Justin Vivian

Having given myself laryngitis, I decided to avoid the cold water yesterday. Today however I felt a little bit better so I went for my last dip with Roxy. I'm a fair way north. The water was still quite cool. A big shout out to my stepbrother and step sister Andrew and Nicola Forrest who have both been very generous in donating to my campaign taking me to the number one on the leaderboard.

To my very kind donors thank you. I am now number two on the leaderboard which is certainly nothing I expected. It's bloody freezing this morning and I should really be going for a dip but I see that number one on the leaderboard has set his target at 25,000 dips and he's done none. I'm getting a bit of a cold from all the cold dipping so I am going to cheat a little bit and have my last dip at Gnaraloo where the water will be warm. Thank you again for your help in raising so much money for cancer research.PS: Eddie(my son) and his friend Hunter (Kerrie Hessels son) helped move Johnny's car last night while I was cooking dinner. I thought he just had to move it to level ground so he could replace the starter motor but when he was halfway across the road, he dropped the clutch and jumpstarted it and then they disconnected him and he took off. I asked him yesterday morning if he wanted me to bring a snatch strap but he told me he had one. The boys told me last night when they got home that his snatch strap was an old crayfish rope which probably isn't the safest way to tow a car LOLThey thought he was a nice bloke and good old Johnny for helping me out with the photos yesterday.

Also, I just found out that some of the donations have been going to the New South Wales Cancer Council general donation page and not to my fundraising page. I only found this out because my brother said he made a donation but I couldn't see his name and I was harassing him so he sent me a picture of his credit card transaction showing that he had donated to New South Wales Cancer Council. I had to ring them up and then found that it had gone to the wrong place and I had it reassigned to get into my fundraising page. When someone makes a donation to my page I get an email and I give them a personal message of thanks. If you have donated but you haven't got a personal message from me thanking you then perhaps you have donated to the general page not to my fundraising page. If that's the case can you ping me a message on WhatsApp, Messenger, or an email (justin [email protected]) and then I can chase it up and make sure that the money it's reassign to my fundraising page. Because I'm a competitive bastard I want to make sure that all the money that's been donated to me goes on my fundraiser page. 

You are in for a treat today on the blog because I am at my manic Best. Woke up this morning and decided that I would run to the Swan River to up the ante for some cold water action. Tried to get my Apple Watch to reset with my phone so I could control the camera but that was unsuccessful and taking too long. So I set off with just the phone. I ran 2 1/2 km with my dog Roxy down to the river. When I got there there was no one around so I had to go and get this guy who is homeless and living in his Van above the Swan River Canoe club. More about him at the end of this rant. So Johnny and I go down to the jetty (I'll upload some photos of Johnny and I to my site). I jump in the river and I asked Johnny to take a photo of me jumping in but he only got one of me before and after. Anyway he took lots of photos of me swimming around the river and getting out. Then when I get out I look down at the jetty and there is about 3 kg of raw chicken pieces scattered over the jetty. Some of them had bites taken out of them and I presume someone was using it for shark fishing. God knows how many bull sharks must be hanging around that jetty to eat that Stuff. Luckilly I only saw it after I had swam or I probably would not have gotten in. Turns out Johnny has a family in the Philippines and he's trying to get back there but the Philippines have some issue with visas so he's waiting for a Visa. He's got a seven-year-old child back in the Philippines. His van has broken down and he has no starter motor and he needs someone to pull his van with a four-wheel-drive to level ground so he can fix it. I'm going back there this evening to do it unless someone can do it this afternoon (if you are at a loose end with a four-wheel-drive around Mosman Park then ping me a personal message and I'll tell you how to find Johnny). Then I'm running home and I go through the park immediately above the jetty and I see a couple of probable council workers. I asked them and they say that they are council workers so I tell them about the raw chicken wings and then I send this one girl pictures of the chicken wings from my phone. While I'm doing all this I noticed the smell of tobacco on her breath so I give her a lecture about smoking and cancer and how I'll be operating on people all day with smoking related cancers. I tell her how she has to stop. she seems receptive to this information and I tell her that I'll get permission from a Patient to send a photo of an ugly cancer and she can look at it every time she feels like having a cigarette and hopefully she'll give up. Possibly my fundraising and the raw chicken wings might just save this girl's life. Then I run home and I'm supposed to be starting an operating list at Bentley Hospital at 8 am. I get in the car and go as quickly as I can to the hospital but according to Waze I'm not arriving till 820 which is not ideal. I'm stuck in the traffic starting to be mildly anxious about the fact that it's my first day at Bentley Hospital and I'm going to get there late when I get a message from my registrar who is a weapon who tells me that the list doesn't start till 9 am. The universe is conspiring in my favour today today. So I detour to a cafe to buy her a mocha and get myself a bacon and egg roll and that's a wrap for today. I'll update you with my next adventure tomorrow. PS: i've lost my lovely yellow daffodil cap which is very annoying. so unfortunately, all my photos are just without the cap from now on

Great morning swimming with Kat at Sydney Street. Roxy and Tommy enjoying the beach. Had our swim and shower and then it started to rain. Luckily Kat could give me a lift home so I didn't have to run home in the rain. Kat is such a legend, Most positive person I know. Puts me to shame. And such a fast swimmer.

My dog Roxy and my Neighbours dog Rufus were the lucky recipients of a 5K run and swim this morning at Vera view. Special thanks to Dawn who took my photo (Dawn at dawn). Water was actually reasonably warm.

I've been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people. It's amazing that people like my friends who are nurses who I know are not highly paid are so generous with their money . I know firsthand the severe challenges that cancer throws up to everyone it affects. It sent me mad. But I've made a good recovery and I would like to think that these donations will help others suffer suffering from cancer.

Pretty cold

I wish I bought my bright yellow daffodil cap down here. I'm riding the Munda Biddi track with 10 other guys. Great bunch of blokes. Super fit and I struggled to keep up. Yesterday was really challenging, but I was stoked that I made it.

Two dips today.First naked at Green Pole near Denmark and then the second at Ocean Beach. Water Ocean Beach pretty freezing but green pool not too bad.