The agony of indecision (and irukandji)

While I am grateful that the internet has replaced a set of dusty encyclopedias as my major source of knowledge, it can also be a bit TMI.

My obsessive Googling over the last few days has been particularly frustrating (and quite disturbing).

I keep searching for something to fixate on to satisfy my rabid desire to PLAN THINGS.

But the internet has filled me with indecision and fear instead.

I was dreaming about a holiday in New Zealand, then I discovered it is in the midst of a major crime wave.

In downtown Auckland, violent crime rates are up 30% from pre-pandemic levels, while shootings in Wellington have left residents shaken.

One Auckland store owner said: “I can tell you the truth, I traded gold and diamonds in Johannesburg for five years and I’ve never, ever experienced something like this. We’re talking about Johannesburg, where they have a very high crime rate.

“I’ve never, ever felt so unsafe like the last two or three years in New Zealand. I don’t know what is happening, I just don’t feel safe anymore.”

A connection on LinkedIn reckons there are “endless” ram raids, stabbings, drive-by shootings and car jackings.

Blimey.

Maybe Tassie is a better bet.

I’ve also been spending far too much time on domain.com.au, exploring my options for downsizing. That has been equally disappointing because the Reserve Bank has completely frozen the property market with all its interest rate rises, with more to come.

Apartments I looked at two months ago are still languishing. While it was an absolute frenzy at an auction across the road earlier this year, one that’s on the market now was passed in and is still struggling to find a buyer.

So I won’t be selling my place any time soon.

Even Googling the weather let me down. It was 6C when I went for my morning walk on Saturday. I was hoping for some outdoor fun on Saturday afternoon, but DD and I decided it was too bloody cold and sat in the pub eating hot chips instead.

Sunday was also ruled out for outdoor fun with DD because I spent most of it at an away game for the youngest’s AFL team. At least the temperature was slightly higher.

According to a story I read at abc.net.au Australian homes are so cold this winter that some are falling below the WHO’s recommended ‘safe’ temperature.

“Power used to be really cheap so Australian houses were basically designed as winter tents that you could pump a whole lot of energy into during winter and warm them up,” Professor Emma Baker said.

Not any more.

I was dreaming about moving to a town where the temperature is above 25C in winter.

It turns out you need to live higher than Townsville for that. Unfortunately living in Northern Queensland would also mean expiring from heat exhaustion in summer and potentially being killed by a box jellyfish while trying to cool off in the ocean.

I am terrified by bluebottles, so the thought of box jellyfish or those deadly little irukandji petrifies me.

According to my besties at abc.net.au a woman was stung by an irukandji while swimming at Magnetic Island in May.

She described a sudden onset of intense symptoms, disassociation and a sense of impending doom while waiting for the island’s ambulance to arrive.

“I was having chest pains, pains in the side of my ribs, numbness in my arms, headaches,” she said.

“I was super nauseous, I kept gagging as though I was about to throw up and I realised that something was very wrong. I started to feel like everything was really, really bad.”

The feeling of impending doom is a well-documented reaction to stings.

“Patients believe they’re going to die and they’re so certain of it that they’ll actually beg their doctors to kill them just to get it over with,” Australian biologist Lisa Gershwin told ABC radio in 2007.

Good lord!

I really need to step away from the computer or I’ll never leave the house again.

PS: I initially started tapping away at this blog post for Monday before being distracted by the council clean-up so you get one of my favourite – but now belated I’m terms of title – songs of the day.

Song of the day: New Order “Blue Monday”