Hello and good morning a I start this I am out of breath as I am in the progress of cleaning the bathroom and just taking a few minutes to sit and type this out.

Sam picked today’s creature, it is the Electric Eel, because she likes the sound of it.

Anyway, according to this book on freaky creatures it isn’t really an eel it is a knifefish, a freshwater species which is known for its ability to make electricity.

It has a long cylindrical body containing cells called electrocytes that store power like tiny batteries. When hunting or threatened these cells can release a charge of at 600 volts which is a bloody it would take a horse down.

Generally speaking, a jolt from one will not kill a human but multiple shocks may, or the person may end up drowning as a result of being shocked.  

They grow to 2.5 meters or 8.2 feet and weigh around 20 kilos or 44 pounds, they have flattened heads and are usually dark green or grey on top with a yellowish stomach. They can live for between 5 and 20 years.

They live in streams in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America.

In case you didn’t know it is Monday down here in Australia, it is a cold morning and even though the temperature is rising it is still cold gone from 9 degrees(48f)to 12 degrees(53f).

Since it is Monday, we are looking at another country and this week we are in Western Europe more precisely The United Kingdom.

The United Kingdom is made up of four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it has been around since 1 May 1707 because of the Acts of Union.

The capital is London, which is in England. The population is around 67 million and the government is described as a unitary state, parliamentary system and constitutional monarchy. The current head of the monarchy is King Charles111.  

A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority.

A parliamentary system is a democratic dorm of government in which the party or a coalition of parties with the greatest representation in the parliament forms the government, its leader becoming prime minister or chancellor.

As a constitutional monarchy King Charles is Head of State, however, he doesn’t run the country, nor can he make or pass legislation that resides with the elected parliament.

The flag of the United Kingdom has been around since the 1600’s, although the early one only featured the English and Scottish flags, since the 1700’s when Queen Anne was on the throne it has more or less been the flag we know. Which I am sure most people know as the Union Jack with a white-fimbriated symmetric red cross on a blue field.

How safe is the United Kingdom, ranking 37 on the peace index site it is in the top 25 per cent o the world’s safest countries. There is a relatively low rate of homicides and good foreign relations and overall low internal and external conflict. It is in general a very safe place to visit.

Had a good night up a bit early as I was awake and just lying in bed and thought bugga this I’m getting up.  It is 11 degrees at 5.30am. Also, I can’t find my blood test machine I remember Tasha coming in last night and waking me to ask if my test strips would fit some machine, I was asleep and I think I said take a few and try them.  Now I suspect she took everything which is annoying.

I managed to hem my new pyjama pants it may be a half ass job, but it is better than how they were.

Tim is working rail today he thought he would be home by 11am but rang to let me know it will be more like 9.30pm before he gets home.

The temp at midday is 17 degrees.

Lunch went well in fact there was a fair bit of laughter and talking but Kathy looked like she felt left out but her sisters did try to include her in the rubbish they were talking about, this was more so when we were having ice cream.

After lunch Kathy & Summer went home and Tasha and Jess went to Costco, Sam stayed here and talked to me it was a wonderful talk about many different things.

NO SCHOOL DUE TO KINGS BIRTHDAY HOLIDAY

Another good night and a cold morning with a temp of only 7 degrees at 5.30am. My BGL is 5.5 this morning.  By midday it had reached 17 degrees.

Tim drove Sam over to a mate’s place and will go and pick her up at 5.30 this arvo.  As I turned out Jess was home from work and picked Sam up instead.

It has felt like a long ass day, spent doing bugga all.

Been awake since around 4am and out of bed since 4.45am. It is cold with the temp being 10 degrees. My BGL is 4.9 before breakie, my morning reading is always before breakie.

At around 11am I got a message saying my delivery had been made and left in a safe spot and wondered what the hell no one came to deliver anything. He left it in the letterbox, which was annoying as at first, we couldn’t find it. The photo attached to the tracking showing where it was left showed the mailbox for unit 4.  Unit 4’s letterbox is above mine it took a little bit, but it was ok in the end I have my parcel and I am happy.

Around 1pm my nephew Dawson turned up for a visit he stayed about an hour, most of the time he spoke about different cars he would like to buy. I listened to him and made comments on the cars but didn’t tell him he would not be able to afford such cars being that they are all priced over $20,000 and he is unemployed and on a disability pension.

Today reached a top of 17 degrees and when I was sitting and waiting for Sam it was bloody cold.

A few years back Tim bought a knee brace for me to try but it wouldn’t go over my fat leg could barely get it above my ankle, well I decided to try it now since I have lost weight. I got it on to just above the knee, but it was too tight.  Tim helped me get it off and in a smug tone said he knew it wouldn’t fit. I snapped that at least it went on a year ago it wouldn’t have.  Tim replied why did I have to sound snappy, why? Wel maybe if he had sounded a little more supportive and not so smug I wouldn’t have snapped.

Had a really good night, woke with the alarm at 5am a chilly start to the day with a temp pf 12 degrees. My BGL was 5.5.

Sue took me to my doctor’s appointment all went well, just needed scripts and a couple of forms filled in, we also went to the post office so I could get stamps and post of letters.  Sue took a photo of me this morning as she said I looked really nice.

It has warmed up to 19 degrees.

It was, however, cold sitting up the top of the driveway waiting for Sam this arvo.

What a night, I had a few different and weird dreams the type where everyone treats me bad and don’t like me or just ignore me like I’m not there.  Last night dreams had mum in them acting like I wasn’t there, then there was one which had some weirdo attacking my car, note I don’t drive anymore. The last one I kind of get it involved me looking for a toilet with a lockable door to use. I woke needing to use the toilet.

It is 10 degrees and my BGL is 5.5.

Sandy called in for only 10 minutes to give me a hug and say hi we had a quick chat, but I would have liked a longer talk.

By midday it was a coldish 16 degrees.

I am feeling drained this arvo.

Had a good night from 9pm onwards, before that I slept for 2hrs after 9pm I slept till 3am the up to pee and back to bed till 4.50am when I got up. It is 11 degrees and my BGL is 5.6.

I had Facebook remove the link to my blog again they called it spam, what the hell is wrong with these fools.

It has been a cold day with a top temp of 15 degrees, Tasha said that I look tired today and Sue said I sounded tired.

Tasha came down to see me and have a chat, she said she would take scripts to the chemist for me. Blain brought down some sheets to go into the dryer and was glad Papa wasn’t here to go on about using the dryer.

I was lying in bed around 8.30pm and heard Tasha and Tim arguing, she had sent Blain down some sheets to go in the dryer and Tim said something about drying them after 10pm but she wanted them done sooner, he said she most likely wouldn’t come back for them till the morning and I suspect he is right about that. I, however, felt he was making a mountain out of a mole hill, when I asked what did all the carry on achieve he raised his voice and said he was making a point, yeah but what is being achieved.

I am updating this at 12.36am as my body is moving so much, I can’t get back to sleep, so I will finish this and go back to bed.

After I returned to bed at 12.50am I settled and slept well for the rest of the night. It is 11 degrees and my BGL is 6.1 this morning.

It has been cold and wet all-day top temp of only 14 degrees.

Tim went to the shops, and I asked for a bread roll and a small hot chips or 2 scallops he got both hot chips and scallops and a 6 pack of rolls. Why well he didn’t take in what I asked for, thinking I wanted everything.

Here we are at another Parkinson’s day, I will share a little more about levodopa and its side effects. All the symptoms of Parkinson’s tend to improve with this drug but it is most effective with treating the slowness of movement and what goes with that.

In fact, for some the improvement can be dramatic, this I know personally as before I was medicated, I was in a terrible way. I was unable shower myself or dress myself, or feed myself, all of which I can now do again and more.

For many it also will improve facial expressions, rigidity and pain can also be helped, this has also been the case with me at this stage the constant pain in my arms and hips have eased a lot.

The tremor, however, has shown some improvement but not as much as I would like, as I still have times when it can be bad.

I have seen very little if any change in how I swallow stuff and I am told my speech is still pretty soft at times and of course my balance can be off at times.

Now some of the side effects of this drug are that it can cause taste problems with things having a metallic taste mostly tea or coffee. Some say it causes a nasty taste in their mouth.

Other people have had sleep disturbances with their mind being overactive and not being able to switch off. This is something I have delt with for many years long before Parkinson’s.

A pretty common side effect is nausea and vomiting when someone starts taking the medication but usually settles after a bit.

It also can cause loss of appetite with a little loss of weight. Ok since being on the drug I have lost 30 kilos which is about 66 pounds, but as I was seriously overweight this has been a good thing.

I will share more next week.

Hello everyone, well it is Thursday already and that means it is time for some information about borderline personality disorder or BPD. This week we are looking at inappropriate anger.

As I have explained in previous posts a person with PBD struggle to regulate their emotions. Anger is an emotion and thus no different those with BPD can be hypersensitive and will easily overreact.

The slightest thing may trigger an extreme outburst and due to the PBD they will often become emotionally and physically combative towards others. These flare ups of anger are usually intense, quick and terrifying and almost always disproportionate to the incident at hand.  Or has my mum would say they make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Those around someone with BPD will do whatever it takes to keep the peace, they may lie, withdraw, or overly try to please the one with BPD.

Now people need to know and understand that the one with BPD are not proud of this behaviour but often feel unable to stop it, in fact they are usually immensely ashamed and remorseful after the fact. Such outbursts the trigger the overwhelming fear that they will now be abandon because in their mind who would want to live with or me around someone like that.

This then can set off another reaction of internalising their anger, which can lead to them self-harming. So, they are living in a vicious cycle of harming others and harming themselves.

This explains why when in an argument with someone Sue may start throwing things.  

If you are with someone with PBD who is in a rage try to stay calm, this isn’t easy, but it is better than getting into a screaming match. Try not to become defensive in the face of their accusations and criticisms no matter how unfair you feel they are being. It will only make them angrier so if possible, walk away take time and space to calm yourself down and hopefully they are doing the same.

It’s Wednesday, so how about some more about the bombing of Darwin.

By 11.58am those shocked survivors were emerging from cover and trying to get a grip on what had happened when the second air raid started. This time the airfield was the target with Zeros finding that remaining Kittyhawke was destroyed along with a Liberator, three Beechcraft, three US Navy Catalinas, six RAAF Hudsons and a Tiger Moth.

Surprisingly only seven men were killed, including Wing-Commander Archibald Tindal RAAF.

Air Force and military personnel didn’t overall feature well concerning many of the events following the attacks.

Hundreds of civilians fled Darwin, becoming refugees leaving by any means possible. However, many RAFF personnel also fled and even now all these years later what happened at the RAAF base has still not been fully explained.

It seems that after the bombing Wing-Commander Stuart Griffins gave an order for all the men to go half a mile down the road to Adelaide Waters and half a mile into the bush.

Well to many of the untrained scared airmen what they heard was go bush and so they did, with one guy reported to have kept going till he reached Melbourne thirteen days later.

By the weekend order had been resorted but not till after some extraordinary behaviour, there was widespread looting of deserted homes and businesses by civilians and military men of the Australian Army Provost Corps.

Within days a Royal Commissioner Mr Justice Lowe of the supreme court of Victoria was appointed to investigate both civilian and servicemen. Among his findings were that 243 had been killed and between 300-400 injured. That there was unfortunately panic amongst all and that earlier warnings would have saved lives.

Many forget that these first two raids were only the start with more than 60 raids happening over the next 18 months, with the last raid taking place on 12 November 1943.

Many also do not realise that other towns were bombed, on the 3^rd of March the Western Australian town of Broome suffered a devasting attack flying boats with women and children from the Dutch East Indies were destroyed with many lives lost.

After the February attacks the Administrator left Darwin and went to Alice Springs where he remained until 1945 when civil rule returned. The area of Darwin became a large Allied base and on the 28 March  General Edmund Herring AIF took command and stated that the area was adequately defended.

Next week we move on to the Battle of the Coral Sea

Well, hello everyone this week’s freaky creature is the Sword-Billed Hummingbird, the only bird to have a beak longer than its body.

This sword-wielding bird has a perfectly designed beak to feed on flowers with tubular nectar chambers. Its lance-like beak is so long as its tongue.

It measures from its tail to its beak tip at around 24cm, it is one on the world’s largest hummingbirds. While it feeds its wings beat fast in 8 shaped movements while the tail is cocked.

The hummingbird is very agile in the air and performs beautiful flight displays, especially during matting season.

It is native to the Andes Mountains of the north-west coast of South America. They have an average lifespan of 5yrs.

It’s Monday, it’s cold but it isn’t wet and there is no school due to the King’s birthday holiday. This week are looking at Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is a rugged, rain forested Central American country. The name Costa Rica literally translates to “rich coast”.

Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds.

It is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity.

Though its capital, San Jose, it has a population of around 5 million and currency is the Colon with Spanish as it’s official language.

The national flag of Costa Rica is based on a design created in 1848 and consists of two blue stripes, two white stripes, and a central red stripe which is twice as wide as each of the other four.

As to how safe it is to visit well the U S Travel Advisory site says exercise increase caution while there and Australia’s Smart traveller site has it as high level of caution needed while there. Other sites say it is a safe place to visit I guess it just depends on what is happening at any given time.

It’s ranking on the Global Peace Index is 123, what that means I don’t know, Australia’s ranking is 22, the United Kingdom is ranked 37 and the USA is ranked at 131. Oh, and last week’s country Nicaragua is ranked 123. I don’t know what it means but found it interesting. https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/

Another wet day ahead by the sound of it, well according to the weather app on my phone.  It I s 12 degrees at 5.30am not as cold as yesterday morning.  Top temp of only 15 degrees.

Found a note telling me that Jessica’s toilet is broken and leaking from the bottom, it has been reported and now Sam has come here to use the toilet, Jessica has been going to Natasha’s to use her toilet.

Tim went out to put fuel in the car, we are going through more due to him working again.

Tim made crumb steak, chips and eggs for lunch I really liked it but Tim thought both the steak and chips were a little overcooked but not me, for me it was done just right.

It is 11.30pm and for the last hour & a half the top half of my body hasn’t stopped moving and I am so tired but decided to get up and sit for a half hour before going back to bed and trying again. I haven’t had a night like this since the increase in my medication.

After I went back to bed at 11.50pm after having something to help me settle and I did settle till 2am when of course I had to pee and then found I had to pee every hour or so, it was a long night of broken sleep.

Still up at 5am, the temp is 10 degrees at 5.30am.                  

I felt pretty cold this morning, Jess asked me to go over and wait while the plumber fixed the toilet which I did, I was just standing at the door wondering how I was going to get out of her house without falling when Sue arrived. I felt like crying, she helped me out as the plumber was done with whatever he was doing. I had to ring Tasha and tell her about water on Jess bathroom floor as there was no way I could clean that up.  Jess was in bed asleep.

I am annoyed that the new bra I bought has hook & eye closure at the back. I thought it was a pull on over my head type of crop top bra. I will check tomorrow if that is what I ordered.

Had a damn good night woke only once to pee then when the alarm went at 5am.  At 5.30am it was only 6 degrees, by midday it was 16 degrees.

Tim was home between 10.30 and 1pm, he had to have another ultrasound on his stomach.

I had a productive morning doing 9 household chores and by the time I was done I was exhausted.  So, then it was time to put my feet up and do nothing for a while. I am one of those people who likes to get as much done as possible first thing in the morning. 

Had another good night, woke at 4am to pee and then again at 4.55am which is when I got up and damn it is a cold morning temp of 6 degrees again but feels colder than yesterday.

Tim has another CT scan this morning, since starting this job he has had 4 different medical appointments but says today’s scan should be his last.

My blood glucose level was 4.1 this morning.

Tim was at the Xray place a long time they had trouble putting the cannula in and he was feeling frustrated when he got home.

By midday it was 18 degrees but still felt cold, the temp dropped to 15 degrees by 5.30pm.

I am feeling sad this afternoon, but I don’t know why.            

JESSICA’S BIRTHDAY SHE IS 35 TODAY

I am up, washed and dressed for the day, the temp is 10 degrees. My BGL is 5.5

Saw Jess as she got home from work, called out happy birthday so came over and we talked about nothing for about half an hour. I rang Sam at 7.10am as usual and she answered but at 7.30am no answer. I wasn’t bothered but when Sam had not turned up by 7.55am I started to head up and stopped to call for Sam just by yelling for her then I rang Jess, by this time it was nearly 8am and we had to get a move on the driver arrives between 8.05 -8.15am.

The day warmed to 17 degrees.

This afternoon I was feeling like I wasn’t important enough for Tasha to bother with, not how it is but how I felt, I rang to ask her why she hadn’t got back to me about helping me tomorrow, she could tell I was upset and came down to talk to me. We had a long chat about how I was feeling and afterwards I felt better, not great but better.

Had a reasonable night, I was restless around 11.30pm last night and got up had a walk around the house and went back to bed at 11.50pm and went straight off to sleep. I slept till 2.30am then had to pee but straight back to sleep then again at 3.30am, followed by 4.50am which is when I stayed up.

It was 11 degrees at 5.30am and my BGL was 5.3. The temp was 13 degrees at midday.           

It is also a wet morning, I had to get Jess to walk up with Sam.

Also, around 7.45am I started to feel drained and having difficulty concentrating on stuff and a bit confused. I sent Sue a message as I do each morning and she was so worried she came to check on me, she said I looked awful, and I felt awful and extremely tired. I ended up having a nap in my armchair after which I was much better.

Sue rang me at 11.45am to tell me Sandy is very sick and has been taken by the ambos to hospital her BGL was 2.1 and her blood pressure so low it was unreadable. This is because she has gastro and is seriously underweight at only 40kg, which is about 88 pounds for my American readers.

At 2.30pm Sue rang in a state as our brother who was supposed to be taking over watching Sandy’s kids from Sue rang and said he wanted Sue to spend the night.  She could not do that and was having a meltdown.   I got angry with our brother as I feel that he and my SIL do not understand how hard it is for Sue to function at times.  They don’t understand about her BPD. I sent him a message and Sue could not stay with the kids and something else was in fact worked out so Sue could go home.

Had a good night after the heartburn was gone at 5.15pm yesterday I suddenly got pain in my chest between my boobs bad pain after about 5 minutes I felt like I wanted to burb but couldn’t.  I spent the next half an hour in pain with Sam comforting me and pouring me fizzy drinks to help make me burb after I finally did, I was right and settled down for the night.

Read on Facebook that Sandy is home now and doing better she isn’t well, but she isn’t as bad as she was yesterday.

The temp at 5.30am was 10 degrees and my BGL was 5.1, by midday it was a nice warm 19 degrees.

I went down to Coles with Tim to get a few things and managed ok, came home to find Tash was using the dryer and of course Tim went off about it, which pisses me off he is making a mountain out of a mole hill in my opinion. Also got scripts while out cost me $211 but that is for the month and for a total of, I think 7 different meds, one of which isn’t on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme or PBS which is $69.

Good morning all a cold wet morning here in my part of the world and it’s Friday so it’s time for some more about Parkinson’s Disease.

Here is a little more about treating this condition. Generally speaking, the treatment of many medical conditions is standardized but not with PD the drugs used, the timing and the size of the dose have to be adjusted according to how severe the patient’s symptoms are.

Usually if you are in the early stages or have a mild case you will require only small doses of the drugs. However, as the disease progresses that changes any you may need higher doses and more than one or two different types of medication.

Drugs like Madopar and Sinemet are given in the more severe cases. With the dosage being increased as needed till the maximum tolerated. It is at this stage that other dopaminergic drugs may be added to someone’s treatment.

Madopar is what I take.

Many patients also need medication for depression, constipation, pain, sleeplessness, confusion and pain.

The main go to drug seems to be levodopa which can offer an improvement of about seventy per cent which is far greater the other drugs. However, like all drugs it has side effects so these need to be considered both short- and long-term side effects.

Levodopa is absorbed from the intestine and carried via the liver and bloodstream to the brain. The conversion to dopamine involves something called decarboxylase which unfortunately is found throughout the body. Which means left to its own devices the body would convert the levodopa into dopamine long before it reaches the brain where it is really needed.

This is why levodopa contains a harmless chemical which keeps it intact until it reaches the brain.

Ok that will do for now, more next week.