My MS
by Ian Heydon

I got to know Kevin Rudd pretty well when he was PM – I wrote stuff for Rudd impersonator Chris de Havilland (photo) and Dave Prior and I got two songs out of him. IMHO he should not be allowed another tilt at running the country. Yes, he was knifed, but only because he was loathed and hopeless.

As Mark Latham once said (to Rudd’s face as well), Rudd’s rise through the Labor ranks was solely due to him being popular with people who had never actually met him.

My take on K. Rudd… a demanding, flaky, sly, egotistical, visionless pratt. The only benefit for Australia to reinstate him would be to see Malcolm Turnbull also rise from the ashes.  I’d like Gillard take on Tony Abbott at the next election – and if she falls, Bill Shorten would be much better than a return to Rudd.

There’s a saying that you “don’t ‘get’ MS until you get MS”.  I can assure you that is the truth coz I had no idea what it was all about when I had a full serving of myelin, but the way of describing it by another MSer yesterday may be a tad drastic… put on a pair of blurry glasses… then put a diving boot on one foot and a stiletto on the other, then put on a pair of gardening gloves before buttoning up a shirt.  A tad drastic, but surely you could market that as a fun drinking game???

(Thanks to Todd from MS T-shirts for the slogan!)

Mummy eagle pushed out an egg to a viewing audience of 42,588 – here’s the live link -Apparently they take it in turns to sit on the egg while the other goes and gets food. That’s nice parenting, letting the other nip down to the ‘shops’ for an outing…

Hmm… got some space so, Tim Vine joke… “Conjunctivitis.com – that’s a site for sore eyes.”

Gorgeous dog and fabulous photo – Professional Pooch Portrayer, Eli, snapped this entrant in the UP200 – which stands for Upper Peninsula (Michigan) 200. Two hundred sled dogs (mushers) compete over 240 miles and this year the first prize is $7200 – for the eyes alone, go you good thing!

I love creative nicknames. I just read in Peter FitzSimon’s SMH column that English footballer, Fitz Hall, has the nickname “One Size” – that’s up there with John “Nobody” Eales (nobody’s perfect), “Waltzing” Matt Hilder and Javed “Dave” Miandad (say the surname slowly). And English league player Martin Offiah got “Chariots” on his home turf but when in Australia he got “Great Balls”.

PS – for the non-Aussies, Javed Miandad is a former Pakistani cricketer and Dad & Dave were famous Australian fictitious characters – so, “Me and Dad”…

Here is a bit of fun for Chez, hubby and friends who are cruising to Vanuatu at the end of the month – it’s a ‘blog’ by a couple of fictitious characters from Melbourne called Dawn & Gav who ‘did’ Vanuatu a while ago.  Jenny Gray played Dawn… her partner, Michael, took the photos… and I don’t know who Gav is.  It was part of a promotion for Vanuatu Tourism at the time.  Here’s the link.

Floor 103, Chicago…

From the outside…

Now, re vertigo and MS – I have done the Sydney Harbour Bridgeclimb pre MS, easy – but this makes me uneasy…

As does this for some strange reason…