I Am a Question Mark

You seek knowledge and insight in every form possible. You love learning. And while you know a lot, you don't act like a know it all. You're open to learning you're wrong. You ask a lot of questions, collect a lot of data, and always dig deep to find out more. You're naturally curious and inquisitive. You jump to ask a question when the opportunity arises. Your friends see you as interesting, insightful, and thought provoking. (But they're not always up for the intense inquisitions that you love!) You excel in: Higher education You get along best with: The Comma

Want to see what sign you are?

Go on, it's only a short questionnaire. These pop-psych thingies can be fun.

Campervan specs

What do I want in a campervan?

Well first, what I don't want. Basically, I find most of the professionally designed and built campervans claustrophobic. They fill the space with cupboards and gadgets and a bed leaving a narrow corridor down the center of this tiny van you can hardly turn around in. Not for me.

What I want is a hightop or poptop, long wheel-base van that is empty or mostly empty. I have a single matress, a solar oven and curtesy of Ulrike at the RBWH, a gas canister. I wouldn't turn my nose up at some basic camping gear, like an annex and some folding chairs and a table, but I can buy them myself. As well as some plastic storage bins and a DC fridge. I don't really want to spend extra thousands on a microwave and water pumps and electric/gas stove and cupboards and chemical toilet and .... They just take up too much room and I'd rather use the extra money making sure the van will run well and is in good nick.

So if anyone hears of a good deal on a van, let me know OK? The Ford Transit vans are a good size/shape and definitely dual fuel, ie. running on both petrol and gas. Preferably with at least a few months left on the rego and registered in Qld would be best, cause then I don't have to get a roadworthy every year.

Touching base

It's been a while since my last post. But nothing much has happened. I've looked at several vans and my solar oven has arrived. I've also been pricing mobile phones with cameras.

My sister came down to stay for a week, to celebrate her birthday and to see the Ekka. She says she enjoyed her stay. We had a good time checking out the exhibits and the baby animals at the show. Mich bought Aunt Joyce a showbag and a soft toy, cause she'd been ill. Then we watched the Show being officially opened by some of the local military boys and state bigwigs. And the grand finale of the fireworks. Of course I ate too much.

Back to Aunt Joyce. She was in the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital several weeks ago, and as I was still working there then, I visited several times. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and they were going to wait for a few months to check how fast it was developing, before they decided on what treatment she should receive. So they sent her home to Rockhampton. Well, she died of a heart attack last weekend and they buried her Thursday. So sad for her family. I feel sorry for dad and my cousins, her children. Especially Sonya, as she had also just recently lost a baby to a miscarriage and then got married. I've been told she's still in shock. I didn't go to the funeral, but sent a wreath instead.

Trucker strike cancelled

Looks like we won't see trucker blockades and riots like they had in Europe after all and the supermarket shelves are still stocked.

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.

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.