#it's to sustain you and those around you!

[reorientingtothexdaylight]

"calorie" means nothing about the food. it's a unit of energy, it measures the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter of water by 1°C. paper can be measured in calories. your tshirt as well. doesn't make it food.

the units to use when considering what to eat are, generally, proteins, carbs and fibers. there are many more nutrients but for the basics, these three are pretty much all you need when you try to figure out what to eat and if it's "healthy" to eat.

donuts? donuts don't have a lot of fibers and proteins. accompany your donus with a protein source (meat for example) and veggies! to add some needed vitamins, you can add a fruit.

only eating broccoli isn't gonna get you far, much like only eating bread. only eating one out of the three isn't enough, you need all three of them.

do get informed on this topic to make informed choices for your health. in general, avoid anything that only talks of calories, these things could be telling you to eat paper and you'd get the same result.

and do remember your body needs energy for everything it does! even sleep! even sitting! your heart still beats, your brain still thinks, your lungs still breath!

if you're always sleepy / tired, you might not be eating enough ! when my sister started her teaching job, she ended up needing a nap every time she came home at the end of her day. she thought she was sick, her doctor was lost. and then she watched a documentary and in it, there were mentions of how tired and sleepy under nourished people can be and it clicked. she doubled her portions and didn't need a nap anymore. mind you she wasn't super thin nor big, she was like average weight, so her doc didn't think of that.

diet talk is so inexpressibly nonsensical the instant you know anything about "the human body" or "nutrition" or if you think about it for three seconds

[oldandcrusty]

Trump has cut aid to South Africa because we stood with Palestine and have signed an Act which is being grossly misrepresented

Hi, I'm a white, Afrikaans South African with a family of farmers, and I will not allow the false conservative rhetoric to go unchecked. I also am a researcher in sustainable economic development who engages in real life with this discourse.

I am only taking it to Tumblr now because I believe it is important for Americans and people from other nations to understand what is really happening, and what Trump's cutting of aid really means, because the administration is already using this in its own propaganda. This propaganda also has an impact on foreign investment, as it makes people in other nations wary of investing in us.

First, the cutting of Aid

I'm going to use an analogy to help you understand what's happening. A surgeon tells you that they are going to save your daughter, no charge. You're elated by this act of compassion, and you agree. The surgeon is midway through the surgery, and then calls you and says that you must cut down the trees outside your house, the surgeon doesn't like them. You say, but it's my house? The surgeon then says that they will kill your daughter if you don't comply.

The cutting of US aid is currently happening to all nations. The only difference is that Trump's America had made a point to say that South Africa is essentially on their permanent ban list. This sudden disappearance of aid (which includes American healthcare providers) is going have a massive impact on all countries. In South Africa, it is going to lead to the death of many people with HIV/Aids through the cutting of Pepfar (which Bush, fucking Bush, started to help combat HIV/Aids globally).

Trump's America is holding the lives of thousands of the most vulnerable people in South Africa (who America was supposed to save) hostage in order to influence our nation's policies, therefore challenging our sovereignty. That is what is happening.

What is The Expropriation Act?

The Expropriation Act would allow government to seize land which is currently not used and does not have much market value. Technically, all governments can do this in order to build infrastructure like public transport, roads, and airports. Land which is being used for any activities (including farming, housing, and business) is not affected by this at all.

Furthermore, the only reason why conservatives are accusing the government of being racist towards white people is because the white population (which is around 8% of the entire population) owns 75% of land. So, they perceive this as a threat to white majority ownership.

Whether the Act is constitutional is being challenged in our courts. No land has been taken from anyone through this Act.

The Expropriation Act is not the same as Land Reform. South Africa has been conducting Land Reform through a willing-buyer and willing-seller model, wherein those selling land can have it bought by the government to be given to beneficiaries from disadvantaged population groups. This has been considered largely unsuccessful, due to the land often not being of high quality, and there being no training or further support for beneficiaries. That being said, this Act could allow the government to accelerate Land Reform.

There are many concerns around Land Reform and Expropriation, though I personally do not think any of the political parties care about the issue of land rights and protecting farmers. Smallholder farmers, who are typically people of colour and women, are particularly at risk of losing land they farm on (and feed communities with). But this risk does not directly come from the government. It comes from local government rezoning land they farm on and selling it to private developers. Smallholder farmers have less resources to counter these developers legally, and may also not formally own the land (which is not to say that they have stolen or are squatting on it, many of them have lived on it for many generations).

Are white South Africans being persecuted?

Western conservatives like to use us white South Africans as an example of how white people can be oppressed. This is not just something America has done, nations like Australia are also guilty. Along with cutting aid, America has also declared that "the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."

So, are white South Africans refugees?

For fuck's sake. No.

I know very well that poverty and unemployment is at an all-time high for white South Africans. I know many white South Africans who are struggling to get food and healthcare. However, this is not because we are oppressed. This is because we are less shielded from the reality of the socioeconomic crises South Africa faces. I must emphasise, we are LESS shielded, but still much MORE shielded than the vast majority of South Africans.

Decades of Apartheid rule gave our families opportunities, education, occupations, and land which has given us a very strong net in the forms of private asset ownership, as well as professional networks. White South Africans usually have family they can lean on. Heck, I am one of them - I cannot afford my extremely high healthcare costs (I have an autoimmune condition which would leave me disabled without expensive medication), but my immediate family are able to financially support me.

It is through this accumulated wealth and professional networks that leads to all of the socioeconomic ills our nation faces being disproportionately levied on people of colour. In fact, white South Africans of all educational backgrounds have an unemployment rate of 7.9%, compared to an unemployment rate of 37.6% for black South Africans.

Affirmative action tries to balance this. I know, for a fact, that I did not get a job because of affirmative action. But I also knew that I had family that could sign my new lease for me when I had no contract. The person who got the job was statistically much more likely to have not had that luxury. And, regardless, I got a (better paying) job two weeks later. Yes, I worked hard for it. But I also have had so many educational and professional opportunities granted to me because of my privilege. (I should also note here - my family is not extremely privileged compared to other white South Africans, my parents are blue collar workers, not vineyard or mine company owners.)

There is a lot more I could cover here, like farm murders, but I will add an article in the resources for those who are curious.

Palestine.

In December of 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice that accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ ruled that, yes, what is happening in Gaza is genocide.

Now, Trump wants to turn Gaza into a "Riviera". He wants to move all the people living there to neighbouring nations (who are in opposition to this), and if they don't want to leave then he is willing to use the US military to 'remove' them.

So, I ask you this. Which is the country that wants to take land from an oppressed group? Which is the country that is creating international refugees?

Trump's America clearly stated that South Africa is working against its geopolitical interests and threatening the States, and that this was one of the reasons why aid was cut. I believe that this is actually the primary reason for the aid cut. The whole 'saving Afrikaners' angle is just to make Trump's America look like heroes. In truth, Trump's America is punishing us for standing for human rights.

Do you smell that?

Musk. You have played a major role in all of this. For years, you have been working on trying to make South Africa the oppressive state your Canadian grandparents moved to.

Since you're only two generations South African, and you are a Canadian and American citizen, maybe you can't understand what I'm about to say. But I'm fucking saying it.

Hou op om Trump se poephol te lek en luister. Jy is 'n rassistiese en seksistiese fokker. Voetsek Mars toe en los ons uit.

Sources and further information

A breakdown of US aid to South Africa.

An article on the impact of losing Pepfar.

A ten minute video explaining the Act.

An article summarising Trump's cutting of aid.

A more in-depth article looking into the context of him cutting aid.

An example of how smallholder farmers of colour are the people getting their land stolen through private developers.

A Facebook group with the most recent updates on the activists in the previous bulletpoint - they are facing more legal battles.

Unemployment rates in South Africa.

An article discussing farm murders.

[fantasyinallforms]

Ok, look at me real quick because I'm tired of explaning this to full grown adults. You can NOT support generative AI and still claim to care about artists and writers in the fandoms you participate in. So that means if you spout pro generative AI rhetoric, and it gets you ostracized that is NOT the community or fandom being unfair or cruel to you. That is simply the conciquences of your own actions. Full stop.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

this whole thing being abt rage is also really interesting. I feel like it comes up so much in fiction as a motive because it's the one emotion that's unifyingly restless while everything else can be petrifying, and just personally nothing hits like impotent rage for me, esp. with teen characters, esp. with characters whose rage is stoked by Someone Else to further that Someone Else's cause. like you'll have done all that in a bout of passion and when you're done you look around you and nothing has changed. those sentiments don't get quelled by being satisfied. righteousness withdrawal is a horrible thing to intentionally drag someone into, least of all just some kids.

[hms-no-fun]

this is basically the premise of Death Panel's coverage of the LA fires. the various mutual aid organizers they're getting statements from consistently talk about how they've developed their organization into a political vanguard that views "mutual aid" as a very wide umbrella including housing and healthcare. working around the non-profits and the established avenues of crisis aid to build an actual community network that's looped into a larger (explicitly political) organization that uses its on-the-ground representatives as the litmus test for what resources are needed where, and thus what the priorities of the organization at large ought to be in order to serve the material interests of those they seek to aid. notably, most of these people are Marxists or working from a very Marxist framework, and of course the Death Panel hosts themselves wrote the book Health Communism, which uses a Marxist lens to analyze how modern capitalism is fundamentally sustained by healthcare disparities.

this, to me, is a view of what effective revolutionary organizing could actually look like in this country. it cuts through the dazzling optics of the culture war with the simple truth that regardless of your political leanings, you deserve housing and healthcare and food. it's not about proving who's right or wrong in an ideological sense, it's not an argument or a protest. it's about realizing that the vast majority of us are already living on the very knife's edge of absolute ruination, and using that shared precarity to unite working people in common cause against the actual source of their woes. building these networks so that they function healthily even beyond the realm of an immediate natural disaster or crisis is, i believe, essential to the future of any leftist movement in this country. it's notable as well that these kinds of actions are often the first to be criminalized in cities that actively refuse to humor non-carceral solutions to systemic social problems.

we can't keep doing this leaderless resistance thing. we can't keep pretending like organizing people and making choices on behalf of others is some profound evil to be quashed on sight. how anyone can look at the history of usamerican protest in the 2010s and not conclude that an organized militant vanguard is ESSENTIAL is simply beyond me. sorry babe i know grade school taught you that "dictatorship" is a bad word but we already live in a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and i don't see a solution that doesn't involve building a dictatorship of the proletariat in response. another term for it would be "an actually functional representative democracy that has a mandate to serve the needs of those represented, instead of those of the handful of individuals who are rich enough to afford pretending to represent them."

I do think that US communists should be doing more to engage in mutual aid—just not in the ad hoc disorganized way anarchists suggest. Food banks and meals programs are rather prevalent in US cities, yet also incredibly disorganized and pressed for resources. They are functionally a part of the capitalist system right now, where a portion of the surplus food that would go to waste is distributed to the working poor by means of depoliticized organizations often disconnected from the communities they serve.

Imo, communists could greatly strengthen our connection to the masses by developing a systematized and politicized network of mutual aid, not in place of mass work but as a bridge between the organization’s political work and the lower strata of the working class.

[mitamicah]

confession time: After sleeping on it, I actually think I miss the Joker Out guys a bit more than I miss Jere and crew atm. That might be because it has been longer since I've watched them live comparred to Käärijä ...

... but because of this I'm actually tempted to do something very scandalous *gasp - I know; how nonkääryle of me* and only go for Hamburg tomorrow in hopes that Joker Out will get some Europe dates this fall as well :'D

(and if they don't then I hope the Käärijä shows in germany won't sell out too quickly :'D)

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

Behind every great warrior woman is another woman who is choosing kindness. For now.

[floral-hex]

January 2024: well, I can’t get my antidepressants anymore and this withdrawal makes me want to kill myself. From now on I’ll just raw dog these feelings so I never have to deal with these side effects again.

June 2024: I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. I’m gonna die. The world is ending. We’re all walking through the end times and whether I die soon or the world collapses in on itself, I can feel the simultaneous emptiness and crushing weight of the end. There is nothing.

[gachaparadise]

ahhh the Penacony leaks are really coming in now.

*chuckles* I'm in danger.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

also on the subject of things ive talked about in the past and will not be rehashing here no you figure it out, so we've pointed out before i think that the clans are like, weirdly small. like super small for being the sole inhabitants of the Whole of Hisui? and it's sort of implausible that they would be self sustaining? and we've also talked about the misc theories that there was some kind of war/natural disaster/widespread illness/etc that did a real number on them and was what led to the eventual peace (because they literally couldn't sustain not being at peace anymore).

and i guess this is kind of the obvious corollary to those thoughts but it's never really clicked for me which is that, yeah, of course they're smaller than they should be. they were probably formerly much bigger, but now like 80% of their population, or more, is gone.

which ups the stakes for adaman and irida from "struggling to guide my clan through a rough patch" to "i am the last leader of a dying civilization"

[litreally]

fast fashion is not the brands. its the mindset.

[cyberm0sh]

What an interesting question! I'll humor you.

So, first of all, i’ll answer with the influence of all of my patches and artwork. I don’t consider this patch to be by magnum opus, I made it in approximately 30 minutes while watching YouTube. However, pretty much all my artistic practice does revolve around sustainable clothing, so I think it counts.

Here is a list of every person I have influenced with my art (and keep in mind that I’ve only started making patches with any sort of political purpose in 2025). Names have been changed so I don’t doxx literally everyone I know.

I’ve influenced my friends Cait, Ian, Shaun, and May to start their own patch projects. While I, myself, have also been influenced by some of our mutual friends, their first patches sewn onto their clothing were some of mine. Cait used one of my patches to fix a jacket they thrifted but had a massive gash in its front pocket. Ian is currently making a patch jacket and refreshing a jacket they never really wore and just collected dust in the back of their closet. Shaun is repairing and modifying his favorite flannel that doesn’t fit him anymore, and May is making their own pair of patch pants, and (I think) has revived her enthusiasm for modifying clothes they already have. I have at least 5 other friends who have bought some of my patches and have told me their plan for it (either putting it on a shirt, a pair of shorts, etc), and plenty of other people who have gotten some of my patches. I've also influenced plenty of friends to learn how to mend their clothing.

I’ve attended local sewing and craft events and sold some to a few people. I also operate on a PWYC model so that my stuff is affordable and accessible to those who don’t have a ton of cash. I also accept cloth donations in exchange for patches. So far, I’ve repurposed around 15 pairs of old pants into patches. (yay recycling! How's that for tangible impact?)

My friends and I (some of whom have literally been the inspiration for the patch you’re mad about, since they made it for their own pants years ago) have organized clothing exchanges to get new clothes more sustainably and cheaply, cutting out the middleman (for-profit thrift stores)

Art can serve multiple purposes. It’s a conversation starter, it looks cool, it makes people happy, it normalizes certain positions. In this case, it’s doing a lot of these things at once. In the same way that saying Free Palestine and that trans people deserve to exist normalizes these things and makes them a stance that has weight, the same goes for these kinds of statements. It states that this form of overconsumption is not something normal to be accepted. It affirms that you don’t have this god-given right to consume and exploit others’ labor.

Inb4 anyone tries to argue “oh well fast fashion is more accessible and cheaper!!” shut up oh my god listen to yourself. First of all, have you ever felt a fast fashion garment? It’s garbage. That shit breaks so easily. This is not clothing meant to be useful and it is an insult to everyone's intelligence to even argue that it could be. And don’t even try to tell me y’all will repair it when it breaks I know y’all aren’t. Also wildly capitalist of you to even try and argue that exploiting someone else’s labor should be your right. Buy secondhand, consume less, repair what you have, locate the resources available to you. Ridiculous that this is still a talking point.

Anyways. I’d guess that I’ve probably influenced around 40 people (very conservative estimate, this excludes anyone i have not directly spoken to about my patches) in my immediate social circles to be more mindful with their consumption choices? With maybe 50 minutes (including painting and the time taken to stitch the patch to my clothing)? I'd argue it's worth my time.

How many have you influenced by yelling into the void?

patches i have made recently!!

second patch’s font is directly based on shein’s font, first one is improvised by me (i’d say freehand but that shit was not freehand i did like 3 sketches before moving to fabric)

feel free to save and directly copy my shit (though i’d also love to see it if you make them :)! )

[niuxita21]

Juan Carlos doesn’t believe me that we’re a couple. I know, Pablo doesn’t believe me, either. That’s why I think you should move in with me, that way they would have no choice but to believe us. [beat] I’m sorry, I know I was insensitive. I know you were really excited about Ferrán and you’re having a really hard time letting him go. But we have two very important reasons. We can’t split them up. We’re a family, regardless of who likes it. I know it’s been really hard for both of us having to lie to the people we love the most. Remember when our only choice was to be apart for a year. Yes, you’re right. I owe you an apology, too. I am willing to stick to the plan for our family. Thank you. I promise not to try to control everything and to trust you. 

[scientia-rex]

A lot of younger people have no idea what aging actually looks and feels like, and the reasons behind it. That ignorance is so dangerous. If you don’t want to “be old,” you aren’t talking about a number of years. I have patients in their late 80s who could still handily beat me in a race—one couple still runs marathons together, in their late 80s—and I lost someone who was in her early 60s to COPD last year. What you want is not youth, it is health.

If you want to still be able to enjoy doing things in your 60s and 70s and 80s and even 90s, what you want to do, right now, is quit smoking, get some activity on a regular basis (a couple of walks a week is WAY better for you than nothing; increasing from 1 hour a day of cardio to 1.5 will buy you very little), and eat some plants. That’s it. No magic to it. No secret weird tricks. Don’t poison yourself, move around so your body doesn’t forget how, and eat plants.

If you have trouble moving around now because of mobility limitations, bad news: you still need to move around, not because it’s immoral not to, but because that’s still the best advice we have. I highly recommend looking up the Sit and Be Fit series; it is freely available and has exercises that can be done in a chair, which are suitable for people with limited mobility or poor balance. POTS sufferers, I’m looking at you.

If you have trouble eating plants because of dietary issues (they cause gas, etc.) or just because they’re bitter (super taster with texture issues here!), bad news. You still want to find a way to get some plants into your body on a regular basis. I know. It sucks. The only way I can do it is restaurants—they can make salads taste like food. I can also tolerate some bagged salads. On bad weeks, the OCD with contamination focus gets so bad I just can’t. However, canned beans always seem “safe,” and they taste a bit like candy, so they’re a good fallback.

If you smoke and you have tried quitting a million times and you’re just not ready to, bad news. You still need to quit. Your body needs you to try and keep trying. Your brain needs it, too. Damaging small blood vessels racks up cumulative damage over time that your body can start trying to reverse as soon as you quit. I know it’s insanely, absurdly addictive. You still need to.

You cannot rules lawyer your way past your body’s basic needs. It needs food, sleep, activity, and the absence of poison. Those are both small things and big asks. You cannot sustain a routine based on punishment, so don’t punish your body. Find ways to include these things that are enjoyable and rewarding instead. Experiment. There is no reason not to experiment—you don’t have to know instantly what’s going to work for you and what won’t, you just need to be willing to try things and make changes when things aren’t working for you.

You will still age. Your body will stop making collagen and elastin. Tissues you can see and tissues you can’t see will both sag. Cushioning tissues under your skin will get thinner. You’ll bruise more easily. Skin will tear more easily. Accumulated sun damage will start to show more and more. Joints will begin to show arthritis. Tendons and ligaments will get weaker and get injured more easily, as will muscles. Bones will lose mass and get easier to break. You’ll get tired more easily.

But you know what makes the difference between being dead, or as good as, in your 60s vs your 90s? Activity, plants, and quitting smoking. And don’t do meth. Saw a 58-year-old guy this week who is going to have a heart attack if he doesn’t quit whatever stimulant he’s on. I pretended to believe it was just the cigarettes, and maybe it is, but meth and cocaine will kill you quicker. Stop poisoning yourself.

Baby steps; take it one step at a time; you don’t need to have everything figured out right now. But you do need to be working on figuring things out.

[astrxlfinale]

"That. Is a trick question. You'll just have to see what your own taste come to be with the lil guys, won't you?"

Something in his gut tells him to expressly have her avoid that-- 'interesting', pain loving Bangboo that lurks around Lumina Square. It's a rare change of pace where he'd come to follow such a thought without question.

When rent joints the equation, a thought hum eases from the Champion's chest. Its good to see that thoughtfulness of her's remained a vibrant quality. "Sharp eye. I've been considering a few ideas, mainly due to your situation not exactly being the norm." Her time with Baddieboo and their clearly growing ego offered up some time.

An idea doesn't take long to actually strike. Despite this being more goal driven for her sustainment, Lighter's overview on the matter was a bit broader.

"How about this? First two weeks you'll have me covering the cost. But, we'll have to get'cha some more hands on work so you can get a better lay of the land 'round here. Won't be having ya bored outta your wits with a desk job."

In fact, that idea begins to snowball once he notices just how apt she is with her picture taking quality.

"We need to make sure that there's clues discovered on not just how you got here, but reversing the traces to get'cha in contact with your people. So, we're gonna work up a lil test to see how you fare in those Hollows tomorrow. And hey, if things go right in that regard?"

"How would you like to earn your Dennies through those camera skills of yours?" Getting accurate perspectives, and the sight of more visualized landmarks in those zones would be pretty lucrative."

Eh nah. Truly an adorable sound for an adorable little guy. And he seemed to love taking pictures as well! This was truly perfect! Picture after picture of him posing would be snapped, her heart beat so fast seeing this and she couldn't stop her smile from spreading seeing him.

It seems that the Baddieboo and March, while not on same wavelength, at least were thinking very similarly of the situation. That it was a good moment right now.

"Baddieboo? But he is so adorable?" His warning about not letting the ego shoot too much to its head fell on deaf ears though. She watched the Baddieboo walk aside a bit, over to some broken bike. She followed him a bit more closely as she made sure to keep an ear out for what Lighter was actually telling her. Just after snapping a few photos with her camera-

"Well I hope you're not gonna shove me in a bo- why are you laughing...? Actually never mind, I bet I don't want to hear it." She snapped another picture and briefly turned her attention away from her adorable Baddieboo friend.

"Modern day city?" Hmm...so maybe something like the Loufu? That would make sense, though maybe less flying ships. Penacony was probably unrealistic to expect so something more lowkey. She gave a nod as her mind settled on a few places it could match, then she just imagine a few of those black holes nearby.

"So they have nice stores? Oh do they have more of these little bangboos? Are they as adorable as him?" She gave a point in the direction of the Baddieboo who seemed to take a lot of pride in being seen as adorable, even if charming was perhaps what he was going for more. He puffed his chest out a bit to show said pride and Marchie quickly snapped another picture of him.

"Also uh...how will I handle rent here? Based on you alone I don't think being a cute girl is enough to give me a free appartment, or else I'd probably see a lot more of cute girls walking around here."

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

wait, Derin how did your leaving make the hospital shut down?

I used to work as a live-in nanny for a pediatrician.

Now, the thing about hospitals in my country is that they are massively understaffed and massively underfunded. This is especially true outside the major cities. The staff are worked to the bone and receive little to no help in things like finding accommodation or childcare, making working in rural areas a very uninviting prospect; staff come out here, get lumped with the work of three people (because there's nobody else to do it), burn out under the workload and leave, meaning that those remaining have even more work because that person is gone. It's unsustainable and the medical staff are doing their best to sustain it, because people die if they don't, so to the higher-ups it looks like everything's getting done and therefore everything is fine.

My friend (and boss) worked one week on, one week off, swapping out with another pediatrician. This was necessary because it would not be physically possible for one person to handle the workload for longer periods of time. The one single pediatrician had to hold up the entire pediatrics ward, which was not only the only public hospital pediatrics ward in our town, but also the one that served all the towns around us for a few hours' drive in all directions. I regularly saw her go to work sick, aching, tired, or with a debilitating 'I can barely make words or see' level migraine, because if she took a day off, twenty children didn't get healthcare that day, and some of these kids' appointments were scheduled weeks in advance. She'd work long hours in the day and then be called in a couple of times overnight for an hour or two at a time (she was on-call at night too, because somebody had to be), and then go in the next day. Sometimes she would be forced to take a day off because she physically could not stay awake for longer than a few minutes at a time, meaning she couldn't drive to work.

Cue my niece's second birthday coming up in Melbourne. I'd been working for her for about 3 years, and she (and the hospital) had plenty of advance warning that I (and therefore she) needed one (1) Friday off. That's fine, we'll find someone to work that Friday, the hospital said. Right up until the last week where they're like "oh, we can't find a replacement; you can come in, can't you?"

No, she tells them; I don't have anyone to watch my kid that day.

Oh, surely you can hire a babysitter for this one day, they say. Think of the children! We really really need you to work that day. I know we said it'd be fine but we need you now, there's no one else to do it.

There are no other babysitters, she told them. Unless you can find one?

That's not our responsibility, they said.

But I'm not changing my plans, she's got plans by now as well, the hospital knew about this one day weeks in advance, and with absolutely no reserve staff they're forced to reschedule all pediatrics appointments for that Friday. Not a huge deal, it happens on the 'physically too overworked to get out of bed' days too. I go to Melbourne, she goes back to her home in Adelaide for her recovery week, all should be on track.

My niece gives me Covid.

This was way back in the first wave of the pandemic, and there were no Covid vaccines yet. The rules were isolate, mask up, hope. I had Covid in the house, and it would've been madness for my friend and her toddler to come back into the Covid house instead of staying in Adelaide. There was absolutely no way that a pediatrician could live with someone in quarantine due to Covid and go to work in the hospital with sick children every day. And no support existed for finding another babysitter, or temporary accommodation, so the hospital was down a pediatrician.

The other pediatrician wasn't available to do a three-week stint. They were also trapped in Adelaide on their well-earned week off.

Meaning that the only major pediatrics ward within a several-hour radius had no pediatricians. They had to shut down and send all urgent cases to Adelaide for the week. To the complete absence of surprise of any of the doctors or nurses; of course this would happen, this was bound to happen, it presumably keeps happening. But probably to the surprise of the higher-ups. After all, the hospital was doing fine, right? Of course all the staff were complaining of overwork and a lack of resources in every meeting, but they could always be fobbed off with the promise of more help sometime in the future; the work was mostly getting done, so the issue couldn't be too urgent.

It's not like some nanny who doesn't even work for the hospital could go out of town for a weekend for the first time in three years, and get the only public pediatrics ward in the area shut down for a week.