied by a relative that the girls mother has pressured and brainwahsed her years to persuade her she is really a little boy… for further details read this news report.

Yet more cause for concern.

Health No Responses »

May 222008

This blog is becoming a locus for doom and gloom lately!

Today’s warning is that the effectiveness of nanotechnology use may in future be mitigated by its propensity to damage our health. New research is beginning to identify links between the tiny creations and serious illnesses such as mesothelioma! The suggestion that we are building up a potentially lethal arsenal of weapons in the guise of essential technology is of course anathema to both scientists and industry alike, yet the cause for concern remains.

nanotubes Of course we all want those futuristic products like lightweight but strong baseball bats (?) but because of their ability to control the passage of heat etc, these fibres are finding their way into products such as sun creams!

As with all these products used responsibly and in the correct way there should be little problems. Yet the question is being asked just what *is* the ‘right way’! In objects such as tennis racquets and the like we can assume the only people in real danger are those who are in some way part of the manufacturing process and so could expect to be safeguarded by legislation. But if these things are included in suntan lotion then how do we know they aren’t, for example, being absorbed thru the skin? They are after all incredibly tiny particles and can penetrate cell walls with little hindrance!

Bizarrely it seems little real research has been carried out on nanotubes to establish exactly what bio-hazards they pose. To help over come this, a small study will soon be held in Australia using volunteer lifeguards to test whether the particles in sun creams *do* in fact pose a credible threat. Until I hear the results I think I am going to be *very* careful which sun-creams I buy!! If they appear ‘clear’ on the skin for example… they can stay on the shelf!

Not more mice?

Health, Home and Hearth 4 Responses »

May 212008

I’m beginning to wonder if we do in fact have more mice in here than the one the cat (re) captured and killed the other day. Now and then she hangs about around the kitchen staring underneath the fridge which is usually a sign of something… though we’re yet to discover what.

Today she again wandered around yowling which I have only *now* begun to realise is associated with her feeling pleased with herself and sure enough… hanging out of her maw was yet another mouse – this time already clearly deceased.

She is able to carry them indoors because I’ve been leaving the back screen door open. It’s really beautiful weather this time of year, not ‘hot’ but a relatively balmy 19ºC and sunny and I like to ‘air’ the house whenever possible – you can get sick of too much life under air conditioning. This means she is free to meander in, out, and around at will.

Point being that if as before she carries in a live mouse and releases it, it wouldn’t be spotted by me and would probably be ignored by her since she isn’t catching mice from hunger.

So do we have mice indoors? Well I can’t really tell. I’ve been cleaning around the cupboards and counter tops but so far there have been no signs of mouse droppings (which other than chewed clothes or produce boxes is the only way to tell short of actually catching one! ).

I’ll be keeping a close eye out now just in case. It’s bad enough the cockroaches think they deserve a home for the winter without an influx of mice to keep them company! We can spray for roaches and kill of any that manage the incursion, it’s not so easy to control mice… especially not when the cat helps them through the defences!!

Rape of the fair country.

General Ramblings, Health No Responses »

May 202008

Despite Kevin Rudd’s government having excellent environmental credentials, it seems that Cape Alumina, a mining company might get mining rights to hack a huge hole in the area Steve Irwin bought as a permanent wildlife reserve.

Seems there is bauxite under the ground and in Australia whilst you might own the surface you bizarrely have no rights to whatever is *underneath* your land and if the government gives the rights to the material to someone then they have the right to ruin your land in the search for profit.

Of course in this case they are not just going to destroy any old piece of land… but a piece of wilderness specifically bought and set aside because of its environmental value… it’s unspoiled wilderness value.

Again this is a rallying call for us ordinary folk to show we care and make a stand. People outside Australia should do what they can to raise awareness overseas about what is about to happen. Those here need to lobby their MP’s to make them understand the need for *them* to take action on our behalf before it’s too late and another pristine area is wrecked forever.

Source: news.com.au

Boy, do I do some strange things.

Health 1 Response »

May 202008

In other place I was just rambling on about some of the symptoms, well the effects, of Asperger’s but left off just as I got to ‘inter-personal’ relationships because the post was getting too long.

However, I can come up with a very concrete and personal example of how embarrassing it can be… that’s embarrassing *now*. At the time I was blissfully unaware of saying or doing anything ‘strange’ at all.

What happened was that I’d bought a really huge crappy old Wang computer with a disk drive as big as a filing cabinet. This was back in London by the way either near the end of my psychology degree or not long after finishing it. Knowing that ‘The Phantom‘ was interested in computers I gave him a call, told him about it, and insisted he came down to look at it.

For him to ‘come down’ meant abandoning anything he was doing at the time, about which I made no enquiries, travelling on the tube for 15 minutes and then walking 10 more to get to our flat. Eventually he agreed to come and look, and made the journey. This was ‘mid-afternoon’.

He arrived. About 30 minutes later, I looked at the clock, and realised that the wife was on her way home. As we weren’t far from the tube station I used to take the old dog with me and wait for her – no mobiles in those days so if I missed her, hard luck. Had to go, had to go, had to go…..

So what did I do? Well despite having asked The Phantom to come down, and despite his having only been at the flat a short while, and despite he and his good lady having fed us numerous times… I quite calmly told him he’d have to leave to go home as I had to go meet the wife! Had to go, had to go, had to go…..

I think the look of shock on his face should have told me *something*, but didn’t. He didn’t say anything which says more for him than me… and off we went. I don’t even recall apologising for having dragged him all the way across London for nothing!!

It’s odd how that little incident has been buried away for all these years… and for which I now humbly apologise. What it shows is how completely insensitive ‘we’ *can* be without really meaning to give offence… sometimes… often… it just happens.

In retrospect I now find it excruciatingly embarrassing to admit to, but it happened so no matter how I feel it’s part of my history. Steve, if you’re still visiting the pages. Sorry mate!! But at least you know what was happening now… if not then!

Maybe I wasn’t quite as rude at the time as it feels today that I was… well I can hope can’t I??

Flu… not again?

Health No Responses »

May 082008

I think so. Head hurts, teeth ache, nose pouring, miserable as sin… not looking or feeling good.

Went back to bed at 9:30 a.m. ’til 1:00 p.m. and don’t feel any better.

Not happy.

The littlest finger!

Health No Responses »

Apr 122008

Some detail on the youngest daughters broken finger… for those mildly interested.

Seems that she broke it before she even registered at class in the morning! She’d been playing with friends on the hill above the classrooms (the school is set in some quite attractive bushland) and had fallen. She’d put her hand to stop herself and forced back the little finger on the left hand.

Her friends and a teacher had taken her to the fits aid room ‘Sick Bay’ where she was bandaged up and told to sit and wait to be collected.

Eventually after some confusion (explained in the previous post) I collected her and took her to the doctor. She was examined and sent for x-ray. The doctor said she’d prefer it if the finger was left ‘open’ so didn’t re-bandage it.

She was x-rayed and I took the film back to the doctors surgery (for those in the UK who wait weeks, it takes just minutes to get x-rays in Australia) and left them because we were running *very* late and we didn’t have an appointment. The receptionist called me at 5:30 to say the doctor would ring later but it didn’t need urgent treatment… luckily!!

At 7:30, while we were in the middle of a traffic jam, the doctor called with instructions. Wait til Monday for the swelling to go down and then make an appointment to see her husband for is to be reassessed. If necessary he’ll refer her to a specialist for treatment. Nothing really about ‘treatment’ in the meantime other than to give her painkillers if required and bandage using the other fingers as a splint if it was hurting badly.

We arrived home at 9:30 or so and *then* I was able to do something for her, i.e. splint and bandage properly and give her something to take away the ache.

This morning she seems fine, tho we cancelled her skating lesson in case she fell and made it worse. It’s still swollen, and is showing a *very* nasty bruise. It’s stiff, but she’s not needed painkillers… also she is using the other fingers to type at the computer so she seems ok more or less.

Our only concern about getting her to the Doctors on Monday is that she should be spending the early morning skating and then having a ‘meeting’ with her ‘birth mother’, and *then* another skating session in the afternoon! Not so sure all this is a good idea, since she won’t then get to see the doctor for the checkuptil Tuesday, but since she seems ok now, we might well leave it like that.

The swelling will have had more time to go down by then as well… which might be good?

So that’s the current state of play, yet again we wait and see what develops. No real ‘plan’ this time, we’ll just play it by ear.

I hates meeces to pieces!

Health No Responses »

Apr 072008

While the ex-family were here a few weeks ago the cat brought in a mouse… alive of course. She proceeded to drop it to the floor and then batted it around a bit, but before I could stop her or catch the thing, the mouse made its escape by breaking the world record for the 20 centimetre dash. Quick as a flash it zoomed under the piano and made its way across the skirting boards under the shelving at the kitchen end of the room. To be charitable, the cat isn’t the brightest of beasts… as my brother was wont to say “The lights are on but nobody’s home”… so of course she couldn’t catch it. In fact she spent the longest while squatting in entirely the wrong place expecting no doubt, that the mouse would leap out from hiding straight into the gentle caress of her jaws. And so, the mouse stayed in the house.

Oddly enough, the visitors told us that a few days later they actually *saw* the cat catch the mouse again… but stopped it killing it and then, for some bizarre reason I don’t understand, they made the cat drop it and let the mouse run free in the house again!

Could *we* catch it after that? Nope. Did the *cat* catch it again? Nope. I have no idea if it is still alive in here or the cat caught it and ate it, or it died off from ‘natural causes’ and is polluting some part of our home with it’s remains. However, I can tell that for a little while at least, it *was* alive around the house.

How do I know this I hear you ask… get on with the story!! Well I know because as I was cleaning off my desk today, ready to install the computer for my youngest daughter I moved the speakers behind my pretty little 22″ Asus monitor… and there they were… piles of small mouse droppings! Ewww…!!! How long they’d been there I don’t know, I rarely move either speakers or monitor so it could be yesterday… could be a month ago – who knows… but the mouse, or*a* mouse, had been sitting on my desk (that’s sitting with an ‘h’)!!

So. Now I have to ‘wait and see’ if it returns and does it again. If it does then it clearly *is* still alive… or some ghostly relict of it… and I’ll need to put traps down to try to finish it off once and for all.

Things could easily have been worse of course. This morning I came downstairs at 4:30 a.m. in a daze as usual and let the dogs out into the back garden to relive their bursting bladders. As they bolted out… the cat bolted in (she’s part feral and never really likes being indoors). As she dashed through the door I noticed her whiskers seemed a little longer on one side that usual and thought “Oh gawd… here we go again.” and yup, she had another mouse.

Despite my mental state I was a little more prepared this time and quickly found a small bowl ready to trap it when she let it go, as she would… as all cats do. Anyway, she dropped it. To my amazement the mouse just sat there shivering. Lord knows how long she’d been playing with it before bringing it in but it clearly thought its time had come and was simply unable to move to protect itself any further. She grabbed it again and started wandering around, now with both dogs sniffing at both her *and* the mouse. She dropped it again, and *this* time I was able to drop the bowl on it before she was able to get her teeth near it. I slipped some paper underneath it, carried it outside and threw it into the garden. Shortly afterwards, after a feed of her usual food, she went out again… no doubt to hunt down the poor thing again if it hadn’t managed to crawl off somewhere to die in peace away from the ravenous maw of our little puss cat.

Well yes… I *do* see the paradox here. Why am I trying to kill off *one* ‘mouse in the house’, whilst trying to save another? Actually it’s relatively easy to resolve. I’ve mentioned here before that we quite like ‘nature in the raw’ as far as possible and to a large extent we try not to interfere with what goes on outside the doors of our domicile. If the garden is overrun with mice… so be it… as long as they don’t come indoors.

Once indoors they are ‘fair game’ and will be dispatched with little ceremony if they can be caught. Same goes for cockroaches, butterflies, bees, crickets… or anything else that creeps, crawls, flies or hops into the house. If possible I will catch all but cockroaches alive and throw them outside where they belong. If not… sorry but it’s out with the bug spray, traps swats or whatever to get rid of them. Cockroaches of course differ in that they are revolting little creatures and the less there are living with or around me the happier I am… so they get stamped on, chopped, flattened or sprayed whenever we see them. And those *we* don’t get… I leave to the gentle mercy of the mice who seem to love chomping them up. Sounds disgusting to me, but I’m no mouse!!

See? It’s actually all in a nice balance… aaahhhh… balance. Nature?? It’s fine in it’s place… and it’s place is ‘out there’. Having said that… I *will* be checking behind my speakers a lot more regularly from now on! Especially since I had the horrible thought that perhaps the one lost in here… might have been a pregnant female!?! Oh dear… how nice. Not.

And… we’re off (again)!

Health 2 Responses »

Mar 292008

Went to the gym… got weighed (again)… had my photo taken (again)… listened to the motivational talks (again)… and came home (again), and so here we go on the Hills Biggest Loser Competition (again).

The wife came along this time to give me a little ‘moral support’ which was really nice… especially as she’s promised to do the same as last time and take over the cooking while I concentrate on working off the excess poundage!

Talking of ‘poundage’, I unfortunately (?) weighed in at 129.8 kilos… tho I *had* just drunk a few glasses of water and eaten my morning ‘breakfast bar’, a high protein low carb concoction so it isn’t quite as bad as it looks. Well ok it *is* as bad as it looks… I clearly need to lose 30 kilos minimum, if I lose anything I’ll be happy… but *if * I could lose more I’d be even happier.

As far as the competition itself is concerned it looks like we might be in with a chance of winning something. There were only three guys there at the weigh in, and there are three prizes for men! If I can hold it together we could do well.

So… the whistle has blown… and we’re off!!!

…. (again)

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