Mostly Recovered

So I went to the GP on Monday. It was my 1st time seeing a doctor for illness here in Perth. When I saw the GP in Sg with a URTI as severe as this, I would be given 1 day MC. If I went to the staff clinic, I would be given 2 days. The GP I saw gave me 5 days! I voiced my concerns about missing work as I'm the sole scrub nurse for that particular surgeon. He told me that I'm working with vulnerable patients so it is important that I be well. That really threw me off. All along, I've been told that I must show up for work unless I'm too sick to get out of bed. I've been conditioned so well that it didn't even occur to me that I'm putting patients at risk.

With plenty of rest, vitamin c, I'm mostly well again. I even went jogging yesterday. Colleagues in a different department (but on the same floor just down the corridor) had URTI as well & they haven't even completely recovered after 4 weeks. So I'm considered quite lucky. In fact, I'm going back to the gym next week.

I met up with J & J in Northbridge for lunch after work on Friday. It was my 1st time in the city. Just a few shops down from the Japanese restaurant where we ate was a shop that is a baker's dream shop. They sold different types of flour, grains, dried fruits etc from sacks. Now I know where to get the fanciful stuff if recipes call for it.

We'll have to clean my car tomorrow becoz I'm to ferry my colleague to a seminar next Friday & it's not nice to sit her in my dirty car. Then it's off to the Soka center for the Women's Division Friendship Meeting. I guess I will fit my jog in when I get home coz exercise before dinner somehow kills my appetite & I end up eating less which is a good thing. I've even made arrangement with J's DIL to learn yoga from her. It is something I've always wanted to do but never had the time for. I'm busy but I'm happily busy. I'm no longer living to work, work & work. Like I said before, moving to Perth has allowed me to regain my life. I'm forever thankful coz I know how blessed I've been.

Nasty Bug

I just called my manager informing her that I'm too sick to go to work for the 1st time. I felt so guilty. Calling her took a lot of thought. I decided to wait till evening to see if I'll get better. I'm the scrub nurse you see. If I don't show, she'll have to find someone else to scrub. There're only 3 nurses who can scrub at my work place. 1 is away in the countryside assisting another surgeon & will only be back tomorrow evening. So she can only ask the infection control nurse to scrub. Luckily it's only 3 cases & the surgeon is pretty easy going.

But I definitely have to go back for Tuesday coz that is "my" surgeon. Meaning, I'm the only person who scrubs for him. He's not nasty but he's really fast & it's a long list. I will feel so bad if someone else who isn't familiar with his steps to have to scrub, rush like crazy & finish work late.

Funny huh? When I was in Sg, I wish I could be sick so I can take sick leave. Here, I wish I can be well so I can go to work. Looks like gym will have to be put off yet another week to give me time to fully recover.

This is 1 nasty bug. I was still well on Wed, feeling on top of the world after gym. Thurs morning, I had some throat irritation. By Thurs evening, my throat hurt so much I could barely swallow. By Fri afternoon, I was getting the aches & runny nose. Then I spent Sat & Sun in bed for most of the day, sneezing my brains out, coughing my lungs out & hugging that box of tissue paper that I stuff my nose with.

I've already made an appointment to see the GP tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have to suffer for much longer.

有心无力

My plan was to successively follow Wed's workout with Thurs & Fri. Neither of which happened. I really wanted to go. I wore my workout attire to work. But on Thurs, I finished work at 6.30 pm & by the time I walked out of the building, it was already 6.45 pm. Plus 1 hour session, plus 1 hour drive home, I could have easily gotten home at 9 pm. I wouldn't have minded if it was a Friday. But it wasn't & I had to work the next day.

Thurs morning, 12 hours post workout: The muscle aches were starting to set in, just as I had expected. Only I thought it would be worse. On a scale of severity, this was probably about 3 to 4. But the pain grew progressively & by evening, it was probably about a 7. I also had some throat irritation in the morning which became a full blown sore throat by evening.

Fri morning, 36 hours post workout: Full blown sore throat still present, muscle pain is now 8. I didn't even have to go down the stairs to feel it. I had to hold the toilet seat & slowly ease myself down to sit on the toilet bowl. It was aching so much even when I was walking. Still, I went to work in my workout attire. I still wanted to go. But by lunch time, it was evident I wasn't going anywhere but straight home after work. My nose was starting to run. Body aches started to set in (the flu type of aches). I quickly took 2 neurofen from our stock. Believe it or not, I was actually sent home by my manager who asked me to go home & rest at 3 pm. (No such thing in Sg. We were actually told that we should take MC only when we're so sick that we can't get out of bed. Of course, nobody listened. If we waited till that stage, we probably would have gone into pneumonia & died.) I felt it would be counter productive if I still headed to the gym so I went straight home.

I badly craved hot chicken soup (I have no idea why) so hubs drove us to Coles to get the ingredients. Passing the supplements aisle, I saw that chewable Vitamin C was on 30% discount so I grabbed it. Immediately after paying for it, I popped 2 as directed on the bottle. As I was reading the information, I saw that it says Vitamin C is good for assisting athletes to recover from their training. All the more better. I also took a sachet of Lemsip left over from previous infection as the neurofen had long worn off.

Sat morning, which is now, muscle aches mostly gone. It's like 说来就来, 说走就走. Muscle ache is now down to 1 to 2. But on the URTI front, things had moved south. Literally. I can feel that the soreness in my throat had moved down & I'm very certain that very soon, cough will set in. My brain feels fuddled like it always do when I'm down with severe URTI. I must aim to recover by Monday. We only have 3 cases in the morning & nothing in the afternoon. I had planned to do an extra long session in the gym & I'm hoping I still can follow through with it. That's the way it is, isn't it? When I had the time, I didn't have the motivation. Now I'm raring to go, but conditions are not right. Oh well, I'll recover. Hopefully soon. 

Day 1: 1st Gym Session

It's 2 am. I can't sleep. I've been awake since 12.40 am after a trip to the toilet. I've started my gym training. My list finished at 4.30 pm. I changed into my workout attire & headed to the gym. There were about 10 others in the gym. I just followed the exercise plan my assessing trainer did for me. But I think from next session on, I'll add triceps work.

I started off with 15 mins of rowing as my cardio warm up. The trainer told me that the key to fitness is doing what you enjoy. So no treadmill for the time being since I hate jogging. But I know it's something I have to tackle at some point since I have this "dream" to complete a 10 km run event 1 day.

Next, I moved on to resistance training: squats with 4 kg dumbbell in each hand, chest fly with 2.5 kg dumbbell & lastly, lateral pull downs. I was supposed to do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise. But I could only do 10 reps for 2 of them. It'll be a while before I can hit 15.

Then I moved to mattress work. 15 crunches, 30 sec plank, another 15 crunches, 30 sec of back raise. He asked me to do back raise to strengthen my lower back since I have intermittent low back pain from previous injury at work. The back raise was the hardest for me.

This was followed by 10 mins of cardio which I completed on the elliptical machine. My heart rate actually hit almost 100% of my maximum heart rate at 182 bpm (my MHR is 188). I was asked to target for 75% which is more like in the 140s zone. Very very unfit.

Last was cool down with stretching exercises. By the time I completed everything, an hour has passed. I drank like 1L coz I was just so dry. Then I drank another 500 ml on the drive home. Which explains my interrupted sleep. I think due to the amout of water I drank, I wasn't hungry & I wanted to consume more protein post workout so I chose to drink my meal replacement.

I'm still trying to improve on the process. I found that I had to juggle 2 sets of clothes & 2 pairs of shoes. So from now on, during workout days, I'll simply wear my workout clothes & track shoes to work. My work place is undergoing lift upgrading so I had to take the stairs. My goodness! My legs felt like jelly. It wasn't hard climbing up but when I was coming down, I felt like my legs were going to give way.

I actually felt good after the gym session. I feel excited about doing it again soon. So I guess not forcing myself to jog is really the way to go. If I'm going to do this 3 to 5 times a week, I'll need more workout wear. Shopping this Sat it is.

Prediction: Hell Of A Summer

We're barely at the halfway mark of spring, even lesser if you go by true spring marked by spring equinox. We're already in the 30s & my indoor temperature guage read 31°c. I've long switched to shorts & no blankets at night. But still, I'll wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. I don't tolerate heat well at all.

So I believe this summer is going to be a very long & a very hot 1. We got off lightly last year with summer mostly being in the mid to high 30s. Oh well, take the bad with the good right? I enjoyed months of nice cool weather. So I'll endure a few months of hot hellish weather. I'll just stay indoors as much as I can.

Hubs had arranged for my car to be re-gased on Sat & the aircon is blowing cold air once again. At least I get to park under shelter at work. Poor hubs has to park in the open & it'll take forever for the car to cool down. Even then, the car won't be truly cold, just tolerable with the sun shinning in.

We sort of discussed going to the beach 1 day for a soak. But we don't have any concrete plans as yet. I will love to go snorkeling though I've never done it before. It also means doing homework to find out which beach is best for snorkeling & buying the gear. We'll see.

Gym Appraisal

I was early for my appraisal, as I am for pretty much everything in my life. The trainer was doing a circuit class with 1 guy when I got there. I sat outside the group fitness room & spent 20 mins passing time playing games on my phone. Promptly at 8 am, the trainer came to meet me. We spent some time doing measurements before I was given an orientation to the gym. I had to complete a series of tasks which is the main assessment of whether I'm fit enough to join the gym.

I had to cycle on the stationary bike between 85 to 95 rpm until I reached 75% of my maximum heart rate. Then, he taught me a few exercises with weights before going back to the assessment. I had to do crunches for 1 min & plank for 30 seconds. I thought it would be extremely strenuous but it wasn't so. When we got back to the group fitness room, he wrote an exercise plan for me which I will have to follow for 3 times a week. If I can make it to the gym more than that, I am to do cardio for the rest of the week.

Now I'm just waiting for my application to be processed & the gym pass to be given to me. Looks like I'll need to have a gym bag permanently in my locker at work. I can't wait to get started.

Power Of 5 Km

I don't know how much a gym membership costs here. But I heard from my colleague that her daughter signed up for $800+ a year. We were toying with the idea of joining a gym but hubs felt that it's too expensive. That's why I say working in a hospital is good. I knew we have a gym so I made enquires. It only costs $12 a fortnight which comes up to $312 a year. I can join their free circuit classes & I can join their yoga/pilates/zumba classes for $3 per class. I won't be able to go to any of their classes as they require prebooking & the last class is always at 5 pm. I won't know what time I'll finish work until the last case itself & bookings for classes close the day before.

But gym is good. It's open 24/7 so regardless of my finishing time, I can just head to the gym. I'll need to go for an inital appraisal with the trainer (free) to gain access to the gym. Subsequently, I'm entitled to a free yearly appraisal. The appraisal sessions are all fully booked till tomorrow when I attempted to book mine last week. Since I'm not working tomorrow, I just booked myself in even if it means driving down just for that.

I was feeling gungho yesterday so I went for a 5 km walk. Not jog, just walk. But I woke up this morning with aches. Shows just how unfit I am. I'm looking forward to the appraisal & see what the trainer will plan for me as an exercise plan.

Power Of 5K

It's always great to be working in a hospital. Especially more so in Oz. We're entitled to Smart Salary, which is a company doing salary packaging so you end up paying less tax. Sure, you pay $200+ a year for their services but you save thousands in tax. Great trade off if you ask me. It works by packaging either your living expenses (you get a "credit card" that you use to pay for your groceries or bills), mortgage or rent. Different hospitals have different yearly limits. This amount is $15900 where I work which equates to $611 per fortnight. The company take this amount off before your salary gets taxed. Say I earn $2611 this fortnight. Rather than get taxed for the entire sum, I'll get taxed based on $2k.

There's more. I can choose to take up an entertainment card which is a debit card that I can use to pay for my dine in meals (not applicable for take away). I set the amount that's to be deducted every pay day. At the moment, I've set it at $200. So using the same scenario, I now get taxed based on $1.8k.

There's always more. If I go on holidays, I can package the entire sum of my accomodations, regardless of the cost. So if I spent $1k on hotels, I can package the whole sum or choose to have it done over several pay periods. The campsites I book when I go camping? Yup, packagable too. But if you go on a holiday with a tour group, you'll have to ask your agency to separate out the cost of accomodation for you. If you go on a cruise, there's no way they can spilt it. So they just package the entire sum. My colleague went on a cruise for $13k. Can you imagine how many months where she doesn't have to pay a single cent of tax?

We also get novated car leasing. I'm not too sure how it works, just that they calculate the cost of the new car, how much fuel you use, insurance etc & take this sum pre-tax out of your salary. I've used their calculator before & say if I buy a new lower range car, like Jazz or Yaris, I'll be packaging $300+.

Can you see where I'm going? If I have novated car leasing, I'll be paying tax based on $1.4k of earnings per fortnight based on the initial scenario. I was paying close to $1k tax before Smart Salary. Now I'm paying about $600. In a year, I'm saving about $5k in tax. Not bad eh?

Aviation Diaster

It was a clear sunny day. The perfect weather for outdoor activities. We gathered on a grassy field, whipped out our camping chairs, cold beer in hand & sat catching up with a few friends.

A shadow rolled over us & I lifted my head for a look. It was a plane flying by. Something wasn't right. The plane was way too near, way too low. We watched, horrified as the plane rolled belly up to the left. It kept turning. And turning. The pilot seemed to gain a moment of control & righted the plane. Only to over compensate & rolled belly up to the right. They ran out of height. The plane crashed into the field just hundreds of meters from where we were sitting.

I did something I would be ashamed of. I took out my phone & took a picture of the flame engulfed plane. I finally came to my senses & dialed emergency services as we ran towards the wreckage.

The nightmare occured on Saturday morning, just before dawn. I'm fretful of such dreams for fear that they'll come true. I'll never forget my premonition of a dream many years ago, just 1 week before the tsunami hit. I knew it was very near my birthday. When I searched online, it stated that the tsunami hit on 26th Dec 2004. When news broke of the tsunami, I was shocked beyond words.

I had dreamt that I was standing on the beach with my ex (he wasn't my ex at that time). The shoreline suddenly receded with alarming speed. But all of us on the beach just stared. The huge 12 storey high wave came at us just as suddenly. Everybody was screaming. We tried but we knew there was no way we could outrun it. I was swept away & only managed to save myself by hanging onto the top of a coconut tree with my life. When I came to, I was in a straw hut. I remembered my panic. Was my then ex still alive? Were any of my family alive? The uncertainty, the emotions felt so real.

Till now, I've not had another nightmare of such a scale that came true. Who knows where these dreams come from? How do they come true? Coincidence?

Camping Trip Down South

It was long weekend last week & that means camping. So I've been away camping in Binningup, about 35 km north of Bunbury. When I returned to work on Tuesday, it was busy busy busy all the way till Friday. I knocked off earliest at 6 pm with 1 day at 7 pm. I'll be paying a lot of tax for this fortnight of work, clocking in 90 hours, my highest so far ever since I set foot on Ozzie land. What I'll be earning this fortnight is what I earned in a month in Sg, including overtime. It's good coz my car needs new rotors. Anyway.

Who else but Mr Ton?

We were much more relaxed (or bochup is more appropriate) this time round. We took our own sweet time getting ready, leaving at 5.30 am in the morning. The main difference between the previous trip & this 1 was that being spring, it was already bright by the time we set off. It also stayed bright for longer & we didn't once drive in the dark. We got to the camp site at 8.15 am, with 1 stop over at the 100 km mark in a Caltex petrol kiosk for meat pie, sausage roll & coffee. Setting up the tent also took much shorter than the previous time. Heh. We must be getting better at it.

The campsite is just 5 mins walk from the beach.

It is hard deciding which pictures to put up from the hundreds we took throughout the trip. But I can never go past Ton Ton. There was nothing quite like sitting there, doing absolutely nothing after the tent was up. I may not be born Ozzie but I sure love the lifestyle. The kids from the other families were all loving Ton Ton & I've received a lot of requests to pat him throughout the 3 days we were there. The adults couldn't believe that he's almost 10 when they asked me his age. It seems that everywhere I go, everybody calls him "puppy dog". I don't think it's becoz they've mistaken him for a puppy but rather, an endearing term for him.

We set off to Harvey Cheese in Harvey but skipped Harvey Beef, also in Harvey (lol). We got some cheese & crackers which later became our lunch. Next, we stopped at Harvey's town center to get some food for dinner. I waited outside the IGA since dogs are not allowed. Then came a woman who tied her big dog outside IGA. She told me, "Don't worry. My dog doesn't eat much." Ton Ton naturally went over to say hi. She obviously didn't like that & barked at him. My timid dog hid behind me with his short tail down. Haha. That is just so him.

So, we sat down to cheese & crackers when we got back to our camp site. I was feeling really sleepy so I went in & had a nap. It was too hot & too noisy to really sleep though. Before we started our dinner barbie, we walked down to the beach for the sunset. By the time we sat down for dinner, it was completely dark. There was not a single mozzie the entire day. But omg, once it started to cool down, we were swarmed. I had the repellent but by the time we realised we were mozzie dinner, it was already too late. Needless to say, we sprayed the repellent early on the next day. When we got back home on Monday, I counted 37 bites, with 32 concentrated from my ankles down (coz I was wearing 3/4 pants).

It wasn't as cold at night compared to the previous camping trip which kinda surprised me. It was absolutely freezing even though we headed up north & it was barely winter. This time round, it was barely spring & we headed down south but it wasn't even anywhere near cold. We went off to sleep at 7.30 pm (coz it was dark & we had nothing to do), waking up at 6 am in the morning.

Next stop, Bunbury. Our 1st stop was the Marlston Hill Lookout. Once you get up there, you get panoramic views. The wind was so strong & whipped my hair all over the place. That was when I realised I left my scrunchie in the tent. I also left my jumper in the car. While the cold was bearable, it certainly would have been more comfortable if I had both my jumper & scrunchie.

Bunbury Farmers Market. I didn't know what to expect. It was early so it wasn't hot yet so we left Ton Ton in the car with the window down. I fell in love immediately. They had beautiful produce & there were products I can never find in supermarkets here. Like coconut yoghurt, perfect for vegans. Like the strawberry & cream nougat which was like nothing I've tasted before. They also sold raw paleo products. I wish we have such products readily available to us in the metro area too. Oh well...

Hard to see but there's a house in between the trees. If I have a choice, this is where I'll love to live.

Next stop, Gnomesville. Coincidentally, both my colleague & Nix told me about this place on the same day. It was Monday, we were sitting around having tea when my colleague suggested I visit Gnomesville. Later that night, Nix said the same thing to me. The drive to Gnomesville yielded spectacular views. How I wish I didn't have to leave.

There isn't an address for Gnomesville. It is actually situated around a roundabout. The place is huge with so many gnomes that people have placed there over the years. The moment I got out of the car, I got this intense feeling. This place is very 阴. The energy I was getting was not malevolent. But I won't say it was benevolent either. (I've been to very old catholic churches & they give off a holy energy which I will describe as benevolent.) Definitely something there in Gnomesville. 

Cheeky little naked gnome.

He's fascinated with the cows just as they are with him.

An unusual brew so definitely must try. Lemon lime lager. 

On our drive back down, we went to this brewery on the side of the road. Hubs had beer battered fish & chips while I opted for just a wildberry parfait. He seems to have taken a fancy to black beers (not stouts) so he had a black ale while I had a lemon lime lager. I'm not so much of a beer person but the lemon lime lager was good. Then it was back to the campsite.

On our drive back to Perth, we stopped over in Mandurah & Rockingham. I was surprised that Mandurah is pretty bustling for a town so far away from Perth City. But it was the long weekend & people probably came down for a short getaway. That concludes our 2nd camping trip. 

Mandurah marina. Apartments overlooking the marina costs over 1 million.

Cape Peron, Rockingham.

1st Attempt At Beef Jerky

I love jerky. I especially love the super hard ones that takes forever to chew. Of course, they are super expensive as well. But with homemade ones, you know they're fresh without preservatives or artificial colourings & flavourings. They take many hours to prepare. Overnight marination, followed by precooking & finally dehydration. You need a very lean cut as oils from the fat will make it rancid really quickly. The recipe I got online called for 2 kg of beef which was the amount I used. Even though I knew they would shrink to merely a fraction of their original size, I still thought that 2 kg was a lot. As it turned out, not quite enough. My dehydrator came with 5 trays. 2 kg of meat was only sufficient to fill up 2.5 trays which was a waste of electricity. 5 trays requires 8 hours of dehydration. 2.5 trays also requires 8 hours. So next time, you'll bet I'll make 4 kg of jerky. 

2 kg of beef sliced & marinated overnight.

Lay them out on a cooling rack without overlapping.

Precook them in the oven. You can see that they've already shrunk in size.

Lay the precooked slices on the dehydrating tray, again without overlapping.

Final product after 8 hours of dehydration.