Medical treatment around the world

Free and universal health care is not exactly what it sounds like. In Australia you may well pay for certain prescribed drugs, but at minimal cost. I pay over $5 for each of my seven medications per month. But around October I reached the pensioner ceiling, and henceforth, my medications were free to me until January this year. Non pensioners pay about $25 per prescription. There is also a higher ceiling level for people who pay the $25 maximum. 

In England when I needed one drug because my chemist screwed up, it cost me £10, but only because I insisted on the brand name drug I knew. The medical appointment cost me nothing. 

My tenant Kosov after been bitten by a dog when crossing a road, paid nothing for a tetanus vaccination. While it wasn't a claim, overseas students are compelled to have private health insurance, as they are not Australian permanent residents.. 

New Zealand also has public health care, even though it does not seem to appear on this map. 

It took me a while to understand the US health care system, and correct me if I am wrong, but it seems your life will be saved after an emergency situation. If you don't have health insurance, and say for a car crash, you will get care until you are able to go home. But after that, you are on your own so far as recovery goes. So, you will receive free care, until you are kind of ok. Buy your own medications near the exit door at extortionate prices compared to the rest of the world.

Most of you in the US who are reading this will have good private health insurance, so not so much of an issue, but it certainly is for many citizens in the US. 

PS I don't actually understand the US medical system, just kind of what happens in an emergency.

Friday Funnies

The ditzy Rose in The Golden Girls, played by Betty White, was probably my favourite character in the tv show.

I don't really believe this was a blooper but no matter. I found it nicely nuanced by Ms White, until the end at least. She was a master at pregnant pauses. 

If you don't get this, just Google "Once you go black...". I expect you will get it though.

Coincidentally I have just bought a book for my Kindle by a gay black American called "Is it true what they say about black men?".  He has travelled the world and for a time lived in Australia and I am guessing it is partly about the fetishising of black African heritage men. I read some of what he wrote in other media about his experience in South Africa, which I found rather interesting and quite damning. 

On my own

I expect no sympathy from people who have lived on their own for a long time. But, you know, it is a bit hard when you've been with someone for forty five years and suddenly they have gone. 

There are the very practical things, like feeding yourself, cleaning your home on your own, shopping on your own, and spoilt as I was, having your ironing done for you. Lunching on your own is different. It all takes so much time and visiting places you used to visit together can make you feel very alone. 

I know many of you will at some point lose your beloved life partner. You don't know when. It could be instantaneously, as it was for me, or it could be long and lingering. 

I don't have advice about how to deal with grief. I am not sure that I have really dealt with it yet.The hardest thing is that everything you do is down to you. You have no one discuss decisions with. It is all totally up to you. The quite wonderful expression in America is 'Shooting the breeze'. Or more crudely 'Shooting the shit'. Yes, family and friends will step up to help, but there is nothing quite like talking about nonsense with your partner, along with the incidentals that happen each day. 'Ah, that shop has closed down.' 'Did you see how old Mrs Kafoops is looking'. No one but your late partner will be interested.    

But what you can do NOW, hopefully long before the event, is ensure you know everything about your joint lives so far as documents go. Titles to property, where are they? Passwords, pins for devices and bank accounts, logins for various sites. There is really nothing quite like having these in printed forms. Whether you are proactive and do so yourself or your partner does it, no matter. 

Harsh reality is around the corner one day. Sort it. 

I'll try to post something more cheerful tomorrow. 

Monday madness

Sunday, with much moaning about the job being bigger than expected, my brother's tenant replaced my defective window tinting. His price for 5 windows, four being very big, was less than I paid a large company to retint Phyllis' window after he moved in. I had no issue going out and buying the tinting man a sandwich, doughnut and a can of Coke. Tinting man has been tinting home and car windows for 45 years. If you are a local and need tinting, maybe choose Elite Tinting. Mick really knows his stuff and is cheap compared to the big companies.

Between 12 and 1 on Monday someone was coming for a final measure up for the new blinds. After two text messages in the morning to confirm my address, he arrived and called me, asking where he could park. In the lane behind my building, where tradespeople are allowed to park. He didn't have commercial vehicle registration, so I told him to come to the carpark and he could drive in to park in my second space. This was becoming hard work. I went down to let him in and he asked me height clearance for the carpark. 2.1 metres, I told him. He thought that was ok, but it wasn't and something on the back of the roof of his monster 4WD hooked on the overhead barrier. He was muttering about damaging his roof. The building manager must have been watching on a camera and called me to say the vehicle could not enter. He let down his tyres by some action under the rear bumper and reversed out cautiously until he cleared the overhead barrier and said if he couldn't find a parking space, he would come back another day. Later he texted me to say he would return with a more suitable vehicle. 

I think my blind replacement has been contracted out to another company. Whatever, I am not happy and I think I will complain. 

Of course as soon as he arrived, my food delivery arrived, but Phyllis and Kosov were home and looked after that. Except there was a missing sandwich. What the fuck is my life like! I called the company and it could deliver the missing sandwich on Friday. Ok I said, but I didn't know what time it would come, so I would be trapped at home until it arrives. I will call the company today and tell it to just include the sandwich in next Monday's order. 

Tuesday was calmer, whereby I went to the city and ate a sandwich and then caught a 12 tram to South Melbourne for coffee. I went on to see an exhibition at South Melbourne Library, but it was rather oversold. Phyllis had messaged me to ask if he could borrow my jacket for a job interview in Richmond. He said nothing about taking the car, but he did. Richmond probably has the best public transport in Melbourne, and there is no reason to drive there. I will bide my time until a suitable time arrives to tell him he can't use the car for such matters. But then, for a job interview, you don't want to be late. But then if you use public transport or drive, you need to allow time for some delays.

My dead in bed neighbour HH replied this morning to my message saying that her iPad had been updated and everything is now in Russian. It is useful at times to say, 'I know nothing about iP and Apple tech'. She sorted it out. 

Today we are visiting Ballarat, and it looks like bread is thawing to make sandwiches to sustain us.

Rising and falling

I am not going to use the 'b' word, instead here is a clip of my home carpark protection device, that recently caused me bother when I had to replace the battery. You could drive over the top of it and it would push down, but if you tried to reverse it could well catch on something under your car and damage.

Later edit: Just to make it clear, this is to protect my car parking spaces from anyone else parking there, so I reverse out, raise the device and when I return, lower it before I park. The remote control is kept in the car.

Mural update

Well, that got me. I've only just realised my late partner Ray is in the photo, striding up Barkly Street, St Kilda with some shopping to the tram stop. He was used to me dropping behind to take photos. 

Monday Mural

Along with Sami and others, here I go with Monday Mural. I don't think I've posted this before.Nice sentiments. 

Sunday Selections

River and others participate in Sunday Selections, to use those photos you've never found relevant to a blog post of its own.

Today, Sunday, at 9am my windows will be retinted for reasons that are quite clear in this photo. Three have already been done for various reasons, seven to be done today.

A 68 year old gay male walked with his 80 year old female neighbour and two 22 year old gay southern Indian overseas students to rendezvous at an Indonesian restaurant with a female friend who has lived for over two decades in northern Japan. While such a mix may not happen in rural Australia, I rather like that it does happen in inner Melbourne. 

On this building is the image of a long ago deceased Aboriginal man, William Barak. There are some places where the image is clearly visible, but as we walked near to the building, it wasn't visible. However, when I pointed my phone camera to the building, I could see the image on the screen, and so could my companions on their screens. Quite weird being visible in the camera screens, but not to the naked eye. 

 

Further along, we walked past an army drill hall, no longer used for that purpose. It had these nice underfloor ventilation openings. What would such vents look like in a modern building? A bit of plastic pushed into a gap, I would guess. Some real thought has gone into this design, repeating along the side of the building. 

 

I sent two Christmas cards, and obviously I received more than I sent. 

If I was being common, I would call this the arse end of Arden Station, but I am not, so I will call it the rear entrance, which I didn't know it had when I initially visited. It is the perfect place for a kiss and drop off place, yet the stopping restrictions are quite...restricting, shall I say. Not one car came down the street in the five minutes I spent there looking around

I think this was on the station concourse as I walked towards the lifts. Rather cool, hey.

A new version of our City Square was unveiled above Town Hall Station and it is rather awful. There is lots of seating along the edges of a paved area, which you would think be good but they are exposed to the sun. Don't think these planted gum trees will offer much shade, planted in with lots of weedy looking plants. It is horrible. A weak sun in our winter, spring and autumn might be nice to sit under, but in our summer, no one wants to sit in the sun, and get a dose of strong UV rays and later develop skin cancers. To add to the outrage are these grass trees (black boys), which would have cost thousands for each one. Rejection of foreign deciduous trees that allow winter sunshine through and terrific shade in summer is just crazy. I consider this square of nothingness to be the worst part of Metro Tunnel development. 

Never pay retail, and I don't. A new shirt and new shoes, 40% off. Fifty cents for this very sturdy paper bag, with a cardboard base to carry them. It seems such a waste to put it into recycling. I got rid of two other similar bags, along with this one. 

I is innocent! Jass likes this new bed, just outside my and the lads' bedrooms. 

She is not innocent. This is the sacrificial toilet roll. While this one sits here and readily available for her to claw and chew, she leaves the rest alone.

 

Was there a Walt Whitman high school in a 70s US tv show? I know Whitman was a writer or a poet. Doyle stayed with him and nursed him, until Walt's death. The inner'net told me so, and therefore it must be true.