• Daily Life,  Disability,  Thoughts

    Return to Work

    I have always been a company man and upheld the best interest of the company. After my injury and return to work despite informing HR staff of every passing stage I was going through I realised it was just going in one ear and out the other as they “knew what was best for me” I was to return to a section that was in a building I could not get to due to staircases (wheelchairs don’t climb steps) so I was to return to the front counter of Lost Property. I actually felt like I was lost property. I could not see myself in this or the other department…

  • Daily Life

    TIME WORTH $86,400

    Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every dollar, of course! Each of us has such a bank.  Its name is TIME. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off. You have lost whatever of this that you have failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains…

  • Daily Life,  Disability

    Human Rights Commission National Press Club

    Australian Human Rights Commission Professor Gillian Triggs, President Address to the National Press Club, Canberra I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak at the National Press Club here in Canberra about a topic that is of vital importance to journalists, freedom of speech and the unprecedented very public debate termed the ‘freedom wars’. In doing so, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand and pay respect to the elders past and present. As journalists, freedom of expression is crucial to your ability to scrutinise the political process. You are more aware than most that this freedom is a fragile flower to be nurtured.…

  • Daily Life,  Thoughts

    A Story to Live By

      There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, ‘If I could only see the world, I will marry you.’ One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend. He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected that. The thought of looking at them the…

  • Daily Life

    Life is a Gift

    Before you complain about the taste of your food – Think of someone who has nothing to eat. Today before you complain about life – Think of someone who died too early on this earth. Before you complain about your children – Think of someone who desires children but they’re barren. Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn’t clean or sweep – Think of the people who are living in the streets. Before whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet. And when you are tired and complain about your job – Think of the unemployed, the disabled, and…

  • Bravery,  Thoughts

    ACCC Chairman – Not Me!!!

    By the response I am getting it is clear people either can’t read or are visually impaired. Let me see if I can help future inquiries. My name is Graeme Samuels BM. That’s Samuel with an “S” The BM is my legal postnominals (Bravery Medal) Now I maybe a chairman and in fact I am in a chair! Wheelchair that is ..lol BUT I am not the chairman of the ACC (Australian Competition An Consumer Commission) This dude is Graeme Samuel AC (notice no “S” after Samuel ) or did you? Now be honest as you probably wouldn’t be here or still reading this if you weren’t!!! Please stop reading…

  • Bravery,  Daily Life,  Thoughts

    PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

    I am asked if I suffer PTSD or depression. When my injury first happened I was just to overwhelmed with what was going on to dwell over what happened to me. I was a very health person and very rarely ever visited a doctor and to be laid out on a bed in the most pain I have ever been in my life while a bunch of Doctors poke and prod me was more devastating than the injury. The slightest movement of even the bed sheet was enough to send me of the deep end. All I wanted to do was to get out of the hospital. Within 5 days…

  • Daily Life

    Daily Life

    Each morning I wake I think to myself how lucky I am to live another day. Once you have mortality thrown in your face you suddenly appreciate how good it is just to be alive . My daily life: I wake to a body that does not want to bend and pain racing through my body. To me this is the norm and it’s just a matter of  forcing yourself mentally and physically. Hot water of a good shower and it’s back to bed and get myself dressed, into my chair. Then put my shower chair  away, medications, coffee, feed the dog and collect all my digital media devices .…

  • Disability

    Shame on You

    Last week my K9 mate Tommy and I visited my Mum at Tweed Heads near Queensland boarder. I had not seen my Mum since she moved there last year and I also wanted to see if her house was accessible for her and me to visit. Mum lives in a retirement village with small shopping centre just accross the the street. The village was very nice and friendly people in the Village. The Sunshine was great but 99% humidity I can do without. I took my 86 year old Mum over to go food shopping and the only wheelchair accessible parking spot was taken by a builders van with a…

  • Bravery

    BRAVE by Mark Whittaker

    Recommend this book. It is well worth the read. These people reflect and give hope for what being an Australian really means. Chapter 20 or 21 if your looking for me. Would you squeeze your way into a shoulder-width, pitch-dark stormwater drain to rescue a kid as it flooded? Would you knowingly cop a 20,000 volt electric shock to save a friend and his child? Would you swim out from the beach to rescue a man bitten by a five-metre white pointer, while the shark is still circling him? Would you run into the carnage of a burning Bali nightclub to save people when anyone who can still walk is…