#bartle frere

[hladky]

Bartle Frere QLD, 2021 website / instagram / blog

[undisputedlegal]

BA pilot accused of child sex offences ‘used his job to meet under-age boys around world,’ court told

BA pilot accused of child sex offences ‘used his job to meet under-age boys around world,’ court told

By: Rod Minchin

A British Airways pilot used his job flying passengers around the world to meet under-age boys and lavish them with money and gifts, a court was told.

Bartle Frere is accused of “arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence” against boys in India, as well as abusing two boys in the UK.

A jury at Bournemouth Crown Court was told that detectives uncovered…

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[ascendingthestateeight-blog]

Who am I, and why do I want to climb the State Eight?

Who am I? Hello there, my name is Alexandria. I'm 21 years old and from Gippsland, Victoria in Australia. My family and I moved here in 2008, from a small country town called Alexandra, for dad's work. It was convenient - I'd just finished high school, my sister was moving into VCE and my brother was about to begin high school.

Like most stories, my inspiration to climb the state eight goes way back.

The Past When I was 13, I first noticed signs of depression and anxiety. I didn't tell anyone though - I kept it deep inside, in fear of how people would react, or fear of scaring my family. Things went on from year 7, until year 11, getting worse each year because of bullying and poor self image. In year 11, with help from friends, I managed to tell my parents a little of what was going on, and I started seeing a psychologist. I got through year 12 fine, doing really well on my exams. Things weren't too bad then.

That was when we moved here. Something changed then. I was 17 when I first attempted suicide. I was in my hometown of Alexandra, at a friends party, and I took at overdose. My friends noticed something was wrong, and after a while, got me talking. An ambulance was called, and I was taken to Melbourne. After a night in the Emergency Department, I was moved to Stepping Stones Adolescent Psychiatric Ward. I didn't stay long, as I was almost 18 which was the cut off for the patients of that ward.

A couple of weeks after I came home from hospital, one the Black Saturday Fires happened. They burnt out the towns around our current house, and completely burnt down the towns surrounding Alexandra (Marysville, Narbethong). My friends lost their houses and people I knew died. It was a shock.

Around the same time, I started changing even more - I started experiencing intense psychosis.

I began seeing not only a psychologist, but also a psychiatrist. Six month later, I had my first trip to the adolescent psychiatric ward at the Latrobe Regional Hospital. It would be the first trip of many. Around this time was the first time I heard the term "Borderline Personality Disorder". I'd never heard of it, and had no idea what it was, but it sounded scary.

In between then and now, I've made 8 trips back to the Flynn Psychiatric Ward, and have attempted suicide 3 more times, with two of them leaving me on life support. I also piled on a lot of weight - I went from an overweight 72kg to a morbidly obese 101.5kg.

I started 3 university courses, and had to leave them all due to not being able to cope with the stress. That being said, I completed Certificate III in Education Support, and am currently going through Disability Services to complete Animal Studies and Veterinary Nursing.

The Current Overly the past year, I've been working at losing weight. I managed to get down to 78kg, but now am back up to 87kg and working hard to move down. I am in therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder (which I've been diagnosed with for four years now), depression, anxiety, psychosis and Adjustment Disorder. I take antipsychotics (400mg +200mg PRN of Seroquel) and antidepressants (60mg of Avanza) daily, and we're still working on finding the right dosage. I see a case manager weekly, who is really helpful in getting me socially involved in things.

In regards to my dad, he has also put on quite a bit of weight since we moved here. When we were younger, he started up Little Athletics in our town, and got over 200 children to become active. But it's been a while since he's been active.

What This Has To Do With Climbing The State Eight? Our motivation comes from a few different places. 

For me, climbing the state eight is not only a great adventure, but I can prove to myself that I am capable of pushing myself - that I'm capable of great things. Climbing the state eight is my way of pushing past those mental barriers that I've put up in the past, and believing in myself. Another aspect is for my health. Currently, I exercise 5 days a week (3 days cardio, 2 days strength) at the gym. But I've never really had a goal, apart from weight loss. Knowing that we're going to climb up these incredible places gives me something to work to; something to put my mind to. I can train hard, knowing that it's going to be so rewarding to reach the peak.

For my dad, he's always liked challenging himself, and the outdoors. He often goes up to the mountains for hunting, or just for the sake of it. He's climbed Australia's tallest peak with my mother, before I was born. He originally asked her if she wanted to do the state eight, but she wasn't interested. So he asked me. Like me, he's interested in not only losing the weight, but getting to a good level of fitness. And this entire thing will be a challenge unlike any he's set himself.

So where to from now? We're still very much in the planning stage - it could be up to a year before we climb the first mountain (which will most likely be Mount Bogong of Victoria). We're both planning on upping our exercise to try and get much fitter for our first hike. It will take us a number of years to climb all 8, but it's a great thing to work towards.

What will this blog be for? Here I'll be documenting our planning, and training towards our state eight climbing. And of course, when the time comes, I'll document our hikes.

That's it! If you read through all that, well done! I know it was a lot to read, but I wanted to give you the full background so that you know our motivation and why it's such a big things for us to complete. Thank you.