Epidemic

The last time this bear got on an aeroplane for no reason at all other than the pursuit of leisure was July 2005. I remember it well... I was in Miami, had a week to kill, and shuffled myself off to Club Med Martinique for a week.

So today, dear reader, is a very historic day. I'm officially on 'holidays', and in about two hours, I fly off to Fiji (sans mobile phone) to sit under a palm tree, read a book, play a bit of tennis, play even less golf and generally do nothing much at all.

Like any workaholic, I'm a little nervous about this. I understand there is risk of serious and permanent brain damage. Dr J says the medical name for it is SLOW or Sudden Leisure Onset Wellness. It's characterised by an overwhelming sense of "couldn't care less", and an inability to see the urgency in any task at all. She said it's impossible to go to the tropics without being exposed to it, and millions of people around the world have undiagnosed SLOW.

She's not all that familiar with it... she doesn't see many cases in her practice, but one of her colleagues, now working in Brisneyland, a large city on the south eastern corner of Queensland, sees it there in epidemic proportions.

He says it's the unsung global pandemic and laments that it's a condition that doesn't get the attention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ah well. If I'm somehow "different" when I get back, you'll know why, and you'll be able to go out and start warning your friends of the dangers of this insidious condition.