April 2002 (Month View)
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01.01.2002 – Tuesday 1 January 2002 – New Years Day
- • I woke up.
02.01.2002 – Wednesday 2 January – Flew to Cairns
- • Caught a bus to the airstrip and flew to Cairns. Uneventful 35-minute flight in a nine seater Cessna Titan. Went and annoyed the bank as my card had expired without notifying me, and I have no idea what any account numbers are... and needed money now :–) Resolved without resorting to violence.
03.01.2002 – Thursday 3 January – Shopping in Cairns
- • Cairns. Shopped (bought Mum a new vacuum cleaner for her Birthday), saw a few movies (Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; Rat Race; Vanilla Sky; American Pie 2) and had some photos printed from the digital camera, to see how well they came out. I also bought a small tripod.
- • Flew back from Cairns, slightly bumpy, it was a full plane so I sat in the co-pilots seat.
05.01.2002 – Second Week January
- • The rains appear to have begun, no flooding or anything exciting yet, but it’s definitely wet. The ground is sodden and does its best to come inside with me. I now need a new umbrella. I added the CSS menu to my website and made my first basic animated gif.
- • Remarkably little happened. Definately nothing worth mentioning here.
01.03.2002 – Friday 1 March to Wednesday 6 March (6 days)
- • Many things occured, but I don’t remember what.
07.03.2002 – Thursday 7 March – First flood of the year
- • It has now flooded, prompting me to take some photos – I put a few up on my website. I started using XHTML as opposed to HTML. It is very wet, raining lots. The ground is sodden and spongy, expect the mould to start forming with a vengeance; Oh what fun it is to live in a rainforest!
29.03.2002 – Friday 8 March to Friday 29 March (22 days) – Camera battery died
- • My camera battery died.
- • Telstra Webhosting experienced problems, resulting in the loss of this site for a few days. Added a few more pictures, some green tree ants, some flowers, a panorama of a local airstrip... I am nearly out of webhosting space, i.e. the site is full.
- • The month ended.
01.04.2002 – Monday 1 April to Monday 15 April (15 days)
- • The probability of something having occured in this time-period is quite high.
- • A great deal of absolutely nothing has happened. It’s been a wet few weeks. Not the torrential downpours of the wet season, but wet and sodden nonetheless. The camera battery died, and being a Sony, required a special battery; so I now have a new battery. It’s twice the capacity of the old one, which is handy. I shall now go collapse in an appropriate spot. Collapsing at the keyboard is embarrassing. I might consider sleep.
17.04.2002 – Wednesday 17 April to Friday 26 April (10 days)
- • Life continued. Bacteria divided, mosquitoes bit, and moths flew into the light bulbs.
27.04.2002 – Saturday 27 April – Pneumothorax
- • Suffered a re-occurance of a spontaneous pneumothorax. I may have to spend some time in hospital ’inflating’.
I’ll let you know.
28.04.2002 – Sunday 28 April – X-Ray
- Midnight
- • After 8 litres per minute of Oxygen for 2 days, no positive change was noted so am now back home – attempting to recover and will have another X-Ray soon to check progress. Pain is under control, but sleeping isn’t pleasant – lying down isn’t comfortable. The good news is that mortality rates are less than 5% and this is a small ~5% collapse. The bad news is that it hurts, it re-occurs, it demands total rest, and it scares me that I might roll over and pop my lung when I’m sleeping. Anyway... off to bed.
- • I did nothing. Rested totally. Moved very little. Sat in my chair here and either read, or typed, or occasionally (for variety) went to sleep.
- • See above.
01.05.2002 – Wednesday 1 May – Labour Day
- • I laboured.
02.05.2002 – Thursday 2 May – X-Ray
- • Back to hospital for an X-Ray. Sadly no improvement, so it’s a wait for another few days now. No exertion allowed. None at all... This means that the ’hole’ in my lung has been leaking air into the pleural cavity around the lung. Hopefully it will seal up and the air will absorb, or at least partially so, before my next microwave. Otherwise its chop chop. I felt so much better on the way in too, my confidence was quite buoyed.
The bumpy drive didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it had last time.
Oh well... such is life.
- • Dang amnesia...
- • Today’s achievements:
- • a.
- • b.
- • c.
- • d.
- • Today is the single day of the week I get to rest and relax. This makes a very welcome change from my unremitting schedule of total rest and no exhertion.
- • It’s monday.
- • See below.
- • See above.
- • I decided to begin writing my diary again. I also decided to post my diary to the net. A few hours later... and the old diaries I have are now posted online. I’m not sure who, if anyone, I want to actually see them, but they are there now. Its just gone 1 AM, so technically tomorrow... so I better be off to bed. My lung is hurting a bit, I think the exertion of typing to get the old diaries up online didn’t help anything.
- • It has just gone tomorrow and we have had yet another uneventful day, where the biggest and most exciting occurrence was my shower. And no, nothing of any interest occurred whilst I was showering. It’s actually quite difficult to shower, as I can’t lower my chest with respect to my abdomen. In plain English, I can’t bend over. Most of the pain has now gone, I am just hoping that the lung has actually re-inflated and it’s not just me becoming tolerant. I will probably find out next Monday or Tuesday I guess. The dog is howling, he has a lover somewhere, which he can’t get to seeing as how he is tied up. It’s a wonder he doesn’t get a sore throat though. I guess I should stop rambling on, as I’ve nothing at all to write tonight. Zzz. Bed calls.
- • Another quiet day resting and waiting for my lung to hopefully repair itself. I stayed up late once again; it was after 3 when I finally got to bed.
- • I woke up, and turned on the PC, and as per usual – connected to the Internet and went on chat. Seeing as I am ordered to rest, totally, I did just that. Sat here in my chair all day. The only time I left was to have a shower and go to the toilet. Now it’s nearly midnight, so I’m going back to bed again. I phoned Joneses around 7 PM and spoke to Craig, who said that Jade will be taking their Ute in to town to get gas tomorrow around midday. I will phone the hospital in the morning to find if I can make an appointment. For now its sleep time.
13.05.2002 – Monday 13 May – X-Ray
- • He procured himself a ride within a friend’s automobile, upon entering of which he began to find himself transported in a manner most alarming towards his destination, the hospital being a destination with much merit when embarking upon such a journey. He arrived, unscathed save psychologically, but with time up his sleeve. And, so rumour would have us believe, an armpit. To do his time justice, he called on the services of a friend of the family, who happened to reside in the near vicinity. (This being after the postal office (and its menagerie of postal boxes) had divulged its single letter into his willing hands). A delightful hour of repose, relaxation and idle chatter followed, broken only by the automobile we met previously coming to rest against a tree – not in the manner desired. Fortunately for the tree, the speeds involved were not only minimal, but also angular. Fortunately for the automobile, the tree was rounded and its girth offset with respect to the automobile’s gravitational centre.
Our valiant hero, cavalier paragon that he is, set his life back into the dubious hands of fate, entering once again into the battle-scarred automobile, which made its way, poste-haste, hospitalwise.
Not content with the vagaries of speed, velocity and mass (not to mention large immoveable objects), our hero threw care to the laundromat and placed his life into the arms of the Medical Profession. The people who kill people, whilst attempting to save the very life they lose. After the required stabbing, pressing, poking and observing, he made his way to the microwave, and lost several minutes of his life. The minutes embedded themselves firmly into a thin sheet of plastic, which he then took to the medical profession who was sitting in her small room, second on the right. In this case she was a petite Egyptian, who placed the trapped minutes onto an enlightening box, and peered intently at them; without doubt becoming very enlightened.
Our hero, having finally reached his destination after many trials and tribulations, and a single chocolate milk, had still yet one final indignity to suffer. He was made to lie upon a table, and allow the medical profession to examine him, presumably to ensure he was indeed the right hero and not some Hollywood replica. Checksums checked, CRC’s CRC’d, airways breathed, thoracic cavities rang true, and the supermarket was broached, plundered and pilfered. Leaving our hero back in the automobile returning whence he came, respite with the knowledge that his pneumothorax was all but cleared (and 4 packets of cream biscuits, a large block of chocolate and a large packet of Thins potato crisps).
Despite what you think, he did not require any mind-altering drugs during his stay in hospital.
- • Lets see... I really can’t remember so I might just make something up. Bother, the inspiration’s all gone tonight.
- • I slept in – largely. It was after 10, and before midday, when I woke. Shan came over some time after lunch and helped me drink some Double Sars. I don’t like sarsaparilla. He also brought my calculator back and we argued over how to graph a straight line that won’t cross the y-axis when you can only graph in a form y=x something. I then spent the evening researching circumcision on the net. Don’t ask why. Went to bed in about 2 hours time, all things being equal. Its now 10 PM – for those technically minded.
- • I woke up at a normal human time for a change... what a surprise! Mum went to town – in the newly fixed car. I started to study... and Theresa from down the road phoned. Her dog has been missing 4 days, and our dog brought her pup back 2 days ago... apparently. So she wanted to know if we knew what was going on. Our dog has been on the chain for nearly 2 weeks now, as there is another dog somewhere else on heat. He did get off one day though, which was about when he took her pup back. «x-files music» The truth is out there. Shortly after she had phoned, the hospital phoned up to discuss my travel arrangements and appointment in Cairns at the thoracic clinic. 2 PM, Wednesday 22 May. Next Wednesday. I phoned up the travel agent and booked a 3-day advance flight ($162.80) for the morning of Wednesday, with an open return. Then, before I could do too much more study... Shan came over. Then the afternoon came. Then it was lunchtime. Then it got dark, and now it is bedtime. It has just gone 12:30. I added a few more funny quotes to my list of funny quotes, and uploaded them to the web page. Now off to bed.
- • I once again woke at a human hour. 7 AM to be precise. Nothing too exciting happened today, in fact, nothing at all really happened. I had a quiet, non-eventful day. I made the final arrangements for my air-tickets. $139 return, flying down the morning of 22 May, returning the evening of 23 May. It’s a non-negotiable ticket, but they said that they would let me change my return flight time if I payed to upgrade to a $210 ticket. I also phoned and booked a room in a dorm at the Bell View on the Esplanade in Cairns. It’s exactly 1 AM so I’m off to bed.
- IRC
- • I had a late night. It was approaching 6 AM by the time I got into bed and asleep. I stayed on the Austnet IRC network all night, being the unwilling participant on the wrong side of what can only be described as a “bitch-fight”. Some people really need to get a grip on reality and remember that IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It’s nothing more, and nothing less. An electronic medium for the transmission of text-based communications. Instant pen-pals. However the emotions engendered by many people on IRC are just as real as those in “real-life” and that is where most of the problems arise. The rest of the problems can be (in a horribly sexist manner) attributed to the feminineness (or lack thereof) of those involved in the “bitch-fight”. It was good for a laugh anyhow, kept me amused all night after I had gotten over the initial shock of being so unexpectedly attacked. “Days of our Lives” has nothing on IRC...
- • But enough of IRC... there’s more to life than chat.... but it’s a bit hard to get involved in when confined to a chair and under strict orders to rest. The majority of my day was spent at my computer. I’m really glad I have it for now when I am confined in here. I’m also really looking forward to being un-confined.
19.05.2002 – Sunday 19 May – Banned from AustNet
- • The border between today and yesterday is somewhat blurred as I didn’t get to bed until nearly six this morning and awoke around 11. In line with my recent policy of rest and recuperation, I did a whole lot of nothing, and once again spent a lot of time at my computer and online on IRC. One interesting thing that happened to me on IRC today... and not a very pleasant experience, was getting banned from the network I chat on. Its not all that unusual to be banned, but what made this different was the total lack of coherent reasoning for the ban, and then the re-placing of another ban, once again with a total lack of reasoning; amounting to blatant abuse of the privileges vested in the network staff of the chat network. I emailed the appropriate abuse departments and such seeking a resolution to what I saw was obvious and unwarranted abuse against my self, but it just so happened that the person that reads the abuse email is the same person who set the ban is the CEO of Austnet Chat Network is the big boss man himself, so needless to say I didn’t achieve any satisfaction from emailing.
The actual bans placed and the reasons given were:
“(s) (G) Banned from this server: Banned from AustNet: didn’t your mother say if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all ?”
“(s) (G) Banned from this server: Banned from AustNet: If you are that dis-interested in the Austnet network, finding it a source of constant complaint, this is a friendly reminder that you are under no obligation to continue to it”
The more serious side to this little mess was that the “oper” who placed the ban was not on any of the channels in which I was chatting, and so ordinarily should not have been able to see anything I was saying. Opers have the ability to be present in a channel without anyone knowing, essentially spying on the channel, and when properly regulated this is beneficial and probably necessary for the smooth functioning of an IRC network, but also very open to abuse. I was one of those who were abused today. Fortunately for myself, it seems the oper in question has calmed down. It has really soured my opinion of this particular chat network though.
- • But onto brighter matters, I had a restful night’s sleep – getting to bed around 2:30.
- • I noticed that I had nearly 200 MB’s to use up before midnight Tuesday, so I set KaZaA to download a few songs. I got most of Liquid Tension Experiment’s self titled albums one and two. Shan came over after lunch and put a few Jewel – Spirit songs in to download, but at the moment none are forthcoming. Seeing as his PC is blown up at the moment, he had to use mine to do some netbanking.
- • I put some tea-tree oil on a strange rash, which I’ve had for a few days now, to see if that kills it. I also sprayed a bit of insect spray around, having found a trail of miniscule ants on the ceiling and then some black ants crawling up the modem lead and into the caravan. It is a never ceasing battle with ants here. They are never content to live outside like ants should, and always manage to find amazing ways to get back inside.
- • I downloaded WinMX to try that out, but KaZaA seemed to perform better. I set a few downloads to keep going through the night and then went to bed.
- • A very exciting day. Awoke in the morning. Had breakfast, then later on lunch. Then I fell asleep and got woken up when it was dark and had to rush around getting ready for Cairns tomorrow. Then I had dinner. Now I’m thinking of going to bed. As I said earlier, very exciting ;–)
- • Tomorrow it’s up bright and early, dark and early actually, and off to Cooktown as I have to be at the airport by 7:30 and have to go to the hospital and pick up a few things before that, and find the ATM in the dark and withdraw some vital funds. I have a flight booked for tomorrow morning, returning the evening of the next day, but I plan to stay in Cooktown that night so won’t be back here (theoretically, and at standard temperature and pressure) until Friday some time.
22.05.2002 – Wednesday 22 May – Sarah’s Birthday and Cairns hospital
- Morning
- • I woke up at 5:30 AM and got ready to go to Cairns. Left here at a bit past six and headed into town (a half hour drive, if one goes fast). Went to the ATM and got some cash out, then onto the hospital to get a form I had to take with me, then to my sister’s place to say Happy Birthday (its her eighteenth), then out to the airport (a quarter hour drive) and payed my fare and onto the airplane.
- Cairns
- • A short half hour flight to Cairns, smooth and clear. The plane is a small nine seater Cessna Titan; the motors make nice reassuring (sarcasm) stalling noises and appear to be quite hard to start. In Cairns, I got a taxicab from the SkyTrans terminal to the Bell View on the Esplanade where I had a dorm booked. It cost a little over $10 and the dorm is $19. Four room dorms, 2 beds and a double bunk. I was on the bottom bunk. It’s a nice clean and friendly family place, cheap, and right on the Esplanade. I would have to recommend it.
- Hospital
- • I then made my way to the cinema in the Cairns Central shopping complex, where I watched “Collateral Damage”, which brought me up to my appointment time, so I caught a taxi to the hospital and found the fifth floor in block B. Pleasantly they were having an “industrial dispute” which roughly translated means they had no admin staff. Because Cooktown Hospital is so well organised, no one had sent my latest x-ray down so I had to go have another taken. After I got back from the x-ray place the admin staff were back and I was taken through to the doctor’s waiting room and weighed and all those exciting things they do because they can’t believe their eyes.
- Doctors
- • I saw a lady doctor and her younger male compatriot first, who talked, looked, poked, listened and did various meaningful things. The head of thoracic medicine then interrupted and that’s about when it became unusual. I don’t think I normally would have seen him, but he came in to show the other two doctors (and me as it turned out) an x-ray, and asked us all if we could see anything unusual. He then put another x-ray on the light box and this time there was a very pronounced whiteness in the chest of the x-ray. They marvelled over this for a while then had to disappear for a while. The lady who was x-rayed weighed a total 35 kilos and I got the impression she wasn’t in a very good way at all. After the three doctors came back, they just sat around talking amongst themselves and answering my questions and discussing me and various other matters. It wasn’t at all what I expected, and I don’t think it was what was intended either. It ended up very informal and I probably talked for nearly an hour.
- StarWars
- • I then caught another taxi back to the bell view and went to Cairns Central Cinemas again, where I watched “Star Wars – Attack of the Clones”, then made my way to the City Cinemas (which aren’t far away) and watched “We Were Warriors” which brought me to midnight. I then wandered on back to the Bellview, taking a few night-photos on the way, where I promptly went to sleep.
23.05.2002 – Thursday 23 May – Cairns
- • I woke up at 9:30 AM and checked out of the room (checkout is 10 AM.) I went and found an Internet Café where I payed for an hour and went on chat, checked emails, etc. I then caught a bus to the Westcourt shopping complex, which is probably about 3 kilometres from where I was staying, and did some shopping. I walked back, as no buses were forthcoming and I was in a hurry. I went straight to Cairns Central Cinemas and walked into “The Mothman Prophecies”. I was nearly 15 minutes late but the movie hadn’t yet started.
- • As soon as the movie finished I had to walk back to the Bell View, get my luggage from its storage there, order a cab, and tootle out to the airport once again. I had to wait for a while there, the plane was late. Then it was a 45 minute flight back up to Cooktown, a $7 shuttle bus from the Cooktown airport into town, which dropped me off at a friends place where I stayed the night. Sat up talking until 9:30 then fell asleep quite tired.
- • I woke bright and early. Mum came and got me around 8:30. I checked my mail, went on the Internet at the library, did a bit of shopping and then got driven back here where I am now. I’ve been on here ever since. I am worn out and tired, and going to go to bed.
- • I spent my last day resting, resting. Tomorrow I am going to walk and stop resting. I stayed up quite late on the Internet, and went and lay down, falling asleep unintentionally. I woke around 3 AM quite cold and somewhat stiff, but managed to get a good night’s sleep.
- • I woke shortly after 8. I had a quiet, uneventful day. I walked over to Joneses for the first time since my lung collapsed. I took it slowly, but wasn’t any more puffed than any other time. I didn’t experience any inconvenience or anything like that... so that’s all good. I got 83 mp3’s from Shan and updated my music playlist on my website. All very exciting...
27.05.2002 – Monday 27 May – Memorial Day (US)
- • I woke up at a reasonable hour, for a change. Phoned the doctor’s office to make an appointment regarding a rash I’ve got then phoned Jade to see if I could get a lift in to town with her. I could, and I did. We left here at 1:30 and picked up my neighbours who had to go to town to register their car. Cooktown was the same as always, a bit quieter if anything. I saw the doctor at a half past three, he diagnosed a fungal infection and prescribed some antifungal cream, as I had expected. All caused by the tropics, the incessant moisture and also my forced inaction. Still, it looks like I might be able to live through it and emerge unscathed. It only cost $11 for the antifungal cream too.
- Bedtime
- • A quick drive home, a few hours later, and its midnight... and time for bed.
- • See below, but without the flying ants, notes or absurdity.
29.05.2002 – Wednesday 29 May – Sleazy
- • Shortly after *swat* waking up, *swat* I had breakfast and *swat* later on lunch, followed by dinner *swat*. Some flying ant sort of insects came and, as usual, managed to sneak into the sealed caravan and fly around my monitor. I then went to bed *swat*. Which concludes an exciting day at the ranch.
- • Actually, I stressed out about my immense backlog of study and the teachers recommending I put off my exams until next year, got all tired and sleepy (which seems to be a common kind of reaction to stress, in my case anyhow) and went to sleep all afternoon. Woke up nice and refreshed, although more behind in my studies, as I didn’t complete any English.
- IRC
- • On what would be a serious note, except it is too farcical to be taken seriously...
I got a note from a man accusing me of sleazing with his wife... on chat. Comically, she happens to live several thousands of kilometres away, and I’m pleased to announce no sleazing occurred. I think someone is in dire need of a reality check – or maybe marriage counselling. Unfortunately, this man just so happens to be the owner of the chat network I frequent and on which I meet all my chat-friends. Hardly surprisingly, he is also the man who banned me for no reason just a week ago. It must be a sad marriage that feels threatened by someone neither he nor she has met, or ever will.
...And the funny thing is; chat has a well developed ignore system, which allows anyone to totally ignore anyone else. Effectively this means that the only way someone can sleaze someone else, is if they want to be, or allow themselves to be, sleazed...
The saga continues...
- • Nothing much happened today; yet another normal day with nothing to report. I began writing my Indian Journal once again. It has been quite a long time since I wrote it last. After dinner I stayed on chat and didn’t go to bed until 4:36 AM. I think I feel asleep at about 4:36 AM as well.
- • I woke at 11 AM. Did stuff. Then went to bed at seven past six. AM. But I had a good night, talking to people on IRC. It might sound boring, or even sad, to some; but I enjoyed it.
- • Once again I slept in. Two late nights in a row have made me a bit sleepy; it seems to be the reaction I always have. I woke up to find that Sarah and Vince were here, so I hurriedly brushed my hair and got dressed and went inside. I had a quiet day, as usual. The temperature plummeted in the afternoon, dropping well below liveable limits, so I had to put trousers and fat socks on, and huddle here in front of my space-heating computer. I crawled into bed with all my clothes on at about 2:20 AM.
02.06.2002 – Sunday 2 June – The dark lady of the waters
- Morning
- • I woke up at 11 AM. I enjoy sleeping in on Sunday, although this week I’ve done quite a bit of sleeping in already. I relaxed and went on IRC, did some web surfing and generally just sat around. It is quite cold (it’s flaming freezing!).
- Afternoon
- • I went for a walk over to Home Rule at about three o’clock. I saw Gary and Marriette at the new playground opposite the markets so I popped down to say hello to them while I was walking past. They had someone from Melbourne with them, making a documentary about the area and the upcoming Wallaby Creek Folk Festival so he interviewed and filmed me for a few minutes. It was very cold on the way out to Home Rule. I got chilled and went quite red. I stayed a bit late, and got chilled again, in the gathering dark, on the walk home. Just as darkness descended fully, and as I was reaching the bridges, I saw the most peculiar bright flashes coming from up ahead on the road. I assumed a car was coming but nothing came. Once I got to the top of the bridges, I could see these bright almost lightning like flashes coming from... the water. Almost scared and quite puzzled, I kept walking and met a lady on the bridge, in the dark, taking photos of the water. I have no idea why or what she hoped to get pictures of. After a short walk from there back up here to home, I jumped in a nice hot shower, had dinner, went on Chat some more and edited and proofread my journals and made them available online, and am now going to bed. It is three o’clock.
03.06.2002 – Monday 3 June – Accident on the Home Rule road
- • After yet another late night last night, I awoke late again. I had a stock-standard and quite boring day up until about three, when Shan came online and told me there had been an accident on the Home Rule road. I got my camera and walked down to the Bridges, where I met Shan and Ella on their motorbikes, and got doubled out to the halfway spot. It looks like the car had taken a corner too fast, oversteered, over-corrected the oversteer and then gone of a drop on the side of the road. It must have been a pretty terrible accident, with the car falling into a gully about 2 metres deep, and landing upside down on the opposite bank of the gully. The chassis is twisted and wrecked; the car is a total write-off. So far as I know the lady driver is unhurt.
After taking a few photos, Shan, Ella and I continued on out to their place, where I took some more photos of them riding their motorbikes. After the walk home last night, I didn’t want to leave too late, so I left a bit earlier and got home while it was still just light. As usual, I had a shower and came and chatted online.
- Stats
- • I downloaded mIRCStats, which is a program that converts mIRC chat logs into a web page showing various statistics. I was unable to use my logs, as they aren’t in a compatible format, so I messed around for quite some time until I managed to get some statistics out of them. After manually opening each daily log (all 141 of them) and using a find/replace function to get them into a compatible format, I produced some 141-day statistics about my chat and #20+SwampBoogie, the channel that I chat on.
From Monday 14 Jan 2002 to Monday 3 Jun 2002 (141 days) 518 people visited #20+swampboogie, the busiest time is midday. A total of 235,130 lines were spoken (or typed, rather), with myself topping the list with 71923 lines (although seeing as I’m the person that logs, and I’m not logging 24 hours a day, the statistics will be skewed in my favour) followed by lulu with 42695; then Dicaprio at 15364, followed by aniky, Masta, krait, Swampmonster, hj, LynxofCP and Harmony.
- • Needless to say, I once again slept in. Nothing of any interest happened today. I bought a $2.60 Heaven ice cream and a musk stick from the local shop. How boring is that? I am supposed to be writing poetry at this moment, but I’ve run out of ingredients, so I am writing this instead. After an uneventful afternoon, I had an uneventful dinner, and fell to bed at 3 AM.
- • There was no amazing event today, which I should write here, so I shall write nothing.
- • Today is a day devoid of interest.
07.06.2002 – Friday 7 June – June Weekend
- • Jade came around lunchtime and we drove in to Cooktown. Surprisingly, we didn’t hit anything. She had to hang some paintings at both the art places, so I headed off and wandered around town, heading out to Ricci’s in the afternoon, where I stayed the night. I had chips from Gill’d n Gutt’d down at the wharf for dinner and wandered past the carnival which had opened, on the way back out to Ricci’s.
08.06.2002 – Saturday 8 June – June Weekend
- Morning
- • I woke up. Yes, really.
- • I strolled the half hour or so from Ricci’s up into town, in time for the Grand Parade.
A small progression of floats, cars, walkers and horses make their way down the main street. The police, who flank the parade, cop a motley assortment of projectiles thrown at them while the fire brigade with their fire engine water the onlookers. The parade was smaller than last year, as were the crowds. The Mobile Esky competition followed, so I went and watched. For the first time this year, they set up a stage in the park, and had live bands all evening and into the night. This I also watched, on and off. The truck pull, I looked at for a short amount of time, it really isn’t that interesting so I didn’t stay, this was followed by the “Strictly wet T-Shirt” competition, in which one contestant removed her shirt, mooned the crowd and was arrested for indecent exposure. I spent the night watching the live bands in the park with Ricci, getting to bed some time after two.
09.06.2002 – Sunday 9 June – June Weekend
- • I wandered into town in time for the of Cook’s original landing at Cooktown, when he beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs after running aground (a-reef?) on the Endeavour reef. As in previous years, the re-enactment was slightly delayed, and overall not that interesting. Some “natives” mill about, followed by some “marines” who row up the river, slosh through the mud and walk around while the “natives” hide. Shortly after the arrival of the “marines” “Captain Cook” and his other officers arrive in their boat. They all get off, find a fire, and pretend to look serious. A seaman cuts his foot, as he does every year. Some other seamen row out a short way and catch a nice filleted coral trout, and yet another sees a flying fox which he thinks is the devil. The organisers have tried to blend a small amount of humour into the re-enactment to make it more interesting I guess. The “natives” run out and steal a fish, which the “marines” find exciting, “Captain Cook” offers the natives some beads from the local dollar store, the “marines” erect a flagpole in record time, and fire a six gun salute. Which makes a loud bang.
Everyone wanders up to the cannon, which is fired by the winner from the raffle I forgot to mention they hold at the re-enactment. This makes an even louder bang and brings the time to 11 o’clock. I rushed up to the Internet café to see if I could install the Sony drivers for my Camera, which I successfully did after finding them at www.driverguide.com. I then had to grab a taxi back out to Ricci’s and back again, to get my USB lead for the camera. This cost $10. Apparently, the police had pulled the taxi over and inspected their taxi license at the busiest time last night. Typical.
I offloaded the images on my memory sticks, and rushed up to the Soapbox Derby, which had already started. I took a few photos of it, and then wandered down to the pie eating competition, which is as foolish as it sounds. Teams of two compete, they aren’t allowed to touch the pies with their hands and must also drink a bottle of water. The first team member rushes from the starting position to a table that has his pie and cup (with bottle) of water on it. He then has to eat his pie and drink his bottle of water (using the cup) in a neat manner, using only his fork and knife. Once he’s finished both of these, he can run and tag his partner back at the start line, who then runs up to the table and does the same thing. It is all a silly bit of fun, and not a great deal of people bothered to come and watch.
I bought some salad from the Supermarket and walked down to the raft race. Four teams took part in this race, where the aim is more to sink the competition than it is to actually win. The police motored up and down in their police rubber-ducky to scare the crocs away. The Endeavour Butchery team had made fake (at least I hope it was fake) meat from something, and threw this at as many people as they could.
The Tug-O-War was next, which I find quite boring, but it is popular, so I wandered back up to the Top Pub to have a look. When I got there, they were having a wet T-shirt competition, which wasn’t on the “official guide” of things to be had. Neither that or the tug-o-war interested me much, so I just took a couple of photos and wandered the dusty half hour back out to Ricci’s.
She wasn’t home.
I rested at Ricci’s for nearly an hour, and charged my camera battery back up. My legs are starting to feel all the standing and walking, as are my toes. The fireworks, which had been planned for 10:30, have been moved back up to 7 o’clock; so I made my way down to see them. I stopped to phone Mum on the way, and missed the first few fireworks. They were launched from a boat out in the harbour, and looked nice. “Moulin Rouge” which I found to be quite good followed a kids screening of a few “Popeye the Sailor Man” episodes. The movies were played from a DVD on an X-Box, using a projector, and worked really quite well.
After the movies, it was back up to the Top Pub to watch the band, which was playing there for a while, but I was too tired, so I headed back out to Ricci’s and went to bed. I think it was probably just after midnight, but I’m not sure.
10.06.2002 – Monday 10 June – Queen’s Birthday Holiday
- • I woke up around seven, and with great inner strength, managed to actually get up. I wandered the half hour or so from Ricci’s place into town, buying a chocolate milk and pack of twisties at the Ampol service station on the way past. I then made my way, very slowly and painfully, up the awfully steep Grassy Hill, all 162 metres of it. It was windy. I should rephrase that. It was EXTREMELY windy. I had to hold onto the railing up the top, to stop from blowing over, and I wasn’t able to hold the camera still for the force of the wind on my arms. After taking a few photos, I hurried down to the lookout (which isn’t far from the top) and took some more photos, then back down to the bottom and down to the Internet shop where I collapsed into a chair and burnt my pictures onto a CD. I have taken 335.
After regaining some strength I made my way back out to Ricci’s, where I lay down with a sore throat, sore toes, sore eyes, and generally all worn out. Jade came around 5 o’clock and Ricci and I got a lift out to Rossville, myself very glad to be back home and able to rest. On the way back we picked up a man trying to get a lift back to Wujal Wujal. He had gotten a flat tyre about 10 kilometres outside Wujal Wujal and hitched into town (a good 60 KM or more) but as it is a public holiday, no one was able to fix his tyre, so he was on his way back, still with his flat tyre. We could only take him as far as here, and left him with still another 20 KM or more to go as dusk fell.
After I got home, I compressed a few photos and made a quick web page to show my friends from chat, and then fell into bed just after 1 AM. My eyes are so sore, I can’t move them up or down, or side-to-side, without it hurting. I think the sand and wind from Grassy Hill has sandblasted them.
11.06.2002 – Tuesday 11 June – New Car
- • Mum has bought a new car. A $400 ’81 Honda Accord from Glen. He bought it at the wreckers in Cairns apparently.
- • Mum drove to town today and got the new car registered.
- • I am sick. My throat hurts, my eyes hurt, my head hurts, my nose runs. It seems staying up late, walking heaps, not drinking any water, and getting totally worn out over the weekend, has lowered my resistance enough to allow this nasty flu that is going around to attack me. I have been resting and sleeping during the day, which means I’m not so tired at night, so I have been staying up late. The thing that worries me most, I am only just over my collapsed lung, which seems to have been caused in part by a flu I caught back then. I hope my lung stays OK.
- • I slept until after midday. Very lazy indeed, but I woke feeling much better.
I had a restful day; I am hoping if I rest, I will be better by tomorrow. I tried MSN voice chat to Shan while he was in town at the library, it works quite well. Apart from that, I did very little. The local rag says 3500 to 4000 people attended the June Weekend. It is now 6 AM – I am going to bed.
- • After the late night last night, I didn’t get up until nearly midday. I feel physically much better today. I think if I take it easy and rest, I can be over this flu by tomorrow. I went on chat all day, trying to rest so I can shake this nasty flu before it does something to my lung.
16.06.2002 – Sunday 16 June – I got depressed
- • I woke up only slightly later than what a person should wake, for a change.
I hereby declare my flu over; I have only the tiniest remains of it now, the only good news of today.
I am depressed.
My sister came out. It’s funny, she’s depressed too, and now she seems to have caught this flu that is going around. Depression is a terrible thing, stuff that seemed OK before, all crowds in and all seems depressing. In my current mood, everything seems wrong. It just takes one event to set off depression, and then all my worries, which I had pushed to the background and was handling, all jump on me at once and pound me into the ground. At the moment I feel as though I have no future, will fail my studies, and have no idea what to do next, no friends... depression. Today is the first day I have broken down and cried in my mother’s arms in an awfully long time. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I did. She pointed out the wet spot where my sister had been crying just before me. Weird. Maybe it’s the moon? Come evening time, I walked out to see Shan, he met me halfway and I had a talk to him about everything, which helped a bit. It got quite dark, as it is wont to do, so he drove me back in Jade’s car. Ah, sigh. I feel terrible. This insidious depression manages to slither its way into every facet of my life, turning everything into a hopeless quagmire of despair. I see no future, the things I am doing now seem pointless. I don’t even have any chocolate.
I have decided. I shall go jump off a cliff.
I just need to find one small enough so I don’t risk accidentally hurting myself.
- • After a considerably late night last night, Mum woke me up and we went in to town early, to catch Sarah before she went to school. She went to the doctors, and has a urinary tract infection. I went down to Computer Stuff and went on the Internet for an hour while helping a man transfer pictures from his digital camera onto the PC and then ultimately onto a CD. Due to buggy something, and the PC freezing up every second photo which was transferred, this took quite some time. I then rushed up to the library as I was sure Mum would have been waiting there for ages, but she wasn’t, so I jumped on one of their PC’s and came on chat. It’s a great thing for wasting or filling in time. I tried to buy some wire to fix Malarchy’s sliding wire, but they didn’t have any in until tomorrow. The new car seems to go OK. An uneventful drive back home ensued, stopping in at Black Mountain to take some photos on the way. I upgraded ACDSee so that it would work properly with image metadata and started adding an image description to my photos. I went to bed after 1 o’clock, not so depressed as yesterday.
- • I woke just before 8 o’clock, but was extremely tired. I got up and did a few things, but went for a “ten minute” lie-down. A few hours later, as midday was coming by, I got up again. This kind of ruined my good intentions of studying hard all day, which were totally smashed by discovering “The Panorama Factory”, a panorama-stitching program, which joins individual photos together and makes panoramic images from them. It is really good; it sure beats doing it manually with Photoshop. So I made several panoramas from the images I had, and redid the ones I had already made. I went for a short walk in the evening, thinking about life, and the future and various other depressing topics. I have to pull myself from this depression, but I’m not sure how yet.
- • Sigh.
- • Chemistry was a record 1-hour today, to do two weeks worth. Due to the somewhat late night, and the fact that I didn’t write down what I did today, my memory of events is somewhat dimmed. As Becky says:
(Becky): you got up early and studied
(Becky): and later took a longish nap and could not sleep that night (Becky): which was bad coz you had to go to the docs early [tomorrow]
(Becky): so that was the main things of your day as I remember.... of course you chatted a wee bit too :))
I went to bed at 4:40 AM
- • I woke up at 7:30. Less than 3 hours sleep. We left for town not long after 8 o’clock. Needless to say, I was slightly tired. In fact, I was rather tired. I checked my mail, went to the police station to renew my driver’s licence (which they only do on Mondays and Wednesdays so I could not) and then rested for an hour at Computer Stuff, where I came on chat and pretended not to be asleep. At a quarter to eleven I had a doctor’s appointment, so I made my way up to the surgery by that time for an ear syringe. Dr Hill looked in my ears, and sent me to a nurse, who did three large squirts of their syringe, and that was that. Straight away I could hear properly again. I went up to the library and rested at their PC, on the Internet again, pretending to be awake again. I bought some new wire for Malarchy’s new and improved wire run. Not long after getting home, Shan phoned up, and came and got me on his motorbike, to help him get Ella’s Macintosh talking to his PC. We managed to get TCP/IP and Internet sharing going. I started setting up Malarchy’s wire, but it got too dark and cold so I came in here and wrote this instead.
- • Woke up, Dad and I drove to town (where it was raining and the road was quite muddy) and paid for Dad’s ticket to Perth. $883 return. I bought two Styrofoam broccoli boxes, $2.50 each. I strung up Malarchy’s new wire, and tensioned it. Shan came over just as I finished, and we talked for a while, after which it began to get dark, so he went again. Such is my day. Oh, I downloaded DreamweaverMX yesterday, so I am trying it now.
- • Morning. I wake. Time passes. Lunch. I go on chat. Evening. I walk to the shop. Malarchy follows. I have to bring him home and tie him up, then hurry to meet Shan who was supposed to walk and meet me half way. I met Shan at the Home Rule Bridges and we walked out to the grid, then walked back halfway, then back to the grid, then back halfway, then I came home. Night-time. I went on chat. Sleep.
- • As the sun rose over the distant horizon, as the small birds in the trees began to sing sweetly, while the mists of morning still slithered down in the gullies, before the heat of day had warmed the limbs of the trees, releasing their eucalypt scent; while the wind paused and the world waited for the start of a new day, I slept. I really have to get back in the habit of waking early; the morning is the nicest and best part of the day.
When I finally did wake, it being Sunday, I went on the Internet and messed around for a while, then made my way over to Shan’s.
As the red disc of the sun slowly sank behind the dark silhouetted trees, and the last lonesome birds ceased their chirping and the mists of night crept back from the gullies in which they hide, while the day’s shadows lengthened into night’s wraiths, as the unearthly moonlight began to replace the last fading glow from the life-giving sun, Shan and I rode back up here to get my warm top and some long pants. I had decided to stay the night at Shan’s, and it is quite cold at night these days.
We stayed up until... well I don’t actually know what time we went to bed. We took some photos of Shan in his room, and stitched them into a single panoramic style photo with several Shans in various poses in his room. It worked remarkably well. Then we went to bed.
- • I woke up around 9 o’clock. I didn’t really do a great deal today, took a few photos and made an interesting panoramic image with five images of myself in it. After lunch, Shan and I rode up to the Home Rule Bridge, and walked up to my place, stopping at the shop on the way. I went on the ’net in the evening, and it is now 1:36 tomorrow, so I’m off to sleep.
- • There’s a good chance I did something today, but seeing as I didn’t write it down, no one will ever know what it was.
- • I went to town with Jade, leaving here at 10 o’clock. I went down to the police station to renew my driver’s licence, but apparently only one lady has access to the Queensland Transport database, and she was away in Cairns today, despite my having enquired last week as to whether there would be licence renewals today. I sent my application for external examination to the Board of Senior Secondary School Studies, along with an order form for past examination papers. It cost $80 for the two exams and $29 for the past papers. I had to go down to the courthouse to have a Justice of the Peace sign my examination application. After some chips from the Café at the wharf, Jade and I drove back out here, and then I got a life out to Home Rule, where I stayed until the evening.
I pulled my computer apart, and put my 40-gigabyte hard drive in the top CD drive slot, with the DVD drive under it, both on the primary controller, then the burner below that, on the secondary controller with my 9-gigabyte drive. I then moved the soundcard and PCI video card about; to try and correct the issue where moving or resizing windows (but only on my PCI video card) can be heard in the sound. As usual, and as I have come to expect with PC’s, my attempts at fixing it caused more problems than they fixed. At the moment, I have my PC with its sides off beside me, and it is very loud with five fans in it and the world’s loudest hard drive. It’s about 8 inches from my right ear. I had several “blue screen” errors trying to start it, I had to reinstall the graphics drivers, and the soundcard drivers several times, they have been in every PCI slot on the board now, bar one – needless to say, the problem is exactly the same. At the moment, my CD-burner seems unable to “set” a disk, that is, it doesn’t know a CD is in it. It seems to not even spin them up, so I hope it’s only temporarily wrecked although my hopes aren’t too high, I put a poxy CD-RW from Shan in it, and it was very unbalanced. Argh, computers! I am going to bed. Bah.
- • Today: While Mum was walking Malarchy they met a man hidden in the bush, who whacked Malarchy quite strongly on the face, causing his face to swell and bleed. The man hid, no idea who it was. I walked over to Joneses and took some photos of one of Mandi’s paintings for her to get printed tomorrow. I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow, leaving here for town at 6:30, need to be at the airport by 7:30, so I better get to bed.
28.06.2002 – Friday 28 June – Flew to Cairns and met Silas
- • I woke up early, and was driven into town, where I caught the Cooktown to Cairns flight. Leaving at 8:10 and arriving about 40 minutes later, the flight was smooth and uneventful, in a 12 (I think) seater Cessna Titan.
I caught a taxi from Cairns General Aviation into Cairns proper, and booked into the Bellview, on the Esplanade. This costs a little over $10 in a taxi. I left my bag at the Bellview and walked to Cairns Central Cinemas, where I saw “ScoobyDoo” and put two photos in for printing. It is quite silly, but a fun movie. I then rang Silas and he came at 1 o’clock. We went to Tracks Backpackers where we met Dale and talked for a while. Silas has a friend, Gus, who has come up from Brisbane with him. We drove the 20-minute drive up to Crystal Cascades where Silas, Gus and Dale went for a swim. I didn’t, it was too cold and I had no dry clothes in Cairns. Gus did the “no fear” jump, jumping from a rock which has “no fear” spray-painted on it, about 30 (estimating) metres into a (hopefully) deep rock pool. A man was killed doing this jump about a month ago.
After we had got back I went and watched “Hard Word”, which I quite enjoyed. It is an Australian movie centred on three prisoners who are used by their corrupt wardens to perform robberies. It is very Australian, and makes a pleasant change from the Hollywood crap where everything blows up: The smallest accident and there are 50 metre high flames in the sky. Australian films seem to me, to be much more realistic and hence enjoyable due to their usage of “plausible” plots, something that Hollywood seems to never have mastered, or more probably, the American public don’t wish to pay to see. After the movie, I had to rush back to my four-person dorm room at the Bellview to grab my warm top and long pants, and rush to the backpacker’s where Dale is, and then to the “Cock and Bull” to meet Silas and Gus for dinner. As expected, Silas was over half an hour late, and it took about 10 minutes to order and 40 minutes for the order to be prepared as they were very busy. Half a very large plate of nachos later, I rushed off to Cairns City Cinemas to catch the 9:30 viewing of “Spider Man”. Despite most people seeming to not like it, I enjoyed the movie. It’s not at all realistic, but I think they did a reasonable job making a “comic” style movie. I enjoy most movies on the big screen, even the really stupid ones. I don’t like horror, don’t really like romantic movies much, and prefer mindless action movies, but with a good plot. I’m not sure that any have ever been made, but there’s always hope. James Bond was always good and I enjoyed Lord of the Rings, but I digress...
After the movie, I walked back to my room and went to sleep. After drinking a thick shake from McDonalds.
- Comment by cool jump fun – Tuesday 16 August 2005, 8:28 AM
- i did the no fear jump to back in 94. i split my shorts open and filled my eyes with water,
but the stinger trees dident get me
- Comment by Steve – Friday 3 February 2006, 9:39 PM
- I lived in QLD from the age of 12 to the age of 16 (95-98). Most of my spare time was spent looking for trees and rocks to dive from. The tree to the right of Millaa Millaa Falls used to be good, but I was there from 31.12.05 to 17.1.06 and the tree is not what it used to be. Judging from the crack, I'm gonna bet I was the last person to jump (evacuate!) from that tree. I guess I'm a bit heavier now. Just before we hit the airport, we went to Crystal Cascades so I could see No Fear Rock. In no time flat I was checking depth and testing the same piece of rope I used all those years ago. You know, with the knots and bamboo handles? I bet you used the same rope. Did you know you can DIVE from up there without too much risk? On the other hand, a Japanese gent died jumping from there.
- Comment by Steve Part Two – Friday 3 February 2006, 9:54 PM
- I guess he didn't check the water first. Another top spot is in Litchfield National Park, just outta Darwin. Anyone who dives can spot the good jumps easily. And the tourists love it. Anyway, sorry to take up so much space, just wanted to let you know that as far as I'm concerned, No Fear Rock isn't as dangerous as its reputation suggests. It all comes down to experience I guess. Cool site. Drop a line.
- Comment by Ned – Saturday 4 February 2006, 12:36 PM
- Thanks. I am down in Brisbane now, and not aware of any cool water things anywhere. It’s very hot too.
29.06.2002 – Saturday 29 June – Cairns window shopping
- • I woke up eightish and had to wait for ages for the shower to be available. I then caught a bus to Earlville shopping centre where I bought a quilted flannelette shirt (the only thing I actually needed to buy in Cairns) and did lots of window-shopping. I then caught a bus back to Cairns City and phoned Silas, who came and picked me up not long after. A yummy falafel roll was consumed while waiting for Silas and Gus to turn up. We left Cairns around 2 o’clock and arrived here 4 hours later (or thereabouts). The drive home was without incident, except for a wild pig, which was eating some road kill. We stopped and Gus and I took some photos of it. Silas checked and replied to some emails here, and then headed down to Bloomfield and I went on the net and wrote this.
- • I had a quiet recovery day, it was a bit wet and overcast and considerably cold. I had a few hours sleep in the evening then went “online” and on “chat” and stayed up all night talking. It was a “good” chat night.
- • I didn’t wake up (because I didn’t go to bed). By about midday I was totally tired and went to sleep for a few hours, walking out to Home Rule to see Joneses in the evening and coming back just on dark. It is overcast with a very, very slight almost-drizzle hanging in the air. Almost a mist, just enough to make it cold and damp. I went to bed just after 1 o’clock.
- • Hardly surprisingly, I slept in. Not long after sleeping in, I woke up. Apart from that, I know not what happened, nor when.
- • I went to bed at 6:30 AM and caught a few hours of much-needed sleep. Mum came and woke me at 10 o’clock and we drove into town. I went to the police station and renewed my driver’s licence, which would have expired this coming Monday. I went on the ’net at the library for an hour while waiting for Mum to do shopping, and then drove back home again, where I went to sleep. My times are a bit messed up at the moment. Sarah rang in the late evening and talked to Mum for ages while I was online, using up my megabytes. I’m writing this at 5 AM, having spent another night awake.
04.07.2002 – Thursday 4 July – US Independence Day
- • I walked over to Joneses in the evening, and took some photos of Shan’s snapped shaft in his motorbike gearbox. I then stayed up until 5 AM as seems is usual these days.
- • There’s nothing very exciting to report today, just another depressing day amongst the quilt of others. I went for a walk in the afternoon and took some photos to make panoramas with. I made a QuickTime VR movie of the back yard, and another of the market place.
- Night
- • Wow, I went to bed nice and early, only a few minutes past midnight!
- • After the early night last night, I fortunately managed to get up before nine. Silas and Gus turned up around 9:30 after having been down the markets. We went back down to the ever-exciting (sarcasm) markets and then up to Melanie’s (a friend of Silas’) place for a while, where we had a nice semi-Indian style lunch. We then drove up the mountain to Georgina’s and stayed there until it was time for Silas and Gus to head back down to Bloomfield.
After Silas went home I walked out to Home Rule. I met Jenna riding her motorbike; she told me Shan was down at the resort so I went down there and wandered around for a little while until we walked back up to the homestead, where I stayed for a while until walking back here in the gathering dusk. I went to sleep nice and early, 6:30. It’s a shame it was six thirty in the morning.
- • I slept in. I also did very little else, or is that, I didn’t do anything else?
Shan came up in the evening and sleep came shortly after 1 AM.
- • I phoned Quarantine to find out the details of obtaining an import permit. Shan MSN’d me that they were coming up to the shop so I rushed down there and got a lift back out to Home Rule with them. Ricki is also there. I walked back as it was getting dark, and that about sums up today.
- • I slept in and awoke late. I didn’t do anything even remotely interesting today.
Another normal day, but I have vowed to write this journal so I shall continue grimly on *grin*.
- Sleep
- • Sleep came at 4 AM.
- • Awakening at 10 o’clock, and sleeping at 4 AM – not good. I walked out to Home Rule this evening to see Joneses and take a CD over, but no one was home. I took some photos of the Home Rule dams and the hydropower set-up, the dam photos I made into panoramas when I got back home. And... Umm... then I went on chat until 4 AM.
- • Sarah phoned up, waking me, to say that she wanted a lift back out here. Mum (who had planned to leave for town at 9 o’clock) left at 10:30 instead. I went, checking my mail and spending some time on the Internet at the library. After school Mum went to pick up Sarah but she had decided not to come out until tomorrow now (typical). We arrived back just after 4:30, and I walked straight out to Joneses to take the new songs I’d downloaded out to Shan. I came back just on dusk, getting quite dark in the rainforest. I met Annette running her dog along the Home Rule road in the near dark.
- • After an uneventful day doing all the normal things I do most days, I walked over to Joneses around 5 o’clock. I ended up spending the night there, and we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, talking and messing about.
- • Jade, Shan, Ella, Ricki and I all walked up to the small waterfall, then up the creek a bit more to a natural “spa” formed in the creek. Shan and Ella also did some jumps of a reasonably high rock into the water and I took some photos. The water is very cold; I didn’t go for a swim. I left Joneses and walked back here in the late afternoon, after which I didn’t do very much at all – I chatted and “surfed” on the “net” staying up quite late – until 4:40 AM.
14.07.2002 – Sunday 14 July – National Day, France
- • I woke up about the same time Vince got back from work – I think nearly lunchtime.
Apparently 93 motorcycles had gone past this morning, and up Honeyflow drive. It is a really tough ride up there. A few rally cars also went by in the evening. I had a quiet day wandering around doing nothing. Wayne and Reannie came over in the evening and I got a life to their driveway with them when they left, and then walked from there to Joneses, arriving as dusk fell and having to walk straight back again. I try to go for a walk once a day. Sleep befell me sometime after a quarter past three.
- • A few more rally cars went by this morning. I went on chat and had a big argument with “lulu” my best online friend, although I have no idea what the argument was about. Women, bah!
16.07.2002 – Tuesday 16 July – lulu drinks absinthe
- • The day dawned bright and early. I have yet to see a day that dawns any other time, come to think of it. I dawned somewhat less early, which I have seen a lot before.
The day was normal; everything went as it usually does. Except for chat. It was a bit different. I went on the ’net, as I usually do, and went on Austnet, as I usually do, and lulu was there as she usually is. However she had gotten some absinthe, and got very drunk. Make that very drunk. She is normally a modest, polite woman that won’t so much as swear, let alone say anything crude. But today:
(lulu): kiss my ass thei
* lulu pulls down her lilpantis....... kiss it thei
(lulu): kiss that
(lulu): get to kissing thei, you are way behind
I think we get the idea...
It was quite amusing. I just hope she wakes up fine, with nothing more than a hangover. Absinthe isn’t known to be the nicest of beverages:
“Unfortunately, [absinthe] caused terrible hallucinations, permanent neural damage... and even its own disease, known as absinthism. Absinthe could have effects ranging from euphoria through rage, to stupefaction. Physical effects of nausea, disorientation, hallucination, and seizure were also noted... and neurological disorders, stillbirths, and cases of psychosis, often coupled with abhorrent crimes.
Not long after lulu had left, hopefully to collapse into bed, and not to perform any abhorrent crimes, Silas rang. He’s thinking of coming up and staying here the night on his way to Cooktown tomorrow.
Silas rang again, he isn’t coming tonight; he says he’ll be here in the morning early. I guess that means I’ll have to wake up early...
I think I’m overdoing the ice cream. This is my second bowl today. Not just plain ice cream either; I have vanilla ice cream, with cream poured over the top, then strawberry topping. But it tastes good. Ewww, but I feel bad.
- 1:30am
- • 1:30 AM, time to snore.
- Comment by tX4bZjv07b – Wednesday 19 July 2006, 12:58 AM
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17.07.2002 – Wednesday 17 July – I went to Cooktown with Silas
- • Silas came past in the morning on his way to Cooktown. I got a lift in with him. We went and visited the Cabrall’s and some others, and then I went down to Ricki’s where I stayed the night. I walked up Grassy Hill around 11 PM and took some photos of Cooktown in the dark, and a few of the moon.
- • I met Silas at the supermarket. He had some more stuff he needed to do, so I went to the library and went on chat. We drove home around three o’clock. I got a DVD, “Patriot”, which Dad, Mum and I watched.
- • Dad, Mum and I drove into town to drop Dad at the airport on his way to Perth. His flight to Cairns left on time with no problems, and Mum and I went and did some shopping and dropped the DVD back. They are still only available for hire overnight and for $7.
- • I’m not so sure if I remember this rightly, but I think I phoned Joneses after I got back from Town, and Shan came up and watched the Patriot DVD, which I had ripped onto the hard drive.
20.07.2002 – Saturday 20 July – I drove to Silas’s place
- • I drove from here to Bloomfield, leaving at 8:30 AM. The road is quite good now, as good as the road is from here to Cooktown, so it only took a half hour. I met Silas at the Bloomfield wharf. Apparently I was supposed to pick Melanie up from Rossville on my way down, but that wasn’t made clear to me so I didn’t. We went to the Bloomfield shop, and then boated out to Silas’s parent’s place. It was coming on low tide and blowing a bit, so we had to go out to sea a little where there was a swell and the boat got quite wet. We spent the rest of the day at Silas’s place messing about.
21.07.2002 – Sunday 21 July – I stayed at Silas’s place
- • I wandered around Silas’s place, not really doing all that much. We took
some photos and generally just messed about.
22.07.2002 – Monday 22 July – I drove home from Silas’s place
- • Silas’s Dad and Mum boated me back to the Bloomfield wharf around 9:30, from where I drove back home. The road is good and it only took a half hour of driving. I took a few photos of the road and a panoramic photo of the Bloomfield wharf. I spent the rest of the evening resting, feeling mildly unwell.
- • I walked out to Home Rule to see Joneses. The pipeline for their hydropower was broken and is only half fixed, so Harold is using the generator. I stayed a little late; it was quite dark when I walked back.
- • I woke up very tired, and had to lie down to rest again.
25.07.2002 – Thursday 25 July – Reoccurrence of Pneumothorax
- • I went for a walk out to Joneses, leaving around 3:30. I was late so I was jogging up the hills and walking down them. When I was about halfway, as I was jogging up a hill, I cleared my throat. It was then that my lung either began to hurt, or possibly I just noticed it for the first time then. It’s not unusual for my lung to hurt; it has done so ever since my first pneumothorax. I wasn’t too worried, waiting for it to get better.
It didn’t. Shan rode Ella’s motorbike out and I met him when I was about ¾ of the way out to Home Rule. My lung was hurting a fair bit by now, and I was getting pretty worried. I walked slowly, with a few rests, out to Joneses with Shan pushing Ella’s motorbike. I then sat down in Shan’s room for an hour or two, hoping against hope that my lung would get better, but all the time realising that it felt just the same as last time it collapsed. After a while I got Shan to drive me back up to home in Jade’s car. It was in the car, when going over bumps and it still felt just the same as last time, when I remembered how it felt being driven into hospital last time, that I realised I did indeed have yet another collapsed.
I went on the ’net and sent an email to my teachers and another to Becky, and then Mum drove me into hospital. After a short wait, Dr Michael came and Clay took my x-ray. It is a 10 to 15% pneumothorax. It is basically the same as last time. We had a little chat with the doctor and then drove home again. Silas and Gus are here. I am going to get a lift to Cairns with them and try to see the doctors at the thoracic clinic, and have the pleurodesis operation. Basically a hole cut into my lung, fill the cavity with talc, roll me about so it gets evenly distributed, and suck the air out and sew the hole up. Sounds easy. It has to be done in Townsville apparently.
I phoned Dad, who is at Lois’s in Perth, and arranged to meet him tomorrow in Cairns as he is flying back. I then went on the ’net and am planning to stay up late and hopefully get so tired that I can actually sleep, as I am scared to sleep. I am pretty scared of the whole ordeal actually. When I had my chest drain fitted for one of my prior collapses, they cut a hole through my ribs and into my lung cavity, without anaesthetic. Painful isn’t the right word. It was agony. It wasn’t too bad the first time because I didn’t realise what was going to happen, but I don’t know how I could put up with that again. Just thinking about it gives me the willies.
Everything gets more complicated now. This will probably mean I have no hope of studying enough to sit my exams this year, and they can’t be put off. I will have to sit them the same time next year. This means that I may have to stay here another year and not leave for Brisbane or whatever I had planned to do. This means that I might wish to get the satellite Internet installed, which means that I need to decide that before the second of August, however I will probably be in some hospital then. Then there’s my beetabs in quarantine, which needed some phone calls and soon.
And no doubt there are more things that I haven’t yet thought of.
I am very touched. Mum phoned Sarah, who cried and told Mum to tell me she loves me very much. Then Becky cried. I am really touched. Everyone is more upset than I am. It is nice to feel cared for and loved.
26.07.2002 – Friday 26 July – Cairns X-Ray
- • Silas, Gus and I left here not long after 8 o’clock and drove down the inland road to Cairns. It took the usual 4 hours, except we ran out of fuel near Mareeba, which used up a bit of time. We got to Cairns shortly after 1 o’clock, and I found Dad near the BellView. Silas then dropped me off at the hospital, where I spent an uninteresting few hours doing not much. I saw a few doctors, had an x-ray, and finally ended up getting a definite answer as to what to do. Basically – there is no reason to either keep me in hospital or rush me for a pleurodesis, or to put that another way, I don’t classify as an emergency because I am asymptomatic – I can breath and I haven’t gone blue. So I get put on the waiting list, or as they said “I will write an urgent letter to Townsville” requesting an operation for me. Expected wait is around a month. It could take anywhere from five days to four weeks (or longer with complications) for my pneumothorax to resolve.
After finishing at the hospital, I rang the BellView and booked a dorm. A short taxi ride and I had payed $22 and a $10 key deposit for a bed in a five-bed dorm at the BellView Guest House on the Esplanade. I then walked, slowly and painfully, the four or so blocks up to Cairns Central and watched Men in Black II. It is not only as silly as its predecessor, it is worse. But I enjoyed it. Silas, Dale and Gus turned up at the cinemas and we had a quick chat before they headed off to the Fox and Furkin or some other watering hole, while I went and watched the Aussie movie “Dirty Deeds”. It was a little too silly to be believable, but otherwise quite good. After the movie, I spent $2 in an Internet terminal in Cairns Central. I used the java chat at pacific.net.sg which opened a new java window, which when the $2 ran out, still worked. I chatted for a while there until the pain got too much for me, then I walked to the front door of Cairns Central and... it was locked. I had to escape out an emergency exit door. I’m very glad a loud alarm didn’t go off when I opened it. A slow and painful walk back to the BellView and I collapsed (also slow and painfully) into bed – after asking the night watchman to give me a wake up call at 7 AM.
27.07.2002 – Saturday 27 July – Cairns
- • I got woken up at 7 o’clock as requested. I managed to get myself out of bed and down to the Internet café with enough time to spend a half hour online, before phoning Silas sometime past 8 o’clock.
They arranged to meet me outside the BellView at 9:30. I bought a falafel roll, which really filled me up, and then Silas came and picked me up. They have a hired Toyota Ute. We drove up to Eric’s place, then down to a bulk butchery, then to a pet supply store, leaving Cairns some time around one o’clock. A winding drive up the Kuranda range, and through Mareeba brought us to a café in Mount Molloy, which makes the best hamburgers in Australia, officially (some food group did a test or something...) Angie bought a hamburger, Gus and Harry had pies, and Silas had fish and chips. I nibbled a few of his chips. We then drove on to Lakeland roadhouse where we refuelled, and then onto the gravel and home. It sounds easy, but that was probably 400 km’s, and over 40 km’s of gravel, with all the undulations and bumps sending shockwaves of pain through my lung. Maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but some of the bumps sure hurt. I’ve just eaten dinner, sitting here in front of my PC pretending my lung doesn’t hurt. It actually works, when I think of something else the pain is less, and when I remember it, it begins to hurt more again.
I’m all perplexed and unsure what to do now. This could be the end of my studying for this year... I simply don’t know. I’ve heard it’s possible to get into easy uni courses with a stats test, and then once in, I will be able to change to any course. Once again, I just don’t know, and I don’t know whom to ask. Sigh. Then there is the matter of my Austudy; if I stop studying, I stop getting paid. So I’d have to look for work, but I’m in no health to look for work... I really don’t know what to do. Sometimes I just wish life was easy and simple, or at least that I was rich. I know money doesn’t equate to happiness, but it would sure help. So would a good lung, this pain is getting to me. That’s one good thing about being tired and sleeping. The pain stops, even if it does hurt more to lie down. Sleeping is good for thinking too, I go to bed with a problem, and as often as not, wake up with a solution. I shall ponder over what to do and how.
There are two types of operation that might be performed on me. The bedside procedure involves the insertion of a chest tube under a local anaesthetic. I have had this one already. A sedative may be also given, either by mouth or through an intravenous catheter, although it wasn’t in my case. The chest tube is usually placed in the lower part of the chest, near your underarm. A dressing is applied to around the chest tube and is taped in place. The fluid or air drains through the chest tube into a collection container called a Pleur-e-vac. This container is usually connected to suction to allow adequate drainage of the fluid.
Once the fluid or air has been adequately drained through the chest tube, a solution of talc (or other agent, depending on the preference of the surgeon) is inserted. The chest tube is then clamped, to keep the talc solution from draining out immediately. You will be asked to change positions in order for the talc to be well distributed throughout the chest. The chest tube is connected to the Pleur-e-vac and the lung re-inflated. I never received the talc solution when I had this done to me, just the drainage and suction.
The second option is performed in the operating room, under video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) surgery. This requires a general anaesthetic, which is given by an anaesthesiologist. After you are asleep, the thoracic surgeon inserts the thoracoscope through a small incision in your chest. The pleural fluid is removed. If necessary, pleural biopsies can be obtained. A talc solution is then insufflated (blown in) over the lung and pleural surfaces. A chest tube is then inserted and connected to a collection container, which is connected to suction. The chest tube remains in place (with a dressing over it) until the doctor determines the fluid output to be significantly decreased. This chemical pleurodesis is hopefully the option that will be chosen, talc being the most common irritant.
- Comment by J.Kuritz – Thursday 7 October 2004, 7:32 AM
- Where can I find more information about the "Pleur-e-vac"? My Father, age 77, has been diagnosed with Ascites and the use of the Pleur-e-vac has been suggested. Currently he is admitted every 16-18 days for removal of 20 liters of fluid. He is considering the Pleur-e-vac but would like more information. Any information you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
J. Kuritz
- • After going to bed at a quarter past three last night and sleeping for a solid eight hours, I woke up. Seeing as I can only walk with difficulty and pain, I didn’t do much walking. From the caravan inside, and from inside back out to here a few times about sums up my mobile adventures for today. The rest of the day was spent here in my chair; with the majority of that time spent online chatting to people when anyone was on to talk to (which wasn’t as much as I had hoped – I don’t know why people go on “chat” and then don’t chat) and making a dialog for my new iLog Viewer 2. Not a very exciting day, but then what can I expect when I can’t even walk? I went to bed before half past seven, which is amazingly early for me. Changes of position hurt, and it takes a while for the pain to subside. Lying down is a major change of position, so it is quite painful and takes quite some time before the pain goes away enough for me to sleep.
- • I didn’t get up until nine. A huge thirteen and a half hours sleep. Today was very similar to yesterday. Nothing much bright or exciting tends to happen when I’m confined to my caravan. Shan rode over on his recently fixed motorbike in the evening and stayed talking for a while. I had a shower. I did a bit more work on my silly mIRC script, iLog Viewer version 2.
- Night
- • Then I went to bed. Exciting stuff.
30.07.2002 – Tuesday 30 July – X-Ray
- • Dad, Mum and I drove to town. It wasn’t too bumpy and painful, not really as bad as I had been expecting, so that was a thankful surprise. I had an x-ray at the hospital and saw Dr. Michael. Nothing much appears to have changed. I loaned “American Outlaws” on DVD from the video store. Shan came over just after we arrived home and we watched it together, after which I continued resting. Watching a DVD, especially with a friend here, is enough to stress my lung and make it sore.
- • I got quite breathless and somewhat worried, so went to bed early. I think I may have been hyperventilating.
- • Today was the epitome of a "common or garden" type of day. I did nothing all day, and did that slowly.
01.08.2002 – Thursday 1 August – I get banned from AustNet
- Morning
- • I woke up in pain. Not a good start, so I went back to bed and woke up again later, not in so much pain.
- • Mum drove into town to do shopping and all that exciting stuff. I spent most of the day on “chat” and at my PC. Shan rode into town on his motorbike to see his teacher, which I was also supposed to see but obviously can’t, and then dropped in here on the way home. We re-watched the “American Outlaws” DVD that I have copied to the hard drive.
- IRC
- • Shortly after Shan left, I had a bit of excitement on “chat”. I noticed the nickname “ai” was no longer registered, so I registered it to myself. I then set about trying to link the nickname to my other nicknames, “the”, “thei”, and “ned”. Linking nicknames means that I can use any of the four and have the same privileges. Basically, if I get “access” in a channel under one nickname, any nicknames linked to that nickname will also share that access. To link nicknames is mildly difficult, one has to have the current host added to a “hostlist” in the nicknames to be linked. I was having difficulty with this because the command “host add current” which should add my current host, was failing, as my host was a numeric IP; Austnet must not have been able to resolve it.
I went to the Austnet #ASD channel for help, but they were only able to provide basic help, which was no problem as I worked the problem out shortly thereafter. Just before I went to #ASD for help, a friend from the #planetchat channel said (I am the nick “nasti”):
(netwerk): COMPLAIN LOUDLY!
(netwerk): to #ASD
(netwerk): because
(netwerk): they are so so helpful
(netwerk): </sarcasm>
(nasti): but I don’t want a gline today
Shortly after:
* nasti has now requested help in asd
(netwerk): nasti: might be a good time to fly to bali, while you wait for a response And then a minute later, just after the people in #ASD had said they couldn’t help me:
(nasti): (helpful asd person): thei; I can’t see why it’s not working then ..
* nasti parts asd
* (nasti): brb gonna think with my own (functional) head
(Sunflower): (dumbo thei): i just can’t figure out alone and neither can ASD but i call myself better than them
* Sunflower hides
(nasti): well we’ll see if non-helper, non-asd thei can work it out or not ma’am :)
(nasti): (NickOP): thei added to linked nicks
(nasti): there, didn’t even take long
(nasti): ASD are dimwitted casserolle fillings
And yet again, a short time later, while discussing the reasons I couldn’t add the link to my nickname:
(nasti): however that’s somewhat over the heads of our friendly casserolle fillings in asd
(Sunflower): oh would u stop it
(Sunflower): get over yourself
(nasti): yep I’m stopped now :)
(Sunflower): you can’t even help yourself
(Sunflower): so don’t get hard on ASD admins
(nasti): lol
(nasti): I’m sure there’s good ones
Then a few minutes after:
(thei): <whine> why can’t it be easy?
Then, just over an hour later, during which time I said nothing more than a few cursory and very average and polite hello sort of comments, and set away to mess around with my iLog2 script, from “out of the blue”:
Banned from this server: Banned from AustNet: Complaints an