Random Musings III

Today we are having a little dinner party to celebrate my first week of employment as a Court Monitor (log & record proceedings for transcription.) I have cleaned the house and soon Kev will start cooking for his brother & family. In the meantime, a few odd 'n' ends to share:

Attorneys everywhere seemed to have gotten that dark-suit-as-uniform memo. But why don't any of them anywhere brush their hair? Must be in the Universal Lawyer Code. Only one grand exception that I can see. A lawyer came through yesterday with dark hair & a modified blond Mohawk---and a suit doubtless borrowed from a not-the-same-size cousin, with a rock n' roll voice to match.

At the risk of sounding like my grandmother, here is a garden report:

I thought the almond tree out front that was whacked down by a botanical butcher posing as an arborist was a goner. But lo, we have white flowers popping up. It lives!

The colorful singing birds all disappeared (except the nasty black crows) when the estate agent chopped down out two mature trees. One little songbird has returned. You go, Tweetie!

The rosebush I liberated from the closed Carlisle-Lathlain Bowls Club and replanted by my front porch clings to life as evidenced by a single peach colored bloom.

There was a newspaper columnist (Kirkpatrick? by name) who lamented improper use of English words. Like using "regime" instead of "regimen". And "regimen" instead of "regiment". Absolutely no one in the media here seems to know the difference. I try not to roll my eyes when I hear about healthy eating regiments and exercise regimes.

I hadn't thought I was all that big on fast food but I continue to miss the $1, 'value' or 99¢ option. Mind you, I'm not buying anything else, but its the option I miss. Value Meals are rather not inexpensive. Hmmmmm, I think I have been to "Maccas" four times since I arrived in OZ.

Caught me by surprise. I was walking along the sidewalk of a suburban strip mall when my eyes spotted two horses. Mounted police patrols ticketing parking infractions. Don't know why I would think a major city which hosts many large public events would not have a mounted patrol or that, in absence of large events to monitor, the officers wouldn't be doing other duties but there they were. The Perth police department has 20 mounts--most are large draft horses or draft horse cross-breeds.

Egg rings. You know, those round metal rings used ensure perfectly round fried eggs found at fast food places? Don't recall seeing any back home. Seriously popular here along with egg cups.

Way early on in these blogs, I remarked at the odd habit of growing vegetables to detrimentally large proportions. Well, I've got artwork that set me to laughing again. A national grocery concern was promoting healthy eating and released this picture. Her left arm cradles a pumpkin. Her right shoulder braces a bale of green onions complete with carrying handle.

And finally, I've seen my first dolphin in the very brown Swan River! Followed by a few dozen pelicans floating with the current. It was during a Bridges Tour being held as part of Engineering week. What I learned of the area bridges was interesting. The dolphin and swans were exciting.

Oh, the chef has entered the cooking temple. More musings at another time.

National Health Service

I have avoided sticking my hand into this hornets nest for the longest time. But as the topic of a national health plan is being hotly debated back in the States, it is as good a time as any to put my two cents worth in. Let me state, right from the start, that I do not have a definitive answer to the U.S. healthcare question that decidedly needs one. I do have direct experience in different national health services, self-insured companies, private health plans and public clinics.

Important to remember is that a National Health Service is the ultimate in managed care. Think: the mother of all HMOs. An NHS cannot be all things to all people. It tries to do the best it can with what it has to work with, both in resource and population. Which is why no two Services are alike despite the fact that they are all in the health care business.
For example:
In Australia, hospitalization is free (except for Workers Comp claims which are covered by employers private insurance.) This is nice for me at 3a.m. suffering from a kidney stone. Ultimately, it is better for OZ as hospitalization is cheaper than lifelong acute maintenance of
an untreated population. Doctors appointments are entirely different: you pay the doctor up front ($55) and then apply to Medicare for a predetermined refund ($31), you pay for the special diagnostic work ($390) at time of service and get rebated afterwards ($205)-every time, there is not a deductible amount before a higher benefit is reached. Private insurance is strongly recommended by the government with disincentives for delaying its purchase. Medicare does not cover glasses, teeth, feet or alternative medicine like chiropractic. And doctors say with some pride that they are not Canada.
Canada, free hospitalization and free doctor visits at all NHS facilities. Woo hoo, sounds great. But there are trade-offs here. The waits for appointments and diagnostics can be a whole lot longer than Americans are accustomed to, doctors have salary caps (which sends many of the high-specialty docs south of the border for big bucks) and there is rationing of services based on resources and demographics (100 hip replacements per year in Winnipeg, I believe. Mr. 101 has a long painful wait for the new year.)
In Korea, I was fairly fortunate. The polluted air gave me chronic bronchitis. The doctor I went to gave me three days worth of medicine-as a courtesy to a foreigner-whereas natives also on the national plan had to come in daily. A mild hemoturic condition of mine was a problem for the government immigration office (but not for me personally) which could have been a pain dealing with the not-quite-Western-sterile hospital. My assigned urologist happened to be a student of mine and the "problem" was dispatched in a flash.
Of course, we have all heard of the famously comprehensive national health scheme enjoyed by Cubans (who enjoy precious little else) and the infamous dirty sheets & one needle for the entire ward care given in Russian hospitals.

So why do I mention all of this? Am I anti-national health insurance? No. Although I think putting the entire U.S. on a NHS unfeasible and undesirable. Have I languished for hours in public clinics/hospitals waiting for whatever service I can get? Yes. Have I had incredibly good health insurance coverage at low cost with small payments and zero deductables? Yes and didn't appreciate it as much as I should have.

My point is that my fellow Americans should really give a great deal of thought as to what kind of healthcare they feel is imperative, what can be dropped to a lower tier of importance, how much inconvenience they are willing to incur and, as medical care is not cheap regardless of who pays for it, what they are willing to pay for it. My fellow citizens might also stop awarding & applauding high court settlements for minor medical mishaps--malpractice insurance is driving those healthcare costs to the moon. Do your research and then get to a town hall meeting near you with real, constructive input.

Canning Vale Market

Stymied by the lack of U-Pick produce farms and far-off farmers markets, I headed out this morning to an airplane hangar.

Well, it looks like it anyway. The Canning Vale Market. Monday through Friday it caters exclusively to the wholesale trade. On Saturday morning, the gates of the agricultural version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory open to the public. No more glamorous looking on the inside than out, I am a kid in a candy store with the offerings made available to me.

The cavernous shed is divided into huge wire cages. Inside each a wholesaler sets up pallets loaded with boxes and plastic tubs of their offerings. If it is in a box, that is the quantity you are buying (yes, I will be able to do something with a bushel of rutabagas), in plastic tubs or humongous cardboard cartons are individual items or bags to choose. I imagine that at opening-5:30 a.m.--everything is quite orderly, neatly set-up and the prices (written on the ground near the pallet in white chalk) are easy to read.

Of course, at that hour, the selection is best. At around 8 a.m.-two hours before close- a slight whiff of dealer desperation is in the air. Prices come down, product movement between containers entirely more fluid and hysteria builds within the shopping ranks. The clientele here is very mixed ethnically and I suspect that some wholesale transactions do take place. Or is that tiny Vietnamese family really going to eat three bushels of red bell peppers and 50 pounds of carrots this week? I wonder if the young Italian guys shout out prices of their goods during the wholesale week.

Hop over to the next hangar for the meat and fish. Another zoo. The numerous fish here are not artistically displayed in beds of ice. Fish are tossed onto shallow metal carts, labelled with a whiteboard and lined up against the walls and center island. Looking beyond the retail area towards the loading dock is a man working a band saw. Wearing rain boots, heavy oilcloth apron and dragonhide gloves, he is running shark through the blade effortlessly. Scoop out a few innards and staffers run the new offering to the now empty metal cart. Once the House has been served, the fish monger takes care of customers who are lined up outside the loading dock waiting for their turn to have their purchased salmon, ocean trout or frozen mackerel quickly sliced for them.

The meat store is less chaotic. Everything is prepackaged in fairly large quantities. I do like the whole lamb and goat carcasses hanging by the door. Must be some luau to have one of those on a spit. The whole goat was unusual, as the butcher told me that African immigrants like their goat already cut into chunks. No slaughtering done here, those houses are in Gingin, just meat processing.

So what will I do with my red peppers? I will make/can some pepper relish and make some roast red pepper soup and eat some just the way they are.

Television

After (entirely too) much research, it is high time I reported on Australian television. A perfectly legitimate reason for someone in the biz to delay talking about it exists, as you will soon see.






The Players: ABC (noncommercial gov't supported), SBS (Special Broadcast Service-lots of foreign language news & movies, any bicycle race), and the three networks; 7,9 and 10. This is the same throughout the entire country as the population is way too small and spread out way to far to do any different. "Local" (as in the closest of the 6 major cities) news is the only thing that separates them. In fact, until several months ago, Channel 9 network was owned by a single family by the name of Packer.

When I lived in South Korea, only one U.S. television show was available: Beverly Hills 90210-in English with subtitles and dubbed into Korean. I couldn't bear to watch either. Fortunately, there are a lot more choices here in OZ. Channel 7 airs quite a few NBC programs, Channel 9 is buddies with ABC. Shows usually found on cable in the U.S. are intersticed everywhere as are programs which air after prime time. "Two & a Half Men"-a program I couldn't stand at home- is regular 7pm viewing now. "The Simpsons"- another not watched program- keeps Channel 10 alive along with various "Law & Orders". Of course, the Australian version of many shows [e.g. Australian Idol, Australia's Got Talent, Australia's Funniest Home videos] keep the channels within the domestic content regulations. Some of my favorite shows: "Gruen Transfer" (OZ program about advertising), "Spicks & Specks" (OZ program with musical quizzes), BBC's "Antiques Roadshow" (despite the 'experts' appalling handling of artefacts, I love the history the show provides), "Desperate Housewives" and "NCIS".

Beyond explanation is the timing of the programs. All programs will start at 6:00pm as scheduled. The second program will start at 6:32 or 6:34. Programs scheduled to start at 9:30pm may start at 9:33pm or 9:37pm. If, in a rare attempt to be accurate, the TV guide will say an ABC program will start at 9:40pm, you can count on it being closer to 9:46. I (nor Kev) has any idea why this is so. The networks do reset their programming to the clock a few times a day, but regularity ends with the first program. Cracks me up.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, soap operas are soap operas the world over as are really obnoxious commercials.