Ross River Virus

Tuesday 16th September 2008
No sign and no phone call from Jade at work today, the staff are starting to think that Ian may be right and she is up the duff. The staff quite like the saying “up the duff” although none of them have ever heard it before, they do think it sounds a bit harsh though, which is a bit choice really from a nation that speaks its mind about everything and apologises to no one.
The Café had a pretty average day again today, which is not bad but could be better, according to one of the staff in Coles supermarket opposite “from now on Thursday will be the busy day of the week because that is when they are going to start their weekly promotions. Ian pointed out to them that Thursday was already the busiest day of the week, so to start their promotions on that day was only likely to make the rest of the week quieter.
Fraser went to Scouts this evening and came back with a handful of badges for Carolyn to sew on, he has now got his Fire Safety Badge, his Scout Craft Badge and much to Carolyns annoyance another Troop Badge because he has been moved to another group within the Troop, so she has got to unpick the first Badge before replacing it with the new one.
When Carolyn went to pick Fraser up from Scouts she forgot to put on her insect repellent and the Mosquitoes had a feast, where the Scout Hut is it is in the middle of hundreds of Peppermint trees where mozzies love to live and very close to swampland which is their second favourite place to live. Carolyns foot looks like it is coming down with Elephantitus.
All joking apart, Mosquitoes are a serious problem in this part of Australia and are responsible for spreading the Ross River Virus.
Ross River Virus is similar apparently to Glandular Fever, there is no known cure and it can last for months, you just take vitamins and wait for it to go away.
In the papers only last week there was a mention of it and the fact that already there have been over 100 cases reported, which is above the usual level for this time of year, probably got something to do with all this rain that we have so desperately been needing all winter.
The advice they give is don’t go out at Sunrise or Sunset and wear long trousers, why they would recommend wearing long trousers when you are not going out for fear of being eaten alive is beyond us, but they have lived here longer than us so it must be right.