Global Giving

Because I am so lucky and blessed (are these two things really different? - maybe the work should be blucky ...) it's important for me to give back.

Maybe you feel the same way. A friend of mine told me about Global Giving ... here is an ad they did ...

Watch more videos like this at www.quantumshift.tv

Yarranabbe Park

Yesterday, V, Supadog and I went on some great walks - first to Surry Hills, then to Rushcutters Bay and then on around the Bay a little to Yarranabbe Park. From the point you get a great view of the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour. Here's the route:

The many names of Supadog

Supadog has many names, perhaps not as many as Vishnu (who has a thousand), but here is a list:

Danger Dog
Darlo-dog
Dinky-dog
Doggy Girl
Evil
La Fania
Fannie
Fannie Fae Farmer
Fannie Foo Foo
Fannie-Lou
Jumper
Linky
La Loba
Lobita
La Princesa
La Princesa de la Casa
Mop-mouth
Mugwump
Power-pup
Pup
Puppy-dog Girl
Puppy-duppy
Puppy-girl
La Reina
Sheepdog
Shtinky
Sneaky
Stinky-butt
Stinky-dog
Supadog
Swamp-dog
Vacuum Cleaner
Wake-up Wolf
Water-dog
Wicked
Wicked Wolf
Wolf-butt
Wolf-dog
Wolf-pup
Wolfie
Wolfie Dolfie Lolfie
Wolfie-Girl
Wolflet

From The Onion

Typical Onion story, which I love:

Big shoulder day

Today is a big day: the stitches and bandage from my shoulder surgery come off. Main consequence will be that I can shower again, and perhaps more importantly, easily wash my hair. Right now it's bathing, which is okay, but just not my style.

Pain continues to attenuate; I still have trouble sleeping, though.

Some positive differents

Many aspects of everyday life here in Sydney are simply better than in the old country. Two examples:

Attitude toward dogs
In three words, more laid back. Supadog usually goes on walks without a leash, and no one blinks an eye. Many if not most dogs are walked this way. Technically, there is a leash law, enforced as much as jaywalking.

In parks, this great laid back attitude is institutionalized: most times of the day, dogs are allowed off-leash. There are no segregationist "dog park" fenced-in areas where the dogs are all cordoned off to. They have the run of the whole park. It's so civilized.

Traffic calming
Here in Darlinghurst, just about every residential street has speed humps every few hundred meters. This, and closing off streets and alleys, keep speeding and taking shortcuts through neighborhoods to a minimum.

Better still

Still improving - mobility up, pain down , sleep more. We had friends over for Easter dinner ... all originally from France. A lot of fun.

Better

Definitely better today - greater range of motion, less pain. That wrong move still hurts way wrong, but I've gone pretty much off the opioids. Sleeping was a little better last night ...

Pain ...

is a bit of an issue, especially if I move my shoulder a certain way. It also keeps me from sleeping soundly, but I make up for that with naps in the daytime.

The painkillers are only so effective. I feel best when I am standing or walking, or when there is an icepack on it.

Pix: Bio-Rorschach

I've had a chance to look at the pix and, well, hence today's title. Here are two:At least with this one I can see the thread ... but what about this one?What do you see here? And don't say it looks like chicken. V already beat you to it.

About the movie, I'm having technical issues with trying to view it. Could be a Windows v Mac thing ...

Slo-mo

is today's word cuz this is the way it is. I am definitely moving slowly. The pain is not bad when I am not using my shoulder but every once in a while I do and then it is very painful. Not able to sleep well except right after taking the painkiller, but at the same time, a little sleepy all the time.

The surgeon gave me a DVD of the operation. Today's goal is to see it and give you all some screen shots.

Post-surgery: doing fine

Home from surgery several hours now. Definitely a little dopey - slower thinking and an "I don't care" aspect to all thought. The nerve block done to numb my shoulder has turned my right arm into a log. Some 10 hours on, I am just starting to have more feeling and motion control in my fingers. The rest is still numb and limp. It will all come back in the next few hours.

I am fast learning what being sinister is all about. Eating with a fork makes me feel like a three-year-old: I can do it, but it's real clumsy. I can button a button, but it's not that easy. Ah, these new things to learn ...

Speaking of which, the PowerBook has some cool voice recognition software, but it does not work with evil Word and I haven't yet figured out how to get it to work with Firefox (my web browser) ... so I am stuck with lefty typing for a while. It all works out, though: I can type about as fast as I can think. :-)

Contemplating the forced-sinister life

Tomorrow I have my shoulder surgery, which will mean some serious new learning. These include:

a. being dopey again.
b. wearing a sling.
c. doing stuff left-handed. Frankly, shaving has me a little worried. :-)
d. learning the speech-recognition software on my Powerbook.

I'll keep you all up on things, but watch out for dopey writing!

Sunday bike ride

What I hope becomes a typical Sunday: an early morning romp with Supadog playing some serious kong. A great breakfast with some home-made muesli, and then off to Edgecliff for some shopping. After a yummy lunch courtesy of V, we got our bikes out, topped up the air in the tires (or tyres as the Aussies would write it), and set off for Manly Beach. By bicycle, this is a bit daunting, because Sydney is one hilly city. Here is the route we took ... thanks gmap-pedometer.com: M&V go to Manly. Part 2 to North Head. Part 3 back to Manly. Ferry ride back to Circular Quay is here. Bike ride back home. Total distance rode was more than I thought - 35.3 km, or almost 22 miles.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Ice cream cone at McDonalds, Manly Wharf: 30¢!

Skuzzy service of the day: Max Brenner Chocolate at Manly Wharf. Really bad service cancelled out the great chocolate drink I had ...

Grocery 101

Even food words are often different ... here were some words I came by while shopping today:

Caster sugar = superfine sugar
Tasty cheese = cheddar cheese
Rockmelon = cantaloupe
Coriander = cilantro
Capsicum = bell pepper
Aubergine = eggplant

While not a food, I also saw this at the grocery store: soil wetter. And it is exactly what you think it is: it helps the soil in your pot or garden retain water.

Saturday was ...

one of those days. Around mid-day, while V was doing laundry, all this really disgusting-smelling water comes spewing up out of one of the drains in the back yard. Somehow the drain pipes for the house had suddenly blocked up. It was nauseating. We're talking about stuff that should not have been coming up, should never be seen or smelled by the public, but it did anyway.

Well, over $1,000 later, some really wealthy plumbers got the drain pipe cleared. It turns out that tree roots were nearly completely blocking it, and something got stuck and blocked it completely.

Our landlord will not be happy. It appears that the problem is bigger than that, with the city line itself also experiencing a great deal of blockage. Our landlord had told us to get this done when we first moved it, that he has had it done every six months, so maybe he won't be so upset.

Kitchen appliance hieroglyphs or Why I Need Oven Translations

This afternoon I went to Cammeray, which is a close-in suburb across Sydney Harbour. Of course I went by bike; the way I went was about 9.7 km, as I did not have a good map and got lost.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1698093

I had to pick up some parts for the washing machine. The door doesn't close right (it's a front loader) and the latch on the door broke recently. It's easy enough to fix - so I just ordered the parts and will fix it.

This got me to thinking about Australian kitchen appliances. Most of them are written in Bosch hieroglyphs ... for example, these are the controls on the oven:

17.24 is the time, and for the first picture, I can figure that the middle dial is the temperature in Celsius, but the rest of it ... well ... I know now ...

The dishwasher is not much better ...

but I figure just about any setting is going to get them clean ...

In response to popular demand

Because of the many requests from my adoring fans, here are some pictures of Supadog.

Supadog was the second Old English Sheepdog that we got. (Mollie was the first, RIP.)

She was my first internet-intermediated purchase - I found the ad for her and her siblings on washingtonpost.com. We got her back in July 1997 and I found the ad for her online by doing a word search. Supadog is a country dog from Virginia, and has since become a great frisbee catching, kong chasing city dog.

Supadog (one of her many pseudonyms) is originally from Massanutten, Virginia, about a three-hour drive from Washington. When we met her, she was playing with her siblings and a bunch of piglets that her owners were also raising. The piggies and the puppies were all about the same size, running around, playing and chasing each other. It was a little surreal, but she really stood out in terms of personality.

Since then, Supadog has vacationed in DC, Maryland, New York, Vermont, Ohio, Florida, and her most recent state, New South Wales.

Differents III

Medicine
One of the more interesting aspects of being bicultural is observing the medical angle. With my shoulder injury, U.S. specialists rely on MRI to assess the condition of the bones, tendons, and other connective tissue. In Australia, the orthopedic surgeons rely on sonograms. In my case, neither had definitive diagnoses ...

While we're on the subject of medicine, here are a few more differents:
Physiotherapy = physical therapy
Anaesthetist = anesthesiologist

Drugs have different names, too, and over-the-counter drug consuming habits are different. There is no OTC benadryl in Australia, except in cough syrup. Paracetamol is acetominophen.

Some other things
bitumen = asphalt
footpath = sidewalk
pushbike = bicycle
ute = truck, pickup truck
boot = trunk
bonnet = hood

A lot of these are valid in the UK ...

Shorten that word

Some unique Australian language usages are adding the "ee" sound in "ie" or "y" sound after the first syllable of the original word ... barbecue becomes barbie, football turns into footy, Australian = Aussie, mosquito = mossie, etc. The same kind of thing happens with adding "o" after the first syllable of a word as a way to shorten it. For example, Darlinghurst becomes Darlo, Paddington is Paddo (these are two Sydney neighborhoods), service station becomes servo, etc.

The neighborhood and environs

The neighborhood I live in is Darlinghurst, which is very close in, a 20-minute walk to the CBD. Here is a layout ... zoom out some to see some places not on the original view ...



View Larger Map

Shoulder surgery: education session

Today I had an information session with the surgery center. There were eight of us to get shoulder surgery next Tuesday 18 March. Only three of us are getting rotator cuff work; others are getting shoulder replacement and other things.

The session went over what the surgery involves. Mine is arthroscopic, which is minimally invasive. Three or four small incisions are made where a small camera is inserted and the surgeon gets to directly view the types of damage I have. According to the sonogram diagnostics, I have two or three of my four tendons torn.

Besides little cameras are little saws and I presume other little things that the surgeon can insert in there to do what he needs to correct the problem. For me, the torn tendons are reattached with little titanium anchors in the top of the humerus, reattached with what I think are nylon lines. Imagine fishing reel.

While he's doing this, I'm sitting up, and either conscious or unconscious. I think I will be unconscious, from the description provided.

Total recovery time is 6 months, with improvements in mobility noticeable after 6 weeks. I will wear a sling for several weeks.

Star Radio Liberia

I just got an email from a friend of mine about a radio station that she works with in Liberia, called Star Radio. Here's their website:

http://www.starradio.org.lr/

As you may know, Liberia has experienced two civil wars in the past 20 years, and since 2003 has been on the road to reconstruction. Star Radio plays a critical role in this effort, by providing independent information and news to the Liberian community, with broadcasts in 18 languages. What is so great is that, through the Internet, you can hear them too, in English or French.

So yeah, Sharon (my friend) told me about Star Radio, and how they need financial support. She asked me to help out, and there is a website where anyone can contribute. I gave a little, but thought I could also put the word about them. That can be done here:

http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2000/proj1961a.html

Global Giving is a really great website for helping out grass roots groups throughout the world. Check them out at:

http://www.globalgiving.com/

Shoulder surgery

This afternoon, I went to see an orthopedic surgeon for a rotator cuff injury I've been dealing with. There are two separate tendons that are torn on my right shoulder (infraspinatus and supraspinatus). I've agreed to have surgery to reattach them, scheduled for next Tuesday March 18. Wish me luck.

The surgeon's office is out in Kogarah, about 17 km south and west of town. I took the train - it didn't take long at all to get there. The surgery will be outpatient; I have the option of remaining conscious during the procedure. I think I will.

Differents II - Housing

The housing market works differently, both rental and for home owners.

Rent by the week.* Rentals are advertised by the week, rather than by the month. For example, rent here is $750 per week (about US$700). But rents are typically paid monthly. So we pay $3,250 per month (US$3025).

Variable interest rate mortgages. In Australia, mortgage terms are typically variable rate. Where most U.S. mortgages have a fixed interest rate for the entire term, which is typically 30 years, Australian mortgages generally have a variable component to them. There is often an initial length of time (1 year, 2, 3, or 5 years) that has a fixed rate, after which the mortgage goes to a variable rate.

Auction. Many home sales are conducted by auction.

Some of the words are different as well ...

Deposit. Down payment.

Strata. Condominium.

Valuation. Appraisal.

Sames, differents

It is so easy to see superficial similarities between Australia and the United States. Here are some of the differents ...

Highway driving. In the States, the norm is to speed, at least 5 or 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. In Australia, from what I've seen, drivers stick to the speed limit. I've driven from Sydney to Canberra a few times, as well as on New South Wales' South Coast, and on the highway, it's pretty much going at whatever the speed limit is ...

Small businesses. I think it's the tax code, but there are a lot more small businesses in Australia than in the USA. I'll try to get some photos, but today's pick was a portable grill cleaning service. As in barbie kind of grill. This company would even detail your grill, if you had the money.

Traffic calming. While it is starting to catch on in the States, I see traffic calming and road closings (to prevent through traffic on a neighborhood street) done a lot here. It is very pedestrian-friendly, which is a good thing. Sydney is much more densely populated than DC.

Day 2: a typical Sunday

Pretty typical day to start. Up at 7:30 with Supadog and went to Rushcutters Bay Park, where we played Kong and wore Supadog out. Went home, had breakfast, checked email, dih dah dih dah. Later in the day went with V and Supadog to Surry Hills again, checking out the houses and the neighborhood. Saw lots of cool little houses, as well as plenty that had been bastardized.

Some background notes

A few months ago, I moved from Washington DC to Sydney Australia. Two years ago, I met someone and fell in love. It took me this long to move here to Sydney. It's not been easy: uprooting pretty much all of my life, placing a big bet that I can have a relationship again.

It's really a lot more than that. It's starting everything over, except maybe language (more on that later). It's an amazing feeling.

Day 1

This morning was the first time I heard it: a kookaburra. It sounds like one of those movie jungle sounds. Really amazing. This is what they sound like ...

http://fcfhsp.customer.netspace.net.au/kooka.wav

Beautiful day. Blue skies, nice breeze, ideal temperature, like 25. Got out with V and Supadog and walked to Surry Hills. Great little streets with these really cool old houses back in hidden alleys and roads.

Saw a movie at the Academy Twin. It's a local art house cinema, maybe a ten-minute walk away. The movie was "Animals in Love" (Les animaux amoureux) - a beautiful documentary that is part of the French Film Festival. The subject was pretty much that - from whales to zebras to all kinds of birds to praying mantises. Not vulgar at all. Startlingly beautiful cinematography ...