News

Not much happening lately. We have done very little as LK spent much of last week fighting a pretty bad cold/flu. Thankfully, she's recovered well and feeling good again now.

She's brave when she's ill, which of course is the opposite of me and, I believe, most men. I kept telling her she should learn from us: when you're sick and feel awful, then go super pathetic, whimper every once in a while and look at your spouse with red, moist eyes begging for a little cuddle or kiss on the brow. That is, become a big sooky baby.

But no, that's not how women do it, apparently. They just take care of themselves quietly, curl up on the couch and apologize three or four times for not having enough energy to make dinner. What fun is that?

Anyhow, with not much to do not much got done. Funny how I lost all my energy and desire to do stuff around the house when LK was sick. I could try to explain that I didn't want to disturb her, but none of you would believe that anyhow.

So with not much to report about our lives, I want to share some recent highlights from the Mercury,  our local Tasmanian newspaper.  I think they will give you a good sense of what life is like around here.

First, there's this poster for the Hobart paper that I saw outside the news agency when I popped over to the IGA to get some parmesan.

(I forgot to tell you that during her illness, LK had decided it would help her get better to make gnocchi for the first time. The gnocchi was delicious, but the effort took so much of her energy that I got to learn how to make a butter sage sauce for the first time.)

Anyhow, I love this headline and think it conjures up lots of ideas about A) what gets classified as sport down here at the southern tip of the continent and B) the proper role of lawyers

There was also a great story about a new folk hero emerging here:

This guy figured it was OK to take his mobility scooter across the main bridge at peak time. He said most people were cool about the fact that he slowed his lane down to 8 km (that's 5 miles) per hour. I can only guess that he left his hearing aid off that day. Or perhaps the folks here are even more laid back than they claim to be.

And finally, this is some good news for yours truly - but hopefully won't matter for quite a while:

I am sure it is a coincidence that they decided they needed these ambulances for fat people just a few months after I moved here. Regardless, there is good and bad news about this new purchase. The bad, regrettably, is the number of people who commented on this news story by suggesting in tones not too far different from Fox News that if people chose to get fat it was too bloody bad if they get sick, but it certainly shouldn't involve spending taxpayer dollars to get their chubby butts to the hospital.

The ambulance can carry patients weight up to 500kg - that's 1,100 pounds for you Yanks. And that, needless to say, is the good news. I have a new goal! Well, OK, a new guideline.