It's not just regional, it's all Perth public hospitals as well. We are screwed when we have a Covid outbreak here.

I'm sorry, it sucks!

I assume hesitancy but honestly I don't really know. I don't really understand how having a state identity is any different to having a national identity.

I think of myself as a West Australian, not necessarily before 'Australian' but probably on about the same footing. I don't think it's any more bizarre than a national identity. I would say WA people have always had a fairly strong state identity, maybe due to our isolation. Politicians tend reinforce this with an us vs them narrative. Covid has also reinforced it, the secession jokes were all over the place last year. Our premier has definitely taken a protect WA first stance which has kept him extremely popular. I'm not saying I agree with it, I think we can afford to decrease our share of vaccines, but not giving away our doses is consistent. We are also behind the curve with vaccinations, opening it up to younger people might make it seem like we are doing well but we have the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated people in the country, we need to get more people over here vaccinated to have any hope of opening up our borders.

Cross posting from the covid megathread. This seems promising regarding protection against the delta strain. Not sure which vaccine but would have had the Pfizer or AZ depending on age and when they had it. 'The highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 infected everyone who attended a Sydney birthday party except for the six people who were vaccinated, the NSW Government said.' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/vaccinated-attendees-west-hoxton-birthday-party-avoid-covid-19/100249612

There is no report on which vaccine they had, but this seems like really good news re vaccine efficacy and the delta strain: 'The highly contagious Delta strain of COVID-19 infected everyone who attended a Sydney birthday party except for the six people who were vaccinated, the NSW Government said.' https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-28/vaccinated-attendees-west-hoxton-birthday-party-avoid-covid-19/100249612

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone participating in this thread, my views on all of this are still evolving so it has been really interesting to read.

1 new case in WA today (caught from the case returned from NSW). I am surprised we are not going straight into a short lock down given previous responses and the proximity to school holidays. People are reporting 6 hour plus wait times for testing in the area the cases are from. Positive - people are getting tests, negative - a couple of the exposure sites were schools and I know I wouldn't wait in line for 6 hours with young kids. We have 177 close contacts from the mine camp, most have returned negatives already, some results still pending so that's looking good.

Of the latest 5 cases one has been mentioned as being in intensive care and one in a stable condition in hospital. The lack of medical status of the other 3 would imply they are doing okay. A Melissa said it is certainly increasing vaccine hesitancy but I feel like most of it is confined to that particular vaccine. Most people I know would be more than happy to get the Pfizer but we have a very limited supply of that so it is only going to high priority under 50s at the moment.

I picked up a couple of games outside our normal interests to play with the extended family group. Telestrations was a big hit, a lot of fun and if you are terrible at it it just makes it funnier. Concept is interesting but we only last a few rounds before we are ready for something else. For the little kids (4 & 6) I got My First Castle Panic which they enjoy. I also got Rhino Hero but they don't have the dexterity for it yet, they knock the tower over too early to find it fun. My husband and I got Pandemic, only played once so far and we weren't that taken with it. Found it a bit boring but will try with more players when we get a chance. I also got a backgammon board, I haven't played since I was a kid and am enjoying that. @happypamamais Space Escape the Peaceable Kingdom one? I've been trying to find it but no one in Australia seems to stock it!

I had a friend who moved countries to work for them (in software dev), he enjoyed it at first but after he had kids found the hours expected were not conducive to a happy home/family life.

I loved the squirrels when I visited friends in Seattle! We don't have any small cute animals that you can actually see easily (they all like to hide) so it is quite novel.

Best wishes for his appointment. My mother was diagnosed about 2 years ago and she has not needed any of the more aggressive treatments, just low dose aspirin and regular check-ups. She does still suffer from increased fatigue but has no other symptoms or side effects.

I just had a look at various sauce bottles in my cupboard and most just list ‘spices’, one listed the actual spices after but it was definitely not the norm. I’m in Western Australia.

I'm surprised you didn't get made painfully aware at the time that you were kidnapping, magpie parents are scary!

My daughter had mesenteric adenitis after a virus, inflamed lymph nodes in the abdomen. I can't remember what the initial virus was but I don't think it was stomach related. It was extremely painful at first, she could barely walk for a couple of days, after that it was a lot better but she would often seemly randomly complain of stomach pain. Thankfully it only lasted a a few weeks but our GP said it could last a lot longer and it could flare up on occasion. She did get stomach aches more often than typical in the months after but not severe ones.

Yes, these threads have exposed me to a viewpoint I'd never heard before and it has made me rethink how I view some of the issues surrounding transitioning.

Why does it matter if someone wears the same thing every day? Most employees should only be expected to be clean, tidy, and fit the expected dress code. I work in an office 4 days a week, I wear the same pants (slacks) every day unless they get visibly dirty and I have 4 shirts I mostly wear. Plus spare pants and another few shirts I wear occasionally. Sometimes I don't even wash my shirts after every wear, I work in an air conditioned office so I don't get sweaty and if I don't spill anything on them they stay clean.

To me it sounds completely reasonable to attend practice even if injured, but where I am that would usually mean once a week unless you were competing at a state or national level.

I'm in Australia, lots of street decorations already up here. Probably shops too but I can't remember if I've seen them. I don't usually see houses decorated until December 1 though.

If my memory is correct the Circle of Magic serious is aimed at a younger audience than her more popular Lioness books, I remember nothing in the way of sex or even really romance (maybe a little?) in the Circle of Magic books.

Now I have read the poll I have too many options and I can't remember what I normally do. Except that it is definitely incy wincy spider!

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will talk to his doctor about reflux and see if we can try something. With the leave to cry versions of sleep training, I am pretty set against leaving him to cry for more than a short time regardless of if it wakes dd or not. I have tried in the past out of desperation but he just gets more and more worked up and since I’m unwilling to stick with it when he is like that it is obviously not going to work. He also vomits when too worked up and this can happen pretty quickly (5 minutes or so). We have tried settling him in his room when he wakes with rocking or patting, the problem is that he just won’t go to sleep. It can take hours and so is pretty hard to stick to long term because of shear exhaustion (he settles okay at the beginning of the night, so it isn’t a complete inability to get to sleep). I might try the tv idea, we have a pretty baby proof play room that I can close the door and just lay down, if I’m not sleeping anyway I guess it can’t hurt!

He always eats a good dinner and later gets offered full cream milk right before bed (which he only sometimes drinks). He was like this while still demand feeding overnight (doesn't breast feed anymore) so I don't think it would be hunger. He used to sleep with us all night, still had the same unsettled period. When he is sleeping he moves around a lot so unless dh goes to the spare room to give ds and I more room neither of us sleep well so I would really like to keep the initial sleep in the cot. We've tried moving from rocking at the start of the night to patting in cot, then just hand on him but we can't seem to move away from contact altogether without crying and if you don't pick him up to calm him when crying he gets to vomitting level of worked up pretty quickly. In those early morning hours nothing works, not rocking, patting, singing, walking. He either doesn't want to or can't sleep.

Definitely not ready for potty training or at the level of understanding that something like the breakfast suggestion would work unfortunetly. Even if I was okay with letting him cry in the cot, if my older toddler gets woken up suddenly from a deep sleep she loses it and can take an hour to settle back down which isn't going to help with anything.