Claire’s Stories

Perilous propositions and precarious positions in the land of the Pharaohs

Read more about the article Perilous propositions and precarious positions in the land of the Pharaohs
The pool overlooking the beach at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sharm el Sheikh

I suddenly noticed my heart racing and my breath getting away from me. I looked down at the page I was writing on, one of those things I would do to amuse myself while waiting, and it was filled with illegible scribbles, and not the fully formed words I was used to putting down. The hairs on my arms were standing at full right angles to my skin, and I thought I was most likely in a cold sweat as I was freezing to touch. Holy crap! I was having a panic attack! Me. Right now. I had a friend from high school who had them, which is the only reason I knew what was happening.

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US 2020 Election Series: Supporting Trump from abroad – Part 2

Read more about the article US 2020 Election Series: Supporting Trump from abroad – Part 2
Donald and Melania Trump at the Taj Mahal

“There is something called Trump derangement syndrome, ‘TDS,’ Jevaan informed me. “That's the name they have given it in America. And they say it's a threat to democracy, but he was democratically elected, you have to accept it. The problem is you were not able to accept what the other person sees; the other person's perspective is not being digested. And if the person who doesn't have your perspective, has an opposite perspective, he is a bigot. So how can it be a danger to democracy if somebody has been democratic elected? So that's a problem. That's the way that people exaggerate it.”

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US 2020 Election Series: Supporting Trump from abroad – Part 1

Read more about the article US 2020 Election Series: Supporting Trump from abroad – Part 1
Trump standing at a lecturn with the Indian and American flags

Gautham is a very proud Trump supporter and a staunch conservative, although he is anti-guns and pro-choice. And like Trump, Gautham is not known to filter the thoughts flying through his brain before they come out of his mouth. You will not die wondering what Gautham thinks about things. Jeevan is another US citizen born in India who migrated to Chicago, Illinois in the 1990s to study, and has been back in India since 2001. Like Gautham, Jeevan is anti-gun and pro-choice, but unlike him, Jeevan was traditionally a lefty who was devastated when Trump became president. He has since changed his mind after deciding to try and understand why people voted for Trump, and his subsequent performance. He is keenly interested in politics and has researched and thought a lot about this.

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US 2020 Election Series: Trump trauma

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Donald Trump assuming the position

“It wasn’t about the lying (about the size of the crowd), it was that he was so upset about it,” Dan explained. “Even then I could see that he was ignoring facts. I could see very clearly in that first event that this man was not in touch with reality, and I got really scared on Inauguration Day. Within a week of his inauguration I was thinking he was unstable. “Also, that was when I started to notice the other disturbing pattern, that his supporters will accept the most outrageous red herrings. They will take anything that they would never have accepted from another politician, for the most thin and ridiculous explanations for his behaviours. They will take those and latch onto them like they have believed in them their whole lives.

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Learning from a chronic, ‘incurable’ condition

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Living with chronic pain and disease is tough

Sometimes life has a way of teaching us lessons we didn’t know we needed to be taught. There are a lot of ways it can do this: through our relationships with friends and family, through natural and unnatural disasters, and through our pursuit of professional fulfilment… For me, some of my biggest lessons have come from my body, which has sent me the gift of a chronic, ‘incurable’ condition to battle for well over half of my life.

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Notes on being different from a privileged whitey

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Me wearing a bright pink wig

Ever since the video of George Floyd’s death and the rapid amplification of the #BlackLivesMatter movement the world over, I have been pondering the privileged whiteys who don’t believe in white privilege. NEWS FLASH! Everyone is racist. Everyone is judgemental. I don’t care who you are. I have been asked about whether Australia is a racist country when I have travelled in India, the Middle East, and Asia and my answer is always the same.

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The absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 2

Read more about the article The absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 2
Working on the computer - HELPING!

I never dreamed that extending a limb in bed to connect with a cold log of cat poo was something I would get used to, but in the small hours of this morning when I did exactly that, my first thought was no longer "Holy crap get me the #$%* out of here!" I had been lying on one side of the bed facing that side, and for whatever reason the little bastards like to sleep only the way you are facing. So they, and Max's little presents, were contained to a small part at the edge of the bed. I'm not proud of this, but it was BLOODY cold this morning, this 'special gift' occurred in the very small hours and I thought, "Maybe I can snooze a couple of more hours on the WHOLE other side of the bed that remains poo free?"

Continue ReadingThe absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 2

The absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 1

Read more about the article The absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 1
Max & Gus sausage roll

It all seemed to be going fine. Everyone was in and SEEMED to be settling down, when all of a sudden it was ON! Apparently this was the time for an all out, under the covers brawl, with some signature screeches before one of these tiny panthers decided to clamp his teeth down on my boob and just not let go. Hmmmmmmmm. I'm not sure how many of you have seen a cat's fangs clamped down on your boob, or anything that close to your face before, but their vicious fangs are as big as skyscrapers, and as creepy as Freddy Kruger's glove.

Continue ReadingThe absolutely true adventures of Max and Gus – The blind, geriatric, incontinent little bastards – Part 1

78-year-old ‘Knight Rider’ survives horrific bout of COVID19

Read more about the article 78-year-old ‘Knight Rider’ survives horrific bout of COVID19
78 year old Mick survives COVID19

Michael Knight, or Mick as his mates call him, is a 78 year old who has suffered from asbestosis for the past 35 years, has arthritis in most of his joints he has to take pain killers for, and recently survived a horrendous, protracted, and simultaneous bout of COVID19 AND pneumonia. If you think this coronavirus is just another flu; you need to hear Mick’s story. If you are curious about what it is like to get COVID19 and what you should do if you, or someone you know gets it; you need to hear Mick’s story. If you are one of those people who doesn’t think they need to abide by social distancing norms; Mick says you’re a “f*cking idiot.”

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