Dave Matthews photos now online

1. Get ‘em here!

Burns Update, 30/03/05

1. It’s been a week since the last update, and boy does your body heal! Another appointment to change her dressing yesterday, and you couldn’t see any separation in skin layers any more — it’s amazing how the body can regenerate so quickly. There is still a patch of skin where there are still dead tissue, and that part of her hand isn’t healing at a fast enough pace. The Medical Director of the Concord burns unit, Dr Peter Maitz (who has, besides a tremendous resume, an Order of Australia for medical services rendered to victims of the Bali bombings) had a look and it didn’t seem encouraging. He didn’t voice it, but his demeanor seemed to say he was pretty certain a skin graft would be necessary. So, tomorrow she’ll have to go back to the hospital for a final check up and he’ll make the decision then. If it is a go the surgery will be on Friday. So, until then, it’s still wait and see….

UPDATE [31/3/05] — Yay! Surgery not necessary!

Dave Matthews Band @ State Theatre

Dave Matthews Band Live at the State Theatre

1. Hehehehahahaha! *Caper* :)

2. I’ve waited sooo long for them to come to Australia, even if my excitement had been dulled by the two hours of bushwalking and four and a half or so hours of driving that day. They are as good live as they are in the studio, it was awesome. And even though photography was not allowed in the theatre (not that that stopped anyone from trying) the unstoppable combination of Nikon D70 and a bloody long zoom lens bested the valiant attempts of the usher (and usherettes) to locate and tell off all those who persisted in unsanctioned photography. Photos are now being carefully prepared (after I write this, obviously) and will be online shortly. I hope shortly, because I have a damn busy week coming up.

3. They were soooo good! I think I’ve mentioned that.

4. In case I haven’t, THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD!

5. I still haven’t processed the gig enough to write about it yet. But the thing that struck me was that there were so many songs they didn’t play, but as a friend noted that they have seven albums and she loves every song (as do I) that some were bound to be left out. I have a hunch that they play a different set every night, so next time they come down I might go to different shows. Ha, and I’ll be going home to my billion dollar yacht via helicopter.

Easter Break

From our cottage in Berry

1. Spent easter with friends in Berry (staying in a rather nice cottage), a small town on the NSW South Coast. Veeery nice it was, veged out, played games, drank, ate, bit of bush walking a trundled around the sights. Drove on some amazing roads, especially that narrow bastard that ran from Jambaroo, threaded up the mountain (with some of the steepest inclines I’ve ever seen on a sealed public road) to Robertson. Barely wide enough for two way traffic (nearly got taken out by some fucker in a fucking 4WD who didn’t move the fuck over), but it was beautifully kept and if they ever close that road off for hill climbing I’ll be there is a second. Jambaroo also hosted some of the most boring bushwalking tracks, but the end was worth the effort, with a 170 degree view of the valley, the next set of peaks and all the way out to sea. Photos to come.

Terri Schiavo, Political Plaything, Continued.

1. It’s probably just as well that Terri Schiavo is in a permanent vegetative state, being the ball in a political shit fight. But you have to wonder, if there was an afterlife, and they can see what’s going on back here, what would she be thinking?

2. And who the hell would’ve guessed Jeb Bush was the dumb brother! Good ‘Ol George sure gave him a run for his money.

3. And for a bunch of people who routinely cry that religious fundamentalism is a bad thing, they should take a good hard look at themselves.

4. I do, however, have a question. If it is more humane to let her die by removing her feeding tube, surely it would be best if we killed her quickly rather than letting her starve to death?

iTunes DRM broken — *again*

1. DVD Jon, he’s done it again. Just hours after Apple released an update that supposedly fixed the exploit, DVD Jon has managed to break it again. I don’t really know what to think about this. As much as I dislike the DRM thing, Apple’s is about as reasonable as if comes; and as much as I applaud the efforts of those who are willing to stand up to corporate oppressors (yes, they are just that — taking what was for centuries a free and important art form and entertainment to make a buck) you gotta wonder whether it’s worth it. With the Music Industry as thick and fickle as it is, it may decide that the whole thing isn’t working and can the lot (as highly unlikely as that is). Also, who’s really helping who here — is DVD Jon the digital Robin Hood, or is he really just a beta tester for Apple, finding the bugs so they can patch it? Sooner or later all the loop holes would be found, and it would be impenetrable. Wouldn’t that suck?

Burns Update, 23/3/05

1. Another appointment with the burns unit, and I had a good look at the injury for the first time. It’s a full thickness burn, meaning the top two layers of skin has suffered significant damage, as well as underlying tissue, muscle and tendon. Nerve endings are also severed, so it’s generally not too painful. The third layer of skin has the look of a sausage. The thin, gourmet type (you know, with the herbs and stuff) of sausage — tight, with spots of stuff. Apparently those red spots are the skin rejuvenating underneath and pushing their way back up to the top. With the dead two layers gone from the burn it looks like those cutaway mechanical drawings, with a very obvious chunk missing. It’s really quite disgusting.

2. The burnt area was also a lot larger than I’d previously thought. It covers about two thirds of the length of her index finger, and patches on her other fingers. The nurses all called it a “significant injury”, and it seems almost indefinite that a skin graft will be necessary. Applying the dressing seems (mercifully) easy, just as well since I’ll have to do that on Sunday, and the dressing itself is interesting. It’s sticky, and covered with a gel that contains an enzyme that, like saliva, breaks down dead skin. That way whatever dead skin the body can get rid of is removed when the dressing comes off. The marvels of modern medicine.

3. I don’t understand how people lived with an injury like this before skin grafting was perfected. Skin grafts are only done when the body can’t heal the injury on it’s own, so how were people treated? You can’t just leave it, it’d get infected. Amputation? That’s a scary thought, that you’d lose a body part because of a burn. I’m still struggling to comprehend the seriousness of burns, but it is much, much more serious than I had previously thought. It’s enough to make you eat cold foods forever.

PSP

Sony PSP

1. I have to admit, I’m more than a little smitten with the PSP, particularly since someone at work has one and I’ve played a little with it. Especially that screen. That big, fuck off screen! It’s about the only thing besides the iPod that I can think of that makes me go gaga and fish for the credit card. It’s plainly obvious that the PSP has real potential to do for visual media (movies, pictures, games etc) what the iPod did for music, the question is whether Sony can follow through or whether it will succumb to departmental in-fighting (which arguably lost them the music market. Sony Music, hang your antiquated head in shame). Apple will be watching this very closely I think, if ever there was a catalyst for a video iPod this is it.

Trepidation

Our kitchen

1. 9pm Friday night. I was in the middle of a hectic night at work, when I get a panicked phone call from my girlfriend. “I need you to come home. The kitchen’s on fire, and I’ve burnt myself….”

2. I think I had set the record for the highest number of traffic violations on one trip. Needless to say, I wasn’t holding back. When I got home the place was filled with smoke, and she was in the bathroom with her hand under the tap. The kitchen was a mess — there was the pan and oil all over the floor, the smoke had gotten everywhere and deposited a layer of ash all over the house, from the bookshelf to the computers (my PowerBook had black spots all over it). I checked to make sure nothing was still burning, quickly surveyed the damage, and walked into the bathroom to sneak a peek at the burn. Ohhh, I wish I hadn’t. Her left had was bright red, except for the burn with was totally white, as if it had been bleached. The white skin had absorbed the water flowing over it, and is resembling chicken skin. I’m pretty good with my own injuries, but I’m terrible with others — I could feel bile rising from just a short peek. I got a bucket, filled it with water for her hand and put her in the car to take her to hospital.

3. We went to Sydney Hospital which was the closest to where we live. It’s also relatively quiet (in the same way a race car is quiet next to jumbo jet) and we manage to get the triage nurse to look at it as soon as we walked in. She took one look, took our details, and we were admitted straight away. What we didn’t know was that Sydney Hospital doesn’t have a burns unit, and the doctors there aren’t very good with burns victims. Calls are made to Concord Hospital to the Plastic Surgeon on duty. Morphine was administered, the talking continued, words like “skin graft” floated by. My skin was crawling just thinking about it — in fact it would almost have been a relief if the tables were reversed, then at least I know how much it hurts rather than having to imagine it.

4. The doctor set us up with an appointment at Concord Hospital the next morning at 8.30. She got pain killers and sleeping pills, the morphine has kicked in, and I took her home to bed. Then I really got a chance to look at the damage. The oil was everywhere, it singed the dirty clothes in the laundry (which is next to our kitchen), it covered the walls and the floor, the bench. The cupboards above the stove were black with the oil smoke, but on closer inspection nothing very much was burnt. Most of the black soot has since been cleaned, the wood underneath were perfectly fine. Nothing inside the cupboards were damaged, nor were the tiles on the wall. I couldn’t believe how lucky my girlfriend was — only her hand got burnt, and the kitchen was only slightly damaged. If the cupboard or any of the clothes caught alight it would’ve been so much worse.

5. The next morning we drove to Concord Hospital for the diagnosis. We met with the Plastic Surgeon that took the phone call (who I thought looked remarkably like Colin Firth — down to the tone of voice if not the accent), who was pleasantly surprised that it did not look as bad as it had sounded over the phone the previous night. There was still a chance that a skin graft was needed, but we won’t know for sure for another few days. By this time the skin had blistered, so it looked as if a scale model of the Hindenburg had anchored on her finger (with the same pale chicken-skin look). The nurses laced the blister (which promptly let go of it’s liquid contents with gusto) and applied the dressing. The bile rose and was squelched. Some of us are just not conditioned to professional health care.

6. Yet another appointment was scheduled, for Monday, this time to remove the dead skin and have a look below and see how deep the burn went. The weekend went, and Monday came, and this time the news was better. Skin graft may still be needed, the decision would be made after Easter, but it seems less likely. The dressing will need to be changed every two days for the next week until the next Appointment, and aftercare at the hospital was arranged. And since we will be away over the Easter long weekend, I will have to change her dressing at least once (possibly twice, depending on whether the Nurse will let us drive down on the Thursday or the Friday). Given my squeamishness, I am not looking forward to the prospect of playing with a hunk of half cooked human flesh. Must. Repress. Bile.

7. That’s all we know for now. She may or may not need a skin graft, but all the signs are positive. It’ll be another week before we have more information. In the meantime, it’s takeaway and painkillers, sticky floors and sooty books.

UPDATE: Click here for updates on her condition.

How much would you pay for quality?

Thomas Mahon

1. The thing I love about blogs is that every-so-often you come across one that gives such an amazing insight into the life of someone, or in this case someone’s passion and craft. English Cut is the blog of Thomas Mahon (pictured above), bespoke savile row tailor, who can quote Prince Charles and Bryan Ferry as clients. He obviously loves his work, and is very good at it, and is willing to discuss his art in a way that is so engaging. And his prices is pretty reasonable (all things considered). At a starting price of around Au$4000 that’s surprisingly affordable, given it’s a suit that will last 20 years with care. But really, it’s an entertaining read regardless of whether you like suits or not.