In sickness and in health

I popped over to the campus medical centre this morning for a flu vaccination because I really don't want to get sick for our upcoming holiday. There is a very nasty strain of influenza A going around at the moment and I hope that I haven't left it too late.

It's no fun being sick on a holiday. Last year we flew up to the Gold Coast during which time I was suffering an awful cold. I'm sure splashing around in the cold of Wet'n'Wild probably didn't help either.

I'm always getting the sniffles prior to trips to Japan. It is an especially bad country to have a cold in due to their customs relating to respiratory illness. Blowing your nose and coughing in public is frowned upon and the wearing of masks is encouraged. Not silly at all, although sniffling away without using a hanky is really quite difficult. I had to make many trips to the restrooms to blow my nose in private.

The Japanese customs were a very nice change from those of the Chinese during our last trip. They don't like to keep anything and we were always hearing the sound of locals harking up phlegm everywhere. Even placing a hand in front of the mouth when coughing did not appear to be a common practice. This attitude to hygiene, the general squalor, air and water pollution and the proximity of people to live animals are probably reasons why China has such problems with epidemics.

So here's hoping that I can take a holiday in Japan disease free!

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One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site . I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch. The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It'

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A selection of jams

We're home now. The last two days of our Brisbane trip involved a lot of driving but not always much movement. On Wednesday we arranged to met Sis and her family at Robina Town Centre, a massive shopping mall. That meant a drive down towards the Gold Coast along the same motorway we'd driven up along. What should have taken an hour took twice that due to the holiday traffic along the 3 and 4 lane road. Lots of people taking the turn-offs to three of the "Worlds" (Wet'n'Wild, Movie World and Dreamworld). The Town Centre hosts Artvo , a trick photography gallery where you use perspectives to make subjects look like they are part of the artwork. It was surprisingly fun, despite the aversion of we males to being the subjects of photos. Afterwards we had a long chat over lunch, which was sourced from a variety of eateries. I had roti and chicken curry from Roti and Buns . Passable, though the curry was more laksa like. We later took Sis to Daiso and she and her h

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