Meetings
One of my roles is to serve as Executive Officer for the local health board’s community advisory groups. It’s interesting work to interact with people who care about such issues.
I had two meetings today. They take a big effort to prepare for in terms of reports, agenda, minutes and correspondence. There are three groups and they each meet once every two or three months.
The Myrtleford meeting was very positive in the sense that we had a new group of people come on board. They represented a broad cross-section in terms of age, employment type, background and gender, which was terrific.
The final meeting in this cycle is tomorrow in Mount Beauty.
Slide show
I went with Dude to a “slide show” at Porepunkah Primary School last night, featuring pictures and narrative from his recent camp.
It wasn’t really a slide show in the way that it used to be when I was a kid, but the idea was the same.
The photographs were all digital and they were presented on a TV screen that was connected to a computer.
The kids obviously had a lot of fun and it was good to see their photographs and hear them describe their experiences.
New web site
I’m experimenting yet again with another web site script.
This one is called Pivot and it’s a content management system for web logs.
I’m trying it because it offers categories and has the benefit of simplifying photo uploads.
If I want to, I can make several data entries during the course of a day and allocate them to different categories.
I’ll test it for a few days and then decide if it’s worth switching over completely to this script. That would involve me spending quite some time over Easter transferring files from the other site.
User feedback would be welcome. Is this site easier to navigate?
Tonsilitis
We found out today that Kathleen has tonsilitis. The doctor said she’s a “sick chick”.
We took her into the medical clinic a week ago and the diagnosis was a viral infection, which was expected to clear up in a few days.
She seemed better last Thursday, but had to come home early on Friday. This morning she complained of a sore neck and fever.
The antibiotics have had an immediate effect and hopefully Kathleen will be feeling much better tomorrow.
Unfortunately she will have to miss the school trip to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat. It’s a four-day excursion and the kids leave early tomorrow morning.
Correct weight
I tipped the scales this morning at 12st 6lb, which is one pound shy of correct weight for my height (5′10) according to BMI calculations.
It also means I’ve lost nearly four stone since I started my fitness crusade 12 months ago. I wasn’t always 16 stone, but I did gain weight quickly last summer and that provided a catalyst for doing something positive about it.
I saw several people today for the first time in a year and it was nice that they commented on how much weight I’ve lost. Even my doctor is impressed. I’ve lost a stone since I last saw him around Christmas.
Of course, everyone wants to know how I did it.
The short answer is exercise. I made some minor dietary changes, which I’ll discuss later, but my overall strategy was to burn more fuel than I consume.
Exercise
Starting from a zero fitness base in March 2003 I began walking 20 minutes a day, five days a week. The first strolls around Porepunkah revealed just how unfit I was, embarrassing really.
I gradually increased the length and difficulty of the walks. There are plenty of hills around here to strengthen lazy leg muscles.
The intensity lifted gradually with harder bush walks. By December I was scaling Mount Buffalo, Mount Feathertop and Mount Porepunkah without too much trouble.
When summer kicked in I lost the enjoyment of walking. The flies and heat were too much, so I took to bike riding.
I started with short rides into Bright and back (11km), then to Eurobin (19km return). It was hard at first, but pleasurable.
It also helped accelerate weight loss, which levelled around 13 and a half stone for a month or two.
I now ride 30km most days of the week, sometimes more, but rarely less. With winter coming I will probably revert to walking and save the longer bike rides for weekends.
My weight has levelled again, although I seem to lose a pound every fortnight on the current routine, so I don’t feel the need to change anything.
My weight can fluctuate by up to three pounds over the course of a week depending on how much exercise, what I eat and possibly other factors.
Diet
I stopped eating fatty foods like pizza, pies and sausage rolls. I hardly ever have takeaways now, when previously I bought them three or four times a week, especially for lunch.
I increased the amount of seafood I eat substantially. This helped raise my good cholesterol.
I’m not a big fruit and veg fan, but I drink fruit juice and have vegetables with stir fry meat several times a week. I switched to low-fat versions of products like milk, butter, cheese and mayonnaise.
I rarely eat cake or sweet treats, except some occasional chocolate after a meal.
I now read supermarket labels to check the fat content of food.
Overall, I probably eat as much now as I did a year ago. Food consumption was less while I was walking, but now that I’m cycling I actually get hungry and snack on dry biscuits or dried fruit.
I find that I have a lot more energy, which is important with the babies and my workload.
Whereas in the past I would have complained there was too little time for exercise I now make time and find that I have more time.
Being fit changes your outlook on life. In the past I would have looked at a mountain and thought it impossible to climb. Now I wonder what the view will be like from the top.
The horizon has become a lot closer.
Technology gap widens
Australia is wittingly creating a technology divide that threatens to further disadvantage rural and remote areas. I refer to the selective roll-out of broadband technology that’s bypassing most small towns and farming areas.
Telstra controls the infrastructure that makes broadband technically possible. Any telecommunications company can establish its own infrastructure, but in both cases it isn’t economically viable in remote areas.
Imagine if our forefathers had taken the same pragmatic view of railways, electricity and the telegraph? Australia would never have developed into the homogenous nation that it was until recent years.
There are three major differences in attitude between today’s commercialism and yesterday’s nation building.
Politics: Australia’s population was more evenly spread before World War Two. It may not have made economic sense to service remote areas, but it was politically dangerous not to do so. Today our population is concentrated in cities along the eastern seaboard.
Vision: Our forefathers genuinely wanted to build a strong nation. Federation would never have happened if today’s leaders had been in power back in the 1890s. They wouldn’t have seen past their own self interest.
Privatisation: Infrastructure was historically a government responsibility. Today’s governments contract out everything they possibly can, eg prisons, utilities, etc. It’s a wonder the schools and hospitals haven’t been privatised.
I complained in public recently about Telstra failing to install ADSL capability at small exchanges. A Telstra employee rang me and commented the company has no universal service obligation when it comes to broadband.
Exactly. That’s the problem. The Federal Government, as the major shareholder and the people’s custodian of those shares, should insist on new technology being rolled out equally across the country.
The current situation will simply increase the divide between country and city, between small towns and big towns.
I’ve heard that dynamic visionary (not) leader, John Anderson, say previously in response to similar issues that “we choose to live where we live”. In other words, country people don’t deserve better because we’ve made a lifestyle choice.
That attitude condemns to disadvantage the people who can’t afford to leave the bush or who can’t leave for family reasons. It condemns small towns to a slow decay. It undermines the federation dream to build a strong nation from coast to coast.
In the case of broadband it’s also unfair.
I moved to Porepunkah knowing there wouldn’t be trams running past my front door. I didn’t know that I would be denied future access to vital technology.
When the Internet became widely available in Australia several years ago I was one of many people who saw its potential to bridge the divide between city and country.
It didn’t matter where you lived; you could still communicate with the world, sell your products globally and compete equally.
Today it’s only partly true. Broadband is the next generation of Internet. Fast downloads are expected, rather than desired.
The ABC’s 7.30 Report addressed these issues recently and commentators reached the same conclusion I’m reaching: Australia will be divided into a country of “haves” and “have-nots” when it comes to technology. The have-nots will be in rural and remote areas.
A solution is for the Federal Government to order Telstra to cross-subsidise the roll-out of ADSL or satellite alternatives.
Postage services are cross-subsidised. It costs the same to send a letter from Perth to Cairns as it does to send one across the road.
Good communications and proper access to them are essential for a nation’s well-being. I only hope enough people share this view and help create the necessary political pressure to change how governments think.
Baby update
I haven’t published any cute baby photos here for a while, and couldn’t resist this opportunity. Juliet and her friend Rhonda are walking into Bright this morning with the twins. James and Margaret are dressed up in their Pooh bear suits and look gorgeous.
Genealogy site
I tinkered away on the computer until late last night installing a specialised script on my web site for recording family history information.
The script cost US$25 and came from TNG. I was able to import all my records, for 1344 individuals, from Family Tree Maker software. That saved a lot of typing!
I had to create my own headers and footers. The next stage is to upload articles and photographs from the book I wrote in 1999. That will take some time.
The site can be seen at www.gorey.com.au/history. I’m not so smart that I wrote the Dutch and German translations. They came with the script.
Bunya pine
There are some lovely Bunya Pine trees in central Bright. The only problem with them is their potential to drop football-size nuts onto pedestrians and vehicles.
Someone placed a sign near the Uniting Church, which says to the effect: “BEWARE FALLING PINE CONES”.
My immediate instinct when I read this sign was to look upwards.
That made me think it’s a stupid sign, probably put there to offset perceived insurance risk.
What’s worse: Having a bunya nut fall on your head or poke you in the eye?
Martin Print
My new business card arrived today, just over a week after I placed the order with Martin Print in Perth. New full-color letterheads arrived yesterday and were of excellent quality.
I’m happy to say that I’ve been impressed with the price, quality and service of Martin Print.
I’ve always used local printers in the past, and will continue to do so for single-color jobs, but considering their limitations with color work I think it’s fair enough to shop around.
I have a new mobile number and a new fax number, plus the focus of my business has changed, so I needed new stationery and felt the need for a different look.
Full color would have been unaffordable for me if I’d stayed local. I researched back to when I started Alpine News, and my newspaper printer charged $533 for letterheads and three different business cards that were just red and black on white.
I checked around recently with different printers who offer online quotes and services. Most are competitively priced, around $40 for 500 business cards, but they require the customer to select a template. There isn’t much room for creativity.
They also charge more if you want to personalise the card with logos or upload your own artwork.
Martin Print offered the best price I could find for full-color letterheads, that being $199 for 1000 sheets of laser quality paper. They had no extra charge for artwork if it was provided in a print-quality format (PDF, EPS etc).
They do offer a design service, but I felt confident to create my own, especially now that I’ve acquired skills with Adobe Illustrator.
I selected a rainbow-style border for the left margin of my letterhead, and used this on both sides of the business card. It stands out and hopefully reflects the fact I offer bright ideas!
The business card looked bereft without a border. I normally subscribe to the theory that “white space is beautiful” but feel that a business card should be visible as well as functional.
It’s very colorful and the printing is faithful to the design. They came to me with the printer’s compliments (no charge).
Given the quality and high standard of service I have no hesitation in recommending Martin Print to anyone who needs full-color printing.
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