January, 2005:

My apologies. I was wrong.

In my previous post I talked about what I thought was an important event; people of Iraq defying death threats to exercise their democratic right. I thought it was not only newsworthy but heroic and inspiring. Apparently, it’s not as important as I first thought.

What is important is that the world’s number 2 ranked male tennis player and a pretty young actress from an Australian soap opera got engaged last night. How do I know that this is important? I know that this is important because it was the lead story on tonight’s television news.

I apologise. I will try to get my priorities right next time.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

I have never argued the merits or otherwise of the war in Iraq here at The Journey and I don’t intend to start now but I must say how wonderful it is to see the gutsy effort by a large percentage of the Iraqi people.

Early estimates say that around 60% of registered voters have braved death threats to have their say in their country’s future.

I know that this won’t be the end to the violence and killing, and it will probably escalate at least in the short to mid term, but I hope and pray that it is the beginning of peace for these people who have suffered so much for so long.

How much do we value the privilege we have of being able to elect those who govern our country? Do we simply take it for granted? Do we think it’s a bit of a drag to have to turn out to vote once every few years? Would we risk death to exercise our democratic right?

I posted a couple of days ago about being overseas for our upcoming state election. As I said then, I won’t be sorry about missing a week of the election campaign, but I’m going to make sure that I have my say with a postal vote before I fly to India.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

I’ve had my weigh in.

In eleven days on Daniel’s Diet I lost between 7 and 8 kilograms. (About 17 pounds)

I lost 4 cm around my waist. (About 1 and a half inches.)

I lost 4 cm around my chest.

I lost 1.2 cm around my neck.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

I’ve been on a 10 Day Detox Diet since Thursday morning the 20th of January. That means that I officially finished the diet yesterday morning. However, when I started the diet I was weighed and measured by Philip Bridgeman. Philip will be back today for the final weigh in so I’ll know just what good the diet has done me.

Philip is the nutritionist / naturopath who wrote the book Daniel’s Diet which outlines the diet and the reasons for using it to kick start a healthier lifestyle.

Hopefully, I will be able to use the diet as a springboard to eat a healthier diet from this point onwards. That being said, there are a few things that I haven’t been able to eat for the last 11 days that I will enjoy re-introducing to my diet.

If you’re looking for a way to start getting healthier I would heartily recommend checking out this book and trying the diet.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

I hate to do it to my fellow Western Australians but I’m going to anyway.

You know how things usually heat up big time in the week before an election and that’s about the time that you’re totally sick and tired of the electioneering? That’s when you just want to vote and get it over with.

Well, I’m going to leave you to enjoy that all on your own. Very early on Saturday morning the 19th of February, the week before the election, is when I’ll be flying out to India for three weeks.

I somehow don’t think that there’ll be too much news about the Western Australian state election in the Hindustani Times.

Of course it means that I’ll have to look at all the options and make my decision in advance. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to have my say. I’m in a fairly safe Labor seat so my vote for or against the government won’t have much of an impact, but I can still make a difference in the Legislative Council (the upper house of the WA Parliament).

Posted by Rodney Olsen