Warung Blanjong yesterday. They gave me so much fruit I couldn’t finish it.

Serious. But first, laugh at this:

“After fighting for 11 months, last month Immigration Minister Peter Dutton intervened and grated the girl’s visa.”   Did he sprinkle it over his spaghetti bolognaise?
[ABC News]

_____________

I’ve realised what my hip pain is. It’s not the hip, it’s the sacro-iliac joint. Look it up in Wikipedia and it will tell you that there’s not much that can be done to cure it, only ways to manage it. That doesn’t sound good.

The pain is bad enough that I can hardly walk at the moment. It’s good in the pool, so I’ll work on that (what a life). But if it doesn’t improve in the next few days I might have to think abut going home early.

I might have to go to the BIMC Hospital too. I take Tramadol for pain but it’s not very effective. I might have to ask for stronger pain relief. The cost for my first visit was over $200 last time. Ouch, that’s pain in the wallet. No travel insurance cover for medical either, and even if I did have medical cover, this is a pre-existing illness. They get you every way.

I’ve emailed my GP asking her if it would do me any good to cut and run from here, or whether rest and pool time is better.

_______________

Soryu Class sub

Japanese subs. Should we or shouldn’t we? At first I thought the Germans would be the best, or better still, US made subs, since interoperability would be best if we both have the same equipment.

But it’s been in my mind that if we bought Japanese, we’d get superbly made boats that would be extremely reliable and would almost never break down. That’s been my experience with Japanese electronics.

When you think on this, that would be like having one or two extra subs. Why? Because experience with the six Collins subs is that at least one of them is always laid up for repairs. If we can get four working and at sea, we reckon we’re doing well. That’s like having only four subs with two unreliable spares, not six.

But the Japanese subs would be so reliable that if we bought 12, we would have 12 available at virtually all times. That would be like having two spares at all times compared to the Collins subs. That’s a powerful argument.

The news says Japan is desperate to get us to buy so that we form a bond in the western pacific area against China. That’s also a powerful argument, to me. So I say, buy Japanese! However, I’ve also always said that the choice should be left to the submariners themselves, the officers and crew. They are the ones who know their equipment, not some department head in Canberra who’s never sailed anything except a desk.

_____________

10.30am: I was thinking of going to the Galeria to buy a Kura Kura bus pass, but I think I’d better give my back time to improve. I’ll stay in and swim and rest today, I think.

_____________

Sent to me by a mate with a good sense of humour.

_______________________

Did 20 laps of the pool today. It’s 25m long, so that’s 1Km. It’s not strenuous but I think it’s doing me good. It must be. The pain seems a bit less.

Those red areas.       (C) Spine-health.com

It’s inflammation. Treatment is ice packs for up to two weeks, rest, and anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen. I can’t take that as it interacts with blood pressure medication, but I’m taking a different anti-inflammatory daily anyway.  Plus, take pain relief. OK. I just have to wait.