This is the place where I put the title, right?

Ooh, two posts in as many days. I'm really prolific this week.

Point one: Patty has arrived! Her flight was only an hour late leaving Melbourne and 40 minutes late arriving in Adelaide, but she's here. None of us got to bed till midnight last night. Caleb's having a ball showing off & being cute. He's very good at it. :-)

Point two: we have a new photo gallery here. Some of the photos aren't cooperating with getting added, but we're slowly getting there. All recent Caleb pictures are in though, so those of you who need a cute kid fix can get it. :-)

Point three: Yesterday was Darrin's official last day at SEHS. And there was much rejoicing (yay). Since he's kinda made himself indispensable there over the last 11 years, he'll still be going back occasionally to work on things that need attention, but for that we'll be billing them through his consulting business.

Point four: still pregnant. Three-ish months to go, give or take. Have baby clothes already set up in a drawer ready to go. Second babies are a lot easier to prepare for - just grab all the stuff you used for the first one and you're ready to go. The only thing we're buying new is another car seat.

Point five: I'm trying to get my garden ready for winter with some winter veggies. But I doubt I'll be getting much done with it for the next couple weeks. The only things left in there are two watermelon vines (pruned down to the bare minimum in the hopes that the biggest two melons actually ripen before it gets too cold) and my capsicum plant, which has ripened its one and only capsicum already, even though it's only the size of a ping pong ball, if that. I'm wondering if it's a mini variety, but I couldn't find anything about it through Google. Also, I've got plans to buy some more fruit trees and plant them around. My list: 2 apple trees of different varieties (because all but MacIntosh need another tree nearby to pollinate), another orange tree that fruits in the summer (so we can have oranges year round, yay!), a new peach tree (because ours died), some blueberry bushes (because Caleb LOVES them), an avocado tree (I don't use them THAT much, but I'd probably use them more if we had a tree, plus I know plenty of people who'd be in for some free avocados), and an almond tree. Maybe another apricot tree as well, since ours tends to have a branch die off every few months and I'm not entirely sure it's going to be here next summer. I was also thinking about a banana tree, but what I've read of them, they take a LOT of maintenance. So not now. Maybe sometime in the future, once I'm comfortable with the rest of my orchard.


I've been working on this one for a while, in my head at least.

And I'm probably gonna annoy some people with it, but what the hey. This is the space for MY opinions - if you don't like 'em, don't read 'em.

There's much debate about the current health care system in certain parts of the world. Namely, there are many politicians and lay people in the US who want to have a nationalized health care system. And there's a lot of people who definitely DON'T want that. And now, having lived in both types of system, I can see points on both sides.

I don't use the system here that much myself (I've seen a GP a whole 6 times in the last 5 years, and really most of those appointments I didn't need in the first place), but I've got some thoughts on how to make any health care system better. The answer isn't to make everything private, or make everything public, like many people seem to think it is. No, the solution rests squarely on the shoulders of the consumers and practitioners who actually use the system. We can make any health care system we're currently in work better by doing one simple thing.

STOP USING IT WHEN YOU DON'T NEED IT!

Too many people today go to a doctor when they have a cold, to get a prescription for antibiotics. But antibiotics only kill bacteria, not cold VIRUSES. And any first year medical student knows this, but of course they like to play God and be able to write down that they did something for the problem. You're better off taking a high dose of vitamin C (till you start getting the runs - that's how you find out you've had enough) than going on antibiotics. All the antibiotics will do is put some money in a big pharmaceutical company's coffers and strip your gut of all its bacteria, good AND bad kinds alike.

Too many women assume that hospital is the only place you can give birth, and the stories of quick babies in the media, where baby comes out before mum gets to the hospital, are portrayed as 'horror stories.' I just don't understand how it's horrific to have your baby come out the way nature intended, with no instruments, no drugs, on their own terms. Intervention, in most cases (except when medically indicated) only causes more problems, leading to more interventions. The solution? Educate yourself about birth. Even if you're not planning a home birth or freebirth, read up on what to do if the baby arrives before you have a 'professional' there to assist you. It is ALWAYS a possibility. And open your mind to the possibility of home birth, do some SERIOUS research about it, and you'll find that home birth is as safe as OR SAFER THAN giving birth in a hospital (except in extreme life-threatening circumstances).

Third point: prevention. Stop eating crap! And I'm pointing the finger at myself here as well. We have a 24/7 shop across the road from us that sells chocolate, chips, soft drinks, ice cream...you name it, if it's sugared, they've got it. And ever since we moved here 28 months ago, it's been far too easy to go over there and grab whatever it is we're craving. So I know first hand how hard it is in our society to cut out the junk food. But it's gotta be done if you want to prevent yourself getting sick. And who among us likes being sick, except hypochondriacs and those with Munchausen syndrome? Do you know that most of our chronic ailments these days can be prevented? Diabetes, cancer, arthritis - all of these respond well to a fresh food diet. Meat & eggs, fruit & vegetables, nuts & seeds, dairy if you're not lactose intolerant, and the occasional whole grain.

So there you go. Three ways to make any health care system better. But of course it's never gonna happen, because it won't make anyone any money.

Page 1 of 1, totaling 3 entries