It’s day one of my 3-day water fast and I’m up for work on this brisk Monday morning. There’s a coldness in the air that reminds you that winter is slowly creeping in on us here in Australia. And it’s Monday. The day that almost every living soul on Earth dreads…
Except those times that you are self-isolating… then Mondays are rad because you get to leave the house!
I count my lucky stars that I am one of the fortunate ones out there that is still able to work in these times, where so many others can’t due to the dumb virus getting about. Or 5G technology and Bill Gates…depends who you talk to.
Surprisingly, I’m feeling pretty good for a Monday morning, which is unusual especially because I’m not having my usual morning coffee to start the day, due to the fast.
The pic below is an actual photo of me waking up for work last Tuesday morning after the Easter long weekend break…
The Feeling Of Control
A few hours into the morning and I feel as though I am in a relaxed, happy mood and I think the reason for this is that I feel like I have accomplished something just for making the decision to fast for the next 3 days.
Just simply getting up and not making my usual coffee is already giving me a sense of self-control back. I would usually stop and have another latte for smoko around 9:30-10 and I am usually craving this strongly most mornings, but today was not the case.
I just pull over somewhere in the truck and have my break just sipping on some “infused” water. It’s just water with one of those teabag type things that has dried fruit and/or herbs, which gives the water a subtle taste. Because water is boring n all…
The water infuser thingies would be lucky if they add 1 calorie to your water, so it will not affect the fast in any way.
Afternoon Slump
Somewhere around 12:30-1pm, I start to feel a bit drowsy and bleh.. I get a slight headache and feeling a bit fuzzy in general. This is all very common during a fast and is to be expected, so I am not surprised. I have written about this experience in other posts.
I combat this by getting out of the truck and having a bit of walk around during my lunch break, which helps a lot. I mean, it’s not like I was wasting my lunch break on say….eating lunch or something?
It’s certainly an advantage being a truck driver and having a little bit of freedom to have your breaks when you feel like it, rather than a set time.
Hepatitis Blues
So, as I work in the waste industry and have just started a new job, part of the medical check was to make sure my Hep A and B immunity was still OK, by getting a blood test.
Well, I didn’t really know that at the time, I just thought I was getting a booster shot for Hep A and B so I was a bit confused when she started to put the tourniquet thing around my arm.
I didn’t tell her that I was fasting, so I hope this doesn’t affect anything, but it did seem to take a little while to fill the vial which could mean that my blood pressure was down a bit, but we got there in the end.
The real disappointment hit when I realized that I wasn’t going to receive some sort of prize for my bravery, so I put my sunglasses on to hide my tears as I leave.
Self-Distancing Confusion
It’s worth talking about the confusion that ensued in the waiting room on the pathology place with regard to the self-distancing guidelines, which just added awkwardness to the situation.
As I walk in there is a sign that says that only 4 people can be in the waiting room at a time, but you don’t really know how many people are in there until you open the door and do a head count. One, two, three, yes! I’m in!
I sneak past two guys trying to not get in their space and find somewhere to stand. There is a couple of lines of tape on the floor of where to stand, a set of bench seats where most of them have signs on them saying you can’t sit there and a couple of single chairs on two of the other walls.
There was no one manning the reception desk, so the three of us fellas are just standing there a couple of meters apart from each other wondering whether to sit or stand or what?
A couple of minutes later, a young lady pops her head in, does the head count and walks in. But as she goes through, she sees the numbers on the bench and takes one.
It now becomes apparent that we were all supposed to take a number and sit in one of the 4 
available seats in the room and wait until someone comes out to see us and serves us in number order.
Now, we are all standing there thinking that this lady was going to go ahead of us because she is the only one with a number. No-one says anything, but we all are thinking it.
At this point I ask the guys if they had taken a number and the older fella says, “No, we all know what order we were here. It’s all up the shit now ” Older men certainly have a way with words…haha….
To complicate things even more, a woman in her 80’s accompanied by her daughter, who would be in her 50’s starts to come in to the waiting room, which would bring the total to 6 in the room, so this was going to cause a problem. At this point the older fella says, “Bugger this!” and leaves in a huff and the older woman sits down.
Finally, someone comes out and asks, “who is next, please?” Despite already waiting for about 20minutes, the guy who is first in line does the nice thing of letting the older woman go first and she goes through.
This prompts the only lady in the room who grabbed a number on entry to ask me the time. “1:48” I say. To which she replies something like “oh. I need to go to…” and mumbles something as she walks out. I never did find out where she had to be, but I can only assume that she knew she was in for a long wait and wasn’t up for it today and puts her number back on the bench on the way out.
Just as she walks out another woman walks in a picks up the number that the previous woman had put down….ahh…ffs… Who would have thought a trip to the pathology would be so eventful and awkward?
Anyway, it worked out OK in the end. The guy that was in there first went in and then I did and everyone was happy and even though I was in that waiting room for 45minutes, I didn’t care because I was on work time!
There are 2 morals to this story. The first is pay attention to what’s going on around you, especially in waiting rooms, where there may be a waiting room number system. The second is for China, please do us a favor and… STOP EATING BATS!!!
Tomorrow is a new day which should not include any awkward waiting room situations. Bring it on!
