All 'n Sundry

Listening to: The Mars Volta - Vicarious Atonement

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Today is the 24th anniversary of the Ash
Wednesday Bushfires, that destroyed around 500,000 hectares of land in Victoria and South Australia. 75 people died in those fires - 47 in Victoria and 28 in South Australia.

I was seven years old when they hit. I remember walking out the front gates of my school and seeing Dad waiting to pick me up, as the traffic lights up the road were not working. I looked up the road towards the Mt. Lofty ranges (maybe six or eight kilometres away) and seeing 100 foot
high flames leaping off the hillside. The sky was brown with ash coming down from the hills.

These are the things I will never forget.

Hopefully we have all learnt some valuable lessons from those days. We haven't been hit by bushfiress as bad as those since. And touch wood we never will be again...

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I went to the doctor's a week or so ago t have a general check-up. I've been so tired lately that I wanted to make sure there was nothing sinister at work. He poked, prodded, tapped here and listened there. Did the whole height-weight-say aaah thing. Other than being overweight (duh), everything seemed normal. He took some blood and ran a bunch of tests on it. I went back at the
end of last week to get the results.

I had pre-conceived ideas about what the results might tell me. I was sort of expecting my iron and blood sugar levels to be down. I figured that could be a cause of my lack of energy. I also expected my cholesterol to be way up. I don't exactly look after myself as well as I could.

Turns out my iron and blood sugar levels are fine. My cholesterol level was 7.3 (safe limit is up to 5.5), so I've got some work to do on that. I'm trying to cut right back on the oily fatty foods, and trying to up my intake of healthier (read rabbit food) things. I also want to get back into walking in the mornings.

The doctor also said that my liver enzyme levels were slightly elevated. He requested more tests for hepatitis B & C, and told me if I didn't hear back from him, everything was fine. So far I've heard nothing.

One good thing to come out of my blood tests: I already have a resistance to the virus that causese glandular fever. Somewhere along the line I've come into contact with it (never had it that I know of - tho my brother did many years ago), and my immune system has built an immunity to it. So there's one nasty that'll never get me.

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Every now and then, you see something that makes you stop. You watch, your eyes fixed on the screen as someone does something so amazing and breath-taking, you get goosebumps.

This is one of those times:

Grumble Grumble

Listening to: Dream Theater - Endless Sacrifice

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Changed the layout of my blogs. The grey was too depressing.


So we have applied for two places to rent. Hopefully we will hear about them this week.

We started packing our stuff up no the weeked, to save time when we have to move. We are hoping to have all the non-essential stuff packed away by the end of the week. Just quietly, I'm hoping we don't have to move this weekend - it's going to be 40°C all weekend. Yuck.

This really isn't something either of us wanted to do, but if my uncle wants to be a prick about it, then he can fucking well deal with it. I'm waiting for the agent to ring this morning (I was going to ring him, but fuck 'em, he can ring me), to find out if we are in fact moving and when we plan to be out. That's a date I can't give him at the moment. When we have somewhere to move to, then I can tell him. But until then he can wait. I know they will both want us out so they can get more rent. But they are not going to push us out any sooner. Because I will not be made homeless to appease my money-hungry uncle's desires. For once, he can work around my schedule.

And after all that, our hot water service still isn't working properly.

We're both tired, stressed and struggling to stay composed. To be fucked over by a relative after living in the flat for over three years (and for Kel, two and a half years) without any major complaints, is seriously dis-heartening. I always knew my uncle was business-minded. But to ambush us like he has is unfogiveable. Honestly, I wouldn't feel upset if I didn't see him again. Like ever. Kinda like my Dad, but that's a whole other story!

I know we received a good discount on the rent - I knew that from the day I moved in. And I wouldn't be so upset about the rent going up by as much as it is if I'd known in advance. If my uncle had called me (or told me when I rang him about the hot water service - he can't tell me he didn't know about the agent then) to give me warning about the agent coming into it, and the rent probably going up, then we would've have more time to prepare, start looking for a new place, or accept the rent increase. But no, he chose not to discuss it with me. He chose to keep that information from me, and now we've been ambushed and are on the back foot.

Sometimes I wonder how I'm related to some members of my family...