A Long One

I posted an opinion piece, much shorter than this, but providing the same information, at least a decade ago - probably 13 years ago, when Adoring Husband and I quit drinking after his Parkinson’s diagnosis.

There may be some bad language. I’ve removed most of it, but I may have missed one or two f-bombs…

Top Ten Truths About Alcohol That Nobody in the Industry or Government Wants You to Know

Veteran here. 45 years of drinking. Over a year sober. Let me tell you some uncomfortable truths about alcohol that the £1.5 trillion industry and the governments taking tax money from your poisoning really don't want discussed.

Buckle up. This gets ugly.

TRUTH 1: ALCOHOL IS A CLASS 1 CARCINOGEN - SAME AS ASBESTOS AND PLUTONIUM

The World Health Organisation put alcohol in Group 1. That means "definitely causes cancer in humans." Not might. Not probably. Definitely.

You know what else is Group 1? Asbestos. Plutonium. Tobacco. Processed meat. Formaldehyde.

But you can't buy asbestos at Tesco for £6. You can't get plutonium on special offer at Sainsbury's. They're regulated, banned, and controlled because they cause cancer.

Alcohol? In every supermarket. Every corner shop. Every petrol station. Next to the crisps.

It causes seven types of cancer: mouth, throat, oesophagus, liver, breast, bowel, and larynx. That's not disputed. That's an established medical fact.

But the industry doesn't want cancer warnings on bottles because it might affect sales. And the government doesn't want to push too hard because they're making £12 billion a year in alcohol duty.

So they let you buy carcinogens with your weekly shop and pretend it's fine because of tradition, culture, and profit margins.

TRUTH 2: THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

None. Zero. Not a glass with dinner. Not a pint after work. Not champagne at weddings.

The WHO published this in 2023. The Canadian government updated their guidelines: no amount of alcohol is safe.

But you won't see that on billboards. You won't see it in advertising. You definitely won't hear it from your GP unless you specifically ask.

Why? Because if people genuinely understood that ANY amount is harmful, they might stop drinking. And we can't have that. Think of the economy.

"Moderation" is a marketing term. It's not a health recommendation. It's the alcohol industry's way of keeping you buying while pretending to be responsible.

There is no safe dose of poison. You're just choosing how much poison you're willing to accept.

TRUTH 3: ALCOHOL IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN HEROIN AND CRACK COCAINE

In 2010, Professor David Nutt published research ranking drugs by harm. Alcohol came out on top. More harmful than heroin, crack, meth, and cocaine.

Not just harm to the user. Total harm—including harm to others, harm to society, harm to families, economic cost, and healthcare burden.

Alcohol wins. It's the most dangerous drug we have. And it's legal, available everywhere, and actively promoted.

Heroin? Illegal. Prison time. Addiction services. Social stigma.

Alcohol? Sponsored sports events. TV advertising. "Drink responsibly" as if that makes it fine.

Professor Nutt lost his government advisory position for publishing this research. Because truth is less important than protecting an industry worth trillions.

TRUTH 4: ALCOHOL IS A NEUROTOXIN THAT KILLS BRAIN CELLS

Every time you drink, you're poisoning your nervous system. That's not metaphorical. That's literal biochemistry.

Alcohol crosses the blood-brain barrier. It damages neurons. It kills brain cells. It impairs cognitive function. It shrinks your brain over time.

"But I feel fine!" Yeah, because brain damage is gradual. You don't wake up after one night of drinking and forget your name. You slowly lose cognitive capacity over the years, so gradually you don't notice.

Until you're 50 and can't remember words. Can't focus. Can't think as clearly as you used to. And you put it down to ageing.

It's not ageing. It's decades of voluntary exposure to neurotoxins.

The alcohol industry knows this. They just don't put "BRAIN DAMAGE IN A BOTTLE" on the label because, shockingly, that doesn't sell.

TRUTH 5: MODERATE DRINKING IS NOT GOOD FOR YOUR HEART

Remember that? Red wine is good for your heart? The French Paradox? Resveratrol and antioxidants?

All bollocks. Industry-funded research. Cherry-picked data. Correlation mistaken for causation.

Independent research shows that alcohol increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Even moderate drinking raises blood pressure, increases the risk of atrial fibrillation, and contributes to heart disease.

The "heart healthy" myth was created and promoted by alcohol companies. And it worked. Millions of people still think a glass of wine a day is medicinal.

It's not. It's poison. There's nothing in wine that you can't get from actual grapes without the ethanol.

But "eat a grape" doesn't sell bottles. "Heart healthy wine" does.

The industry made billions on this lie. And people are still drinking for their health. Unbelievable.

TRUTH 6: ALCOHOL IS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN YOU THINK

About 10-15% of people who drink will develop alcohol use disorder. That's not a small number. That's millions of people.

But it's presented as a personal failing. "Alcoholics" have a problem. Everyone else is fine. Drinking normally. In control.

Except alcohol is physically addictive. It changes your brain chemistry. It creates dependency. And the line between "social drinker" and "problem drinker" is thinner than anyone wants to admit.

The industry loves the "alcoholic" label. It puts all the blame on the individual. It's not the product. It's not the marketing. It's not the availability. It's YOU. You're the problem. The alcohol is fine.

Except it's not. It's an addictive substance. That's what it does. That's its nature.

But if we acknowledged that alcohol is inherently addictive, we'd have to question why we're allowing an addictive drug to be sold everywhere with minimal restriction.

Can't have that conversation. Bad for business.

TRUTH 7: THE GOVERNMENT MAKES MORE MONEY FROM ALCOHOL THAN IT SPENDS ON ALCOHOL HARM

UK government takes in about £12 billion a year in alcohol duty and VAT.

The cost of alcohol harm to the NHS, police, courts, social services, lost productivity? Around £27 billion a year.

So the government makes money, but society pays the real cost.

And the government knows this. But they can't ban it or heavily restrict it because:

a) Political suicide—people would riot

b) They'd lose £12 billion in easy revenue

c) The alcohol lobby is incredibly powerful

So they do token gestures. Minimum pricing. "Drink aware" campaigns funded by the industry itself. Guidelines nobody follows.

Meanwhile, 3 million people die globally every year from alcohol. But tax revenue is more important than public health.

TRUTH 8: ALCOHOL CAUSES VIOLENCE, CRIME, AND SOCIAL HARM ON A MASSIVE SCALE

39% of violent crime involves alcohol. Domestic abuse, assault, murder—alcohol is a factor in nearly half.

But we don't talk about it like that. We talk about "drunk and disorderly." We talk about "lads on a night out." We minimise it. Normalise it.

If any illegal drug caused this level of violence and social harm, there'd be a war on it. Armed police. International task forces. Billions spent eradicating it.

Alcohol causes the same harm? "Well, people need to drink responsibly. It's not the alcohol's fault."

Yes it is. Alcohol reduces inhibitions and increases aggression. That's pharmacology. That's what it does.

But we can't acknowledge that because then we'd have to do something about it. And doing something would affect profits.

So we accept thousands of violent crimes every year as the price of keeping booze legal and available.

TRUTH 9: THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY ACTIVELY TARGETS YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE GROUPS

Despite saying they don't. Despite "responsible marketing" codes. Despite industry self-regulation.

They sponsor sports that kids watch. They use social media influencers. They create sweet, candy-flavoured drinks that appeal to young people. They advertise near schools and universities.

Why? Because they need to recruit new drinkers. Because older drinkers either quit, cut back, or die.

The industry needs young people to start drinking early and drink often. That's their customer pipeline.

And they do it while claiming they're against underage drinking. While funding "drink aware" campaigns. While pretending they care.

They don't. They care about profit. And young drinkers are profitable for decades.

TRUTH 10: YOU'RE BEING MANIPULATED BY THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETING IN HUMAN HISTORY

The alcohol industry has convinced entire societies that their product—a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic poison—is essential for:

Celebration. Commiseration. Socialising. Relaxing. Success. Sophistication. Confidence. Fun. Romance. Culture. Tradition.

They've made it so embedded in every aspect of life that NOT drinking is seen as weird. As extreme. As something that requires explanation and justification.

Think about that. You have to explain why you DON'T want to consume poison.

That's the power of marketing. That's generations of propaganda so effective that the absence of their product is now abnormal.

They've normalised poison. They've made it sophisticated. They've made it essential. They've made it so you defend their right to sell it to you even after knowing what it does.

That's genius. Evil genius. But genius nonetheless.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Alcohol is a toxic, addictive, carcinogenic neurotoxin that causes cancer, brain damage, violence, and massive social harm.

It's more dangerous than illegal drugs. It has no safe consumption level. It's not good for your heart or any other part of you. It's designed to be addictive and is marketed to keep you drinking.

The industry knows all this. The government knows all this. They just don't want YOU to know all this. Or think about it too hard.

Because if you did? If everyone did? The whole £1.5 trillion house of cards collapses.

So they keep it vague. They keep it about "personal responsibility." They keep the truth buried under marketing, tradition, and cultural normalisation.

And people keep drinking. Keep getting sick. Keep dying. Keep defending the substance that's killing them.

After 45 years of drinking and over a year sober, I finally see it clearly:

Alcohol is the most successful con in human history. They convinced us to pay them to poison us. And we did it happily. Repeatedly. For our entire adult lives.

Then when it damaged us, we blamed ourselves. Not the poison. Not the industry. Ourselves.

That's the real genius. They sold us poison, we developed problems from the poison, and we took the blame.

Brilliant when you think about it.

Veteran. 45 years drinking. Over a year sober. Finally seeing the con for what it is.

The truth is ugly. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.

But it's still the truth.

And no amount of marketing, lobbying, or tax revenue changes it.

Alcohol is poison. Always has been. Always will be.

Everything else is just expensive packaging and lies.

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In my experience, all drinkers defend their right to drink and they bury their head in the sand to avoid those ugly truths and not only make fun of non-drinkers, but exclude them from social situations.

Of my 65yrs on earth, I have been a non-drinker for 35 of them. I was a bingeing social drinker for the other 30, and while I had some fun, I also said and did some stupid things that affected me, my friends and my family in a negative way.

I have regrets and if I had my time over, alcohol would play a much smaller role.

Anyway … my day was full of rain, shopping, cooking, Harley play, gardening and Olympic Games viewing.

Now I need to sleep because I have meditation early tomorrow.

Chinese year of the Horse!

Tuesday … I missed meditation due to illness … nothing major, but enough to weaken my resolve. 

I still played with Harley, caught up on two episodes of I’m a Celebrity, napped and cooked a quick stir fry  for dinner.

Nite all.

Six Weeks in Already

Another truth bomb that resonates …

The truth could be televised and the masses won’t do a thing 

Let’s stop pretending the problem is information. There is absolutely no reason to post about Epstein, government corruption, regulatory capture, stolen money, or any of the other crimes committed in plain sight. Not because it isn’t real. Not because it isn’t horrifying but because people do not care. They are not confused. They are not unaware. They are not waiting for proof. They are finished.

Assume the impossible for a moment. Assume tomorrow the media tells the truth. Every network and every outlet. No spin, no ambiguity, no “both sides.” Names are named. Crimes are laid out. Receipts are shown. Epstein, pharma, government, corporations…everything exposed, undeniable, unavoidable. Final truth, blasted from every screen on earth.

Nothing would happen. There would be no uprising. No reckoning and no collective response. People wouldn’t lift a finger, not because they’re restrained, but because they’re incapable. This is not a population being held down. This is a population that has been chemically, psychologically, and spiritually domesticated. They are docile, sedated and pacified. Made harmless by design.

This society is weak in every way that matters. Physically soft, metabolically broken and mentally fragmented. Dopamine-addicted and attention-deficient. A population that cannot sit in silence, cannot think deeply, cannot tolerate discomfort, cannot organize, cannot sacrifice, and cannot act with courage. They don’t just lack the will to resist they lack the capacity.

Here’s the part that exposes the lie completely. Take away their distractions, and suddenly they find their backbone. If cigarettes were banned tomorrow, there would be outrage. If liquor stores boarded up their doors, there would be chaos. If McDonald’s shut off the golden arches, if the booze dried up, if the dopamine supply chain was interrupted, these same people would riot harder than they ever would over corruption, children, or freedom. Not because those things don’t matter but because comfort matters more.

That’s the society we’ve built. A civilization that will tolerate child trafficking, mass deception, and systemic theft, but will lose its mind over the loss of junk food, alcohol, and entertainment. A population that mistakes convenience for freedom and stimulation for happiness, while real tyranny hums quietly in the background.

There is no “going back.” That fantasy is dead. You cannot reason people out of a prison they are comfortable in. You cannot wake people up who have chosen sedation. They want to wake up, flood their system with caffeine and sugar, eat garbage, sit on their ass, scroll endlessly, avoid eye contact, communicate only through glowing screens, drink themselves numb, binge Netflix, worship sports teams, and fall asleep scrolling the same device that hollowed them out in the first place.

They are not curious. They are not driven. They are not seeking truth, excellence, mastery, or meaning. They are seeking numbness. Short clips, cheap laughs and constant stimulation. Seven-second reels of squirrels on skateboards while the world burns behind them. This is not dystopia coming it’s idiocracy already here, fully normalized.

That’s why I speak the way I do. That’s why I’m harsh. Not because I hate people but because softness is what destroyed them. Comfort made them obedient. Convenience made them weak. Distraction made them irrelevant. Now they defend the very system that hollowed them out because challenging it would require effort, discipline, and discomfort…things they no longer possess.

I’m not trying to wake up the masses. I’m speaking to the anomaly. The outlier and the person who still feels disgust instead of comfort. The one who knows, in their bones, that this isn’t normal and this isn’t acceptable. The one who refuses to rot quietly while scrolling through a curated illusion.

This isn’t for the sedated. It’s for the few who refuse to become livestock. ~Chris Kirckof

I agree with everything that he says and I probably fall halfway between the distracted and the outraged. While I know about almost everything that’s going on in this evil world, I am a 65 yr old female who holds little value to anybody. 

To most, I am old, foolish, a conspiracy theorist, eccentric, out of touch, full of shit, over the hill, feeble etc etc etc. 

The fact that I have 65 yrs of life experience and have witnessed many changes in history, moral and ethical values, the definition of humanity, the way we are conditioned to think and act a certain way, believe in certain things and not believe in others. 

I am embarrassed by how well conditioned I was during my 20s, 30s and 40s. I always knew that there was something ‘not right’ and life frequently led me in a different direction, but the ‘conditioning’ always brought me back to ‘conforming’.

Now I believe that life is pointless. We are all totally controlled by the elitists. We plebs are not meant to live comfortably or peacefully and those powers find every way possible to take or reduce our money and assets by creating taxes, laws, policies and rules that make life as difficult and stressful as possible.

Our only freedom is spirituality (not religion) and even then, we have to keep it to ourselves for fear of repercussions, prejudice and hostility.

The conditioning is so strong, that we are not only fearful of the elitists, the government, the corporations, the industries, but also our fellow human beings who judge us harshly when we don’t tow the line.

So I’ve created my own little oasis in the confines and control of Adoring Husband’s fears and emotional needs and I try to avoid social situations and other humans who are not like minded, because, to be honest, I judge them harshly too.

So my feeble, old, female body has no strength or value to fight the control that’s happening and I happily withdraw to my oasis.

Anyway … back to my personal post.

It has rained for most of today. We desperately need it so I’m not complaining. The temperature is more manageable and we were able to survive without air conditioning for the entire day.

Harley was disappointed to miss out on his afternoon play, due to the weather.

I had to bring my seedlings undercover again because they were drenched AND sprouting like crazy.

We watched a good Netflix movie called “RIP” with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, followed by a fluffy romance. 

MAFS was on tonight and I still have to catch up on I’m a Celebrity and Australian Idol.

I made up a chicken, onion, mushroom, tomato, garlic, sour cream and chicken broth concoction and served it with boiled potatoes, green beans and snow peas.

Now I’m ready for sleep.

Nite all.

Wet Weekend

 Association between COVID-19 vaccination and neuropsychiatric conditions.

Well … it’s been a bit wet here. Over 100mm of rain in less than 24 hours.

Remember how I planted some seeds on Wednesday? Well, here we are on Saturday and the beans, snow peas and cucumbers have already sprouted! I feel good about these crops.

It’s been a quiet couple of days. I haven’t felt very strong or energised, so I’ve chosen my bed for refuge where I binge watched the final series of Stranger Things.

It was pretty intense and I felt quite emotional in places.

I have napped both days and Harley has spent quality time with adoring Husband.

I’ve been quietly keeping up with the Winter Olympics results.

It’s 11pm and I think I shall get an early night (for me).

Nite all.

A Hot Minute

It has been 18 days since I last posted.

The tennis totally took my attention and it was amazing to see Djokovic defeat Sinner to get into the final against Alcaraz. He had an exceptional first set but Alcaraz pulled it together and won the next three sets to win the Australian Open.

My favourite girl Sabalenka was beaten in the final by Rybakina. 

Since then, there has been some cricket, some preseason NRL football matches and now the Winter Olympics.

Adoring Husband is more invested in the Winter Olympics than I am but I enjoyed watching Cooper Woods win our first medal (gold) tonight.

It’s a busy season of reality TV with MAFS, Australian Idol and I’m a Celebrity all on at the same time. The struggle is real!

I’ve been cooking a lot. Preparing meals so that I don’t have to cook every night of the week. Chicken casserole, hainan chicken, spaghetti bol sauce, curried mince for pastry puffs, butter chicken, Hungarian chicken and a couple of sauces for stir fries.

I’ve bought some small raised garden beds and prepared them for planting. I have seeds in egg cartons waiting for germination - I’ve had to bring them under cover tonight because there are huge storms heading this way. I have dill and coriander already growing and I put a celery base in a container of water and it already has green growth coming from its heart, so I’ll plant that next week.

So far, I have sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumber, roma tomatoes, cos lettuce, baby spinach, thyme, radishes, asparagus and a couple of others that I can’t remember right now.

There are about seven pineapples ripening as we speak. We’ve fed on passionfruit, blackberries, blueberries and cherry tomatoes. We have one jap pumpkin almost ready to pick and some lemons just fruiting.

I enjoyed a lovely lunch with my art girls at Truly Asia on the marina last Thursday. The food was great but the acoustics were not good. It was too noisy to hear each other speak. Our next lunch will be Arkarra Tea Gardens which is a bit closer to home.

Tomorrow is my beautiful Chicklet’s 15th birthday! How quickly time flies.

That’s about all I can remember of the last 18 days.

Nite all.

A Day in Australia

Another one that resonated …

To the people who think we’re crazy

I know how it looks from the outside…It probably seems like people like me woke up one day and decided to distrust everything, reject the mainstream and live life on edge, driven by fear or paranoia. But, that isn’t how this started and it isn’t how it feels to live this way.

I’m not afraid of the world. I move through it consciously. I choose organic food and read ingredients, not because I think everything is poisoned and the sky is falling…but because I understand that the body keeps score. Small things add up, repeated inputs matter. Once you understand cumulative load, preventative choices stop looking extreme and start looking obvious. 

That same thinking applies to how I raise my children. They aren’t allowed sleepovers, they don’t have smart watches, wireless headphones, wireless chargers, unlimited screen time. All of this is to protect them, but it’s not ‘too much’, it should be the norm. They don’t have social media, not because I want to control them or keep them naïve, but because I understand brain development, dopamine, attention and comparison. I speak to my children like humans. I explain why we do what we do. I answer questions. They understand safety because they understand the reasons behind it. They’re not going to rebel because they’re not being restricted without explanation…They’re informed.

Nearly everyone now mocked as an ‘anti vaxxer’ didn’t start out that way. They were pro vaccine. They listened. They trusted. They blindly followed advice…And then something happened. Sometimes it was an injury. Sometimes it was watching someone else be dismissed or gaslit. Sometimes it was asking a reasonable question and being met with hostility instead of discussion. Sometimes, it was death of their child. Trust wasn’t lost in one moment. It eroded… and once that happens, you start noticing patterns that you didn’t see before.

We don’t distrust the government because it’s fashionable, popular or edgy. We distrust them because we study behaviour. Language. Timing. Repetition. Governments operate from playbooks, guidelines, psychological frameworks and historical precedent (WEF, event 201 agenda 2030, the Gaza development). They always have. And so do we. That’s why there’s a long standing joke that the gap between a conspiracy theory and the truth is about six months. It isn’t because we’re guessing, it’s because patterns repeat. ‘To be forewarned is to be forearmed.’

When we avoid things like unnecessary security scanners, constant Bluetooth exposure, smart meters, wireless tech or other avoidable inputs, it isn’t because we think we can escape every risk in the modern world. We know we can’t. We know there is already so much we’re exposed to without choice. But when choice does exist, it matters. Reducing what you can in a world full of unavoidable stressors, again, isn’t fear based…It’s discernment and it makes sense!

I don’t think people who trust the system are stupid…I trusted it too. I don’t think people making different choices are reckless or ignorant. Everyone is doing the best they can with the information they have. I’m not trying to convince anyone, convert anyone or feel superior. I’m trying to live with my eyes open, protect health in a world that profits from sickness and raise children who can think critically rather than outsource their thinking entirely.

You don’t have to agree with me. You don’t have to live like I do. You don’t have to like me…But please stop assuming I’m afraid, uneducated or irresponsible. I’m not. I’m paying attention and I’m willing to sit with uncomfortable information rather than look away from it.

*****************************************************************

Happy Australia Day 🇦🇺 

We did nothing out of the ordinary. Harley play. Breakfast. Tennis. YouTube. Dinner. More tennis. 

I feel like the days are short.

We are already at the end of January!! What the!?!?

Meditation tomorrow so an early night is required.

Nite all.

Of Interest

I found this online today and it resonated …

The Care Partner: The Role No One Applies For

Parkinson’s disease is often described as an individual diagnosis. One person sits in a neurologist’s office and hears the words: Chronic. Incurable. Progressive. One name is written on the chart. One name on the pillbox label. One body becomes the focus of clinical attention.

But Parkinson’s never belongs to just one person. 

From the moment of diagnosis, a second role is created—usually without discussion, consent, or preparation. The role of care partner. Not a nurse. Not saviour. Not a sidekick. Something far more complex and far more human.

I say this not as an observer, but as someone who has lived with Parkinson’s for over a decade. My disease has progressed, adapted, surprised me, and forced me to renegotiate my relationship with my own body. But alongside that journey has been another, quieter one—the evolution of the person who walks beside me.

Care partners rarely recognize themselves in the role at first. They are spouses, children, colleagues, and friends. They start by “helping out,” filling in small gaps that appear almost imperceptibly: driving a little more, reminding a little more, and compensating quietly.

Over time, those gaps widen.

What makes the role so difficult is that it is undefined. There is no training manual for how to help without diminishing. No checklist for when support becomes supervision. There is no clear line between loving assistance and unintended control.

From the inside, I can tell you this: the greatest challenge is not the physical care. It is the emotional calibration. Knowing when to step in—and when to step back.

Care partners carry an enormous cognitive and emotional load that is rarely acknowledged. They track symptoms. They anticipate fluctuations. They remember medication schedules, appointments, and subtle changes in mood or movement.

They also absorb the fear.

Fear of progression. Fear of the future. Fear of saying the wrong thing. Fear of being honest. Fear of being honest too soon. Fear of doing too much. Fear of not doing enough.

What often goes unseen is how much restraint this requires. How often care partners choose silence over correction. Patience over frustration. Strength over vulnerability.

And yet, they are rarely asked how they are doing.

From my perspective, the most meaningful care is not about doing things for someone—it is about preserving dignity with them.

Parkinson’s already takes enough. It interferes with autonomy, confidence, and identity. When care is delivered without sensitivity, even with the best intentions, it can unintentionally accelerate those losses.

The most effective care partners understand this intuitively. They offer support without spectacle. They collaborate rather than command. They allow room for independence—even when it would be easier to take over.

This requires emotional intelligence, not instruction.

Parkinson’s does not just change the person with the diagnosis. It reshapes relationships.

Care partners grieve, too. They grieve the ease that once existed. The predictability. The unspoken assumptions about the future. They often do this privately, believing they must remain strong, positive, or encouraging.

But resilience is not silence.

Care partners need space to acknowledge their own fatigue, frustration, and fear—without guilt. Without feeling that doing so somehow detracts from the person with Parkinson’s.

It does not.

The best care partnerships I have seen—and experienced—are grounded in mutual respect. They are not hierarchical. They are adaptive. They evolve as the disease evolves. They are built on conversation, not assumption. On listening, not rescuing. On shared problem-solving, not unilateral decisions.

Parkinson’s may alter roles, but it does not erase personhood. 

The individual with Parkinson’s is still a partner, still a professional, still a decision-maker, still themselves.

The care partner’s role is not to replace that identity—but to protect it.

If you are a care partner, know this: your role matters more than you may ever hear. Not because of what you do, but because of how you are present.

And if you are living with Parkinson’s, as I am, take the time to recognize the person beside you—not just for their support, but for the quiet strength it takes to walk a road they did not choose but chose to stay on it with you.

Parkinson’s is a shared journey. The diagnosis may belong to one of us—but the resilience belongs to both.

********************************************************************

Today I swam and rebounded in the morning, did the last of my washing - so nice to have access to my washing machine - Adoring Husband and BGWLBH seem to hog it more often than not, after which I made a rather large batch of curried egg with lettuce which I scooped onto some GF toast and feasted. 

I also made a smoothie of fresh pineapple, passionfruit, banana, Brazil nut, apricot kernels, Celtic sea salt and coconut water.

Then I plonked myself in front of the tennis and watched Alcaraz defeat Paul, Sabalenka defeat Mboko, Sverev defeat Cerundolo and Tien defeat Medvedev.

I did a baked chicken with baked potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot and onion, with zucchini, asparagus and broccoli plus home made gravy for dinner. Quite delicious.

This evening I had to choose between the T20 cricket final and the Alex De Minaur match. If I chose the tennis, AH would leave the room, so I chose the cricket and missed Alex’s seemingly easy win. His next clash is with number one in the world - Alcaraz! We’ll find out what Alex is really made of in that match!

Perth Scorchers have annihilated Sydney Sixers in the cricket final.

Tomorrow is Australia Day and we have planned a quiet one at home. More tennis. More swimming. More Harley play. More rebounding. More eating.

More remembering the horror of Australia Day 2013 and the tornado damage that we endured. The memories and photos will pop up on Facebook as they do every year at this time.

We caught the edge of a storm tonight. Lots of noise and enough rain to wet the road.

Adoring husband made friends with a snake today. He was on the step ladder in the front yard when he looked down to see a whip snake trying to climb the ladder! Mildly venomous. When I say ‘made friends with’ I mean ‘jumped and ran for his life’. He survived to tell the tale.

I need to nap now.

Nite all.

Yes! More Tennis!

Obviously, my days and nights have been filled with tennis. It starts at 10am-ish and goes til it stops! Sometimes that can be quite early and other times, like tonight, it’s still going at 10.45pm.

Djokovic had a good win tonight. The retiring Wawrinka lost to Fritz. The Aussie girl, Inglis, was supposed to play this evening but her opponent, Osaka, pulled out with a pulled abdominal muscle.

Inglis was a qualifier and was not really expected to get past the first round. Here she is in the fourth round and even if she loses, will win more than $320,000!

There has been some amazing tennis and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

I’m glad I prepared so many meals to freeze last week, because it’s been much easier to prepare meals this week without missing too much tennis.

I enjoyed a lovely morning with my art girls on Thursday and our next gathering will be for lunch in the bay in a couple of weeks.

I’ve been rebounding every day and I swam a few times this week, including this morning.

It was ‘fend for yourself’ night for dinner, so I crumbed some prawn cutlets for myself and drenched them in lemon juice. Harley ate the tails.

I was introduced to a new YouTube channel which I began watching yesterday before the tennis started. It’s called ‘Joe and Nic’s Road Trip’.

They are American and they drive around searching for dying towns in USA.

They drive through the empty streets looking into closed shop windows, some of which are full of treasures!

There are old abandoned houses taken over by nature, cars left to rust and decay in the yards (some would be worth a fortune) and Joe gives information like peak population compared to today’s population, crime rate, median age and median house prices, cost of living.

Sometimes the town might have an interesting history, like how it was created, the industry that kept it thriving, the reason that industry died, a famous person may have been born there, historical buildings worth noting, beautiful churches etc.

While Joe is not the most exciting commentator, he is very knowledgeable and obviously loves what he does. Nic is not always with him, but they came to Brisbane for a visit and did a video on the city, visiting city hall, Southbank, the botanical gardens, Queen St Mall and did a food review at a restaurant.

In a weird way, it’s a bit addictive. They’ve been doing these videos for almost 20 years!

Anyway, that’s it for me. I need sleep now.

Nite all.

No Contact

Tennis and cricket have hogged all of my time.

I missed meditation on Tuesday due to a crappy bout of vertigo. Vertigo sucks.

I was still able to make a creamy chicken pasta for dinner that night.

Today, I was much improved but not so motivated to cook. I arranged for Adoring Husband to do the snags on the barbecue while I crafted a garden salad, potato salad and Monday's leftover coleslaw.

There has been no art, no journaling, no swimming but lots of sleeping and lots of couch potato-ing!

It’s after 11pm and I’m feeling weary so …

Nite all.

Missed It

Unfortunately, I urgently required some ‘stuff’ like dog bones, meat for dinner, butter, lotto and to exchange my bras for a smaller size, so I had to forego a number of hours worth of tennis watching to fulfil my needs.

I missed the Storm Hunter match and the Alex De Minaur match and most of the Jordan Thompson match.

Bugger.

I’m currently flipping between the Popyrin vs Muller and the Djokovic vs Martinez matches.

No cricket tonight, so I didn’t have worry about that, but I did flip over to ‘I’m a Celebrity’ a few times.

I crumbed some chicken for dinner and made potato salad, coleslaw and a mixed salad to go with.

This evening, I hid some liver treats around the lounge room and waited to see if Harley would find them with his trusty nose. He found every one of them.

The reason that I did that, is because, in the afternoons, the ground around the pool is too hot for him to run on so I have to find other ways to keep his mind active. So I threw his knotted rope around the yard for a little while. He was catching it on the full and loving it!

Before I let him back inside, I hid the eight liver treats around the room. It’s not something that I’ve done before, so I was surprised at how quickly he found them.

It’s now almost 10pm and I have an early start in the morning because meditation recommences in the hall, so I’m hoping that Djokovic wins quickly. He won the first set 6-3. Popyrin is winning 2 sets to 1 so hopefully, he wins the next one quickly too. I’d really like to be fresh for meditation class.

Oh … remember Tones and I? She sang that godawful song “Dance Monkey”. She was different and unique and seemed to be her own person …

Now, she has become this …

… a carbon copy of all the blond bimbo pop singers. I’m a little disappointed.

Nite all.

You Don’t Know Me

For the coming two weeks, I do not exist.

The Australian Open tennis tournament has commenced today, which means that I am unavailable between 10am and late, every day.

I have enjoyed watching the Aussies play, although only one of them made it through to the next round.

At the age of 45, Venus Williams was fabulous to watch, even though she lost in 3 sets.

My favourite, Sabalenka, won easily.

It was tough going, tonight, surfing between the T20 cricket, two tennis channels and I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here.

On Saturday night, I watched a doubles match between Roger Federer (44yrs) and Andre Agassi (55yrs) against Pat Rafter (53yrs) and Lleyton Hewitt (44yrs). It was an absolute joy to watch and my cheeks were aching from smiling and laughing so much. Ash Barty was called out to replace Andre when he’d had enough.

Roger, Andre and Ash were the winners.

I finished editing and proofreading my friend’s book! At last!

It has been stinking hot all day and the pool water is warm like bath water. Even late in the afternoon, the ground around the pool is too hot for Harley play, so he missed out today. I’ll make it up to him in the morning.

I took spaghetti bolognese sauce out of the freezer and served spaghetti bol with salad for dinner.

Nothing else to report from this end. Tennis is now done for the night, so it’s sleep time for me.

Nite all.