Student nurses
CW: Medical treatment
I’m up at Kenepuru Medical day ward getting a blood top up. I’ve a student nurse helping today. A young Pasifika woman doing the Whitireia course.
Being busy
Our son crashed at our place last night after being at a friend’s birthday party in the village.
Ten years ago they would have all gone into town and gone clubbing. These days they have a barbecue in the afternoon and half of them have left by 7pm to take their little children home to bed.
A totally different lifestyle.
Holy crap. That was a decent shake. Felt it in Porirua.
Everyone woke up, but the only casualty was one wine glass. #eqnz
Fatigue has got the better of me today. I’ve been completely wiped out and have achieved very little. I’ve spent most of the day horizontal.
Fatigue is a strange thing. It strikes when you don’t expect it, for no apparent reason. Then other times, when you think you’ll be tired, you have a unexpected energy. All you can do is go with the flow.
Hopefully, I will perk up tomorrow and get through at least some of my tasks.
I’m also disappointed we didn’t get to see my sister when she came down for the WoW show. Sadly, not enough time to fit it in. Still, she had a good time, which is the important thing.
Dai Henwood's TV show on his cancer well worth a look
CW: Cancer, death
I agree with this review of Dai Henwood’s TV programme on coping with his stage 4 cancer.
Me and my beloved older sister, Neroli. Our birthdays are only three weeks apart in May/June, so my niece got us a joint birthday cake. Remarkably, she managed to transport it safely all the way from Auckland!
Damn it; I think I’ve just broken a tooth. All I was doing was eating a chocolate chip biscuit. Fortunately, the dentist can look at it tomorrow. 💰
Stop the world's first octopus farm
I can thoroughly recommend The Custard Pie in Paraparaumu, on the corner of Mazengarb Road and Realm Drive. As the name suggests, there is a good selection of custard pies and cream doughnuts. I had the boysenberry cream doughnut and Kate had the passionfruit custard doughnut. Both delicious.
Our friends Helen and John met us there and we went to their place for lunch; pizza and doughnuts — a perfect combination unless you can’t eat fat or cream (which would be very sad).
This Thursday! Happiness: Find the Joy Within public talk
4am Wednesday: I wake up to find everyone else in the bed pressed up against me, and me perched precariously on the edge of the bed. I can’t recall the last time I fell out of bed, and I don’t want it to be tonight!
Calm and peaceful mind
Wendell Berry on community
“A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.”
Wendell Berry (2012). The Long-Legged House, p.71, Counterpoint Press
Sigh. I’ve just spent ages messing around trying to get my formatting and syntax correct in a post on micro.blog using BBCode before I remembered that BBCode is for Friendica and we use Markdown on micro.blog.
What a drongo.
Australia's rooftop solar success
Amid Australia’s chaotic climate politics, the rooftop solar boom is an unlikely triumph.
It’s difficult to overstate how rapidly Australians have embraced solar power – there’s now more rooftop solar than coal-fired power. The key question is what policymakers can learn from its success.
I didn’t know this, and it looks like it might be a good example of how the right incentives at a household level can create the right outcomes. It reminds me of the home insulation subsidies paid in the 1970s. Lots of houses had insulation installed then.
Amid Australia’s chaotic climate politics, the rooftop solar boom is an unlikely triumph
Access to Botanical Gardens lost to many visitors
Taxi coincidences
I had to get a taxi up to Kenepuru Community Hospital today for a blood transfusion. The taxi arrived at home for the pick-up spot on the time I wanted and as we got to the hospital, the driver gave me his card and told me to ring him when I was finished and he would collect me. It wouldn’t more than 10 minutes for him to arrive. “Yeah right,” I thought.
I got out of the appointment and was standing at the drop-off and pick-up point wondering if I should ring him or just jump in one of the Porirua Taxis that were there when he turned up with a fare going to the hospital! No waiting was required and an instant fare for him. He was a happy man.
A new bullet journal
CW: Medical and cancer treatment, death
I have started a new bullet journal from this week.