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Year View| Summary| Highlights| May 2002 (Month View)

Jan ‘02 | Feb ‘02 | Mar ‘02 | Apr ‘02 | May ‘02 Jun ‘02 | Jul ‘02 | Aug ‘02 | Sep ‘02 |

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.

03.05.2002 – Friday 3 May

• Dang amnesia...

04.05.2002 – Saturday 4 May

• Today’s achievements:

• a.

• b.

• c.

• d.

05.05.2002 – Sunday 5 May

• 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.

06.05.2002 – Monday 6 May

• It’s monday.

07.05.2002 – Tuesday 7 May

• See below.

08.05.2002 – Wednesday 8 May

• See above.

09.05.2002 – Thursday 9 May

• 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.

10.05.2002 – Friday 10 May

• 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.

11.05.2002 – Saturday 11 May

• 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.

12.05.2002 – Sunday 12 May

• 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.

14.05.2002 – Tuesday 14 May

• Lets see... I really can’t remember so I might just make something up. Bother, the inspiration’s all gone tonight.

15.05.2002 – Wednesday 15 May

• 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.

16.05.2002 – Thursday 16 May

• 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.

17.05.2002 – Friday 17 May

• 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.

18.05.2002 – Saturday 18 May

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.

20.05.2002 – Monday 20 May

• 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.

21.05.2002 – Tuesday 21 May

• 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.

24.05.2002 – Friday 24 May

• 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.

25.05.2002 – Saturday 25 May

• 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.

26.05.2002 – Sunday 26 May

• 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.

28.05.2002 – Tuesday 28 May

• 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...

30.05.2002 – Thursday 30 May

• 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.

31.05.2002 – Friday 31 May

• 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.

Jan ‘02 | Feb ‘02 | Mar ‘02 | Apr ‘02 | May ‘02 Jun ‘02 | Jul ‘02 | Aug ‘02 | Sep ‘02 |

Year View| Summary| Highlights| May 2002 (Month View)