Telephone Calls from Disaster

You know those telephone calls you get? They come out of the blue on any normal day, in the middle of doing normal things. But they're not anything normal. They're entirely extraordinary. They're phone calls you never want to answer but you don't know it until you do and then it's too late.

I got that call on Friday morning on my way to do a house call. My normal Friday work day. The patient I was going to see was dying, but the call was about my brother. He was hit by a car training on his bike. He was in the emergency department.

I'm horrified, but the voice of my sister-in-law is calm so it mustn't be too bad. But then, they hadn't let her see him yet. I'm rifling through the possibilities - and I don't like the connection of car and bike with my brother in between. I have many questions but none of which can be answered right now. Shit. I'm thinking more words but I'm a little uncertain of where to go and how concerned to get. He's in another city and I'm due to see a host of patients myself. I don't know whether to cut and run or hold off and wait for more news. I don't really concentrate well with my patient but I get by.

More news and he's alive - he's concussed but has some fractures. Okay that's not so bad.

He has 18 fractures, many involve his neck and back. Oh god that's not so good. Can he move? Does he have any spinal cord injuries...?

He can move, but he's in a lot of pain oh and he's punctured his lung. Brilliant.

It turns out the driver who pulled out in front of him from a stop sign "didn't see him" (he was wearing fluoro yellow) and was upset about his car mirror being smashed up. Lovely.

He'll be months in a neck brace and his Iron Man Triathlon in March is off.

I'm at once pissed off at the bloody driver and trying to be the supportive medically trained family. Thankfully he's in good care. But it's just so unfair.

People, keep a look out on the roads!! I don't want to be the next casualty.

summer hotness

It's not really a new year , just a continuation of the last one with a new number, and a whole lot more chocolate. Where the hell did it all come from? The cupboard is still chock full of the stuff. It is certainly making me train harder to keep lean. So come Mardi Gras I'll be back to peak form though probably not be anywhere near Mardi Gras itself.

Wandering through The Beresford hotel (so packed you could lift up your legs and still be standing) a few Sundays ago, the first time in a LONG time, I discovered the gay world is actually a whole lot more attractive than I realised. Straight men had been increasingly attractive to me compared with their gay counterparts. Perhaps its because the guys who turn up at the Beresford are a generally a little more gay-as-a-part-of-their-life rather than gay-as-a-career. Or perhaps I've just been away for too long, but regardless, it was refreshing.

This time of the year is certainly peak hot-man season, and everywhere I go I'm pleasantly distracted by men looking somewhat like those above. I've almost fallen of my bike run into a pole or swum into a wall with quite some regularity. The price of hotness. Curiously I've found through my work that the most beautiful people typically have the biggest psychological baggage. It's sad but at the same time reassuring. Yin & Yang always keeping the world in balance.

Having been especially social and entertaining for much of the summer to date, I'm now looking forward to some minimalism. Some time watching the waves roll in, and perhaps picking up a book or two and taking myself offline a little more. Time will tell if it actually happens, and I need a really good book to take me away from it all. Suggestions most welcome.

My plan for your New Year

For New Year's Eve and any night out on the town these are going to be your bodyguards. In fact you can take them wherever you want really, they're yours.

When you wake up on New Year's Day and every day this year this will either be you or your lover preparing to make your breakfast. Your pick.

Your home will be kept spick & span by your own personal house man. He comes with his own gloves.

If you get into any difficulties through 2011 and need support, these are your men. They'll be there through thick & thin to keep you moving upwards. Even though sometimes you'll want to just hold on for a bit.

If you get into a hot spot and need someone urgently. Here he is. Just don't ask him about his hose.

And at the end of each day this is how you will be greeted at the door. Time to smell the roses, or lilies or quite frankly whatever you want.

Have a fantastic 2011. Thanks to all of my regular readers for continuing to come back and read Superchilled. It's great to have you here. It's great to be here and 2011 is filled with extraordinary possibilities. Let's make them come to life.

X

How do YOU celebrate?

I'm sure by now everyone's had a toast thrown their way, "Merry Christmas; Cheers!", "To The Year ahead", "To the Year that was!", "To the Holidays!" and countless others. New Year Celebrations are classically the time when even non drinkers will clash their glass filled with something sparkling against those of others, with fireworks or loud music filling the surrounding air. And while the gold standard is usually a French Champagne, it's certainly not everyone's celebratory choice.

So I'm curious to know how YOU will be celebrating this New Year. Will it be a shared bottled of Veuve (in a a bath perhaps), a beer or three, a glass of adam's ale (water that is) or perhaps something not consumed from a glass. Maybe a celebratory activity - a nude run down a public space or a skinny dip at midnight, a night in with friends or a night in the sack. Perhaps a dance party or quiet night in the wilderness under the stars. The options are as wide as the sky is limiting. So tell me what you're doing and how you're doing it. And if it's with a beverage, what will you be sipping and who will be sharing?

Regardless of how you do it I hope you have a great celebration. I'm looking forward to a week of down time and exactly how I'm celebrating is not entirely fixed, but will certainly include some of the above.

Smashed Sprint

I'm smashed.

Those who've been following superchilled will know I've been embarking fiercely into triathlon competition. This weekend was my second race 'TriTheGong', in my home town and a sprint distance triathlon - ie 750m swim, 16km cycle and 5km run.

I'm not sure I like the hellishly early starts (I was up a bit after 4.30am) as I'd prefer to be going to bed then than getting up, but I was up and racing by 7.30am as was my brother and primary competition. The race was hard - I pushed myself harder than my first race in Noosa and tried to increase pace to fit the 'sprint' title. It turned out that I did very well, managed a podium finish in my age category, beat my brother by 2 min (he beat me in the prior race) and had a great time.

I really didn't expect to be so high in the rankings, but it shows that when you tackle the areas that need work and persevere you can make progress. So right now I'm feeling shattered and contented all at once. I'm going to have a break from competition for a little bit now, but I'm loving it. There will be more.

Has anyone else tried triathlon competition?

Keen to try?

I'm curious.

This Side of the Wall

I don't like barriers. I don't like being unable to get past things. I don't like not getting my way, but I like less not being able to express myself, or not be listened to when I'm trying to communicate something. Even if I am wrong. On those rare occasions.

I usually try to break through barriers, jump over them, knock them down, or mobilise other people who can make it happen better than I can. With my triathlon competition I have been breaking through my own barriers - yes I can run, yes I can be competitive yes I can put it all together and work through all the physical pain that threatens to be a barrier but can too be overcome.

But sometimes barriers can't be broken or cleared or overcome.

People erect impenetrable barriers. They lock me out.

Sometimes the reasons seem clear, sometimes I have no idea, but what I find entirely frustrating is when I try to shed light on the issue and the barrier is based on misinformation that noone has attempted to clarify, or the person is blocking any discussion, period. A brick wall defending their brick wall.

I have an eternally optimistic view that people will want to reconnect, clear the barriers to open up their world.

But then sometimes when these barriers have been erected for such a long time they become dark places that I don't want to go. The people behind them become obscure, distant and fading memories. Sometimes I wish them the best, sometimes I wish them the worst, but mostly I wish for clarification, resolution. But if the effort required to achieve this is so much, I wonder if it's all worth it and should I just push the barriers farther away and put in their place people who are transparent with their honest thoughts, who want to be on this side of the wall, not creating new ones, the people who replace darkness with light.

I have trouble letting go of the barrier-breaking me.

Kylie + Hot Guys Miming = too much fun.

I just stumbled across this while web surfing and I thought I have to post it.

3min 42s

Get Outta My Way (Boys) Tribute from Jeremy Lucido on Vimeo.

2:20:08

Two hours twenty minutes and eight seconds.

That's how long it took me to finish my first ever triathlon, in Noosa.

Swim: 1.5km Cycle: 40km Run: 10km

I stuck to my game plan, did a great swim an okay cycle and a better than planned run to a sprint finish and had an awesome time! I'm hooked. The transitions were fun the whole thing was fun actually. And Noosa was just chock full of hot men. HOT FIT MEN.

I'm definitely going back, so long as I can get into the event again which has reached epidemic popularity. With good reason.

All the training to get there was worth it. I'm fitter than ever, feel great all round and am confident I can do another one of these triathlon things and soon. In fact I'm lined up to do one much closer to home (in fact in my home town) in early December, a sprint distance triathlon which should be quite interesting. So I have to get back in training again... I've avoided running for a week. I'll call it recovery.

My brother beat me in the race - by just under 3 minutes, but I think I can improve for the next one. I just need to get into training mode again. Though this time will be easier. I think.

Triathletic Toddler

Run at race pace, repeat, then cycle, vary the intensity, some hill climbs, some flat grinds and then into the pool and pump the water, hard. Check the bike, get the transitions right, race tactics sorted, gear, nutrition, hydration, stay well, don't overtrain, don't under-train...

While training for an actual triathlon is intense in its own right, coordinating work, family life & the actual training is the behind the scenes triathlon; only considerably more intense. Just like a triathlon you have to work at each element to make it fit in with the others or they all fall into chaos. And so goes my life of living at the edge of my capacity. It's been a lot of fun, though in the past few days I've found what it's like just over that edge, my body has spoken and it said 'too much' so I've been forced into relative rest for a few days (you see you can never really truly rest if you're serious about triathlon). While you can rest from training it's a lot more tricky to rest from work and family especially as the growing toddler (above) doesn't know what stop means (a bit like her daddy). Now confidently walking (and swimming of course) she is taking her own directions, sometimes on her tricycle making her technically the triathletic toddler.

And now my race is just 5 days away. It's been a long road and I've done the best I can for the time and limitations I have, I think. But it's not over yet, there is still more work to be done and a race to be won, or at least to be pushed to the edge. And then I will really rest, and the rest will be sweet, fleeting, but sweet.

Faster Higher Stronger Smarter

It's been a long time between posts. It's not like nothing's been happening because it has, so much so that I've seriously had no time to even think about posting. There was a brief shot on location in Hollywood, some political lobbying in Washington DC and a little bit of altitude training in between. Amélie has started running around, and saying words and doing things that make as stand in awe, or just laugh, a lot. Our house is undergoing renovations, so we are living in a construction zone, but the progress is awesome and I'm looking forward to the finished product.

I'm training as hard as ever, actually possibly harder, to the point of trying to manage the pain as much as the training. Training smarter. But the pain gets less and less, and the fun more and more. I found myself at the pool after training the other day surrounded by all manner of beauty in the form of elite athletes and surf life savers (the iconic ones). In the showers.

Fun indeed.

And the fun promises to continue. Racing, training and a great summer ahead.

Drinks on the deck set to be a new and improved regular event as the summer heads on in.

I can feel it now. I can feel it in my legs now too - a huge inter-city cycle and later run today mean it's time for a nice, long rest.

Keep well until next time.

Utah Rocks

sunrise: monument valley

We've just crossed from Utah through Arizona and into Nevada heading back to Las Vegas. The sun is lowering on the horizon and I can't wait to get back.

We've been exploring Utah's national parks where the USA's 'everything is bigger here' continues. We had a ball. Non stop exploration and activity, but that's not about to stop. I've been told Utah has America's cutest men, but the cutest we saw were European men in the parks. I've subsequently been updated that you have to go farther north. Sigh.
We sure did see an abundance of grey nomads in their RV's the size of trucks. Actually I'm sure many of them WERE trucks. Anyhow, I'm glad we can tune into Vegas radio and tone down the country song quotient which is fun for a while, just.

There's a surprising amount of nothing out there. I thought that was a typically Australian thing, but there were an abundance of huge mountains, deep wide valleys, monster canyons and great roads with not much else along them. Great for getting away from it all. Not so great when you need fuel!

I ran at altitude in Bryce Canyon national park today. I was the only person running and got loads of attention for it. Stunning scenery is a good distraction when you're hurting. The training for Noosa must continue.

And so as the sun sets in the west, Las Vegas awaits. We have a stack of activities planned and I can't wait.

(note: this was written in transit a few days ago)

The Road to Noosa

Run, Cycle, Swim. And repeat.

I have days when I love running, days like Monday when I feel my legs twitch with abundant energy, ready to get out there and pound the pavement, grass and sand. I arrive home to a sunny warm day and get into my running gear, pop in my earphones and off I go, the last stretch along the beach with waves rolling in making me feel like I'm in an ad for something. Something good.

And then there are the days when my brain says "must do the required number of sessions for the week" and my legs say "get stuffed". Invariably the brain wins, and the legs suffer to be tortured with the addition of cycling to the mix. At the end though the somewhat prolonged shower is heavenly relaxation.

Cycling is reliably fun. I'm used to the lycra cycling gear now that I never used to wear and which makes me look like a pro. I'm also used to the Frenchman's chant "be careful on the road" usually following more reports of people who have crashed their bikes. Tightened helmet and flashing lights I'm off; and when not I'm cycling on rollers in my living room with considerably less gear, but all these points of pressure have given me new understanding of neuroanatomy and I'm very thankful that the rather regular genital numbness is only transient.

The pool however is a stress free event, no concerns, no worries, I can't get enough. Love it, it's my superchilled element. Needless to say, it's the area I least need to be in preparation for this triathlon that rapidly approaches.

I have a laundry basket filled with sweat-scented shorts, shirts, singlets, towels, bike gear and hyperchlorinated swim gear. There are a collection of grease stains on too many of my clothes, showing up along side young Amélie's food bits at times when I least expect them.

Despite the super-training I've been increasing in weight. I expected to lose a few kg but have gained 3.5 . But I feel leaner than ever.

Oh, and my brother's training is also going well, which means I have to train harder! I'm the underdog right now but I need to make sure I'm not after the race! I'm not sure I have the numbers I need just yet, but I have until October 31st. The road to Noosa continues.

Stone Age Gay

I've become one of those old people!

In the past few weeks I've discovered I'm doing things I only thought old people did. I start the car and find ABC Radio playing, the once-popular 2Day FM with it's nauseating gossip and overplayed K & J-O has been usurped by diverse ranges of subject matter a wide range of music (not always my choices but at least diversifying) and intelligent DJ's. Oh and politics is actually interesting, at least more so than the details of which celebrity did.... oh who cares.

I'm enjoying father's day - as a father. And I'm supporting my parents probably more than they support me, which is at once confounding and liberating.

I'm also celebrating anniversaries that have numbers like 15 in them. Bloody hell, 15 years with The Frenchman! Bring on 15 more I say.

I'm also finding the years going a whole lot faster, am buying safer cars, am managing home renovations, again, and training for mid-life crisis triathlons with one eye on the prize, and one eye on managing the joint aches and pains that seem to be hindering my launch at the said prize.

And I'm loving it.

I see the younger editions coming out, and envy the bodies that have a surprising absence of wrinkles and folds, but not the self confidence issues, financial crises or relationship dramas to follow.

Youth is wasted on the young it's true, but life as an old fogey ain't so bad.

telephone frustrations

We've all had bad experiences with call centres, and I'm certainly no fan, but there is a book of telephone etiquette for the everyday phone owner / telephone receptionist just waiting to be written...

Voicemail: "I can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message after the..."

It's your mobile phone - it's in your pocket / backpack or somewhere very close to you.

Try: "I'm not answering this call right now..."

Voicemail: "My phone is switched off at the moment, so please leave a message"

It rang 10 times before it diverted... it IS switched on.

Try: "I often ignore my phone, please leave a message, I MAY get back to you."

Answerer: "Can I put you on hold for a moment? "

Me: "Actually it's urgen... [chiming 'hold' music cuts in].

Preferred option: "I'm putting you on hold, I'm not sure when I'll be back if ever" or "Please hold, I'll be exactly 13 seconds" and be exactly 13 seconds.

Voicemail: "Please leave a message, then press hash, spin around in a circle, press 2 followed by 4 followed by 3, press hash again, repeat your message and..."

Try: "Don't even bother, just hang up now."

Oh, and while singing voice messages can be a lot of fun, especially when you have multiple household members taking part, it doesn't always sound so fun when your doctor is phoning to leave a message about those test results. [yes yes, first hand experience for these]

Of course, if the person on the other end is the guy in the photo above, one tends to not notice all of the above. Lucky buggers.

With one exception: taking a call while you're in with your doctor (ie me) and continuing a personal & banal conversation (in fact anything that's not life & death) is very uncool regardless of how ruggedly handsome you are.

Anyone else with telephone peeves?

Extreme training

With just over 10 weeks to go until Noosa Triathlon I'm stepping up my training. I have a lot of improvement needed in my run times and a little extra speed in the cycling too, with my swimming yet to return to its normal standard (so I'm working on that too). So far I've been getting faster - esp in the running, and my calves are paying for it. But it's nice to see some stepwise improvement. I would like to make those steps a little bigger though... so I'm increasing everything. Surprisingly I've also gained some weight despite getting leaner - I guess those legs need more muscle for all that extra activity.

The weather is strangely warm here at the moment too - daytimes are like mid-spring which makes training easier and it feels like everything is locking into place. Now if I can just manage to run sub 4minute km's...

Election Boredom

Today is (Federal) election day and I can't wait for it to be over. There has been more coverage on the mechanisms of the campaign than on the policies themselves. I feel like we're being educated on spin. The chosen topics for debate have been BORING, nauseating even and often irrelevant. Gay marriage / relationship recognition has been publicly approved, but both major political parties are ignoring that and won't support it. We are electing the whole government but it seems like there are just 2 presidential candidates. I'm just really scared we will get Tony Abbott as our new PM, who has declared himself the lovechild of prior PM John Howard & MP Bronwyn Bishop... ouch. He claims to be gay friendly - but is as likely to support anything that promotes equality for the gay & lesbian community as he is to skip a photo opportunity.

Anyway - all Aussie readers of superchilled - please vote responsibly.

My First Aussiebums

I'm converted! Its been years in the making but finally this week I ordered online and purchased my first ever item from Aussiebum. There has been a hint of summer in the air and a scent of decaying speedoes in the bathroom so onto the site I went, selected a pair I'd seen in the flesh (or on the flesh...) earlier in the year and a few clicks later, a day or two for mailing and today it arrived. Awesome packaging, very well made and a perfect fit!! So I'm very happy. I just need to test them out in the water now, and then wear them in races to win in style!

So to celebrate the scent of summer and to move away from the politics that has been featuring here lately here are a few more Aussiebum samples. Oh, and the ones I bought are somewhere in this post; but I'm not telling which...

Greens: the ad they should have

41 seconds

From the TV show Gruen Nation (nee Gruen Transfer) where they had an ad agency come up with an ad for and anti the greens... this is the pro one - and I love it. Unfortunately the ABC won't release it to the Greens to be used in their campaign. So here it is on the web.

Australian Democrats : I wish they got more airplay.

Democrats release GLBTI action plan: click for details.

At least someone is looking at our community as an equal part of Australia, not a minority to be kept at bay. And in this Federal election despite majority community support for gay & lesbian rights, none of the 2 major parties is interested in true equality.

I'm not quite sure why the Australian Democrats fell out of view, but they're still there, and should be a greater part of the Australian political climate than they are right now (in my opinion). The have always been strong supporters of the gay & lesbian community and remain so as detailed in today's press release. They have a stack of great policies (which are a little more sensible than the Greens', who are also similarly gay friendly, obviously) and are SO much better than the main and so conservative political parties who are putting me at once to sleep and in a state of heightened anxiety. As a gay man having Tony Abbott as a leader is really scary. I like that he exercises regularly including doing ocean swims - but that's about it.

I think we all need to vote for people like the Democrats & the Greens who treat the gay & lesbian community equally with the rest of the community, and at the same time write to our local members and aspirants to tell them that we need better representation. And not just token representation.

Links

Democrat GLBTI policy

Greens LGBTI policy

Labor GLBTI policy: nil

Liberal GLBTI policy: nil

1. on the grass 2. In the gym...

1.

Where the bloody hell has all the time gone?

I had visions of loads of posts - a renaissance of kinds, which has obviously stuttered somewhat. I've been cycling, swimming and running, as per the plan, and then things like work, parenthood and logistical variances eat into all the other time in the day. And when the weather is as stunning as it was today - there's no way I'm staying inside. So I too was lying on the grass contemplating the beauty of it all today. At least for a while.

2.

Some readers have asked about the yoga video posted below, and there certainly is a little more intense man-to-man physical contact in there than one might normally expect in a traditional yoga class... which leads me to the question... Has anyone had more of a workout in an exercise class / training session than you initially expected?