Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused
Taken from the Top of the Standard Bar – NYC
I carry my little point-and-shoot digital camera for social occasions but prefer not to use the flash, so often use the high sensitivity settings but without a tripod. This makes for many unfocused photographs, but sometimes to surprising effect – 
Taken from the Top of the Standard Bar – NYC
To Kill a Nerve… By Any Means (without support crew, Charley Boorman!)
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I had a bit of a planes, trains and automobiles day yesterday, and trams…oh yes, and crutches…
At the end of November, I suddenly developed pain from a rather nasty pathology in my left foot, known as Morton’s neuroma (MN). And then, at the end of January, I developed the same thing in my right foot, although with far less intensity and pain – (but with an exponential increase in anxiety).
For anyone, let alone an active person, this is a debilitating condition which can literally stop you in your tracks. I stopped walking the golf course and, shortly thereafter, playing golf, altogether. I stopped jogging, taking my afternoon walks and, ultimately, any non-essential walking. I couldn’t walk barefoot painfree and I stopped wearing closed shoes for the same reason. I took to wearing Birkenstocks (and am now a lifetime convert – yes, Cin, I know it’s a style travesty…) and Orthaheel thongs (slops, slip-slops, flip-flops) because these were the only shoes I could walk in at all.
Anyone who has received expert help from the medical profession for MN knows it does not go away of its own accord and if left untreated it only gets worse over time. The surgery is invasive (they cut out the damaged nerve), has a long recovery period, no guaranteed outcomes and often has lingering adverse effects. Chris Freeland’s blog post on MN is the best anecdotal resource I have come across, if you are interested in reading more about people’s personal experience of the surgery and recovery (if you are, read the comments as well).
I won’t bore you with the details of all the research I did and my convoluted path to find a practitioner of a promising, minimally invasive, non-surgical treatment for MN, known as Radiofrequency Denervation (thermoneurolysis), in Australia, but can tell you that it’s available in Melbourne and Cairns, but does not appear to be available anywhere in Sydney. And none of the medical practitioners I saw here mentioned it, and when I asked them about it, only one of them–the orthapaedic surgeon–actually knew about it, so I asked him to refer me to Imaging @ Olympic Park (IOP) in Melbourne. And, so, because I live in Sydney, I have travelled twice to Melbourne over the last seven weeks to have the treatment at IOP, first on the left foot and yesterday, on the right.
And my outcomes so far? Other than a numb foot for 24 hours, after the first treatment, I was back on my feet straight away to the same level as just before the procedure and then 5 weeks later, after the inital healing process, was back playing golf and walking the golf course, but in wider shoes and custom-made full-length orthotics. And I will need to take a golf break again now while the treatment I had yesterday settles down, but overall am very happy with how things are progressing.
One person’s outcomes will almost certainly differ from another’s to some degree and each person will have their own level of expectation as to what constitutes a successful outcome, but if you live in Australia, have been diagnosed with this condition by a podiatrist or orthopaedic surgeon and want to find out more about RFD treatment before opting for surgery, you can contact Imaging @ Olympic Park – they will be more than happy to answer your questions.
Travelling Dog Extraordinaire
We went out on the Wisemans Ferry Road today and saw this fabulous chap when we stopped for coffee at Spencer
My name is Rogue
I'm a travelling dogue
Am I hot, or what
In my spike tinpot
Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey
I’ve used a couple of these snaps on other posts
and the poem is a repost from earlier on this blog
but they all epitomize this week’s theme for me
Travelling Dog
Travelling Dogs
On the 600km journey -
she looks at flowers and clouds,
he computes mileage per litre,
she ponders the secrets of cows,
he remarks that it might storm later…
She sees the wire-pig mailbox,
he spies a snake on the road,
he surveys flood-plain paddocks,
she wonders if cows talk in code…
He thinks perhaps ‘Box of Frogs’,
she’d prefer peace for a while,
both laugh at the travelling dogs,
their windblown ears and their smiles
Travelling Dog
Travelling Dog
For Frizztext – Traffic Solutions
Aussie Duck (waterbus) on Sydney Harbour
This is related to a recent post by Frizztext.
Frizztext, this is actually not a common mode of transport in Sydney but a tourist attraction – it’s an amphibious craft that would cost far too much to run as a regular transport option, but if they could make smaller personal craft like these, it would be a fantastic option in this city because of the size and reach of our magnificent harbour.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Through
the
shadow and light
of life
through
another’s eyes
makes us see anew
and
the heart and mind
inspires
—-
A tour through light and shadow
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Art
from
the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Weekly Photo Challenge: Down
Watch out – endangered critters about
There’s something vaguely amusing about the first picture on this sign at Manly,
or perhaps there’s just something wrong with me for finding it so
Weekly Photo Challenge: Ready
Ready to march
Anzac Day Marchers - Perth, Australia - 2005
I took this photo in Perth a few years ago – people were getting ready to march in the annual ANZAC Day Parade and the beautiful girl in the centre of the photo turned and gave me the biggest smile as I was snapping away. She really shone out and I just love that platform shoe peeking out from under her traditional Vietnamese costume!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful
Golf courses – some of the most beautiful and peaceful places on earth
(unless you have a bad game, of course 
)
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Waiting
“The next
train due to depart
platform 3
goes to
Kepler-22b,
first stop – Gliese 581 g,
then all stations to Kepler-22b.”
*** And thanks to Jo Bryant for this award ***
When it comes to rules, I’m a bit like you, Jo, but I’ll join you for some pirate tea
Crystal Fear
Photo by RIP - ©beeblu.wordpress.com
Above the clouds
the raven circles
below
the world turns
us down
to a fleeting kiss
of ground
in capricious wind’s riddle -
How to unstick gravity?
Pull up!
Pull up!
Maximum speed
unbraking hearts arrested
by clarity
a stark reality
in the whispering
of slow-motion minds -
Are we unstuck?
And the raven hovers
and the world turns
and fear takes flight
Why?
Do I not care or
like others before
deny it’s the end
of my world turning?
Then the raven flies south
on flouncing wind
to drown brown lands
And so
we land
on a world
turning
without end
Weekly Photo Challenge: Breakfast
Once a year
on our 9-hour coastal journey south
we stop off for breakfast
at Narooma’s Quarterdeck Marina
home of fabulous retro kitsch
and the breakfasts of intrepid travellers
and,
if a sudden gust blows in,
fried-egg antimacassars
Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity
You had it
You took it
The darkness has lifted
Congratulations to the Land of the Long White Cloud!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Possibility
Change
is always
a possibility
Apartheid Museum – Johannesburg, South Africa
‘The next thing you think, the next action you take will either create possibility for you or it will repeat the past’
Deepak Chopra
Old Oaks
Young oaks, fresh-leafed
uniformed
in naive acorn pride
stand tall in single file
guardians in memoriam
of those who died
- in Time -
gnarled with salt of tears
whorled in winds of sorrow
and furrowed with fires of rage
young grow old
in a different
age
toward the light, away from fear
with deferential bow
to a Callery Pear
Buzzing around NYC
Look up
Empire State Building
New York by Gehry
Breakfast at Sarabeth’s Central Park South
Sarabeth's Central Park South
Cycle Central Park
Central Park
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir
Look out
West view from ESB
Subway Uptown, Downtown, East and West
NYC subway
Shop vintage at David Owens
David Owens - Lower East Side
Picnic on the High Line…
The High Line
..with food from the market at Grand Central Station
Food Market at Grand Central Station
Food Market at Grand Central Station
Explore Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station
Observe the passing parade in Times Square
Times Square
Walk Uptown
Time Warner Center
Muse at the Met
Little Dancer - Edgar Degas
Tipple at the 18th Floor
The 18th Floor at The Standard
Dine at Pastis
Pastis bar
Look down (or not if you suffer from vertigo )
One of many views from ESB
Cruise the Hudson
A Downtown view from the Hudson
Walk Downtown
Flatiron Building
Reflect at the 9/11 Memorial
North Pool and Performing Arts Center
Weekly Photo Challenge: Up
Have been a bit snowed under this week, so haven’t written any poetry, nor read any blogs – have a lot of catching up to do this weekend…
In the meantime, here’s my contribution to this week’s photo challenge: different views looking up at the Sydney Opera House that I took a while ago with that archaic thing known as a film SLR
What a view there must be from up there
I’ve used the (damaged) photo below before for my poem Sometimes which I posted back in May but which fits in quite nicely with the ‘Up’ theme, too
Happy weekends, Fellow Bloggers
