Long weekend shenanigans and manflu

Haha, fooled you. No long weekend shenanigans going on here or with me. I’m too boring and mainstream for mischief and deceit.

This last week has been uneventful. Nothing to see here except a bit of freestyle raving about nothing.

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Besides, I’m currently under the weather. The most active thing I’ve done this weekend is to cook a lamb rack last night. I got tired and short of breath just eating my dinner. To be fair, there was a lot of meat.

It feels like I’ve been experiencing a low level upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) for the last few weeks and on Thursday instead of improving I seem to have deteriorated. Now my barking cough has returned. My nose is either blocked or dripping like a tap. I wasn’t sure if I was febrile yesterday because the forecast was for 41 °C/105.8 °F. I had a fan going all night in an effort to keep cool.

Manflu

Let’s hope this doesn’t transform into manflu. I believe in manflu. Manflu may not be a killer but it can drain a bloke’s will to get any work done. Manflu can rob a bloke of appetite and the will to cook a meal. Manflu cough can make a bloke wonder if the next coughing spasm will result in a cerebral hæmorrhage. A bloke with manflu dares not cough while bending forward because of the possibility of a severe lumbar injury. Manflu coughing while straining to stool may result in prolapsed hæmorrhoids. Manflu is also a thief. Money gets spent on boxes of tissues, more handkerchiefs are washed and ironed, nasal decongestant gets bought knowing it can only be used for three days, and sleep is stolen as the bloke with manflu coughs throughout the night.

I shouldn’t complain though. The weather has been warm and there haven’t been any unseasonal cold periods that Canberra is well known for.

I’ve also been eating well, so much so, my weight is steady with no sense of a decline.

I’ve managed to keep moving too. I don’t want to not get some physical activity in each day.

I’ve got no plans for the long weekend. If I’d been feeling better, I had thought, I may take a drive east and find a beach so I could go for a swim.

The long weekend

For readers not familiar with modern Australian history, 26 January is a gazetted public holiday and because politicians in states and territories who are responsible for the gazetting of such days are more interested in votes than in productivity, even though this year 26 January is a Saturday for reasons unknown to hard working people, we get Monday off work.

“Australia Day”

The public holiday is known as Australia Day and it marks the arrival of Captain Arthur Phillip and what is known as the First Fleet which colonised Australia. There are some Australians (and non-Australians who seem to like to comment on Australian affairs) who regard the colonisation of Australia by the English as an invasion. It’s become contentious. In my mind, I’d like to see 01 January repurposed as a day to consider our federation and I’d like to see the third Friday each January as a reconciliation day which can take on a thanksgiving like tradition. I don’t see much point in continuing to antagonise a community by indulging in something which is only a relatively recent construct.

Don’t get me wrong, history is important. It’s important to know our history. It’s important to know what has happened in our past so we can be better in the now and in the future. It’s also important to consider, review, and even celebrate some aspects of history, but if that history is contentious and serves no real purpose other than to inflame, alienate, and ostracise, I don’t see the point of perpetuating something that can create a schism in our community.

I’d prefer to see Australia develop through unity and assimilation. Perhaps that reflects being an Australian of Chinese heritage. The Chinese communities in Australia and other similar countries were keen on assimilation into a community and culture.

Assimilation though doesn’t mean loss of identity. I feel strongly Australian but I respect my Chinese background.

If anyone reads this and calls me unAustralian…fight me.

Public holidays in general

Mind you, I’d like to see an overhaul of our public holiday system. I’d do away with gazetted holidays on 25 December, Easter, the Queen’s ‘official’ birthday, labour day, and all the other days.

Take recreation leave

If someone wishes to observe a religious day, they should take recreation leave. In this way there is no Christian and Roman Catholic bias and no matter what someone’s religious observance, they can take the time off they need. If someone wishes to celebrate the Monarch’s birthday, take it as recreation leave. If someone wishes to observe a day to celebrate the value of workers’ right, take it as a recreation leave day.

If someone wishes to observe the day when the First Fleet arrived and colonised Australia, take it as a recreation leave day. For all I care, if someone wants to take the day off for their birthday, take a recreation leave day.

We all get ample recreation leave days every year (at least this is true in Australia). There are more than enough leave days to observe the things that we feel are important. For some of us, we’ll just use them to take a break from work and if we’re lucky enough, take a holiday.

What about the Melbourne Cup holiday?

I’d gazette Federation day (01 January, even if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday), Reconciliation day (third Friday in January) and Anzac day (25 April, even if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday). Every other month should have one Monday gazetted off so there is a long weekend in all those months. That would even things out. The thought that Victoria gazettes the first Tuesday every November for a bloody horse race is abhorrent. I’ve got lots of friends who love horse racing, but I see no point in it, especially when so many horses die. I’d be happy to watch riderless horses galloping much as I love watching slow motion gait videos of almost any animal. That said, I’m a big fan of slow motion nuclear weapon detonations too. They are so beautiful.

Summer Sport

I wish water polo was televised. At the moment the only sport in the news is the tennis (Australian Open) and the cricket (who knows, who cares).

I have very little interest in professional tennis. All I saw on the news this week was some bloke throwing a tantrum like a spoilt child. It’s too much about the people and not enough about the game. I don’t care about the private lives of current and past sports people. I don’t care what they believe. If it was just about the competition and the skills on the court that would be fine but the media loves to beat up everything.

The cricket is much the same.

What I like to watch

As far as non-contact sports are concerned I like to watch competitive swimming and rowing. I don’t want to know anything about the competitors, I just want to watch the racing. I want modern technology to show the movement, the anatomical aspects, I want to see physiological readouts, and I want slow motion of movement. I really admire the beauty of animals (including sapiens) in motion.

I enjoy watching contact sports like water polo and rugby league. I’m looking forward to this year’s rugby league season and will avidly follow the men’s and women’s competition. One of the really cool things about Star Trek: Enterprise was that Captain Jonathan Archer was a big fan of water polo.

What have I watched this week?

Star Trek: Discovery

Season 2, episode 2. New Eden.

Christopher Pike continues in the captain’s chair aboard the USS Discovery and he’s changed the ready room. Captain Lorca had a really cool ready room full of artefacts including a tribble, some bones, some weapons, and other cool stuff. His stand up desk also always had a bowl of fortune cookies on it. Pike is more like the usual Star Fleet captains we’ve come to know.

In this episode Pike does demonstrate though some knowledge of comparative religion and Commander Burnham plays to her Vulcan upbringing by placing science above all else.

Another nice thing about this episode is that the Northern Territory gets mentioned. Not THE Northern Territory, but at least the phrase Northern Territory was used.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Season 5, episode 10 Rapture

Of all the captains, Sisko is my least favourite. This episode seems to be an attempt to get Sisko to mimic an LSD trip after a technical failure in one of Quark’s holodecks. His visions reveal the site of an ancient Bajoran city and all the mumbo jumbo of DS9 comes to the fore.

The only thing that saves this episode is an appearance from Dax and Worf.

Law & Order

Season 1

I’ve been enjoying my journey through Law & Order. This series started in 1990 and ended in 2010. That’s an amazing 20-year run.

It’s one of those shows which can run in the background while I’m working or cooking or editing photographs.

What have I listened to this week?

While I’ve listened to the usual podcasts, none of them have been remarkable in any way.

Lessons identified and learned this week

Batch sous vide chicken thighs

Batch sous vide cooking chicken thighs really makes life easier during the week. While I’ve batch roasted chicken thighs in the past for lunches, sous vide chicken thighs are even better. As the chicken cools in its vacuum bag in the refrigerator, all the juices are retained and the juices congeal to form a jelly which is delightful to eat along with the tender and moist muscle flesh. The thigh skin also comes away easily so it can be flattened and placed in a toaster oven for quick and easy crispy chicken skin.

What have I eaten this week?

Plus some other photographs

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Yummy Lummy this week

I cooked a nice rack of lamb, along with duck fat roast potato, plus some broccolini and asparagus. I used my MEATER wireless meat thermometer to ensure a perfectly cooked piece of meat and minimal oven time during a day which was forecast for 41 °C/105.8 °F.

I also had fun with the recipe. I wonder if anyone will actually read what I wrote…

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Final thoughts

• Did you do anything on the long weekend?
• Do you think manflu is real?
• What was your best meal this week?
• After reading this post, do you think I should stay in bed because I’ve raved too much about nothing?