The Education of Me

I'm currently watching a new series of interviews with hundreds of doctors about the effectiveness (or not) of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for cancer.

I'm only a third of the way through the first two hour long episode and have already learnt some interesting facts.

You know that I've written about how doctors are branded as 'quacks' if they speak up against any medical treatments. Today, I discovered that George Washington actually died as a result of 'blood letting' which was recommended and performed by a number of medically qualified doctors.

I did a bit of a search to find information to back this story and found this ...



I also discovered that the first doctor who recommended that surgeons wash their hands prior to performing surgery, was branded a quack, as a result of this suggestion. Really?

Here are some facts that completely astounded me. In the early to mid 1900s, a group of pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Hoechst and BASF formed 'IG Farben Industries' and used inmates from the German concentration camps in WWII as slave labor to build their industrial plants. They rotated the inmates every 3 months, killing each retiring crew in the gas chambers.

They also manufactured and provided the gas to the Nazis for the gas chambers as well as actually building the extermination camps and gas chambers (using slave labor).

Of the twelve tribunals that were conducted after the war, this pharmaceutical group were the 6th to be tried and it was proven that they were responsible for, among other things, building the camps and conducting torturous experiments.

They were never punished for these atrocities.

More of my searches uncovered this! and this!

If they were capable of committing these horrendous acts back then, in the name of money and profits, what makes anybody believe that they are not capable of doing the same thing in a more modern and secretive way in this day and age? (especially if they were never punished back then)

To finish my blog on a more happy and pleasant note, I got a little peek at one of the chicks in the Tawny Frogmouth nest today! It was very brief and not very clear, but at least I know that there is at least one chick and maybe more will be revealed as time goes on!

I have to say that it's a beautiful day and I'm looking forward to spending a couple of hours with Woman of Many Talents this afternoon.

Later: I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine with my friend and today has been a good day :)

Nite all.

False Pretences

People who we consider to be 'Australian'

Nicole Kidman .. actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii
Olivia Newton John .. actually born in United Kingdom
Mel Gibson .. born in New York, United States
Guy Pearce .. born in United Kingdom
Sam Worthington .. born in United Kingdom
Naomi Watts .. born in United Kingdom
Hugo Weaving .. born in Nigeria
Isla Fisher .. born in Muscat, Oman

There are very few 'apparently' famous Australians, actually born in Australia ..

Chris, Liam and Luke Hemsworth .. born in Melbourne
Hugh Jackman .. born in Sydney
Cate Blanchett .. born in Melbourne
Geoffrey Rush .. born in Toowoomba
Heath Ledger .. born in Perth
Eric Banner .. Melbourne
Simon Baker .. Launceston
Rose Byrne .. Sydney
Toni Colette .. Blacktown
Melissa George .. Perth

We really do claim a lot of 'unAustralians' as our own!

I won a chicken tray in a raffle tonight and took some money out of the pokies, but not enough to brag about.

There weren't many of us at the club tonight .. very quiet. Adoring Husband arrived quite late in the evening after his important SES meeting. He has a big SES weekend ahead of him too.

It's not even 9.30pm yet and I am feeling very very tired, so I might just head off to bed and see if I can fall asleep early. .. I may even wake up with enough energy and motivation to clean the house!

That's about all I have the energy to share tonight, so I hope your weekend is amazing and I hope I have something interesting to share beyond the weekend.

Nite al.

Socially Acceptable

For some strange and inexplicable reason, I felt the need this morning, to socialise! Maybe because I missed my morning tea with the girls on Tuesday.

I started at the Seat of Knowledge, then bought my coffee, and half way home, I decided to drop in on Apple, knowing that The Reality TV Queen would also be visiting during the morning.

For the last 3 months, the Reality TV Queen has been dog sitting a long haired Jack Russell named Harry. Today was her last day with him, so she was taking him for a walk to say goodbye to everyone. I think she was kind of torn. Happy to have her life back, but at the same time, sad to be losing him.

We three spent a couple of hours over coffee, bitching, laughing, bragging, whinging and telling animated stories. The Reality TV Queen is the second best story teller of all time and makes me laugh so hard. The only story teller better than her, is Tweedle Dee, but she has left town, so her top spot is on offer.

I finally found my way home around midday, by which time, the motivation level for cleaning was pretty low! No cleaning today!

I cooked lunch and then an early dinner because Adoring Husband had a meeting tonight. While he was at the meeting, I disappointingly overcooked some chocolate lava cupcakes. They will have to be mixed with coconut cream and berries, because they are too dry to eat as they are.

I'll attempt another batch over the weekend.

This evening I added a quote to one of my own photos ...

... and found another one in facebook that I liked ...

I received my Statement of Attainment for the studies that I completed. It seems that I am now able to confirm your physical health status, communicate effectively, make referrals to other health care professionals and provide basic dietary advice.

My GPA (Grade Point Average) was 6.4 (the grading is between 1 and 7).

So there you go.

You never know, one day I might re-enrol and finish the course!

But right now, I am enjoying my life.

Nite all.

A Day Full of 'C's

Coffee, crabs, cooking, curry, cabernet sauvignon, casserole, cleaning, complex circuitry and cancer.

My day was full of 'C's.

As usual, my day started with some time at the Seat of Knowledge and my second stop was for coffee and comestibles (I needed a word starting with 'c' that meant 'food').

The Motivator had her 'cooked crabs for sale' sign out, so I stopped to visit her, talk a little business and bought six nice sized sand crabs before pedalling home to decide whether to cook or clean!

Since I had the comestibles fresh at hand,  I decided to cook.

I made four meals of curried chicken, four meals of casseroled beef and some 'cibo' (Italian for food) spaghetti bolognese sauce, which I flavoured with a nice swig or two of cabernet sauvignon.

While I was preparing these meals, I shelled the six crabs and stored the meat in a container in the fridge, so that I could nibble during the day.

I was also called to assist Adoring Husband in the garage as he tackled the complex circuitry of the break/tail/blinker lights of the box trailer. Much to his frustration, this task eventually proved unsuccessful for the right side lights.

Only minimal cleaning was performed by me. Some sweeping, dish washing, dusting, but by 3pm I was ready to sit down and take a load off.

I took this opportunity to have a look through my Jeunesse paperwork and wrote down some questions to ask one of the experts next week when we meet for some website training.

Finally, I found this very interesting article written by a reporter, who herself, was dying as a result of the treatment she received for breast cancer. She says all of the things that I've been trying to convey for years and considering the amount of research she did over the years of her illness, I find her words painful to read. I can only imagine her overwhelming frustration.

It has been a long and productive day for me. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will wake with the same level of  enthusiasm and get the desperately needed cleaning done! It would be nice to step into the weekend with a clean house and a clean conscience!

I hope that tomorrow I can bring you another 'C' word. CHICKS! The Tawny Frogmouth chicks have hatched and are making Dad squirm on the nest ... their fluffy white selves should be poking their heads out for a look at the world any day now. I'll be ready with my camera.

Should be an early night for me :)

Nite all.

An Enthusiastic Introduction

What an interesting morning.

I'm glad that I made the effort and sacrificed my morning tea with the girls to meet the amazing people, whose passion, enthusiasm and experience with Jeunesse was contagious and inspiring.

Again, I learnt a lot and Adoring Husband has now been recruited as my guinea pig to test out the Jeunesse healthcare products over the next few months. This is what we do .. we try everything and anything that looks like it might be effective in some way. You just never know what might work.

Doing something, is better than doing nothing.

So I am getting behind the Jeunesse movement and while using the skincare products on myself (properly this time) and the healthcare products on AH, will share the experiences and our progress here, so watch this space for the expected miracles lol.

So if you're interested in what Jeunesse has to offer, you can look here.

Also, one of the health products, 'Reserve', has the main ingredient of Resveratrol, which you can learn about on this 60 Minutes report ...



Did you hear at the end of the program where he announced that those Drs' startup company was sold to a pharmaceutical company for three quarters of a billion dollars? That usually means that the prize ingredient (in this case resveratrol) will either never reach mainstream population because it has the potential to replace all of their other profit making drugs, OR, it means that they will take advantage of reports like this and create a product that has so little resveratrol in it, that it will not be in the slightest bit effective.

Anyway, the Jeunesse 'Reserve' (containing resveratrol) is one of the products that I have introduced to AH and he commenced taking it this morning.

It will not be an instant fix, although some medical conditions have been known to disappear after just a couple of weeks, but Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a little more complex than most conditions, so it may take a bit longer. It may have no affect at all, it may ease the symptoms just slightly or it may have a big impact.

AH will take this product, in conjunction with a couple of others, that I will tell you about in another post or two.

It's a matter of 'wait and see', so watch this space!

Oh and because the Jeunesse meeting that I attended was across the road from Shoe Frenzy, I, of course, took the opportunity to both browse and buy!! I will be wearing new shoes on Friday night!

Nite all.

Quotes of Encouragement.

Tonight, I accompanied The Motivator into The Bay and attended a Jeunesse meeting where I learnt more about the many and varied products that they have available,  how the company came into being and how and why it continues to flourish.

What attracts me the most is that the products are certified organic, GMO free, hypoallergenic and phthalate free.

It was a very interesting evening and I learnt a lot, however, I am attending another meeting tomorrow morning to learn more, so I'll tell you more about it after that!

In the meantime, here are some quotes of encouragement.

I just wanted to mention that I was torn about attending tomorrow's meeting because it means that I'm going to miss morning tea. I LOVE my weekly morning tea with the girls and I HATE that I'm missing it this week!! It may seem like such a small thing, but I struggled making the decision to attend the meeting instead.

So girls, I apologise for the short notice and I'll catch up with you soon!

Nite all.

Boring Cars

Bathurst weekend .. ugh!

Every year I complain about the cars driving round and round and round and round... for five or six hours!!!

Why do (mostly) men find that so appealing???

How much money is spent on running this race every year? I just can't get my head around it and I don't understand the fascination.

I am very grateful that it's over for another year.

So my Sunday has been one to easily forget. A nice big breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, avocado, mushrooms and spinach to start the day. Stuffed baked zucchini for lunch. Steak and rocket/pear/candied walnut salad for dinner.

The Seat of Knowledge was very pleasant this morning with high tide and sunshine to welcome the day. The boys were in fine form.

The Tawny Frogmouth is still not showing his chicks, but I continue to monitor the nest.

It was mental health week in Queensland last week so I thought I'd give my tips on keeping or finding good mental health.

1. Make sure you spend time in the sunshine to get a good dose of vitamin D daily.
2. Exercise, even if it's just a twenty minute walk every morning or afternoon.
3. Walk barefoot on the beach or on the grass in the back yard.
4. Eat nourishing fresh food and avoid processed foods and sugar.
5. Drink plenty of filtered water to help your body remove toxins.
6. Listen to your favourite uplifting music.
7. Spend time with animals - very therapeutic.
8. Pamper yourself - a bath, a pedicure, a movie, a nice lunch or morning tea with the girls.
9. Random acts of kindness - make soup for sick friend, leave a good book on a park bench as a pleasant surprise for a stranger to read, pay for two coffees at your local cafe so that the next customer gets them for free, visit an elderly person and brighten their day.
10. Get a solid night's sleep. Seven or eight hours of sleep every night helps your body rest and heal itself ready for the next day.

When I get into a rut and I'm feeling a bit down, it's easy for me to hibernate and neglect myself, which in turn sends me deeper into that rut and closer to depression, so it's important for me to be aware of my habits and be proactive by taking control of the little things.

One small step at a time.

That's my advice ... for what it's worth.

Three things I'm grateful for today ... Adoring Husband and his love, this caring community in which I live and friendships that bring comforting routines and a long history of unconditional loyalty, dependability and commitment.  

Nite all.

Totally Clueless

I had a good time at the Murder Mystery night at the club.

I wish I'd taken my reading glasses because there was a bit of reading to do and the slips of paper were small with tiny print, which is very difficult to read in low light, let alone without glasses!

This was my first Murder Mystery night, so I had no idea what to expect. Everyone at our table were a little confused by the whole thing.

Here is what I figured out by the end of the evening...

1. It's important to mingle with as many people as possible (there were 50 guests!)
2. Ask lots of questions and listen carefully to the answers.
3. Go to the website and study the main characters before the event.
4. Take notice of the one piece of information that EVERYBODY is sharing.
5. It's very easy to be distracted.
6. It's very easy to get confused.
7. Take your reading glasses .. you will be reading clues and questions and people's name tags all night.

Everybody made a fantastic effort to dress up as the characters that they were assigned. I think I was the most boring character - Gigi Opal, a homemaker married to a football star who is never home and mother to 5 children. My costume (if you can call it that) was jeans, a top and a matching head band.

There was a Doctor, a pharmacist, a mayor, a movie star, a tennis player, a comedian, a food stylist, a baker, TV producer, personal chef, hitman, lunatic, police officer, real estate agent, florist, a pilot, a marathon runner, a travel agent, a lumberjack, a teacher, a roller skating rink owner, a model, a librarian and the list goes on and on. Everybody dressed accordingly and had props to match.

Happy Harry and Lady Lynn looked absolutely amazing and totally looked like their characters - the 'food stylist' and the 'florist'. In fact if they were giving out prizes for best dressed, I'd have given it to Lady Lynn. Happy Harry's hair was pretty great too .. it deserves a special mention.

Dinner was a choice of lamb shanks or avocado chicken and there were two desserts, which I couldn't have because they weren't GF, but I was given 4 meringue mushrooms with ice cream, which were delicious!

The night was loud and confusing but fun and interesting. I, nor anyone at my table, had any idea who the murderer was. I don't think anybody in the room guessed it correctly.

Now that I know how it works, I think I'd like to attend another one, just to see if my theory gets me closer to figuring it out.

Anyway it's well after midnight, so I think I need to go to bed. Just thought I'd pop in here and give you a report on the evening. I shared a bottle of wine with Lady Lynn, so I'm completely sober at the end of the night!

Nite all.