Hello Greece, Poland, South Korea, and good ol' Ostraya...welcome to the blog...and it is an absolutely glorious 22C and sunny outside so that's where I intend to be...and the garden is madly overgrown, which is not entirely a bad thing, but there's about half a tonne of self-sown parsley out there that's going to seed and it all has to come out...(I thought I saw a tiger-Ed)...you did not see a tiger...
I've chosen this title because I know that I struggle with this issue of being cynical vs being realistic...(as oft quoted - A Cynic is what an Optimist calls a Realist-Ed)...is an Optimist someone whom helps you improve how you look at life?...(no that's an Optometrist you idioh hang on, wait, I see what you did there-Ed)...see what I did?...(stop that!-Ed)...sorry...and sorry for pushing the Warnambool Cheesy Butter post yet again, but I wanted to grasp the flickering flame of dimming optimism before it sputters out completely, again, and WCB has been all over the media anyway.
Last night I attended the Cancer Information evening at Casadio Park, as organised by the Mt Gambier Lions Group...and the general tone was one of mild optimism, particularly given the subject matter...and being a two time Cancer survivor allowed me to share a gentle laugh with some gentlemen of the Prostate Supporters group about how I hadn't "collected that one yet"...they got it, and we all had a bit of a chuckle...
I take this opportunity to thank and congratulate 'Casadio Park' (the Italian Club?) for donating the venue, the Lions for organising it, and the guests speakers Mr (Dr?) Matthias Wichmann (General Surgeon, Mt Gambier); Dr Scott Carruthers (Radiotherapist, Royal Adelaide Hospital); Professor Tim Price (Oncologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital); and Tony Siebert (Cancer Council Lodges, Adelaide).
Dr Carruthers was my Radiotherapist when I had Radiotherapy back in April/May 2005, and he was the one who asked that I be given 2 more rounds of Chemotherapy (after the initial 6) because my Lymphoma tumour was still shrinking...dead but still shrinking due to it's initial size (16cmx12cm) and mass...he said he recognised me and we had a brief chat about the improvements to Cancer treatment services in Darwin, Adelaide, and Mt Gambier.
The proposed 6 chair Chemotherapy Unit at Mt Gambier Hospital is very welcomed, and an obvious improvement on the current 2 chairs, but my cynicism can't escape the reality that Penola Hospital has 4 new Chemo chairs but no staff to utilise them...can we attract those staff?...and the reality remains that the more 'hardcore chemos' like I had in 2004/05 (CHOP protocol) will still require travel outside of Mt Gambier, usually to Adelaide or possibly Warnambool in Victoria.
There was also a graph shown by Prof Price that indicated that survival rates for country patients are very much on a par with Adelaide based residents...but again my cynicism, fueled and flamed by personal experiences and those of people I know, gnaws away at this statement of equilibrium...and I absolutely apologise to Prof Price...(who'll never read either-Ed)...probably, but that's not the point...for any inference that he has sought to deceive...
But it is not just my cynicism at play when I raise issues like; by whom and/or how were those statistics gathered and collated?...when I don't trust any document generated in South Australia, particularly when that distrust is born of extensive personal experience, and that document potentially involves the Weatherill Labor government and the SA Health Department, then 'trust' would be foolish to say the least.
Gardening: There's a few Cherries and some Red Currants, and heaps of Youngberries, a few Strawberries, and a handful of Raspberries on the one vine/cane that survived...(from 6 starters-Ed)...after being watered from the tap...thanks a whole lot SA Water...but very little in the way of stone fruit, eg, Apricots, Peaches, Nectarines, etc...and my grape vines are covered with blossom/budding bunches, but they were in this same state around this time last year, it was only when I started watering that the pea size fruit just went rock hard and never ripened.
There is still no doubt in my mind that 'tap-watering', in combination with the extreme heat last summer, had a drastically negative effect on my garden...(see post Dear SA Water-Ed)...but hopefully this reasonably wet spring will help get things back on a more even keel...I have had a lot of leaves dropping, but apparently that's happening everywhere, and may be the very cool days recently that have caused a bit of shock.
And I reckon we were back on bore water again late last week because last weekend I had a thin layer of grit left on the bottom of the bath/shower that wasn't 'washed-off' me, it came from the tap...and my kitchen tap water is very 'chemically' and even in coffee there is a noticeable difference from rain water, it is very bitter...and again, I can only say that I don't make these things up to support my 'anti-flouridation' stance, this is what's coming out of my tap.
Housekeeping: Still waiting for responses from Graeme Bennett re my recent...(latest-Ed)...letter re the conduct of senior staff at the Mt Gambier ABC, and I refer readers to the post June 4th 2013, which includes the response from Alan Atkinson, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Adelaide Day Editor and his promises to forward the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Issue to Lateline and the national 7.30 programme...still waiting...and from Premier Weatherill...I'm right here Jay...
Spell Check: Just listening to a hilarious interview on
the completely impartial BBC World Service about a lady who wound up in
Grenada, a small island state in the West Indies, when trying to get to
Granada in Southern Spain...(she should have turned left at Albuquerque-Ed)...and
a much more amusing tale than the previous hour of stories about
increasing global rates of people contracting AIDS (mostly young, gay
men), and other specifically sexually transmitted diseases, eg, Chlamydia in young teenagers...
This included an extraordinary discussion about the development of a 'temporary
vaccine' (my description) for AIDS in the form of a tablet to be taken
before going out...(presumably to do things that place you at risk of contracting AIDS-Ed)...indeed...and
that's certainly not a slur on anybody because the discussion was
largely focused on the behaviours of gay men, and I don't think the 'tablet' was
applicable for intravenous drug use, etc.
And not a segue so much as straight off the high board and into the deep end but no water in the pool...a 54 year old HIV positive South Australian man has been convicted of having unprotected sex with a 14 year old boy...(which I thought was Statutory Rape-Ed)...indeed...convicted but will do no gaol time because 'he's not quite up to it mentally' (paraphase)...I just can't go into this one...it's in any online news service if you care to pursue it...
Oh, and since I posted last week about Labor MLC (Upper House) Bernard Finnigan, currently facing 2 'Child Pornography' charges from when he was arrested 900+days ago whilst serving as Acting Police Minister, he has earned another $4,000+ representing the good people of the South East and indeed all South Australians...well done SA...a paedophile Police Minister sliding sickeningly toward a fat pension, and a paedophile rapist with AIDS walks away unsanctioned because he's 'not too well'...
(Wow...when you work the optimism you don't so much work it as work it over, knock it down, drag it into the corner, prop it up, and work it some more...I'm picturing a side of beef in a Rocky movie-Ed)...well I didn't write the rules, I'm just playing the game.
Tomorrow: Cheesy Grins at WCB
But it's no laughing matter...(no, no, let me guess, there's something wrong with that now-Ed)...not wrong, just concerning...(fair enough-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...thanking you for your patronage and feedback...some feedback stuff also tomorrow...laters...
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