In life, we often encounter unforeseen challenges that test our resilience and determination. One such challenge that many individuals face is the journey of recovering from an injury. Whether it's a sports-related injury, an accident, or a medical condition, the road to recovery can be long and arduous. In this blog post, we will explore the emotional and physical struggles associated with injury recovery and discuss strategies for overcoming these obstacles.

Reflecting on my current situation as a Registered Nurse allows me to gain some insight which I thought worthy of sharing. Here's where I have landed after a week of musing throught the lense of my profession; some of these epiphanies are contemporary to my situation now, others are musings of what I may expect, either way, I think it is a useful exercise to understand the journey.

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Sunday 3rd December, 2023. A day that will forever be etched in my mind because that was the day my world changed. I went flying at Stanwell Park and had a great morning flight logging a bit over an hour paragliding. Conditions blew out (wind got too strong) so I called it, landed safely and was going to head for home. Another pilot suggested I take the opportuntunity to practise some ground handling at Sharky's Beach, Coledale, and I thought that was a good idea given it was on my way home, so I did! However, after about 30 minutes of good ground handling, a gust of wind yanked me off the ground and started pushing me backwards. I had to land immediately due to the powerlines and busy road behind me. So I aggressively grabbed the C-risers and the wing collapsed. Completely. I was 3-4 metres (9-13ft) above the ground and free-fell onto my upper back. Instant pain, and I heard something go "crack".

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Seeing as this lockdown is dragging on with no real end in sight (yet) I think it might be helpful to share some practical ways I’ve learned to manage long periods of isolation. As many know, I’ve been studying full time via distance education since 2019, and as a result, I’ve become pretty good at managing my time to get stuff done, and maintaining my sanity despite many hours alone. Here’s my “Top 5” tips!

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My final year of study and into the last semester. Here we go!

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I walked away from a successful and lucrative career in management to pursue a more satisfying, and some might argue noble goal of nursing. I made that choice because, despite decades of accomplishment, I was deeply unfulfilled but discovered I enjoy helping people. This epiphany led me to volunteer as a first responder with St John Ambulance, and confirmed my desire to make a career out of helping people would scratch an itch working in management in the technology sector couldn't reach!

Why then, as a draw to the end of my second year of training to be a nurse, do I find the subject matter so utterly dehumanising? Why do I seem to care less about my fellow human beings now than I did two years ago?

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A little over a month into self-imposed isolation and the insanity is creeping in. At what point will we ever escape? What will our mental health look like on the other side? What will my mental health look like in the interim?

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The day has come and I have to say, it wasn't as painful as I was fearing. The Gray Matter blog is now running on Google's Cloud Platform, and the results are really encouraging so far. In this post, I'm going to explain how I shed my old school hosting provider and embraced "the cloud"!

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With only 5 more weeks of lectures remaining, and a daunting pile of assignments, study and exams ahead, things are mentally pretty tough at the moment! I'm so deep into this now and I really want to do well, but the sheer volume of work is forcing compromise on all fronts...maybe that's the point?

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A long time ago, I had a weather station at home dutifully sending data to my Weather Underground profile. Long story short; that weather station hardware died. About 18 months ago I lashed out and bought a Netatmo weather station partly on the promise it would eventually send data to my neglected Weather Underground profile. Well, it has been 18 months and Netatmo is still no closer to sorting their crap out with Weather Underground, so I gave up and made a "DIY" solution!

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As I have recommenced study at university, I have a renewed interest in software and systems that facilitate good research habits and consistently reliable access that research in a way that doesn't interfere with me getting my thoughts and ideas committed to paper. I think I have landed on a great setup that makes research fun again. Maybe this could help you too?

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