CABG surgery plus one day

As if through a fog, a haze, a cloud, my consciousness returned. When it reached a certain threshold, the first thing I did was make sure my four limbs worked. They sure did. Next I checked my cognitive function. How? By thinking of the years of Collingwood premierships in my lifetime. (For the benefit of infidels: 1953, 1958, 1990 and 2010.) Thus I’d escaped the known heart surgery complication of stroke. Great news. I also quickly noticed my endotracheal tube had been removed from my throat. This buoyed me further: the literature and films I’d seen pre-operatively were unanimous that waking up with a tube down the throat – causing gagging and preventing talking – was the most lingering post-operative memory. I could tell I was in the Intensive Care Unit. (The previous evening I’d visited the ICU for a brief familiarisation tour.) There was a big round clock on the wall in front of me. It read 4 o’clock. I didn’t know which day it was let alone if it was 4 a.m. or 4 p.m. My nurse told me it was 4 a.m. on Tuesday 10 May. (This was about 16 hours after when I thought the surgery began.) I lay there content. Or at least inert. In no pain. And then I discovered my wedding ring wasn’t on my left ring finger.

Imprisoned journalists: a Turkish badge of dishonour

The truth. Does it exist? Sure it does. Universally irrefutable occur. For example today’s date, the value of pi [1], the 2010 AFL premiers (Go pies) [2]. In contrast, non-facts must be interpreted. For the past 200 years or more, that interpretation’s been done by the media. Specifically journalists. And whilst they haven’t done a perfect job, they’ve done okay. And clearly the more independence they’ve had, the more credible their output’s been. And vice versa. Interference by media bosses, and by governments more so, detracts from the media’s credibility. And thus utility. So then, which nation has the most imprisoned journalists? According to the International Press Institute, it’s Turkey [3]. With 57. (China and Iran tie for second, with a mere 34 each.) A surprise? Not really. For me, anyway. Traditionally a fairly liberal democracy, recently Turkey’s been islamising [4]. Because islamisation restricts freedoms, it’s no shock Turkey leads the world in jailed journalists. I hope, but I’m not optimistic, this badge of dishonour will be taken into account when the EU decides on Turkey’s membership application [5]. That application, and Turkey’s continued NATO membership [6], should weigh heavily on the minds of Turkey’s voters come the 11 June national election. I await its outcome. With interest.

Hang in there, Carol Ann.

I’ve previously written of my support for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League [1, 2]. Especially that I was 11 years old in 1958 when Collingwood won its 13th premiership, and it took 32 years (in which it lost eight Grand Finals) to win its 14th – in 1990 when I was 43 [3]. Last Saturday Collingwood won its 15th premiership [4]. Here are some of my thoughts on this superb effort:

1. Collingwood supporters tend to be pessimists. So after the draw the previous week, I didn’t think Collingwood would win last Saturday.

2. I feel sorry for St Kilda fans. Since it began competing in 1897 St Kilda’s won only one premiership. In 1966. Against Collingwood. So I wouldn’t have minded if it’d won last Saturday. But it was not to be.

3. At the end of last Saturday’s game – which I heard on the radio as we don’t have TV reception here in Mole Creek – I shed a tear. Partly out of happiness, partly due to relief, and partly because I don’t expect another Collingwood premiership in my lifetime.

4. Despite this, Collingwood is the betting favourite to win the 2011 Grand Final [5]. It’ll be played on the first Saturday in October [6], as the 1990 and 2010 ones were, despite traditional Grand Final day being the last Saturday in September. Also Collingwood has a young team – the second youngest average age of any Grand Final winning team – and a playing structure other teams have yet to fathom.

5. So maybe Collingwood will win its 16th flag in 2011. Here’s hoping!

6. In the meantime, I was wrong about it being unlikely the 15th flag would be won in Carol Ann Duffy’s tenure at UK Poet Laureate [7]. And she’s Poet Laureate until May 2019 – when, if I’m alive, I’ll be 71 years old.
Ho hum.

List: 'Australia’s Top 10 Brands'

Today’s ‘List Friday’. Last Saturday in AFL football, (my team) Collingwood thrashed its arch-rival Carlton. Post-match Carlton’s coach said ‘To see players pull out, not go in and miss tackles, it’s damning on our brand’ [1]. When I read that I thought ‘Eh? A football club’s a brand?’ But why not? Of course it is. Bastion Brands is a Melbourne consultancy specialising in creating brands [2]. Its ‘About’ webpage’s loaded with jargon [3]. But one jargon-free sentence is ‘We believe that when a business has the courage to stand for something in the marketplace, it becomes a brand’. Bastion calls its branding methodology BE – because, as it says, ‘We believe the best corporate brands, such as Apple, Google, Virgin and Bunnings are those whose customers feel they can BE a part of’. Using that methodology, Bastion’s compiled a list of ‘Australia’s Top 10 Brands’. Refreshingly, it explains, at least in broad terms, the multi-stage process used to arrive at this list. It says being on the list’s ‘not a measurement of financial success or morality, but rather pure brand power’. And ‘not all of these brands want to sell stuff – but they sure as hell could’. [4] You can see that number 5 is the Collingwood Football Club – about which Bastion says ‘The army of people who belong to arguably Australia’s greatest club continue to grow in belief and passion’. That’s only because Collingwood continues to thrash lesser clubs. Like Carlton.

farmdoc's blog post number 519

Last night Sweetheart Vivienne and I watched the third episode of the third series of The Wire. We’re enthralled and riveted. As Farmdoc’s Blog readers know, Sweetheart Vivienne’s forthcoming book – Alzheimers: A Love Story, is being published by Scribe Publications. Scribe’s founder and publisher, Henry Rosenbloom (pictured), is a blogger too. Henry’s Blog makes fascinating reading. Not least his latest post – the 13 September ‘Seeing Life Through The Wire’ which perceptively, accurately and eloquently echoes my opinion of ‘The Wire’. I’ve never met the man. But I think if I had (and I expect to quite soon), I’d like him. For he’s courageous enough, i.e. sufficiently at ease with himself and his reputation, to have written this post – about AFL football – on his (corporate) blog. It too is perceptive, accurate and eloquent. Also a bit tongue-in-cheek. Talking football, last Saturday my team, Collingwood, was knocked out of this year’s finals – by Geelong, very convincingly indeed. No ifs or buts. Beaten by a vastly superior team. Am I surprised? No. Am I disappointed? A bit, because it’s been 19 years since we won our 14th – and latest – premiership. Now the Magpies are out, I’m supporting St Kilda in the Big One. For it’s 43 years since they won their first and only flag. By a point. Against us. Next Saturday it may go down to The Wire too. Go, Saints!

farmdoc's blog post number 369

I don’t know when AFL (then VFL) football turned from a sport into a business. But I know the prime architect was a certain Mr Samuel (of whom I’ve previously written). As a lad I’d gone to many matches, with my Dad and his brothers. They were Carlton supporters, so we mostly went to Princes Park. Our possie was behind the goalposts at the Royal Parade end. We’d take a wooden fruit-box for me to stand on. And I ritually had a meat pie at half-time. A Collingwood-supporting family friend, Bruce Andrew, pitied me as a Collingwood supporter attending Carlton matches, so he took me to some Collingwood games, at Victoria Park, the holy-of-holies where opposition teams feared to tread. Carton played at Princes Park from 1897 to 2005, and Collingwood at Victoria Park from 1892 to 1999. Over a century of club history and pride, summarily ended by Mr Samuel. Now it’s emerging that the desertion of local club grounds for mega-stadia has been a financial disaster for the clubs. Surprise, surprise. For the very same corporatist, Mr Samuel, was prime mover of the 1996 decision to merge the Victoria State Opera into Opera Australia, which has proved an artistic and financial debacle. Thanks partly to him, I no longer attend the football or the opera. As Pete Seeger sings: ‘When will they ever learn?’ Don’t answer that – it’s a rhetorical question.

farmdoc's blog post number 6

Back when I was a lad and AFL (then VFL) football was a sport and not a business, I barracked for Collingwood, and I wore a pint-sized guernsey with number 22 emblazoned on its back because Bob Rose, who played for the Magpies from 1946 to 1955, was my hero. He was strong, fast, courageous, fair, freakishly skilful, and undoubtedly one of the greatest players in Collingwood’s history. Fast forward to 2002: I am now the part-owner of many goats including a few of the British Alpine breed, who are all black and white. Our goats have numbered ear-tags, and one British Alpine nanny happened to receive a tag with number 22 on it. So of course I named her Rosie. Our Rosie became a favourite goat: gentle, inquisitive, affectionate, and such an amazing mother that her offspring were among our best each year. Well Bob Rose died in 2003 and Rosie died two weeks ago. My sharefarmer Sharon and I couldn’t find her among our goat herd, and so we searched and searched for her, but without success. Then last Thursday we found her carcass, about 10 metres inside a cave. She went in there to die, and she apparently died peacefully. I will miss her. And from now on, that cave will be known as Rosie’s Cave.