What I think, watch, listen to, and eat each week
The thoughts and words that I want to share
No, I don’t need to be tested to look for SARS-COV-2 (which is the virus which causes COVID-19). I did have to see my GP though last week. Someone asked, are you going to get tests from the doctor? It’s amusing to me when someone assumes primary health care practitioners do the testing.
In diagnostic pathology we want tests to be precise, accurate, reliable, reproducible, sensitive, and specific. In life, I’m a bit like that too. For cooking though, I’m pretty much close enough is good enough.
Baking though requires precision. Baking is more like a chemistry experiment. Getting the right answer means being precise with measurements, timing, and understanding your oven like it’s the back of your hand.
I haven’t baked in anger since I left Brisbane in 1995 to live in Darwin. Ever since leaving Brisbane I’ve never had a lot of confidence in the ovens in the places I’ve lived in.
I was on a teleconference the other day with colleagues from the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. One of the American participants on the call asked if ‘footy’ had returned after everything was suspended earlier in the year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week I hit another milestone. Last year I started planning what I might do this year. It sort of depended on the health of my parents. If it were likely, I’d need to be close to them at this time I was thinking of a week in Brisbane. Otherwise, I was thinking of flying to Melbourne, renting a car, and driving across the Nullarbor to Perth. I’ve never done a long drive like that, and I’ve always wanted to give it a go.
I had thought about renting a Ford Mustang with a 5 L V8. I wasn’t sure if I’d go alone or do it with someone.
I may just have to do this later in the year or perhaps next year. At some stage I want to do it. I like a road trip.
Regular readers know that I’ve no fondness for chef Pete Evans after his remarks about iodised salt. His erroneous thinking, if it caught on, would leave Australia as a land of cretins.
This week, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) issued Mr Evans’ company with an infringement notice after the TGA found Mr Evans’ company breached the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989.
I mentioned this on Yummy Lummy yesterday. Apparently Mr Evans went hard on his supplements complementary and alternative medicine (SCAM) services with an alleged cure for COVID-19. I shudder when I think about a gullible person buying that device and then thinking they were cured and going out into the community potentially infecting others.
Continue reading “Chef Pete Evans and COVID-19”
How are you going with the physical distancing, staying at home unless you have a good excuse to be somewhere, enhanced hand washing, and respiratory hygiene?
I’ve been able to cook while on a teleconference. A schnitty is best cooked in butter.
Happy Easter if you’re into Easter. If you don’t observe Easter or if you don’t celebrate the time for any religious reason I hope you have some downtime.
One of the ways I keep informed professionally is through participation in e-mail discussion groups. I’m a member of a few which are focussed on medical microbiology, infectious diseases, and public health. During a pandemic, such a resource is valuable and members lean on one another and rely on one another to share pertinent and up to date information.
This is not a post about the policy decision to encourage social distancing. I just want to offer another way of thinking of a form of words.
There may be some confusion about the words quarantine and isolation. Last week, I wrote about the confusion some people have about the name of an infectious disease and the name of the microorganism that causes it.
