Welcome to the new year.... hope its better than the last one overall.
Day one of 2021 started in a relaxed fashion.
This is a new year with improved goals of helping others, especially my new Parkinson's peers.
I have been reflecting over the past few days and reading the chat groups threads, realising how fortunate I am actually to have such mild symptoms compared to many. It has reinforced my desire to help more, volunteer more, be a support person for, be as active and effective an advocate as I can possibly be for getting awareness out there in the community. It has humbled me to read the stories and issues that others in the community are dealing with and going through, sometimes with very little external support. I hope this year to really help advocate for Parkinson's awareness.
Update 2021-01-08
Brisbane goes into 3 day lockdown due to Covid-19 mutant variant getting out of quarantine, lets hope the contact tracers can get a handle on the scale of the problem and wind this back on Monday pm. I am not confident of that though and am expecting an extension.
Update 2021-01-15
Seems to have done the trick - the contact tracers managed to get a handle on all the close contacts with the snapshot and after a couple of weeks mask wearing in pucblic etc we are back to regular mask free living. Phew!
Phiona - my beautiful Big Sister.
Three weeks since I lost my sister Phiona - it still is hard to think about that. I know she wouldn't want me to be sad, but I can't help it - she had so much more life to live. She was a very positive person, I have missed not being able to pick up the phone and call her on Christmas and New Year. I can only imagine how difficult those days will have been for her husband John and her two children Matthew and Nicola.
Old video tape conversion.
While I was cleaning up some old boxes of photos and family stuff I found my stash of mini dv tapes. Located the camera, plugged it in and charged it up. Promptly tried to eat one of the tapes. Now on the lookout to find a new old camera/ player to begin conversion of tapes footage to mp4 or similar. I would hate to lose what I have and can make available to view for the whole family. The call I put out for a camera had some success - I have a camera on loan from my colleague Don, just need a charger now - of course its a special plug type. Watch this space for updates. A second call out for cameras in the friends network turns up a couple maore options and as Don still hasn't located the charger I am going to go with the plan b & c options to see if there is more success!
Help with Parkinson's awareness.
This is a primary goal for me this year. As it happens I may be able to help out in quicker way than I had anticipated. I have been approached to take a role in the Parkinson's Fighters United organisation here in Brisbane and naturally I have said I would be happy to help in a role that best serves the organisation and uses the skills and contacts that I have. Yet to be determined what exactly shape that takes. Will keep you all posted.
Video.
New year started with some simple video sessions - just short clips to get comfortable before I actually add some real video diary to this site. Getting familiar with the camera is step one.
Walking.
Now over 240 days in a row without missing a morning walk - Christmas Day and New Years day and Covid lockdown days included. New shoes required after 6 months. A different type of sole this time as the other skechers plain wore out the soles, they were very comfortable. Will see how theses ones stand up to my daily trek.
Medication.
No Change to the schedule or positive impact.
A Day in the Garden.
On the Sunday of the weekend before Australia Day ( 26th Jan) I had a big effort in the garden tackling the hedge in the front or the driveway, the hedge by the pool and other furiously out of control bushes around the garden. It was a pretty warm day and in several sessions I trimmed and hacked, and lopped the over hanging neighbours tree branches etc. Was probably the most strenuous long day I have done in ages and as the day progressed I noted that my hands became a little "trembly". Sticking with my usual regime I didn't think too much of it - muscles I don't regularly use I figured just a sign that my body wasn't used to those actions such as holding the trimmer extended over the full reach of my arms to get the rogue hedge tops back in order. Also using the big loppers to slice through the large encroaching overhanging branches at an extended arms reach. Needless to say I was busy after the trimming getting the trimmings out of the pool and around the driveway and filling the green bin and the red bin too.... with leftovers pushed into an out of the way pile to fill the green bin when its emptied this week. At the end of it all I took the opportunity to plunge in to the pool and cool off on the pretext that I would get the last of the twigs and leaves that remained in the pool after my "scooping" efforts.
A beer for reward of all my effort, was a shaky pour, no doubt - it was pretty obvious and something I hadn't had to worry about really since starting on dopamine. Watched some TV with my eyes closed after dinner and then off to bed and reading for a few hours as I had already had a significant snooze on the couch and therefore was wide awake.
The next morning up and off for my walk at 5:15. Always tablet before I setoff. Strange - I was still a bit shaky in the hand getting my tablet out of the jar, but thought no worries it should sort itself out by the time I get underway. Back from my walk, still a little trembling. Off to the office, and, unusually I passed the driving duties over to Glenda. I was still trembly when I got to the office, and so much so that I took a video clip as a record of how significant this was at the time. Trembling Me after gardening all day before
Post lunch and the mid day tablet things seem to be back to "steady" again but I will be raising this situation with my neuro specialist to see what he thinks and see what actions I should have in mind should this sort of situation arise again. It was minor, but I am not sure if its a sign of anything so my best strategy is to seek a professional opinion on it.
Will keep you all posted.
Research.
Still working to make the research links page a bit more useful, it was a simple list to start with but expanding to make better use of the info in it.
Pilates.
Felt weird missing Pilates on Wednesday... amazing how I can forma positive habit so quickly.
Social Outings.
Some upcoming events in the pipeline, and some great events past.
Always look forward to "Early Friday" / "Thirsty Thursday" beers with Neil, Don and Greg plus a few other random friends.
Brewing.
I brewed another batch on the last day of the year with help from my friends Greg and Don. A pleasant afternoon drinking samples of previous batches, telling yarns and discussing aspects of brewing and the brewing process. This is a German Kolsch type and should be ready to drink in a couple of weeks.
And another batch of Alcoholic Ginger beer in the fermenter as we speak :)
Garden.
Plants sweltering in the heat.
Work.
Head down and focus on delivery. Catch up is the order of the day.
Land Sailing.
Waiting for each Sunday to see what's happening at the track. Last week - no wind, no footage.
Otherwise for me its still so far so good.
Same Same.
And that is all for just now - keep a lookout for the next post and thanks for tagging along!