To start with, I've been crook. Sort of. Well, definitely. Kinda. Despite the fact that my nose has been running like a tap, and I've been coughing my lungs up, I haven't really felt sick at all. In fact, I actually feel pretty damned good. And while I know I'm at risk of sounding like some sort of new-age woo-merchant when it comes to this low-carb + high-vitamin-D + exercise thing—obviously there's something about it that's working for me.
When I got sick as a kid, I used to get really sick. I remember getting these really high temperatures, but instead of feeling hot, I would feel like I was freezing to death. I would lay, curled up on a mattress, wearing only a pair of shorts, shivering violently, my teeth chattering, while my parents sponged me down with ice-packs wrapped in damp wash-cloths, frantically trying to get my temperature to come down.
I also have memories of having really bad lung infections, and having to hang off the end of a bed, coughing up gunk into an ice-cream container, while my family members took turns drumming on my back.
I'd get so weak, and sore, and dizzy, that even going to the toilet was a major effort.
God, I'm glad I'm not going through anything even remotely as bad as that right now.
In any case, I've also spent some time working out bush. And while it's never ideal to travel when you're crook, it was nice to get away from my place while there was an industrial strength dehumidifier sitting in the middle of my lounge-room (actually, I'm kinda wondering if the dehum wasn't the cause of my sudden illness). During my travels, I caught up with an old aunty that I hadn't seen in a while, but I'm saving that for a separate post.
What I will talk about, however, is a little town I stayed in that was undergoing some major roadworks. I asked one of the locals about it, and here's what he told me:
They brought in a bunch of workers when they built the gas wells out here, y'see. The population of the town increased considerably, real-estate prices went up, people got caught up in the delusion that the town was gonna grow into some sort of rural energy hub, or some shit. The council committed to millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades. But the workers were only ever going to stay out here while there was work; and once they're built, the wells pretty much run themselves. So the workers packed up and moved on, the population's gone back to what it was, real-estate prices are in the shitter, there's vacant houses everywhere, crime rate's through the roof, and yet all of this construction goes on. It's a fuckin' joke, but the money's already been spent y'see. Alla this? It's a gigantic white elephant in the making.
Sounds a bit sad, 'ay?
Oh, and speaking of saying "ay", there's a product they're advertising on telly out there that's just called "A" (it's a pesticide or fertiliser or something, I can't remember exactly), and the ad's just a bunch of different rural stereotypes saying "ay" to each other. It made me laugh anyway.
So, what's been happening while I've been away, 'ay?
7 comments :
Sounds like hayfever to me, if you aren't really coughing anything up. Have you tried some anti-histamines? If your place is still really humid, you might be breeding some lovely spores, moulds or fungi that could be setting you off. (this used to be my problem in Autumn in Perth, but not here in Melbs for whatever reason)
Jesus that sounds like some pretty severe lung infections you had. I hope you don't smoke nowadays.
Fracking. Jesus christ. When our aquifers are ruined and no-one can use the artesian water anymore for their cattle, the greenies will be able to say "I told you so", but it will be too late, won't it? :(
Half of those houses they are building are probably on flat land that'll flood at the first heavy rain too...
I've been put on antidepressants. It's a long story which I don't really want to write publicly but it's all a little too much right now and my GP who has now known me ten years seems insistent that I need them. We'll see. I have felt a little better this week but I think that's because I spent the almost whole of monday crying and spent tuesday with an old friend from Perth, and then the rest of the week basically knitting, which was exactly what I needed. Back to work tomorrow, so who knows?
Jeez Suze, sorry I didn't get back to this sooner. How are you going now? If there's anything ya don't want to talk about on here, you can always send me an email. How are the meds treating you, by the way?
I don't think it's hayfever*, because (A) I've been coughing up gunk, and (B) I get hayfever every spring, so I know what that's like. In any event, I am now over whatever it was, which is awesome.
*Spell-check is convinced I meant to type "gayfeather". What the fuck?
Nope, never been a smoker.
Did I ever tell you that I was talking to a bloke (years ago) who was working on one of those gas fields. He reckons they pumped a bunch of dye down one of their supposedly sealed wells, and they got dye come up in wells that were nearly 80km away. Sure gives you a lot of confidence when you hear stories like that.
Oh, and here's another one, apparently Power-Point-Pete made it legal up here for big property developers to employ their own building inspectors. In my travels, I've now seen whole housing estates that were sold off the plan, to super funds, Chinese tax dodgers, etc; slapped up in a matter of weeks, on wafer thin concrete slabs that cracked apart after a matter of months, meaning they had to be condemned and demolished, all before anyone even lived in them.
I tell ya mate, the rot has set in at the top, and we're on track to become a third world country here.
That building inspector thing is only being addressed here as well. They are supposed to be "independent" but if the builder suggests one to you, and you don't know any better, you'd just go with it, wouldn't you? They should be employed by the council and have to inspect at least five or six time during the build (for a fee the builder pays of course).
The meds are treating me okay, but I feel tired a lot of the time, which is annoying but I think will pass once I get over the hump (supposed to take six weeks). Would like to stop working for a while, which would make things easier, but will settle for just taking a few sick days here and there. I'm off today because I twisted my knee, and tomorrow's the last day of my working week, so should be okay. Slept 12 hours last night (though was awake for one hour in the middle) which seems unbelievable, though I am taking valium as well, which has had a massive effect on my mood and my sleep - eliminating the anxiety and recurrent thoughts that were preventing me from resting. Meanwhile, I spend less time online and more time knitting. I actually prefer to crochet, but prefer the look of knitted garments, so it's a bit of a bind.
Anyhoo, I'm getting a lot of Netflix/iView/SBSonDemand time in. Enjoying it.
Three questions:
1) What sort of stuff are you knitting/crocheting?
2) What have you seen? Highlights? Lowlights?
3) How are you feeling now?
Craft, I like to make hats, scarves, gloves. Knit hubby some socks last year that he has already destroyed by walking around the house in them. I made the cat a cat bed which - miracle of miracles - he's actually using. I have made a few baby garments, dresses and hoodies and little shoes and hats, but that's a lot more fiddly than adult-size things so now I prefer to make blankets for the new arrivals, and so far have made six (seven?) different baby blankets and about to start another one for a bub due in december. I've made several throws for around the house and one really stunning knee blanket for my mother that took me almost a year to make the little squares for. I have two throws on the go at the moment - one which I work on when there's nothing else pressing, and the other one consists of squares so it's perfect for working on while I'm on the tram. I also made several chemo caps for my aunt in a burst of hard work because I only had a week, and she wore all of them, so that was gratifying too. The baby blankets are a bit of a pain though as at one point I was doing nothing else because so many people I knew were pregnant. And I keep having to put aside things I am looking forward to making/having to make a thing that I'm not even sure will be a desired gift. *sigh*
I binge-watched Mystery Road which is on iView, and Secret City. Both highly recommended. If you have Netflix, I also watched a British cop drama called Line of Duty. There's a movie called What We Do In The Shadows on Netflix and its spin-off series called Wellington Paranormal on SBS OnDemand at the moment. Both of them had me in stitches. Actually there's a lot of gems on SBS onDemand, including Counterpart and Transfer (this last only if you do subtitles). Do not waste your time in Extinction, a movie on Netflix, it was just not that good.
I'd be feeling a lot better if I hadn't twisted my knee at work last week. Took a day off because it was really bad and tried to spend the rest of the time at work sitting as much as possible, but it's a PITA when I want to lose weight which as you know means getting some exercise, since I know if I can drop 10kgs or so I will be far more comfortable all around, and hurting my knee wouldn't be such a PITA as it is right now, but anyway, I'm settling for just trying really hard not to overeat shit and have cut right down on the booze, which has got to help (haven't given it up, but booze and antidepressants together can be a bad combo, so I am being cautious when I do drink. Night shift coming up so four days of sobriety guaranteed as I don't like drinking prior to shift). And yes, less carbs, even though that makes me a miserable git. As to the antidpressants, I think they are starting to kick in, it's been three weeks I think and I caught myself smiling at a random baby the other day (i generally hate babies I don't know) so I guess my mood must be lifting a bit. We'll see. At least there appear to have been no noticeable side effects yet except a bit of nausea, but nothing significant. My GP though did mention that I might need a higher dose but wants to wait to see how the minimum dose works. This is the first time I have ever heard her suggest that I might need a bigger dose of something, and given how fat I am, I've often wondered about that.
Wow, it sounds like you've been super productive with the knitting. How long does a baby blanket take you these days?
I've been recording "Wellington Paranormal" and been meaning to watch "What we do in the shadows" for over a year.
As for cutting down on carbs, here's what I have found:
*BACKGROUND*
My understanding is that normally, your body converts carbs into sugar, which it stores in the blood, and uses as a ready source of energy. Excess energy is converted to fat, and stored as an emergency backup supply. Your body won't start burning fat until it starts running low on sugar. However, before that happens, your body will send you all kinds of negative feedback (hunger, lethargy, irritability, etc) to try to get you to stop what you're doing and top up the sugar supply. This is one of the reasons why people recommend exercising in the evenings and going to bed hungry. Hopefully, you sleep through all the unpleasant signals that are trying to get you to refill the tank, and your body will have no choice but to raid the fat reserves.
*EXPERIENCE*
If I cut carbs down to a "moderate" level, I end up in a hellish state where I am hungry, lethargic and irritable almost all the time. Very sucky. However, if I cut carbs down to an extremely low level (close to zero), I go through a hellish period that lasts between three days and a week (the less exercise I do, the longer it drags on), but then, I come out the other side, into a state called "keytosis". Keytosis is what happens when your body has been starved of sugar for so long, that it starts turning fat into a sugar replacement, called keytones. So, basically, your body is burning fat 24/7. When I'm in keytosis, I tend to feel amazing. I have ridiculous amounts of energy, amazing clarity of thought, and my mood is generally much brighter. The only drawback, is that I don't have to deviate much from my diet, for me to fall back into that hell-zone again, so it's quite a commitment if I want the benefits.
Also, apparently I can't spell ketones or ketosis.
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