Okay, so the daily maximum temperatures were forecast to be >40 °C/104 °F every day this week. I’m sure if I was outside I’d be uncomfortably hot. I’m grateful I can work inside and I’m grateful for modern air conditioning. At home with the windows open, it was very warm and without a fan, sleeping would have been really very uncomfortable. That said, I did have my humidifier running. I don’t mind a little mould so long as I don’t feel dry.
The heat was a hot topic (pun intended) on the TV and radio news with lots of messages to stay hydrated and stay as cool as possible.
Before I started work this year, I made a genius start of the year move. I bought bigger trousers.
On Saturday morning I hopped out of bed and stood on the scales. I saw the number stabilise at 85.7 kilograms. That’s basically where I was in October 2017 when I decided I needed to lose weight.
Hello 2019, oh my, how you started well. Of course, for me and my alter ego, viz., Yummy Lummy, ringing in 2019 was all focussed on two “F” words. Family and Food.
It’s hard to say that 2018 has been a great year or a really bad year. It started on a down with a close family member requiring critical care after a malignancy diagnosis which required surgery which was associated with serious complications. Then there was the decision I made to refocus my online presence to food blogging and stop the medical fun facts podcast and blog.
Darren Lockyer Way while driving between Brisbane and Toowoomba
This week I got to drive along Darren Lockyer Way on the Warrego Highway (while wearing my Brisbane Broncos necktie).
Darren Lockyer
If you don’t know who Darren Lockyer is, I’ve embedded a YouTube video of his greatest hits here. He started his rugby league career at fullback (and goal kicker) and ended at five-eighth. He captained the Brisbane Broncos, the Australian Kangaroos, and most importantly, the Queensland Maroons.
More accurately, thanks to a particular constable in the ACT Police. While it would be inappropriate to mention names, this constable went out of his way to help me by doing something he didn’t need to do.
Today is World AIDS day. An annual mark on the calendar to consider the disease that made headlines in the 1980s and stimulated a huge amount of interest in medical research, social research, and health communications. Many Australians who were adults in the 1980s may remember the grim reaper TV ‘ads’, advertising a need for greater awareness about HIV and AIDS and how to prevent infection.
Kindness from a stranger recently reduced a sphincter-clenching episode of anxiety completely.
When you travel, how much do you plan what you pack in your bag?
When I’m travelling overseas, and sometimes interstate, I get anxious about forgetting something I really need. If I find myself past the security screening (inappropriately and stupidly called the ‘sterile’ zone by imbeciles with no understanding of science or the English language) at the airport or worse, on an aeroplane and I suddenly realise I’ve forgotten something I get into a mental lather. I fret and worry. No one else would know, but the thought of what I’ve forgotten consumes my head. The forgotten thing will be all I can think about.
Yea, I know, first world problems. I get it.
The kindness from someone I did not know quickly eased the tension in my bowels and calmed the tempest in my head.