This is a sad story about a family with a disturbing history who turned their curse into a blessing for secondary and medical education in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Back in December, prior to receiving our shipment from the U.S., I published a blog about Moving to Australia. This blog provides some updates about receipt of our shipment, renovations to our apartment, an exercise routine which I started, and places I have visited in Brisbane and its surrounds.
I am again making a list of all the book listening and reading, as well as key podcast listening that I have done in 2022, as I did with Books of 2021. I include my top recommendations, and note the source of each of the books.
I’ve never lived in another country. I came to Australia twice for two weeks each time. I’ve also been to London, Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but never for any more than a few days. I’ve now been living in Australia for six weeks, and I have the realization that I’m here for good. Yes, we’ll be traveling back to the U.S.A., and probably elsewhere in the world, but Australia is now my home, and I’m in the process of absorbing that realization.
Ernest Shackleton was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who planned to cross the Antarctic from sea-to-sea, and instead he and his crew of 28 men became trapped in pack ice. I just finished listening to Endurance by Alfred Lansing and read by Tim Pigott-Smith. This author retells the story of the incredible voyage of these men through extreme weather conditions over a period of 21 months during which none perished.
For the last few weeks I have been listening religiously to the Fall of Civilizations Podcast which I discovered also has this same podcast in a YouTube video version. I’m likely to go back and watch all these videos when I have a chance, because the story Paul Cooper (@PaulMMCooper) tells is clear, detailed and illustrated with relevant pictures of artifacts, and readings from the period and from the people who discovered the ruins. I explain here why this is such a great podcast.
I just finished Leviathan Falls, the last (9th) book in The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey. Each book in the Series kept my attention, though my interest in continuing reading the series lessened with each book. I’m glad that I read and finished the series, and certainly enjoyed the process, considering my inability to put each book down while reading it.
I’m not sure when it was, but around the 7th season of Grey’s Anatomy, the quality is not what it used to be. I really do not get the same high from listening to their soundtrack, but I watch the show nonetheless. Can anyone answer why this show no longer has such an outstanding soundtrack?
What’s going on with prescriptions? I have saved more than $100 for each of two prescriptions in the past couple weeks using GoodRX. I usually have obtained my prescriptions at a nearby CVS; however, recently I discovered that prices at CVS with insurance coverage are more than 10X the price I get using GoodRX at pharmacies located at nearby grocery stores which are not using my insurance coverage at all! How can this be?
A brief review of my perceptions from reading this book about one man’s experience of the Vietnam War.
T.P.Caruso 