Sunday snippets

I feel a bit as though I am walking on eggshells this morning.

I have a very busy day in front of me, so only a few snippets.

Over on Geocurrents, Martin Lewis is running a series on the Caucasus. I am reasonably well informed, but I have learned things that I did not know. Have you ever heard of the Snow Revolution? Thought not!

Comments on Saturday Morning Musings - the change merchants, have extended my thinking. Did you know that during the height of the Great Depression in Australia over two Australians were still employed compared to one out of work? This may seem remote from my post, but it's still relevant. I will explain why at some point.

Also relevant is this story from the Sydney Morning Herald, Misha Schubert's Life on the dole a trauma, says Lib. On Friday night we paid $70 per head for a quite indifferent meal at a very popular Sydney eatery. That's almost a third of the total weekly New Start or dole payment. 

I am somewhat into self-help and self-improvement at present. Evan, one of my regular commenters, has a rather useful self-help blog, Living Authentically.

I really draw inspiration from my fellow bloggers. In Another new life opportunity, Denis Wright reports on the second recipient of Denis Wright Scholarship for Underprivileged Girls. I quote:

The second recipient .... through UCEP (in Bangladesh). Like the first recipient, she also wants to be a nurses' aide. She is the youngest of 8 children and lives with her sister in a tin shed. Her parents are dead. She works the longest hours of all the girls presented and seems to have it the roughest....

See what I mean?

In Out and about–doc, library, pho, Yours and Owls, Neil Whitfield wrote:

Down to the doctors. Aside from rotten teeth – waiting on dealing with them – and sore heel, and of course the heart, and other signs of decay, it turns out I am fine.

That's good to know!

The reference to rotting teeth struck a chord. I neglected my teeth for a period because of things like school fees. Most recently while I have focused on writing, I simply haven't been able to afford dentistry. Now I need to find over $A5,000 to fix the damage done.

When I was a child, dentures were common. Many people found it easier and cheaper to have their teeth removed. Now in modern Australia dentures are, once again, a booming business because of the very large and growing number of people who simply cannot afford to go to the dentist.

Whooping cough is another thing that is back in modern Australia, if for different reasons.

One of the group on Friday night had whooping cough. The disease almost vanished, but has returned courtesy of the anti-vaccination movement. As it happened, I recently had a whooping cough vaccination because it was bundled with the tetanus booster.

I had been preparing dinner when I applied a cleaver to my fingers instead of the chook. We men our meant to crack hardy, but it was quite a bad wound and hurt like blazes with blood everywhere. I swore and held my hand under the tap until I got it clean enough to bind. Still, I no longer have to worry about whooping cough. I guess that's an advance.

Well, that's all for today. I must move.