So much to do!

After the last couple of weeks I have had to unwind my thoughts on what I have been doing.... it seems like a lot of stuff!

Last week I went to the Redcliffe pool to check it out. This place is 50m, a wee bit different than I was used to for quite a while. I seem to remember that the 50m pool I had swum in was in Hamilton, NZ, and the one I used over here is just 25m. But that was not a problem... recovery from my PA Hospital surgery was my ongoing problem. I did 10 lengths - 500m, a whole lot of short from what I had swum before I went in for my brain aneurysm!

Still, 7 months of no swimming picked up a little bit at Dolphins Health League. Their pool is 25m, which I am used to. I worked with Kara from CBRT the next day, doing just 500m but a whole extra training she worked me through. For the next couple of days my left arm was a wee bit sore! Last weekend, on Saturday, I had visited my doctor to get a medical release for my swimming, which will help me to get some training. It made up for itself this week, when I ramped my swim to 750m and then did a whole hour of Aqua Splash, with Kara joining me. I felt so good! I would love to take a class in the water, preferable that the timing of the movements are joined to the water, not simply jumping about too fast on the dry side.

On Sunday I took the train into CBD and joined the Walk Together event, from Kurilpa Park across the bridge to the event area on Roma Street. I am non-religious, but this event did not appear religious, just fully open for mixed people living in Australia - which includes me! It was fun, and, from many reports throughout the whole of Australia, I can hope that it will just keep moving forward. The refugees in this country are still held back by the LNP, on Nauru, which is totally unacceptable. Read the abc report of 28 October, about some Nauru refugees teenagers beaten by Nauru residents.

This week I applied to Redcliffe Art Gallery for a role as a volunteer, and yesterday I went to meet some people and looked through this small gallery. I met a person who has been a vollie for 12 years - and she is from NZ... funny that! I have been accepted, and will be volunteering one morning of the week. I am so looking forward to this, it seems like just a place where I will fit in (even if it's not as big as the Drury Lane Theatre...). Today I caught up with Anne and we went up to Seaside Art Gallery in town, to (for me) compare it to Redcliffe Gallery. Seaside seems to be a sale gallery, which is okay - but some 
of the paintings are so unprofessional. It's a pity to see the paintings with price tags on, some of which seem far too expensive. This painting is the one that I definitely loved it. It was done by Tricia Reust, who has been busy at her style since 1999. Have a look through her website, there are so many different paintings!

I note from the Redcliffe newspaper than Vernon Ah Kee, at the Redcliffe Art Gallery, won the $8,000 prize for his angle driven art work, which I found amazed. Ah Kee was born in North Queensland and is of the Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidindji and Gugu Yimithirr peoples, and his current style is a hitting hard artist. This particular drawing was a later drawing of an earlier one which also appears at Redcliffe Art Gallery. It thrills me.

Later this afternoon Anne and I drove out to Scarborough and had a wonderful (much!) lunch before we walked down along the beach. Anne raced to a tree and hugged it - she is so green! We walked further along the beach and out the little pedestrian piece into the water, and headed back when we saw a large tortoise lying on the rocks under the water ahead of the Scarborough beach, obviously dead. I felt so sorry about this poor animal, and tried to contact the Moreton Bay Council but wasn't able to find the phone number on my phone because it sometimes seems... broken. I rang them from home a little later, and they were hoping to get someone out there to pick it up. It might be dead, but it needs some sort of respect. I would suggest this tortoise, which had a whole heaps of barnacles on its belly, was pretty old. Rest, fella.

Back home this avo, and my dogs are okay. So good with them... maybe I need to take them out for a walk later.

... old life

“On average, four people are killed and ninety are seriously injured every day on Australia’s roads. The economic cost of road accidents in Australia is enormous—estimated at $27 billion each year—and the social impacts are devastating (Australian Transport Council 2011).”

This was the note contained within the Heart Foundation report “Move It: Australia’s Healthy Transport Options” provided earlier this year. The report was not really about the real circumstances to people injured or the reason why police, fire engines and ambulances attended the road incidents. There was no report about the injured children and the reason why they are in the car. There was no report about just why people have apparently unusual accidents.

Dr Lyn Roberts AM wrote: “Physical activity improves the chances of living longer with less disease. It protects against heart disease and stroke, as well high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol.” Perhaps that may be wonderful, but it doesn’t stand up to inspection of the usual seemingly okay person who drove their car off the road and caused the followers to call the help. Police, tow trucks, fire engine with crew, ambulances, more police. And us, little old people who might have some less physical activity with less protection against our very own heart disease and stroke.

Yet, this time, the woman who drove could have come under her own satellite, and driven off the edge of the road and into a tree. No alcohol. Could she have been internally ill?  Who would know anything?

Talking to this woman’s granddaughter, who had been inside the car and rescued whilst we waited for the fire engine which would cut her grandmother out, it seemed that her Nan had offered her love and attention while her daughter was overseas. No spendthrift. No failure. Nan looked after her two grandsons as well. Today was a break on the care of the grandsons, who, yet, wouldn’t have any idea. This accident seemed so very unfair.

Have you ever had an accident like this one? You have just driven off the road, no reason for doing that, nothing which has showed up to prove some medical problems? Would you do that out of fun? Bored? Tired? Do you know what caused it?

Neither do I. My own assumption is that this particular accident is a result from something inside the driver which turned her off. Unknown. Unfelt. Until she left the road and hit a tree and my friend and I had experienced some smoke from under the car motor, so getting her granddaughter out of the back seat was essential.

We were only at the site for a fairly short time this afternoon. After the police, fire and ambulance people turned up, we left. But the short hold of this accident has given us some thoughts. What goes on between this grandmother and granddaughter when they went off the road? What about ambulances which will take them to separate hospitals? Who has told the ambulance or police about the day care for the grandsons? What were we doing to stop any fires in the car? Who was helping us? What was all the traffic thinking of in this situation? Was anyone careful?

I had been 6.5 weeks in PA Hospital after my own stroke. Today I found that very obvious as the possibility for a cause of some medical problem with the driver in front of me when she left the road. And yet the police, the ambulance people, the fire engineers, the tow truck people, everyone who attended this accident have not, yet, had their own injury from some internal problem.

Perhaps we should be very grateful about that.

The Australian Transport Council in 2011 said: “The economic cost of road accidents in Australia is enormous—estimated at $27 billion each year—and the social impacts are devastating.” Today’s accident would have cost a whole heap as everyone who helped out – police, fire engineers, ambulance people, tow truckies – would still get paid, their gear gets used, the time is not diarised.

Are the social impacts devastating? Yes, they are. This accident, today, would not have been overly paid, and yet the driver had her own social personality. So did her granddaughter. So did her relations.

I hope that social impacts can be repaired, if the person is still alive. Perhaps the end of a life is a different story.

New Life

Have you ever lost your driver’s licence, for 6 months, from a medical statement? I did. I lost mine according to the doctor’s warning words about my aneurysm, but it was taking from me for 6 months due to my stroke. 6 months of not being able to drive – so very hard!

Last week I sat the assessment in the Redcliffe Health office – and I passed it. I am, right now, very grateful to my GP, who yesterday wrote me a little form which doctors are required to, gave me my own driver’s licence, and the form is dated for 2 years. I got home on the bus and I reintroduced myself to my car.

Yesterday afternoon I lay the car seats down, covered the back area with some old covers, and took my dogs out. Most days in the past they can walk by the bay which is close to my Woody Point address, but this time I took them out to the beach between Margate and Redcliffe.

It looks a bit funny with so many tiny jellyfish washed up onto the beach, but I am still aware that they could, possibly, be dangerous. I let the dogs walk along the beach just for a short while, before we took in the wooden walkway. It was lovely – I’m sure they thought so! Both of my old dogs are just happy to say hello to anyone who happens to walk past. Most people don’t ever ignore these two.

We went for a little drive down around Scarborough, and my dogs thought they were so lucky with the windows open!

This morning I decided to go out by myself, and the dogs were left in the house. Sorry guys, today was for me! I started down at the Redcliffe street market, where a couple of weekends ago I had found some cheap clothes and wore them today. I got there just after 8am and it had only started, so it didn’t really seem as full as it was on the past weekends. I had a fairly quick wander through the markets, and just wanted to drive my car.  It wasn’t hard.

I headed up north, taking the road out past Deception Bay, and got onto the M1 motorway. It wasn’t very full, so was probably a good time to get out there. I had printed out my internet maps, showing where I need to get off, so I could do a short – and very steep – walk up Wild Horse mountain. I found the park, and maybe I was still too early, but it was beautiful. There were two other cars in the carpark. One was empty, but there was a woman waiting at the other for her partner. I rather think I was just a wee bit older than her, but I didn’t think the hill was too bad. It’s only 700 metres up there, and some wonderful places to stop and take photos.  This first pic is from about half way up the hill, taken across the M1 at a couple of the Glasshouse Mountains.

 

Carrying up the hill was very slow, even for someone like me who smiles about it. Despite only 700m from the carpark to the top, it seems to get steeper, especially past the halfway. I sometimes think of someone in Wellington (NZ) who lives in such steep hills!

Up the top at the canopy there were steps to the top. The canopy itself has posters all around it giving history of the different views – a full circle. This picture is almost the same of Glasshouse Mountains that I took halfway down the hill, but you can still see the Bruce Highway going straight through, The third picture looks south, towards Brisbane showing the Bruce Highway traffic.

A young family – mum, dad and small daughter – caught me up at the top just as I was ready to walk down. I thought the wee girl had done so well – until dad told me she was sitting on his shoulders on the way up!

I walked down the hill almost at a very quick pace, feeling very ahead of the new (old) chap who was heading the way up. This, to me, looks so much like the steep motorbike roads I used to get used to. They were very steep!

When I got back to the carpark I saw a car which left – they obviously didn’t like the steepness of the walkway, but I felt pretty good with it – only 700m!

Back into my car, I got back on the Bruce Highway, took the Deception Bay exit off the M1, and before the middle of the day I got home. It almost felt like a wee secret drive, which never took me so long. Perhaps, now, I’m a bit frustrated with these sort of Glasshouse Mountains which are now so very close to me than they ever used to be.  Perhaps I just need to go just a wee bit further…

Women have rights

"Woman gang-raped by Tinder date and his friends". This was an article in Sydney Morning Herald on 8 October. This was an horrendous event for a young New Zealand woman. She didn't ask for it. Why would she? Why was she drunk? Why did these dudes spike her over? 

I agreed with the police spokesperson comments at the disgusted action, and yet I was still quite mad at the police who said they "are warning online daters to be careful of meeting with strangers". I had to think about it again after Anne, today, added her comments to my share on Facebook. 

In my speech at the International Women's Liberation Summit this last Monday, I spoke some of the thoughts in my own language that Anne today put on my FB in her own language. I am a victim, with my own agreement with what she has said. Why is that? It's because we, women, should always be aware of what happens on the street, in a bar, in a stranger's place or a known person's place. Are we responsible for what happens? Does not doing that make us guilty? Hell no! NO woman is ever guilty of getting raped. NO woman is ever guilty of drinking herself into some sexual agreement with strangers. But... here's the crunch... NO woman should ever feel guilty if they have simply gone over stuff with their "modern" thoughts. 

Freedom? Here are Anne's comments. Read them and think hard about them.

Women have rights....they also have responsibilities.

We are constantly warned that the internet is rife with predators - it's the perfect place for them to hunt out the vulnerable & the uninformed. We are told to take precautions to ensure our own safety when meeting up with people we've connected with through dating sites etc. because of this fact. And yet so many women still naively/unwittingly enter into situations where they could be putting themselves in danger of becoming the victim of the next date-rape story on the news.

Why? Because we've been told we/women should be able to do what we like....go where we like....meet who we like, when ever we like? I agree with that.....EVERYONE, every single person should be able to walk freely on this earth without fear - BUT that's not the world we live in. Not the real world....that's a fantasy world, which doesn't exist.

The simple truth is....predators exist - they always have and they always will and it doesn't matter how much we demand our right to walk freely, they are not going to go away. They will remain, hidden in plain sight as they always have....waiting for their next bit of sweet meat.

We (as the women's movement) have done a great injustice to ourselves and continue to do it to the girls coming through - we push the right of freedom to be who we are...but we have not pushed hard enough to teach the responsibility that comes with that. The minute we start talking about women taking responsibility for their own risk management & safety....we are labeled victim-blamers.

As you mentioned in your ... talk the other day.....we wouldn't walk around a construction site without a hard hat on because past experience has proven that there is a possibility we may be injured - so we wear that hat....just in case. Risk management.

Why then, do we as women continue to blindly enter into situations where the risk of becoming the victim of a predator is a very real possibility (probably more so than being hit on the head by a lump of wood at a construction site!). It doesn't make sense does it? Most of us would probably think twice before swimming in a river where we know there might be crocodiles, or a beach where there could be sharks.

You know who gets attacked by crocodiles and sharks? People who think the rules don't apply to them or don't give a second thought to the possible danger they are going into....and a very few who are unaware of the possible danger.

And it's no different for women when we find ourselves in, or are about to enter unknown territory like meeting up with strangers for instance, which is happening more and more now.

Why, when there is so much historical evidence proving date rape is a very real possibility, are we still putting ourselves at risk??

Because......"Girl Power!!"....we've been misguided into believing that it's our right to do as we please, however we want, when ever we want, with whomever we want....and we should be able to do it safely while not taking responsibility for the part we play in any outcome from it.

I'm not blaming this young women for being gang-raped.....not for a nano second.....rape is never okay - EVER. It makes me sick to the stomach knowing she could have been me (years ago) or some other woman I know. No, she is a victim (now) not only of her rapists but also of the society we have created that doesn't instill the importance of personal responsibility in our right to our personal freedom.

We need to start getting real and start being honest with each other about what having "rights" truly entails....and more importantly we need to begin educating our young girls from a very early age in personal risk management. So that making informed decisions about their safety is first nature, not something they wish they had thought of after the fact.