Driving back to chez robbi after a swift sojourn to the shops I was pulled up at a traffic light when I idly looked across and spied a gentleman sitting at a bus shelter. Nothing outstanding about that you might say, true, and normally you would be right,but. This gentleman looked exactly like Kenny Rogers. large in body , thick white flowing hair and a beard exactly as Kenny wore. Actually this fellow looked more like Kenny Rogers than Kenny himself does. As the gentlemen on the late night TV ads keep telling us "but wait there's more", there is more. He was also dressed, down to the smallest detail ,exactly like the MAN in Black....folks it's Mr Johnny Cash (We're doing mighty fine I do suppose/In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes/But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back/Up front there ought to be a man in black.") Right there bus stop 27 ( a go zone) Johhny Cash incarnate, and Kenny Rogers, though I didn't look to see if he was wearing a SuperMan T shirt or had his undies on back to front as the light changed and I had to move off.
I know what you are all thinking, robbi has such a sad life, really I don't mind that at all, happy in my quest to unravel the bizarre in our so-called normality and in fact I write this as the Kenny/Man in Black thing has a bearing on what I was going to write about (also is a picture)
Yesterday at breakfast I looked out the window and there perched on the verandah fascia was a large Praying Mantis( Hierodula majuscula ). We all know these insects, they use camouflage as a means of blending in to the scene so that predators cannot see them , thus not becoming a meal for an owl,bat etc.Mantids have hollow bodies so that they can 'hear' a bat sonar squeak as it flies through the night., and then duck for cover. The particular Mantid I observed looked just like a twig from the garden in front of the window,even down to the stripe in the middle of its back. Why was it on the fascia? well the rain pelted down some hours later so I guess it was sheltering from the coming rain as it was gone this breakfast time. Who (or what) was the man sheltering from at the bus stop? we will never know as I moved on, his bus would eventually arrive ( go zones run every ten minutes) leaving us none the wiser. Whatever he is seeking in life I hope that it crosses his path, he does have a 50/50 chance as he was being two things at once, whereas a Mantis only has one go at a time, your'e either a twig or a green leaf,Mantids cannot be both at the same time..
If the above sounds as though I am having a cheap shot at the way some folk like to wear their particular skins then not so, who am I to judge, a fashonista is something that I most definitely am not. That how we appear to folk in general is to define in a small way who we are is a social issue, one that I am not qualified to rule on . Needless to say if a chap wishes to dress like Kenny, then he should be able to providing he isn't up to nefarious acts .
I know Hortense 'fings aint wot they is 'sposed. Got a little ahead and also behind myself with this blog. As always though I was full of good intent, oh please don't say that Horty. I also know that many times I am 'full of it', you do not have to rub salt into the wound. Events of the week dear Hortense, made one a little busy don't y'know. That meeting I went to Monday night started the rot, I then had to write a very long email to that lovely Dr who is chair of the committee and tell him that as long as his bum points downwards then he has no hope of forcing this State government to do anything. His committee have to get the sweaty mass of the public onside, they can do that easily enough and mobilise public opinion. Talk about mobilising Hortense, you got that way this AM did you not ! Wow, I haven't seen you move that fast for ages.
When you opened that little diary you keep next to the phone and saw the huge Tarantula inside I thought the worst. But then the robbi saved the day and put the little fellow outside, swiftly ,calmly and without any fuss or girly like screams. Then you really freaked when you went down the passage to the bedroom and saw that huge Daddy long legs spider devouring his breakfast of an earwig. I thought that justice for the earwig so I just left the spider to it.
Note that I continually refer to these spiders as 'He/Him' when we both know Hortense that the really big agressive ones are the female of the specie, are they not. Just being a gentleman there Hortense and like all of my kind simply shouldering the blame and responsibility. Just like the Chairman of AIG insurance et al.
There is a small confession that I make Horty old girl. It is thus: On walking to the Hospital to attend that meeting I found myself trotting past Cocolat, not being one to pass a golden moment up I did slip in for a quick one, only a small one mind with two flavours only (vanilla/berry yoghurt). There, I have that slight aberration of character behind me and can face the world almost without a blemish.
We will go to the moving pictures Saturday and WE will have a Gelato, happy, sweet Hotrtense ?
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
ink marks on a blank page 11th march
Simple is as simple does, that be life really . Days go, replaced by others, each one different but similar and it is the simple ones that I love best. None of us enjoys angst or drama, happens in the best of regulated lives but 'tis never the high point of the day. Excitement is fine, but I for one would not want to go through my life in a high state of frisson each and every minute. James Bond I'm not, think of all those endorphins rushing around colliding with each other. Makes me want to lay down with the energy of it all, not that I am a sloth, indeed not so, but having said that I do enjoy moments of torpor. Mostly in the afternoon around 1430 or thereabouts, just a nice laze in my favourite chair and now seeing as it is Autumn sat in front of the large windows that look out onto the park in front of the house. Said park is looking a litle raggy though, the drought took its toll months ago and what grass there was has just up and left not to be seen until the winter rains. That there will be rains I have no doubt as the rainbow lorikeets have started to fly into the next doors claret ash on our boundary. These lovely birds just adore that tree and come into it in numbers at the beginning of Autumn through to mid-winter and then again in Spring. How do I know that there will be rain aplenty? simple. When I had the 'simple' life on the farm it was in a district that always had 'good' rains, that is they came , they held, they watered well and long. Some seasons were better than others and we noted that the year before those 'better' seasons the parrots ,lorikeets et al all had very bright plumage that carried into the next year, the good year. As the season progressed sometimes Rainbow bee -eaters would appear and then the next rains for that season would be heavy indeed. The years when the Bee -eaters didn't come then that next season although it always rained enough, the hay cutting would be earlier and not quite as heavy. We do not get the Bee-eaters here but the rainbow lorikeets and the parrots have excellent bright plumage this year and as well the Sulphur crested cockatoos are a glossy white too.
Climate change is big news here in OZ and the terrible wild-fires in Victoria have been blamed on climate change by our conservationists groups and some political folk. They carefully forget that the massive dry understory and build-up of bark etc that they will not allow the volunteer fire service to burn off in the winter helped fuel and in some instances increased the fire risk. These groups lobbied councils in the areas that were severely affected by the fires to stop locals from collecting the dead timber that falls from trees along the roadside, the result? In those council where this practise was disallowed the roadside verges became firestorms in themselves as the years of deadwood that had piled up fuelled the fires.
I am not a climate change denyer as we humans have despoiled the planet with many years of pollution but we seem to be rushing in headlong without seriously cosidering the evidence from the past. Antartica did not exist as it is now 4ok years ago, sharks swam where Alice Springs exists in a semi desert today and the Himalaya were in a different place . I will post an excerpt from a geology of the Himalaya to show what is happening as I type this and will continue to happen always regardless of what some rabid conservationists say. This is not to refute climate change, it is merely to point out that the Earth is in a continual state of evolution and will continue to do so as IT(Gaia) is want to do : I quote;
"Over periods of 5-10 million years, the (tectonic)plates will probably continue to move at the same rate. In 10 million years India will plow into Tibet a further 180 km. This is about the width of Nepal. Because Nepal's boundaries are marks on the Himalayan peaks and on the plains of India whose convergence we are measuring, Nepal will technically cease to exist. But the mountain range we know as the Himalaya will not go away.
This is because the Himalaya will probably look much the same in profile then as it does now. There will be tall mountains in the north, smaller ones in the south, and the north/south width of the Himalaya will be about the same. What will happen is that the Himalaya will have advanced across the Indian plate and the Tibetan plateau will have grown by accretion. One of the few clues about the rate of collision between India and Tibet before the GPS measurements were made was the rate of advance of Himalayan sediments across the Ganges plain. There is an orderly progression of sediments in front of the foothills. Larger boulders appear first, followed by pebbles, and further south, sand-grains, silts, and finally very fine muds. This is what you see when you drive from the last hills of the Himalaya southward 100 km. The present is obvious, but the historical record cannot be seen on the surface because the sediments bury all former traces of earlier sediments. However, in drill holes in the Ganges plain, the coarser rocks are always on the top and the finer pebbles and muds are on the bottom, showing that the Himalaya is relentlessly advancing on India" end quote.
We have to change the way in which we as makers and growers of products do things in order to live on our blue ball, however, I do believe that we also must look into the past in greater depth to see what has gone on before so that we can understand how to effect our future. All very well for folk like Al Gore to make $140million on a massive scare campaign using exaggerated filmic techniques to sell 'his' message but let us have rational and scientific informed debate from both sides of the issue and then create a consensus to address this on a global scale.
Here in OZ the federal government is pressing ahead with its version of a Emission trading scheme whether or not our fragile ecomomy will be able to withstand the impost or not. As an observer in this I cannot understand just what emissions a trading scheme will stop. The way the scheme works is that a heavy polluter(steel mill) will always emit on a daily basis more than their permit limit so they buy credits from a small emitter(fairy dust maker) who emits far less on a daily basis than their permit allows. What I do not understand is that the steel maker will still put their daily pollution into the atmosphere and all that will happen is the the fairy dust maker will get money which will in part be passed onto the Government in the form of taxes. The steel maker will in due course have to bring in new technology that will limit its emissions, this is just a natural progression that industry will always do anyway to remain competitive. All that the Emissions trading scheme is going to do is increase the tax revenue and in the short term reduce the steel makers workforce . Hortense my little wonder woman this is making my poor little brain ache with the complexity of it all. You blame Al Gore, yes indeed, but you are a clever wonder woman at that and you do not even have a glass plane. Al is a cheeky little sod are he not? we all wonder just what he has done with that $140mill net he pulled from the movie,dogs home! I think maybe that will not be his first choice. Oh Horty old girl 'tis a good thing we are off to cocolat and a show tonight, we shall have a good laugh and put the Emissions trading scheme just where it belongs.
Climate change is big news here in OZ and the terrible wild-fires in Victoria have been blamed on climate change by our conservationists groups and some political folk. They carefully forget that the massive dry understory and build-up of bark etc that they will not allow the volunteer fire service to burn off in the winter helped fuel and in some instances increased the fire risk. These groups lobbied councils in the areas that were severely affected by the fires to stop locals from collecting the dead timber that falls from trees along the roadside, the result? In those council where this practise was disallowed the roadside verges became firestorms in themselves as the years of deadwood that had piled up fuelled the fires.
I am not a climate change denyer as we humans have despoiled the planet with many years of pollution but we seem to be rushing in headlong without seriously cosidering the evidence from the past. Antartica did not exist as it is now 4ok years ago, sharks swam where Alice Springs exists in a semi desert today and the Himalaya were in a different place . I will post an excerpt from a geology of the Himalaya to show what is happening as I type this and will continue to happen always regardless of what some rabid conservationists say. This is not to refute climate change, it is merely to point out that the Earth is in a continual state of evolution and will continue to do so as IT(Gaia) is want to do : I quote;
"Over periods of 5-10 million years, the (tectonic)plates will probably continue to move at the same rate. In 10 million years India will plow into Tibet a further 180 km. This is about the width of Nepal. Because Nepal's boundaries are marks on the Himalayan peaks and on the plains of India whose convergence we are measuring, Nepal will technically cease to exist. But the mountain range we know as the Himalaya will not go away.
This is because the Himalaya will probably look much the same in profile then as it does now. There will be tall mountains in the north, smaller ones in the south, and the north/south width of the Himalaya will be about the same. What will happen is that the Himalaya will have advanced across the Indian plate and the Tibetan plateau will have grown by accretion. One of the few clues about the rate of collision between India and Tibet before the GPS measurements were made was the rate of advance of Himalayan sediments across the Ganges plain. There is an orderly progression of sediments in front of the foothills. Larger boulders appear first, followed by pebbles, and further south, sand-grains, silts, and finally very fine muds. This is what you see when you drive from the last hills of the Himalaya southward 100 km. The present is obvious, but the historical record cannot be seen on the surface because the sediments bury all former traces of earlier sediments. However, in drill holes in the Ganges plain, the coarser rocks are always on the top and the finer pebbles and muds are on the bottom, showing that the Himalaya is relentlessly advancing on India" end quote.
We have to change the way in which we as makers and growers of products do things in order to live on our blue ball, however, I do believe that we also must look into the past in greater depth to see what has gone on before so that we can understand how to effect our future. All very well for folk like Al Gore to make $140million on a massive scare campaign using exaggerated filmic techniques to sell 'his' message but let us have rational and scientific informed debate from both sides of the issue and then create a consensus to address this on a global scale.
Here in OZ the federal government is pressing ahead with its version of a Emission trading scheme whether or not our fragile ecomomy will be able to withstand the impost or not. As an observer in this I cannot understand just what emissions a trading scheme will stop. The way the scheme works is that a heavy polluter(steel mill) will always emit on a daily basis more than their permit limit so they buy credits from a small emitter(fairy dust maker) who emits far less on a daily basis than their permit allows. What I do not understand is that the steel maker will still put their daily pollution into the atmosphere and all that will happen is the the fairy dust maker will get money which will in part be passed onto the Government in the form of taxes. The steel maker will in due course have to bring in new technology that will limit its emissions, this is just a natural progression that industry will always do anyway to remain competitive. All that the Emissions trading scheme is going to do is increase the tax revenue and in the short term reduce the steel makers workforce . Hortense my little wonder woman this is making my poor little brain ache with the complexity of it all. You blame Al Gore, yes indeed, but you are a clever wonder woman at that and you do not even have a glass plane. Al is a cheeky little sod are he not? we all wonder just what he has done with that $140mill net he pulled from the movie,dogs home! I think maybe that will not be his first choice. Oh Horty old girl 'tis a good thing we are off to cocolat and a show tonight, we shall have a good laugh and put the Emissions trading scheme just where it belongs.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
ink marks on a blank page 6th March
As a bloke there are many of lifes mysteries that are denied me, one major one is the ability to understand women speak. I refer to the oblique way women have of conveying multiple messages in a short sentence like " I am going into the city for a few things" At chez robbi that can mean,'when I'm gone you will have time to vacuum the house' or "I wont be long so you could wash the windows", "And seeing I shall be exhausted from traipsing around the shops looking at stuff we don't need , I shall want you to cook dinner"
There are other little quirks of life that elude me as well. I travel a little and when flying normally cannot open those little butter /jam/condiment doohickies, why? Could this be a bloke thing or am I just one of the poor unfortunates who bumble through life spearing themselves with the tin-opener or splashing sauce all over self.
We had some budget type airlines come here and they don't serve a meal so I thought to save myself embarrassment I would fly with them. Flew back from my destination on a regular ,we serve you a meal you can't eat airline ,as the budget one had seats so close together I couldn't move. This am I read the encoded message well , so prepared to clean the charcoal grill but one little device tricked me.As she left to swan off to the city the last remark was " I left a new packet of barbque wipes on the sink to clean off the residue, a brand new pack so use as many as you want" Folks, do you think I could find just how to open the darn thing, took me all of ten minutes to figure just how it was done. Oh sorry me for when I did finally open the blessed little pack, I almost wept with the frustration of it all.
Then there is me saying" Just where is that set of things?" "In the cupboard" floats back. Yes I know that the'things' will be in the cupboard, but which one for goodnes sake. Yes I admit it, I lose my car keys and my glasses ALL the time , but surely that isn't just a man thing.
Got you there though, I CAN read maps, and when in foreign climes once you take me to a spot then I can always find my way back. Of course that is a fantastic party trick if one wants to walk around in ever decreasing circles, but nobody is perfect.
Never ever been good with working out dates either, some folk can say just from the top of their pointy head. "Oh the 25th, that's a Friday isn't it, not a problem just switch the meeting date to Tuesday which is the 29th" I would have to have a calendar in front of me and a pencil to mark in the date. Also I have a problem or three when typing, for some reason that just rattles past my cage in a flurry I tend not to space between words a's that I write, that is I hang ana on the back of words, then continually have to stop and respace the a in a sentence, already done it 9 times this para. At least if I write to you but forget to sign my name, as at times do, you will then know for certain that the letter comes from me. Should have said a missive contain begging requests for large sums of money then it most definitely would have eminated from this keyboard, money orders are better than cash so run on down to the nearest Western Union and fire some off, you have the address.
Another 'thing' falls to mind about one, can be a trifle absent minded at times. Once someone said that my brain reacts faster than I can think, perhaps that isn't quite correct as I do forget exactly what he said but that sounds almost right. He was testing me for a resume that I was to write in application for a job. Can't quite remember what his job description was but he wrote some very nice things about me that was in part one of the prime reasons I got the position. No, I do not think that his rather large fee that I paid in cash was any reason he wrote glowingly about my prospects, and I could show you my test results to back that up if I could only find them.
Sorry Hortense, feeling a little left out are we? Yes I have sort of rattled on about self, it was all me me me. Perhaps my introspection comes from that birthday I have looming, although my age is not something that figures largely in my daily ruminations.
Age must figure in the machinations in our esteemed Federal Education Minister's mind though. The largess that she is handing out a la those cash grants to schools has to be accompanied by a suitable plaque on the wall of the building that it has funded, extolling the virtues in part of the Education Minister come par excellence Julia Gillard. There is no nepotism in this Federal Government as well, although the hairdresser fellow who lives with , and is the boyfriend of, our Education Minister got a paid gong on a Government board. Yes Hortense I take your point, he would be good at sharpening scissors, they would come in very handy for stabbing ones opponents in the back wouldn't they, wonder if Julia knows that?
Well what I do know Hortense old love is that it be YOUR birthday Saturday and we shall sup well on cocolat...yea har!!
There are other little quirks of life that elude me as well. I travel a little and when flying normally cannot open those little butter /jam/condiment doohickies, why? Could this be a bloke thing or am I just one of the poor unfortunates who bumble through life spearing themselves with the tin-opener or splashing sauce all over self.
We had some budget type airlines come here and they don't serve a meal so I thought to save myself embarrassment I would fly with them. Flew back from my destination on a regular ,we serve you a meal you can't eat airline ,as the budget one had seats so close together I couldn't move. This am I read the encoded message well , so prepared to clean the charcoal grill but one little device tricked me.As she left to swan off to the city the last remark was " I left a new packet of barbque wipes on the sink to clean off the residue, a brand new pack so use as many as you want" Folks, do you think I could find just how to open the darn thing, took me all of ten minutes to figure just how it was done. Oh sorry me for when I did finally open the blessed little pack, I almost wept with the frustration of it all.
Then there is me saying" Just where is that set of things?" "In the cupboard" floats back. Yes I know that the'things' will be in the cupboard, but which one for goodnes sake. Yes I admit it, I lose my car keys and my glasses ALL the time , but surely that isn't just a man thing.
Got you there though, I CAN read maps, and when in foreign climes once you take me to a spot then I can always find my way back. Of course that is a fantastic party trick if one wants to walk around in ever decreasing circles, but nobody is perfect.
Never ever been good with working out dates either, some folk can say just from the top of their pointy head. "Oh the 25th, that's a Friday isn't it, not a problem just switch the meeting date to Tuesday which is the 29th" I would have to have a calendar in front of me and a pencil to mark in the date. Also I have a problem or three when typing, for some reason that just rattles past my cage in a flurry I tend not to space between words a's that I write, that is I hang ana on the back of words, then continually have to stop and respace the a in a sentence, already done it 9 times this para. At least if I write to you but forget to sign my name, as at times do, you will then know for certain that the letter comes from me. Should have said a missive contain begging requests for large sums of money then it most definitely would have eminated from this keyboard, money orders are better than cash so run on down to the nearest Western Union and fire some off, you have the address.
Another 'thing' falls to mind about one, can be a trifle absent minded at times. Once someone said that my brain reacts faster than I can think, perhaps that isn't quite correct as I do forget exactly what he said but that sounds almost right. He was testing me for a resume that I was to write in application for a job. Can't quite remember what his job description was but he wrote some very nice things about me that was in part one of the prime reasons I got the position. No, I do not think that his rather large fee that I paid in cash was any reason he wrote glowingly about my prospects, and I could show you my test results to back that up if I could only find them.
Sorry Hortense, feeling a little left out are we? Yes I have sort of rattled on about self, it was all me me me. Perhaps my introspection comes from that birthday I have looming, although my age is not something that figures largely in my daily ruminations.
Age must figure in the machinations in our esteemed Federal Education Minister's mind though. The largess that she is handing out a la those cash grants to schools has to be accompanied by a suitable plaque on the wall of the building that it has funded, extolling the virtues in part of the Education Minister come par excellence Julia Gillard. There is no nepotism in this Federal Government as well, although the hairdresser fellow who lives with , and is the boyfriend of, our Education Minister got a paid gong on a Government board. Yes Hortense I take your point, he would be good at sharpening scissors, they would come in very handy for stabbing ones opponents in the back wouldn't they, wonder if Julia knows that?
Well what I do know Hortense old love is that it be YOUR birthday Saturday and we shall sup well on cocolat...yea har!!
Sunday, 1 March 2009
ink marks on a blank page Sun 1st March
This was supposed to be all about Holly Hill Nature walk in Southampton England,weeeell, I can sort of alter the pitch a little can I not? Will explain, then you can make up your collective mind(s) whether or no I should proceed with this, or stick to the original game plan and tell you all about Holly Hill. Okay, thanks for that so that's fixed then I shall tell you all about my afternoon here at chez robbi.
Y'all know that we had Lance Armstrong here riding in a Pro Cycle race we run yearly called the 'Tour Down Under'.You did, and just love bike racing but can't figure it out, but adore those really fit young fellows in lycra jumping up and down on the pedals, you do don't you.
So we here at chez robbi ride bikes around our park most days, I do every day but she has to go to work in order to keep me in the style to which I am accustomed, ie. eating each day, so only rides when there is no work. As befitting a bicycle rider she got all keen to read Lance Armstrong's book 'It's not just about the bike' and duly passed same on to me to read. I got into about 40 pages and to be quite frank thought if I could watch grass grow that might get me going more. Until today.
Off she went at 1430 to earn the daily crust when I spied 'the' book on the kitchen table, what to lose I thought, not much going on here and the drought is so bad even the weeds have stopped growing. I might as well read a few pages and then check that little weed out there to see if it has put on an inch or three.1828 came just as I read the last page,wow, this Lance man is different!
What a great weed he would make, I mean those little buggers even spring up through concrete, Lance is the Texas weed to end all weeds. This fellow is THE survivor and growth specialist is he not? In my job I saw many many Lance's and in their own quiet way lots of recovered cancer patients ,who by the very nature of their recovery beat all odds , going on to lead lives of hope and fulfilment.
Back to Holly Hill.
The very first time that I went to the UK as an adult gave me a tremendous culture shock. One forgets childhood memories and more the pity, relatives and places, they become faint cobwebs of what was and like cobwebs are easily brushed aside. So there we were at Heathrow(1990-1) being met by a charming couple in their early sixties who had been great friends of the family and on hearing we were to be in the UK would not hear of us staying anywhere but in their home. Driving from Heathrow to Putney was then not so bad, traffic wasn't as dense as it is now so there was plenty of time to 'see' bits of London.Also, there were only a few of the ghastly high rise apartment blocks that now dot the landscape as frequently as rabbit poop on a field.The next ten days were a revelation as each day we saw more parks/gardens per square foot than in OZ. The suburb of Putney seemed to have green space everywhere and the house gardens were just bursting with colour. Sure they knock down one large house and build two or even three where there was once one, some public buildings are just plain damn awful monstrosities, but lots of councils seem to really care about how their constituents live and where they live. Here in OZ we went through an awful phase were it became almost a public duty to knock over anything that was more than twenty years old, in the UK there is more pride in retaining as much heritage as they can. Green space is at a premium given the physical size and population density of England but it is still surprising to see just how much green is available to wander in.
Holly Hill Nature walk in Southampton is one such place, 35hectares of planted exotic species and retained native woodland with 11 lakes and many rock pools all connected by meandering paths that are all maintained and nurtured lovingly. At one point one of the walks takes you down to a viewing platform that overlooks the tidal reaches of the river Hamble, we counted 15 species of bird feeding in the marshy area. Holly Hill, another part of the green and sceptered Isle.
Indeed Hortense, perhaps I should make supper, extra housework more often. Yes I do make the bed each day and do a portion of the housework, could do more though .Nope aint a tear Horty,but you know I does love the place so . Best I get to the nub of it too, start actually talking about real day to day things of more import than self. Meant to say earlier Horty, did you read in the daily Murdoch about our wonderful federal Labor Government going to spend $45 million on trying to fix the problem of Australian livestock ejecting METHANE into the atmosphere. Does appear Hortense old bean that 12% of the OZ greenhouse gases are the farts of our livestock, so our Gov is going to fix the problem by spending $45mill . Corks anyone? Woohoo, does that make the mind wobble a bit old girl, just how are they going to stop the 12mill head of beef and 24mill sheep from farting? Plus all the koalas/kangaroos/emus/lizards /spiders/snakes/fish/etc etc etc, oh and us too Hortense, I forgot, ladies don't, do they.
Cocolat a night on the town and a show Saturday Hortense, you betcha old girl.
Y'all know that we had Lance Armstrong here riding in a Pro Cycle race we run yearly called the 'Tour Down Under'.You did, and just love bike racing but can't figure it out, but adore those really fit young fellows in lycra jumping up and down on the pedals, you do don't you.
So we here at chez robbi ride bikes around our park most days, I do every day but she has to go to work in order to keep me in the style to which I am accustomed, ie. eating each day, so only rides when there is no work. As befitting a bicycle rider she got all keen to read Lance Armstrong's book 'It's not just about the bike' and duly passed same on to me to read. I got into about 40 pages and to be quite frank thought if I could watch grass grow that might get me going more. Until today.
Off she went at 1430 to earn the daily crust when I spied 'the' book on the kitchen table, what to lose I thought, not much going on here and the drought is so bad even the weeds have stopped growing. I might as well read a few pages and then check that little weed out there to see if it has put on an inch or three.1828 came just as I read the last page,wow, this Lance man is different!
What a great weed he would make, I mean those little buggers even spring up through concrete, Lance is the Texas weed to end all weeds. This fellow is THE survivor and growth specialist is he not? In my job I saw many many Lance's and in their own quiet way lots of recovered cancer patients ,who by the very nature of their recovery beat all odds , going on to lead lives of hope and fulfilment.
Back to Holly Hill.
The very first time that I went to the UK as an adult gave me a tremendous culture shock. One forgets childhood memories and more the pity, relatives and places, they become faint cobwebs of what was and like cobwebs are easily brushed aside. So there we were at Heathrow(1990-1) being met by a charming couple in their early sixties who had been great friends of the family and on hearing we were to be in the UK would not hear of us staying anywhere but in their home. Driving from Heathrow to Putney was then not so bad, traffic wasn't as dense as it is now so there was plenty of time to 'see' bits of London.Also, there were only a few of the ghastly high rise apartment blocks that now dot the landscape as frequently as rabbit poop on a field.The next ten days were a revelation as each day we saw more parks/gardens per square foot than in OZ. The suburb of Putney seemed to have green space everywhere and the house gardens were just bursting with colour. Sure they knock down one large house and build two or even three where there was once one, some public buildings are just plain damn awful monstrosities, but lots of councils seem to really care about how their constituents live and where they live. Here in OZ we went through an awful phase were it became almost a public duty to knock over anything that was more than twenty years old, in the UK there is more pride in retaining as much heritage as they can. Green space is at a premium given the physical size and population density of England but it is still surprising to see just how much green is available to wander in.
Holly Hill Nature walk in Southampton is one such place, 35hectares of planted exotic species and retained native woodland with 11 lakes and many rock pools all connected by meandering paths that are all maintained and nurtured lovingly. At one point one of the walks takes you down to a viewing platform that overlooks the tidal reaches of the river Hamble, we counted 15 species of bird feeding in the marshy area. Holly Hill, another part of the green and sceptered Isle.
Indeed Hortense, perhaps I should make supper, extra housework more often. Yes I do make the bed each day and do a portion of the housework, could do more though .Nope aint a tear Horty,but you know I does love the place so . Best I get to the nub of it too, start actually talking about real day to day things of more import than self. Meant to say earlier Horty, did you read in the daily Murdoch about our wonderful federal Labor Government going to spend $45 million on trying to fix the problem of Australian livestock ejecting METHANE into the atmosphere. Does appear Hortense old bean that 12% of the OZ greenhouse gases are the farts of our livestock, so our Gov is going to fix the problem by spending $45mill . Corks anyone? Woohoo, does that make the mind wobble a bit old girl, just how are they going to stop the 12mill head of beef and 24mill sheep from farting? Plus all the koalas/kangaroos/emus/lizards /spiders/snakes/fish/etc etc etc, oh and us too Hortense, I forgot, ladies don't, do they.
Cocolat a night on the town and a show Saturday Hortense, you betcha old girl.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
ink marks on a blank page thurs 26thfeb
That I am a full, rusted on Anglophile is of no doubt. I owe this allegiance to many factors, one being that growing up in the era I did we were always asked "when are you going to visit the Mother Country" (meaning England). So it was during this period when TV in OZ was in its infancy the picture one got of life in England was of row after row of dismal terrace houses and grey days followed by more grey days. I did know that this wasn't the whole picture of the UK but most of my contemporaries had that fixed firmly in their minds. Relatives in the UK would send 'snaps' of themselves cavorting on the pebbly beaches or picnicking somewhere and I would dutifully hand them around to much guffaws from my immediate circle at work whilst colleagues who were English migrants would stare wistfully at the scenes and then precede to tell everyone that the tomatoes don't taste the same here in OZ as they did back 'home'.
They don't either, fruit and vegeteables do taste better in Europe ,as the growing conditions are much kinder, ie soil and water etc. Some of the products that we have here in OZ that are on the supermarket shelves in the UK don't seem to be the same either when made up here in our kitchen. Birds custard powder is just one I can think of quickly , in the UK it has a fuller richer taste, always seems different here. Yes indeed I know that this could be just another manifestation of robbi bias, possibly, but the potato difference is just one that is glaring.
When we lived on the farm we knew the president of the Potato board of South Australia quite well and it was I believe in 1991 that we had just come back from a lovely 3month trip to the Old Dart, when we went to our Royal Show here in Adelaide. This is primarily an Agricultural show which is held on a yearly basis where all types of locally grown products are shown to the public. Like all such things all over the world there are rides ,machinery, log chopping and all sorts going on.
For some wild reason that totally slips my mind we found ourselves in the potato growing pavilion deep in conversation with the then president of that society. I remember saying, in my normal non-confrontational and not at all 'picky' manner, "why is it Bill that you only have 3 varieties of spuds here on display, in the UK there are at least 15 or twenty sorts" . I then went on to regale him with a word picture of the last market(UK) we had been to where there was a fruit stall and on one trestle was a large mound of rich brown dirt and behind the dirt was a lady with bright green rubber gloves on pulling fresh Jersey spuds out and weighing them up. "God man we don't need stuff like that here, we have three sorts and that's enough. One for frying, roasting and a general purpose variety which is a cross between the two, then we grow a seperate lot for the chip business."
Now all that might sound a little mundane and icky picky, true it does but then you have to look behind what was said and you then get to the mindset of lots of Australian thinking at that time. We were terribly parochial and set in our ways, couldn't see the wood for the trees, that applied across the board into just about every field of endeavour. Every carpetbagger, snake oil salesman worth his or her salt had come over from the US and seduced us to the detriment of our own culture and growth. Most home-grown Australians don't know that we were amongst the first to have a full length narrative movie made , even before America, or that Australians invented the stump jump plough and a mechanical harvester. The first photo copier and the 'black' box which every aircraft in the world is fitted with. Every rat-bag scheme that had been tried elsewhere in the world and failed was trotted over here by successive Governments and flogged off as the new 'miracle' cure for what ailed the Education/ Health or other process that a particular department had sent folk over to study. By about the very late 1990's we had begun to slowly understand that home based things just might do the job as well as rubbish imported from overseas so we began to 'grow OZ' and be proud of just what we had here. So much so that now on the supermarket shelves we have so many different varieties of spuds it's hard to make a choice. But with the last federal election some new ideas began to creep in, most notably was the Education minister wanting to import the Education model that is used in New York. Our Minister is very much taken with this process and has gone as far to have invited the architect of that scheme to come here and show us how it works. I would respectfully inform her that most Australians do not live in areas that resemble downtown New York city and that just one major concern of Education in this country, that of Aboriginal Australia, is not remotely like New York City in any way shape or form. In all of this I am not advocating a return to an island state mentality but we should be adult enough to use our own expertise to develop an Education model that will fit our schools across the whole of OZ to educate our future children for the 21st century and beyond.
Oh yes Hortense the robbi got well and truly sidetracked there didn't he. Started out to tell the good folk all great things and with the intent of showing just how green and verdant England is, then got stuck into Julia Gillard's grand Education designs.Again you really do not need to sit there with that po face you pull so firmly fixed on your dial. Justified you say, uh okay, this time I grant that it is but next blog I promise that there will be no diverging from the original intent and to that end there will be some green and luxuriant pictures posted on the next blog.
Sorry old girl , no cocolat this week, but come March old bean.....yea har, full on.
They don't either, fruit and vegeteables do taste better in Europe ,as the growing conditions are much kinder, ie soil and water etc. Some of the products that we have here in OZ that are on the supermarket shelves in the UK don't seem to be the same either when made up here in our kitchen. Birds custard powder is just one I can think of quickly , in the UK it has a fuller richer taste, always seems different here. Yes indeed I know that this could be just another manifestation of robbi bias, possibly, but the potato difference is just one that is glaring.
When we lived on the farm we knew the president of the Potato board of South Australia quite well and it was I believe in 1991 that we had just come back from a lovely 3month trip to the Old Dart, when we went to our Royal Show here in Adelaide. This is primarily an Agricultural show which is held on a yearly basis where all types of locally grown products are shown to the public. Like all such things all over the world there are rides ,machinery, log chopping and all sorts going on.
For some wild reason that totally slips my mind we found ourselves in the potato growing pavilion deep in conversation with the then president of that society. I remember saying, in my normal non-confrontational and not at all 'picky' manner, "why is it Bill that you only have 3 varieties of spuds here on display, in the UK there are at least 15 or twenty sorts" . I then went on to regale him with a word picture of the last market(UK) we had been to where there was a fruit stall and on one trestle was a large mound of rich brown dirt and behind the dirt was a lady with bright green rubber gloves on pulling fresh Jersey spuds out and weighing them up. "God man we don't need stuff like that here, we have three sorts and that's enough. One for frying, roasting and a general purpose variety which is a cross between the two, then we grow a seperate lot for the chip business."
Now all that might sound a little mundane and icky picky, true it does but then you have to look behind what was said and you then get to the mindset of lots of Australian thinking at that time. We were terribly parochial and set in our ways, couldn't see the wood for the trees, that applied across the board into just about every field of endeavour. Every carpetbagger, snake oil salesman worth his or her salt had come over from the US and seduced us to the detriment of our own culture and growth. Most home-grown Australians don't know that we were amongst the first to have a full length narrative movie made , even before America, or that Australians invented the stump jump plough and a mechanical harvester. The first photo copier and the 'black' box which every aircraft in the world is fitted with. Every rat-bag scheme that had been tried elsewhere in the world and failed was trotted over here by successive Governments and flogged off as the new 'miracle' cure for what ailed the Education/ Health or other process that a particular department had sent folk over to study. By about the very late 1990's we had begun to slowly understand that home based things just might do the job as well as rubbish imported from overseas so we began to 'grow OZ' and be proud of just what we had here. So much so that now on the supermarket shelves we have so many different varieties of spuds it's hard to make a choice. But with the last federal election some new ideas began to creep in, most notably was the Education minister wanting to import the Education model that is used in New York. Our Minister is very much taken with this process and has gone as far to have invited the architect of that scheme to come here and show us how it works. I would respectfully inform her that most Australians do not live in areas that resemble downtown New York city and that just one major concern of Education in this country, that of Aboriginal Australia, is not remotely like New York City in any way shape or form. In all of this I am not advocating a return to an island state mentality but we should be adult enough to use our own expertise to develop an Education model that will fit our schools across the whole of OZ to educate our future children for the 21st century and beyond.
Oh yes Hortense the robbi got well and truly sidetracked there didn't he. Started out to tell the good folk all great things and with the intent of showing just how green and verdant England is, then got stuck into Julia Gillard's grand Education designs.Again you really do not need to sit there with that po face you pull so firmly fixed on your dial. Justified you say, uh okay, this time I grant that it is but next blog I promise that there will be no diverging from the original intent and to that end there will be some green and luxuriant pictures posted on the next blog.
Sorry old girl , no cocolat this week, but come March old bean.....yea har, full on.
Friday, 20 February 2009
ink marks on a blank page Sat Feb 21st
Much or little, if you are one of the workaholics that frequent my life, has been happening on the robbi horizon of late, and if that sounds obtuse then of course it is. To regale you good folk with the inner workings of the robbi week would not only be downright boring (to you) but counter-productive (to me). One must have a modicum of secrecy don't you know, as perhaps to the robbi, his life might be racy ,full of fun,upbeat amongst other superlatives but to the well travelled and jaded jet-set as boring and hum-drum as bat poop. I do understand that amongst my reader(s) there are any number of folk who could hold themselves up to be the glitterati. Certainly that is a hope of mine anyway,would hate to think the only folk who read this stuff were plebeian slobs like myself. A moment of high drama just passed through my day, an ant was spied crawling up the side of my LCD (recent purchase) screen thing,which was duly dispatched, the ant actually.
That little episode brings me onto the cusp of an aside,namely. Driving through the back streets of my local suburb to the shopping mall ,that when I am forced through circumstance ,I go. There, on the footpaths, was a collection of old type PC screens. We have all had them and perhaps some of us still use one, they still work and perform the same function that their design was for originally but because of the advent of the LCD type screen they have been deemed obsolete. There on the footpath I counted six screens ,two at one location and the rest singular. Please don't point out that I should be watching where I was driving and not rubbish on the footpath, did and was thanks. My point? I have no idea really, are these screens the dinosaurs of 2009, or is it how we the consumers view our place in society the reason for the throw-away mentality. This part of the robbi world I take a shortcut through is not what is commonly referred to as 'affluent' suburb, rather a little down at heel and worn out, but reasonably neat.
So there it is,my one Saturday morning trip into suburbia becomes an exercise into the mores, whys wherefores, foibles of society 2009 that hasn't even answered why or just why ever not, and surely it is only the business of the throwers of the screens, or what did you do with your old one anyway.
See Hortense, I get myself into so much angst over zip. Life is bigger than that old girl, let me just draw a deep breath to get over said rubbish then get onto something else that I know ought about. Indeed Horty old girl ,once over the barrel m'girl, one never forgets that experience. I refer of course the the machinations of government.
The story that came out yesterday in the morning Murdoch about the dad who was left with three young children(one went to school) who applied for full time benefit so he could look after his kids and was then told he should get a night shift job(he had a trade) so he then could send his one child to school and catch up on sleep when the other two napped. No mention therein about who would look after the children whilst he was away at work. That of course would strengthen his resolve and he would then become a better parent. I wasn't privy to what he told the person but imagine that it wasn't , oh thank you for that.
Like now Hortense, that smart man at Salisbury council (Adelaide)who has designed all those wetlands that trap ,clean, store naturally the storm water run-off and who can sell that water back to the factories in his area cheaper by far than the Government water supply folk, cannot get his ideas accepted by the Government. Although he says that for a quarter the cost over ten years that the Government is spending on a desal plant in one year, he can store more water and supply same to all of Adelaide. The desal plant will cost $89 millions a year to run as well Hortense, wetlands, about $500thou.Apart from the minuscule costs too,wetlands do not use any greenhouse emissions, whereas a Desal plant runs on coal produced electricity. Now old girl if I was a conspiracy theorist then there would be several arguments that could be raised here, one being that the Government would not be able to actually SELL the water to joe public like it can the DESAL water if it came from storm water run-off, which by the way is more than the entire city of Adelaide can use in a year.But then I'm not any sort of theorist at all,what do I know.
What I do know is that we are going to live theatre tonight to see the Kranski sisters et al, but before that Horty we shall wander into cocolat for gelato, does that sound a plan? you betcha it do.
That little episode brings me onto the cusp of an aside,namely. Driving through the back streets of my local suburb to the shopping mall ,that when I am forced through circumstance ,I go. There, on the footpaths, was a collection of old type PC screens. We have all had them and perhaps some of us still use one, they still work and perform the same function that their design was for originally but because of the advent of the LCD type screen they have been deemed obsolete. There on the footpath I counted six screens ,two at one location and the rest singular. Please don't point out that I should be watching where I was driving and not rubbish on the footpath, did and was thanks. My point? I have no idea really, are these screens the dinosaurs of 2009, or is it how we the consumers view our place in society the reason for the throw-away mentality. This part of the robbi world I take a shortcut through is not what is commonly referred to as 'affluent' suburb, rather a little down at heel and worn out, but reasonably neat.
So there it is,my one Saturday morning trip into suburbia becomes an exercise into the mores, whys wherefores, foibles of society 2009 that hasn't even answered why or just why ever not, and surely it is only the business of the throwers of the screens, or what did you do with your old one anyway.
See Hortense, I get myself into so much angst over zip. Life is bigger than that old girl, let me just draw a deep breath to get over said rubbish then get onto something else that I know ought about. Indeed Horty old girl ,once over the barrel m'girl, one never forgets that experience. I refer of course the the machinations of government.
The story that came out yesterday in the morning Murdoch about the dad who was left with three young children(one went to school) who applied for full time benefit so he could look after his kids and was then told he should get a night shift job(he had a trade) so he then could send his one child to school and catch up on sleep when the other two napped. No mention therein about who would look after the children whilst he was away at work. That of course would strengthen his resolve and he would then become a better parent. I wasn't privy to what he told the person but imagine that it wasn't , oh thank you for that.
Like now Hortense, that smart man at Salisbury council (Adelaide)who has designed all those wetlands that trap ,clean, store naturally the storm water run-off and who can sell that water back to the factories in his area cheaper by far than the Government water supply folk, cannot get his ideas accepted by the Government. Although he says that for a quarter the cost over ten years that the Government is spending on a desal plant in one year, he can store more water and supply same to all of Adelaide. The desal plant will cost $89 millions a year to run as well Hortense, wetlands, about $500thou.Apart from the minuscule costs too,wetlands do not use any greenhouse emissions, whereas a Desal plant runs on coal produced electricity. Now old girl if I was a conspiracy theorist then there would be several arguments that could be raised here, one being that the Government would not be able to actually SELL the water to joe public like it can the DESAL water if it came from storm water run-off, which by the way is more than the entire city of Adelaide can use in a year.But then I'm not any sort of theorist at all,what do I know.
What I do know is that we are going to live theatre tonight to see the Kranski sisters et al, but before that Horty we shall wander into cocolat for gelato, does that sound a plan? you betcha it do.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
ink marks on a blank page Sun 8th Feb
I am a Thomas Hardy fan, there said it,been practising for hours to write that as if it were dirty washing or stuff so secret no one should know it about me. But I guess lots of you have read Thomas Hardy, no , yes? maybe or not. I see, wont admit to it eh, oh well we haff ways you know.
You all know that I came out of the closet ages ago re my Anglophilia, being a Hardy fan is just a manifestation of that, but in a more subdued way. Sort of clenched teeth, controlled, anal retention without the anal. Hardy was more or less the original script writer for the Bold and the Beautiful, get my drift?. Far from the Madding crowd was I think one of 'THE' novels of the genre and of course so wildly popular that the title has become a staple of the lexicon and is used ad nauseum by such pretentious writers such as yours truly. Everyone knows the plot, even those of us who have never seen an episode of Bold and Beautiful, and if you have to ask what is Bold and etc then we all know that you actually watch or tape episodes when you go away. The heroine has a most B&B name too, Bathsheba Everdene, which could be an anagram for, 'the best heaven, her bed'. A most theatrical name for a person who really is a bit of an actress herself, loves a few histrionics and likes to be pulling the strings. Some folk will say that the Mayor of Casterbridge or Tess were better books and perhaps they are but just contemplate this gem of thought. Far from etc is part of our word culture in itself and that speaks volumes for what is the style of the book, how it grabbed the mind set of generations, how that title described the content of the book,just what the heroine thought so well, that it became a narrative in itself. For Whom the Bell Tolls / Blood on the Sand / Of Mice and Men /The Postman Always Rings Twice. Yes, I do understand that the Scottish poet(Burns) first coined the phrase 'the best laid plans o'mice and men' and Steinbeck based his story around that. If you type the phrase into Google Steinbeck's use of it comes up more times and first, so I naturally chose the most relevant for the times. Oh heck I cannot fib, never could get into Robert Burns so I used the author I preferred, how's that for unfettered bias. C'mon, make your own list of famous novels whose titles have created meaning which is in use many years after the novels themselves were well read. The main theme of these great novels? boy meets girl and after great hardship either wins girl or gets into deep doo doo trying to. Ain't love grand?
I know Hortense, why do I continually rabbit on about stuff that is clearly above me. Well it's like this old dear, I am trying desperately to lift myself above the normality of a typical life of suburban mediocrity. Do I really think anyone actually reads this outpouring of whatever. Well it is like this Horty, I have an ego and also a bruised psyche for years of trying to keep up with you as a person of the gender I admire as being most capable of clear thinking and debate, unfettered by gender based affiliations. That is you don't stalk off to the pub with your mates to talk sport until you all get legless , then ring up the ones at home looking after the kids to come pick you up. Okay, just don't put your head to one side like that, I will get on with some reality.
Here in OZ we have had some horrendous hot weather.In my little state something like an average of 43.2c over 6 days with the temperature going down to 38c for a few days then yesterday rocking back up to 46.7c . In Victoria just across our state border they had 48.6c Saturday, then some halfwit started a fire which has now burnt out at least 5 villages and towns and killed to this point some 60 people. The actual acreage burnt is in the many many thousands of hectares and the number of houses lost is about 150 with stock and wildlife dead or dying in the hundreds of thousand. No one aid or Government body has yet put a dollar figure on the loss but just in human terms it will be incalculable. The senior Senator for the Greens party, a chap by the name of Bob Brown was quoted on radio as stating that this fire was caused by Climate Change, and as the senior Greens senator he will be calling on the Government to step up its Climate Change policy in the wake of this fire. Might I add as fact too that as long as folks bum's point downward the Greens will never be able to form a Government in their own right so therefore they will never have to formulate policy or deal with an emergency of any kind, let alone one of this National magnitude. A good thing as well for they are a bunch of nincompoops.
As a person who was once a farmer and a member of the volunteer fire fighting brigade I respectfully inform Senator Bob Brown that Climate Change had very little, as a matter of fact nothing, to do with the fire at all. SOME BLOODY LUNATIC LIT IT. Calling Climate Change responsible is drawing the bow trifle long good sir, and, a scare tactic of the worst kind.
Yes Hortense it was Sunday and wasn't that gelato at Cocolat just super and just the ticket too after seeing that funny little film Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais. He is hardly George Clooney dear girl but he is funny.
You all know that I came out of the closet ages ago re my Anglophilia, being a Hardy fan is just a manifestation of that, but in a more subdued way. Sort of clenched teeth, controlled, anal retention without the anal. Hardy was more or less the original script writer for the Bold and the Beautiful, get my drift?. Far from the Madding crowd was I think one of 'THE' novels of the genre and of course so wildly popular that the title has become a staple of the lexicon and is used ad nauseum by such pretentious writers such as yours truly. Everyone knows the plot, even those of us who have never seen an episode of Bold and Beautiful, and if you have to ask what is Bold and etc then we all know that you actually watch or tape episodes when you go away. The heroine has a most B&B name too, Bathsheba Everdene, which could be an anagram for, 'the best heaven, her bed'. A most theatrical name for a person who really is a bit of an actress herself, loves a few histrionics and likes to be pulling the strings. Some folk will say that the Mayor of Casterbridge or Tess were better books and perhaps they are but just contemplate this gem of thought. Far from etc is part of our word culture in itself and that speaks volumes for what is the style of the book, how it grabbed the mind set of generations, how that title described the content of the book,just what the heroine thought so well, that it became a narrative in itself. For Whom the Bell Tolls / Blood on the Sand / Of Mice and Men /The Postman Always Rings Twice. Yes, I do understand that the Scottish poet(Burns) first coined the phrase 'the best laid plans o'mice and men' and Steinbeck based his story around that. If you type the phrase into Google Steinbeck's use of it comes up more times and first, so I naturally chose the most relevant for the times. Oh heck I cannot fib, never could get into Robert Burns so I used the author I preferred, how's that for unfettered bias. C'mon, make your own list of famous novels whose titles have created meaning which is in use many years after the novels themselves were well read. The main theme of these great novels? boy meets girl and after great hardship either wins girl or gets into deep doo doo trying to. Ain't love grand?
I know Hortense, why do I continually rabbit on about stuff that is clearly above me. Well it's like this old dear, I am trying desperately to lift myself above the normality of a typical life of suburban mediocrity. Do I really think anyone actually reads this outpouring of whatever. Well it is like this Horty, I have an ego and also a bruised psyche for years of trying to keep up with you as a person of the gender I admire as being most capable of clear thinking and debate, unfettered by gender based affiliations. That is you don't stalk off to the pub with your mates to talk sport until you all get legless , then ring up the ones at home looking after the kids to come pick you up. Okay, just don't put your head to one side like that, I will get on with some reality.
Here in OZ we have had some horrendous hot weather.In my little state something like an average of 43.2c over 6 days with the temperature going down to 38c for a few days then yesterday rocking back up to 46.7c . In Victoria just across our state border they had 48.6c Saturday, then some halfwit started a fire which has now burnt out at least 5 villages and towns and killed to this point some 60 people. The actual acreage burnt is in the many many thousands of hectares and the number of houses lost is about 150 with stock and wildlife dead or dying in the hundreds of thousand. No one aid or Government body has yet put a dollar figure on the loss but just in human terms it will be incalculable. The senior Senator for the Greens party, a chap by the name of Bob Brown was quoted on radio as stating that this fire was caused by Climate Change, and as the senior Greens senator he will be calling on the Government to step up its Climate Change policy in the wake of this fire. Might I add as fact too that as long as folks bum's point downward the Greens will never be able to form a Government in their own right so therefore they will never have to formulate policy or deal with an emergency of any kind, let alone one of this National magnitude. A good thing as well for they are a bunch of nincompoops.
As a person who was once a farmer and a member of the volunteer fire fighting brigade I respectfully inform Senator Bob Brown that Climate Change had very little, as a matter of fact nothing, to do with the fire at all. SOME BLOODY LUNATIC LIT IT. Calling Climate Change responsible is drawing the bow trifle long good sir, and, a scare tactic of the worst kind.
Yes Hortense it was Sunday and wasn't that gelato at Cocolat just super and just the ticket too after seeing that funny little film Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais. He is hardly George Clooney dear girl but he is funny.
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