Animal Cruelty Fuelled by The Tourist Industry...

For a close friend's family, it's a yearly tradition to fly over to Bali for a few weeks in Summer... They love it over there because they get to be "up close" with animals we don't have over here in Australia... Elephants and monkeys, mainly...
I understand that, wanting to be able to touch one, feed one, get a photo taken with one... But when the baby elephant is on a chain, giving children rides on its back... Or when the little monkey has its fur styled and is dressed in a tuxedo...

Does no-one think where these animals go when the tourists go home, or how they're treated? Everyone wants to buy into the market so that they can touch these animals, but are they consciously turning a blind eye to the abuse these animals face when they're not on display for everyone to see? I'm sure that monkey doesn't especially like wearing clothes, and I'm sure the baby elephant doesn't especially like having 2-5 children on its back at a time.

I'm not sure if there are people you can report these "businesses" to, but if there are, why aren't these places shut down already? Is the government turning a blind eye too?

Sometimes it seems like I'm the only person who sees anything wrong with a little monkey dressed in a tuxedo...

What do you think?

Some changes...

Things are changing around here... And lately, those changes are negatively effecting my schedules. For the first time in 5 or so months, I don't feel like journalling, and I don't feel like exercising, and I don't feel like doing anything except sleeping, or maybe watching TV... I feel tired all the time, and my energy levels are really low, despite my scheduled healthy diet. I've cut back on sugars quite a bit, and upped my water intake to 2 Litres per day... 3 Litres on workout days. But I got sick a few weeks ago, and then suddenly got significantly better... So I didn't end up booking that doctor's appointment... Maybe I should have. Maybe the illness is back, and it's attacking me in some other way this time. Whatever this is, I don't like it, and I would very much like to get back to my health schedule and feel great again.

In the last 2 months, I've been working my ass off... Literally... And because I journal every day, it's easy for me to track my progress and stay motivated. I don't have scales, so I can't weigh myself, but I have definition where I've never had definition before, and my waist, thighs and arms are considerably thinner than they were before I started. Almost halved. My health goals are still far to go, but I feel like lately I've been going backwards...because of this no-energy-let-me-sleep feeling...

I'm booking an appointment for next week... I'm going to get a general check-up done... Blood tests, etc... I just want to make sure that whatever this is isn't going to kill me... Because, honestly... I feel like it probably could. That's how actually shit I'm feeling at the moment. (Excuse my colourful language)

Back on the topic of journalling... (And yes, I will be doing lots of posts on my journals soon, when I get my shit together... because my camera broke, and now all I have to use is an old scanner... Grr...) I've just finished my second journal, and started my third...
I like to do daily updates on my life in my journals... Goals, to-do lists, what I saw, where I went... That kind of thing... But lately, I've been feeling like maybe it's not enough for me anymore... I'm toying with the idea of starting an art journal. I think it could be interesting.

For now, though... I will continue with my daily journalling, and hopefully meditation and some light exercise will make me feel a bit better... (I want to blog more often. I really, really do. I have some great blog post ideas written down. I just want to focus on getting better first.)

I hope your 2015 has been great so far, lovelies. Until this week, mine has been fantastic. Wishing you all the best for February, and I hope my illness doesn't spread to you through cyberspace... xo