Monday, July 28
Trucking strike
Just heard on the news, the truckers' strike is going ahead. They said it was for 2 weeks. Hope you all have some food stocks in your kitchens. The supermarkets may be running short soon.
Unemployment
It's done. I am now officially unemployed. Free! Free to move and find my next place. Free to explore and learn without job responsibilities tying me to Brisbane. FREEDOM!!
Leaving work was hard. I've worked full time for the last 10 years (almost) and the habit of going to work and the responsibility of getting myself there, appropriately dressed and groomed and getting the work done, has been the main structural component of my life. Now I've given the work over to Val and Sandra. I no longer have a daily commitment to force me out of bed early and out of the flat showered, dressed and scented to face the public. The temptation to sleep in, slop around in my warm sweats and read all day is always there, but I will be strong! I will not become the next Mrs Chicken*! But, I'm already missing that regular paycheque.
Last Friday at work was hard. Everyone saying goodbye. I almost cried several times. We had a special morning tea and I got lotsa presents: chocolate, Annette's sunflower seed balls, a book voucher, a Crabtree & Evelyn travel kit, and a Tomtom One GPS NAVIGATOR!! (New toy!!!) (Now I need the campervan accessory to stick it on the window of!) THANK YOU GUYS .... I'm missing you all already!
Then on Friday night some of us went out to dinner at the Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street. The one in the old church with the medieval decor. It was very nice, but I ate too much and got a tummy ache. Now it's all over. I survived the first leaving, now I have to organise and survive the leaving of Brisbane. My next deadline ... leaving Brisbane by 31 August. Goals for this month: buy campervan; get taxes paid; arrange a mail drop off; pack for the trip; sell, give away and dump rest of stuff; get flat cleaned, ... Northward Ho!
* Mrs Chicken: Several years ago, maybe even over a decade ago, there was a news report of the death of Mrs Chicken. She was a shut-in, living in a house in Brisbane. Her son visited regularly to keep her fridge stocked up. All she did was live in her little house and eat and she was a shut-in basically because she had grown so fat she couldn't fit through the doors to get out. When she died they had to smash the sides of the doors wider to carry her out and she couldn't fit in the ambulance. It's my biggest nightmare, that I could become like that. Although, I suppose being so short, I'd probably have a coronary long before I could get that wide.
Leaving work was hard. I've worked full time for the last 10 years (almost) and the habit of going to work and the responsibility of getting myself there, appropriately dressed and groomed and getting the work done, has been the main structural component of my life. Now I've given the work over to Val and Sandra. I no longer have a daily commitment to force me out of bed early and out of the flat showered, dressed and scented to face the public. The temptation to sleep in, slop around in my warm sweats and read all day is always there, but I will be strong! I will not become the next Mrs Chicken*! But, I'm already missing that regular paycheque.
Last Friday at work was hard. Everyone saying goodbye. I almost cried several times. We had a special morning tea and I got lotsa presents: chocolate, Annette's sunflower seed balls, a book voucher, a Crabtree & Evelyn travel kit, and a Tomtom One GPS NAVIGATOR!! (New toy!!!) (Now I need the campervan accessory to stick it on the window of!) THANK YOU GUYS .... I'm missing you all already!
Then on Friday night some of us went out to dinner at the Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street. The one in the old church with the medieval decor. It was very nice, but I ate too much and got a tummy ache. Now it's all over. I survived the first leaving, now I have to organise and survive the leaving of Brisbane. My next deadline ... leaving Brisbane by 31 August. Goals for this month: buy campervan; get taxes paid; arrange a mail drop off; pack for the trip; sell, give away and dump rest of stuff; get flat cleaned, ... Northward Ho!
* Mrs Chicken: Several years ago, maybe even over a decade ago, there was a news report of the death of Mrs Chicken. She was a shut-in, living in a house in Brisbane. Her son visited regularly to keep her fridge stocked up. All she did was live in her little house and eat and she was a shut-in basically because she had grown so fat she couldn't fit through the doors to get out. When she died they had to smash the sides of the doors wider to carry her out and she couldn't fit in the ambulance. It's my biggest nightmare, that I could become like that. Although, I suppose being so short, I'd probably have a coronary long before I could get that wide.
Ready for another diet attempt?
In the never-ending attempt to lose weight, I listened with interest this morning to the latest 'Health Report' on Radio National. Norman Swan interviewed an Israeli researcher on her 2 year study comparing the efficacy of 3 different weight-loss diets: low fat, Mediterranean and low carbohydrate. Each diet was calorie restricted, but not to an extreme measure and she managed to get something like 80% compliance over the 2 years. Findings: All diet groups lost weight. However, the low fat dieters lost the least, the low carb dieters lost the most and the Mediterranean dieters were in the middle. She also found that the low carb diet produced the best improvements in both blood triglycerides and blood sugar control and that even when the weight loss plateaued off, improvements in the triglycerides continued while the diet was maintained.
Which I guess makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. It's only recently in human evolution that we've had access to large amounts of carbohydrate-rich food. Since we domesticated grains and developed the modern strains of wheat, oats, maise, millet, rice, etc in fact. Not to mention the even more recent explosion in the availability of sugar! So I guess our bodies still runs best on the meat, leaves, tubers and fruits with occassional nuts and seeds diet we evolved on. As my brother muttered when we were discussing our sister's recent development of diabetes, the diet the doctors' recommended is just the basic healthy diet we all should be eating anyhow.
Which I guess makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. It's only recently in human evolution that we've had access to large amounts of carbohydrate-rich food. Since we domesticated grains and developed the modern strains of wheat, oats, maise, millet, rice, etc in fact. Not to mention the even more recent explosion in the availability of sugar! So I guess our bodies still runs best on the meat, leaves, tubers and fruits with occassional nuts and seeds diet we evolved on. As my brother muttered when we were discussing our sister's recent development of diabetes, the diet the doctors' recommended is just the basic healthy diet we all should be eating anyhow.
Saturday, July 12
Oh those Americans!
It's just a cracker!
Click the link above to go to a post by Prof. PZ Meyers in Minnesota that started a furor among some of the Catholics of USA. Here is the link to the main page of his blog where you can follow the resulting reaction. He's supposedly had death threats!
Anyhow, I've put the notice up at work anouncing my farewell dinner and morning tea and now the word is spreading that I'm going. It's starting to feel more and more real and the panic is hovering at the edge of my mind most of the time now. I look around and see how much I have to do before I leave Brisbane and I hope I don't chicken out of this. Everyone keeps telling me I'm soooo brave .... I wonder if they really mean stupid. But maybe that's just my fear talking.
Click the link above to go to a post by Prof. PZ Meyers in Minnesota that started a furor among some of the Catholics of USA. Here is the link to the main page of his blog where you can follow the resulting reaction. He's supposedly had death threats!
Anyhow, I've put the notice up at work anouncing my farewell dinner and morning tea and now the word is spreading that I'm going. It's starting to feel more and more real and the panic is hovering at the edge of my mind most of the time now. I look around and see how much I have to do before I leave Brisbane and I hope I don't chicken out of this. Everyone keeps telling me I'm soooo brave .... I wonder if they really mean stupid. But maybe that's just my fear talking.
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