Article: Colour

Colour Coded Chaos

Being red/green colour blind was genetic gift passed to Julian Ledlin from his grandfather. His take on how he has navigated life, including an early career as a graphic designer of all things, with his ‘gift’, is amusingly recounted here.

Here is a sample from the Ishihara colour blind test. Colour normal people will see the number 6. Julian sees nothing.

Biting into an unripe banana is not a pleasant experience. When ripe, bananas are a sublime feat of nature: creamy texture, sweet aroma, they’re the perfect mid-morning pick-me-up and they come neatly sealed within their own ergonomic packaging. The unripe banana, however, is the bad boy of the fruit bowl. As soon as you bite into one of these firm, green monsters, a horseman of the apocalypse bolts loose. Woody, stringy and strangely chemically, but you knew what you were in for when you started peeling it… But by then it was too late. Everybody knows that once you’ve started on that impossible peel you can’t just leave it for a couple of days to ripen, you have to fall on your sword and finish it there and then.

“But what did you expect, peeling a green banana?” I hear you ask. Well, I, along with 8% of the world’s male population and 0.5% of the female population, am red / green colour blind. We are the colour-challenged minority in a very colour-centric world. We see little difference, if any, between a green banana and a yellow one. It’s a case of peel at your own peril. Roll the dice and hope like crazy Lady Luck is in your corner. And it doesn’t stop at bananas, cooking takes on a myriad potential kitchen catastrophes. Is that meat cooked? Are the onions brown? What about the potatoes? Are they green and poisonous? Or yellow and delicious?

A colour blind person is unable to fully see red, green or blue light, thus distinguishing between most colours can be very tricky. My colour blind buddies and I quietly eat unripe bananas way more often than we’d like to. We smile and nod supportively when people go on about the “stunning pinks” and “vibrant reds” of sunsets. And while rainbows are said to project the entire colour spectrum into the sky, we see a simple blue and yellow stripe in the shape of a very big arch, which I have to admit is pretty impressive. Double rainbow? Now you’re talking.

I fudged a career in television as a graphic designer for two decades. No-one ever knew my dirty little secret. I pretended to know what I was talking about when it came to knowing which colour was what. I relied on the power of suggestion and vague, open-ended questions. I’d let my more “colour-able” co-workers fill in the gaps… much like the way a psychic operates. All of us colour blind folk have varying survival tricks and techniques to help us slink by as undetected as possible. Sometimes though, you have to drop the act and lean on people like shop assistants for accurate colour information. Usually for me, this happens in the fruit shop, sometimes the clothes shop. Apparently, I have bought some very loud fashion items in my time, but what you don’t know won’t hurt you right? Wrong. Sooner or later, someone from colour-correct law enforcement feels compelled to tell you how bright a particular shirt is. Like it’s hurting their eyeballs and they risk being permanently blinded if you continue to wear it. Some people are profoundly unoriginal.

Day to day life constantly throws up seemingly minor challenges for my colour-challenged cohort. In Royal North Shore Hospital the other day I was instructed to take the red lift, NOT the green lift to level 9. The green lift only went to level 6, the red one went to 9… with no-one around to ask for help as I approached some colourful lifts, internal chaos ensued, and getting to level 9 played out like a cheaply written sitcom. Thankfully it wasn’t an emergency, it’s a relief to know that area of the hospital is not mapped out with a trail of colour coded breadcrumbs. Speaking of mapping… The keys down the side of most topographic maps resemble the indistinguishable plethora of “green options” on a Taubman’s paint chart. Put a colour blind guy in charge of your four wheel drive adventure and the rescue chopper will be circling in no time.

Maps are tricky. One morning, during the recent lockdown, I spent way too long trying to work out if I lived in a red zone or a green zone. Do I go to work or not? An hour passes with me sweating over a murky looking map of Sydney that “highlighted” the Covid-19 hotspots. The phone rings. “Julian, where are you? You’re supposed to be at work.”

Deuteranomaly and Protanopia are forms of red / green colour blind. Tritanopia is blue / yellow colour blind.

“Sorry,” I say. “Slept in.” Colour blind bullets are always flying, you’ve always got to be ready to duck and weave! I race off to work, trusting that my boss has perfect colour vision and can read that frustrating map just fine.

If you’re courageous enough to reveal your colour blindness to someone, you can guarantee you’ll be asked the dreaded “what-colour-is-this” question: “Oh you’re red / green colour blind! Wow! What colour is this then?” Usually, they are pointing to the brightest red thing they can see. “Red,” you say, going off experience. “It IS red,” they say, excitedly. “Are you sure you’re colour blind?” It’s then you smile despairingly as you quietly recall to yourself the six unripe bananas you’ve peeled in the last month. “Yep, I’m pretty sure,” you say.

Careers for my colour-defective comrades can be a bit of a minefield. As a fifteen-year-old I desperately wanted to be a cop. I turned up to the police open day with the next 50 years mapped out in my head. I had my sights set on that gold watch and I’d take down some bad guys along the way. Within ten minutes of meeting with one of the constables, my hopes and dreams of donuts and stakeouts were shattered with four sombre words: “Colour blind? Sorry mate.”

Now I’m older, I get it. You need to know what colour hoodie the suspect was wearing… green? possibly light red? maybe burnt orange? Kinda rusty looking? Forget the hoodie, he had brown hair, could have been ginger, maybe strawberry blonde? Complications would then be amplified if you were to join the bomb squad and a wire needed to be cut. Being “kinda sure” you’re snipping the red wire would be a definite concern for your colleagues sweating nearby.

I’ve heard of some colour blind warriors who cheat on the Ishihara colour blind test for certain jobs. This is a complete baller move and while they have my utmost respect, I do worry about it coming back to bite them down the track. Unleaded in the red jerry can, diesel in the green, drinking water in the blue. Simple. What could possibly go wrong! My brothers are all colour blind, a little genetic gift from our grandfather. When we get together, conversations often worm their way into a support group of sorts. We share public humiliation stories, like trying to force open occupied toilet doors, the ones with the colour coded latches. “Red” means occupied apparently. We speak of coming unstuck in the workplace, cover ups, bluffs and strategies. I miss the days when my Mum wrote the names of the colours on my pencils. Somehow that form of maternal protectiveness is socially frowned upon once you’ve reached 30. As a kid, my roses were red and my violets were blue, now they’re a mish-mash of pink and brown, so I’m told. No wonder my Valentine’s Day cards fall flat. While my colour blind crew may feel relegated to careers in chessboard manufacturing or penguin rescue, (both of which are noble professions) I believe that other senses are heightened behind our colour-corrupted eyeballs. I’m going to go out on a limb and say what we lack in colour ability is made up in other areas; Like an enhanced ability in seeing the contrast of white light and physical layout. See a sunset through colour blind eyes and you’re treated to an intense, shape filled canvas. Light, lines and huge, unique silhouettes, dance across the afternoon sky. You can have your “intense pinks” and “vivid reds”, massive, light-pierced shapes is where it’s at! So, while we may not be the best map readers, flower identifiers or bomb

I fudged a disposal experts we do see the world from a slightly different angle. career in We’re not obsessed with colour or constantly distracted by it. We notice television as a things the colour-perfect miss. It might be subtle audible details or graphic designer faint tracks in the sand. One thing for two you’ll never see a colour blind person do is criticise a loud colour choice of decades clothing! That’s not how we roll. We’re so much better than that! Don’t let us into the Fire Brigade, we get it, it’s fine, but don’t discount our superhuman ability to approach life a little differently. I guess what I’m trying to say, on behalf of my colour blind pals, is that we might not be able to spot the Waratahs through the bush, but we can see the forest through the trees. We’re big-picture people with a penchant for shapes and ideas. So, resist being frustrated the next time someone attempts to open your toilet cubicle while you’re taking a dump. Chances are, it’s one of my kind, on their weekly mission to evacuate yet another unripe banana. Before I finish, I’d like to give a shout out to World Rugby who recently have changed the rules on rugby jerseys that are too samey for the likes of me… Banning, yes you heard right, banning, red / green kit clashes. It’s all an effort to help people with colour vision deficiency enjoy the game more. At last, I’ll know who has the ball whenever Ireland play Wales. Clearly, we have someone on the inside in World Rugby who cheated on the colour blind test in their job application. Whoever you are, we salute you. Your secret is safe with us.

An Alpha Gal

Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan was bitten by a tick. What followed was a life filled with trepidation as one false move could have led to death.

Five years ago I risked my life on my son’s 16th birthday. It wasn’t by surfing a 50 ft wave, nor diving with great whites or tracking rhino of foot. (I have done just one of those.) It was following our ritual of dining out at his favourite restaurant and making the trek across the harbour from Pymble to Bondi Junction for a taste of Mexican heaven. (Although that would earn me a fine or jail time now.) As others ate, I sat carefully on the sidelines. The only thing that passed my lips that night was a cool slurp of mineral water. If I ate, it could have been the end. A year prior I was bitten by a tick and my head swelled up like the elephant man. It took a week for it to settle back down. Thinking this wasn’t typical of a tick bite, I went to three doctors who all dismissed my swelling as nothing to worry about. Unsatisfied, I did exactly what you’re not supposed to do – I turned to Dr Google and despite the naysayers, I found what I was looking for, a diagnosis.

I visited yet another doctor and asked to be tested for the Alpha-gal allergy, an anaphylactic allergy to mammalian meats.

The tests came back. Highly allergic to beef and moderately allergic to dairy. I had Alpha Gal. I’d never been allergic to anything in my life. And I was told at the time that noone in Australia had yet been cured of this allergy.

Alpha Gal is a sugar carbohydrate found in all mammals except apes and humans. It’s found in every part of the mammal including their fur and that means someone with Alpha Gal can have a reaction to fumes of meat when it is being cooked, the feel of leather, washing with a shampoo which uses animal derivatives or taking a drug or vitamin with an animal derivative.

Alpha Gal affects each of its sufferers differently. Some are able to eat meat and have no reaction. Some can eat meat a few times and then be rushed off to hospital after consuming it on some random number of times. Some people can eat dairy. Some can’t. Some can eat other animals. Some are so sensitive they cannot travel on planes because of the smell of the meat. (Not that anyone can travel these days!) Some can’t wear leather. Some react straight away, some take up to eight hours before the anaphylaxis occurs.

Alpha Gal sufferers can eat fin and feather as these are not mammals but they must heed to what they are cooked with for example chickens can be cooked with some type of meatderived product. There is also a huge risk of cross contamination.

Being someone who crams their life with far too many activities and too much work, I opted for the easy way. I mostly ate fresh fruit and vegetables or shopped at vegan shops, which meant I didn’t have to worry about inadvertently consuming something that could kill me. I never ate out, unless it was a vegan restaurant.

However I still had to read every ingredient of every beauty or cleaning product that I went near. I had to be able to translate that something such as magnesium stearate which is used in many tablets, capsules and powders to make them slide down your throat more easily uses mammal derivatives. Magnesium stearate is made from both animal and vegetable oils.

I dreaded having to take medication because it meant sitting on the phone for hours speaking to companies who thought you were some corporate spy after their mysterious formula. They were as willing as Mr Krabs from Sponge Bob was to part with the secret ingredient for his Krabby patties. It took persistence not to die.

Yet I was lucky. I was living only a few suburbs away from the Chatswood based allergist, Dr Sheryl van Nunen who discovered the relationship between tick bite and Alpha Gal allergy in 2009. She sees one to two new people each week who have Alpha Gal. It’s estimated that in Australia around 5000 people now have this allergy.

Unfortunately there’s not much information about this allergy and many doctors know nothing about it. Many who have it have been misdiagnosed. Jana Pearce from Sydney’s North Shore who contracted the allergy in 2010 said: “When I had my first life threatening anaphylaxis, it was treated as heart failure and I spent four days being monitored in the Cardio Thoracic ward at Royal North Shore Hospital. As there was nothing wrong with my heart, I was discharged with unknown cause, but if it wasn’t for A/Prof Sheryl Van Nunen contacting me as I was being discharged and then diagnosing me, I would have gone home none the wiser and might have died, if I’d continued to eat mammalian meat.”

The majority of my information has been gleaned by other sufferers on the international Alpha Gal Facebook page that has members mainly from the US, but also Austria, Switzerland and of course Australia. It’s an

Nicole Lenoir-Jourdan

Photo by Erik Karits

interesting community of sufferers. Many in the US are forever being taken off to the emergency department because they can’t resist KFC or a steak or bacon.

While I missed eating out with friends and family at the time I felt grateful to have this allergy at a time when there are incredible vegan restaurants from yum cha to pizza dotted across Sydney and the food is even better than their carnivore counterparts.

The supermarket is filled with plant based milks and online shopping for vegan vitamins is easy. I also lost 12 kg in a record amount of time and my diet has much less chemicals in it than before. My diet consists at least two cold pressed veggie juices with ginger, one at breakfast and one mid-afternoon, coconut milk with vegan protein powder for lunch, and roast vegetables for dinner. I’ve swapped alcohol for still mineral water (tap water has too much chlorine) and black tea for licorice tea or ginger tea. Snacks consist of popcorn, fruit, lentil chips and Lindt dark chocolate with over 70% cocoa which is vegan.

Our last wedding anniversary (squeezed in between lockdowns) was celebrated at a vegan pizzeria in Newtown where we dined on the tastiest pizza I have ever had – a woodfired base topped with cauliflower puree, artichokes, pinenuts, capers, currants, garlic, parsley and extra virgin olive oil, accompanied by vegan beer and finished with vegan tiramisu. Sure we had to queue for this taste sensation, but it was worth it. Afterwards, we wandered around Newtown and found a number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants which were all booked out. We also found a totally vegan gelato bar where we forced in a Belgian salted chocolate and hazelnut cone. Clean green and cruelty free. It seems so weird to write about such an allergy when we are in the middle of a pandemic and it makes me feel grateful in a way that I caught it and began to take a lot more care of what I ate.

Alpha-gal is now treatable with certain probiotics and slippery elm powder.

THESE ARE THE ONLY WAYS ONE CAN REMOVE A TICK SAFELY:

1. If the tick is small, use Lyclear (scabies cream) on the tick to kill it. It will fall out. 2. If the tick is larger, use wart freeze to freeze the tick off. The recommendations are not to every remove a tick with anything else as it could either inject toxin into your body or the head or some other part could break off and become toxic in your body.

USEFUL LINKS:

• www.tiara.org.au - Tick-induced Allergies

Research & Awareness • www.allergy.org.au - Australasian Society of

Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) • www.allergyfacts.org.au - Allergy &

Anaphylaxis Australia

Toss it? No way. We want to fix it! The Repair Cafe is back!

WORDS CALEB TAYLOR

The woman walked in the front door of the Repair Cafe looking a little concerned whilst holding her umbrella. I greeted her warmly and she began to tell me about how she had purchased the umbrella from a boutique in France under the Eiffel tower and that it held a special story for her and her partner. The umbrella had an unfortunate accident, breaking one of its arms and would not work. She could not bear to simply throw it out. I told her, “Fear not, our Wendy in ‘umbrellas’ has fixed 100s of these” and give her a form to complete for the repairer, and a token for her place in the queue. She made her way to the café area to wait until she was called. The café serves organic coffee and teas and gluten free, healthy, homemade snacks in exchange for a donation.

The next to walk in was a couple who own a 1950s toaster that won’t toast anymore. It was the man’s mother’s toaster and had been toasting for the family for years. I say, “Ian is a toaster master and loves working on these”. They too complete a form for the repairer and I hand them token for their place in the ‘gadgets’ queue.

It’s the stories that make the café what it is, where people can come share stories of their belongings with the volunteer repairer, and work with them to keep it working, and keep it in their homes. It’s a win for all involved – the item can be fixed for a longer life and be saved from landfill.

Repair Café is made up of five different repair queues: Gadgets/Electronics, Sewing, Jewellery, Sharpening, and Umbrellas/Shoes. All have skilled volunteers in their field who donate their time to coming in the first and second Sunday of each month.

Many repairers have been there from Repair Café’s inception and love the community within the group, but also the people who come month in, month out. I myself came along to the café three years ago with a few of my son’s toys with the hope they could be fixed and saved, and left so impressed with the entire concept and set-up of the café. I instantly offered my services to volunteer and it was the best decision I’ve made.

Part of the Lane Cove scene at the Living Learning Centre on Longueville Road, Repair Café is easily recognisable by its familiar exterior banner and signage. Our regulars visit from near and far, and passionately share Lane Cove’s best kept secret to their family and friends who eagerly bring their patronage.

Repair Café is a global phenomenon with over 2000 now operating worldwide, contributing to the modern circular economy. With many people now wanting to be part of a more sustainable way of living and caring for our planet, we saw record numbers attending the cafe before COVID hit. A couple of restarts and adjustments to the business model including moving from walk-ins to online bookings, it’s been a challenging time but fear not, Repair Café will be back bigger and better in January 2022. While some things have changed as a result of COVID, the passion of the volunteers and the commitment to educating the community on and supporting sustainability is still our number one priority.

In the meantime, please remember “Toss it? No way!! We want to fix it.” https://repaircafesydneynorth.net/