Compostable Kate

I've been trying to organise some money to live on for the last two weeks, ever since my teaching contract expired at the end of November (two weeks before the end of term so they don't have to pay me over the holidays). While I do qualify for the "Lump  Sum Summer Payment" from the Department of Education, it doesn't come through until the end of the month. In the meantime, and for the rest of the summer break (unless I can find some temp work), I need some help from Centrelink. I was being supported by the Disability Support Pension until about 4 weeks ago, when they changed their policy and dropped me (and many others in my situation). I had previously been assured that it would be there for me over the summer break, even though it didn't pay me any money while I was earning. With the loss of the DSP also came the loss of subsidised medications (OMG, I had no idea what they really cost(, my electricity subsidy, and my subsidised stamps from the Post Off...

I've been banging on a bit about Plastic-Free July - but not *too* much, I hope - to try to encourage more people (really, just ONE more person) to take up the challenge to reduce their plastic consumption, or to at least ensure their plastics all get recycled, not put in landfill. I did the challenge for the first time last year, and drastically reduced the amount of single-use plastic I use, while also becoming painfully aware of how ubiquitous single-use plastic is in our lives. It is EVERYWHERE. And it's not just where we can see it. Even if your product sits on the supermarket shelf plastic-free, the chances are it got delivered swathed in plastic. I'm afraid to ask what happens to that plastic.... Trying to do grocery shopping without buying things wrapped in plastic is *really* difficult, not to mention expensive. Plastic-free bread (if you can persuade the bakery to put it in a paper bag, not plastic) is much more expensive that the $1 bread in a plastic bag...

http://allthingsclipart.com I've had another attempt to discuss my pain management medication (Tramadol + anti-inflammatory) with the GP, and have come away with no solutions. The first time, with my regular GP, I asked for my pain meds to be reviewed, as I was finding that exercising in the gym was causing me too much pain, and that it was important for me to keep exercising, as I really need to lose weight and increase my fitness if I want to be able to work again and not end up with obesity-related illness(es). Her suggestion was that I start taking a weight-loss drug. However, as weight-loss medication is incompatible with my anti-depressant (where the main side-effect is weight-gain!!), she said I should talk to my psychiatrist about changing my anti-depressant. Apart from her having missed my point, I have no intention of changing my anti-depressant, as the last time I did that I got incredibly sick, and I'm still reeling from the fall-out from tha...

In order to share my recent enlightening experience, I also have to share something mortifying. OK. So. "Sniff Break" at the shopping centre. On Saturday I went and got new tyres for my wheelchair, having worn them down to the threads. Nothing earth-shattering there, except that I found that having new, round tyres with tread on them meant that I could no longer actually move my wheelchair. This is because I've put on so much weight I now stop the wheels going around, with my big fat thighs. My old tyres were so worn down that I could still move the wheels, but even then one of the wheels would rub on the side of my leg, where the skirt protector is missing. So I found myself housebound, from being too fat. Horrifying, both from the fatness, and from the housebound-ness. I have been trying to lose weight for a long time, and although I have stopped putting it on, I'm finding it very difficult to lose anything of any significance. Anyway, in order to not ...

I've just washed my dishes, for no other reason than that they needed doing. There weren't very many, and it didn't take very long. This doesn't seem very remarkable, except that the state of my kitchen sink has long been an analogue for how my life is going. If things are going badly, my dishes don't get done, and everything is messy and horrid. If things are going well, they do get done, and everyone's happy. Over the past year it has become more physically challenging to do my dishes (and most things: my wrists and hands are stuffed), and as I would have already expended some of my already limited energy on cooking – hence the dirty dishes – I rarely had the energy to also clean up afterwards. So there would be dirty dishes. I don't leave my dishes in/around the sink because I just don't care about them, or can't be bothered; when I have limited physical resources, washing dishes becomes a low priority, compared, for instance, to lo...

Once again, I had to contend with a lead-less dog in New Farm. But even better*, this was an unattended , lead-less dog, sitting just outside Coles. My assistance dog Dexter and I had to walk past it  to get to the shop, and it wasn't until it looked around, saw Dexter, got up and approached that we realised it wasn't on a bloody lead. It had a collar, but no tags of any description. A lady passing by at the same time was equally alarmed that the dog was off lead, and free to approach my dog; she wasn't game to approach the dog itself, though, and I don't really blame her. It was a male Golden Retriever, a breed that enjoys a reputation of being gentle and friendly, but that's no guarantee that it wouldn't be aggressive.... Fortunately, Dexter is super-cool about meeting strange dogs, even ones who stand over him like this one did. Dexter always responds by trying to play, and by running round like a lunatic. Not exactly appropriate when he's wearing hi...

So, I followed up with the doc about my wrists today, and I still have to just rest them. I have actually seen three doctors at my local clinic about my wrists over the past few weeks. The first one sent me for an ultrasound and suggested physio with dry needling. The second one, who is was my regular doctor until this moment, then said to stop physio and wait for a blood test. The third one, who I saw today, said that all my blood tests came back normal , and that I just have to wait until my wrists get better. When I saw my regular doctor, the one who said to stop physio, he gave me the impression – as he has on several previous occasions – that he thought I was simply an attention-seeking, time-wasting hypochondriac, and he wasn't prepared to waste any resources on treating my wrists. He can't refer me to a psychiatrist for this, as I already see one. (I have also seen shrinks in the past who have concluded that my pain isn't psychosomatic (I don't have a spec...