Graffiti goons.

As I’ve mentioned several times I’ve managed to become involved with the parents support group for the local Girl Guide group. The parents, Leaders and the girls themselves are very proud of their little hut and over the past few years have gradually renovated it from a basic ’shed’ to a pretty little meeting place [...]

Angela Catterns - again!

She’s back on the radio soon. At 11 o”clock she’ll be interviewing Natasha Stott-Despoja who is closing down her official duties for the country today and clearing out her office.
Two icons talking to one another… nice!

Chronicles of Narnia: BBC version

Despite not having written much in the blog I *have* had the chance to sit and make a start watching the Chronicles of Narnia. No not the recent film versions, but a relatively ancient version released by the BBC back in 1988!
Being a BBC production we were prepared for a ‘high quality’ presentation which was [...]

Apologies.

Things have been rather quiet around the Dog’s Kennel for the past few days, but not so quiet I’ve been able to write much in the blog.  We have done a few odd little domestic chores of course, mowing laws, washing floors etc but pretty much little else. The cold has bounced up and down [...]

Welcome Back Angela Catterns!!

Next week those of us in the Sydney area be able to welcome back Angea Catterns to the airwaves. Since Angela left Vega FM we’ve waited for the return to that intelligent mind and authoritative voice… and now we have it albeit for a short period.
Here’s an old picture of Angela from her Triple J [...]

Yobs in Uniform

We’re all aware of just how violent life can be for members of the police force who put their lives on the line every day to protect us ordinary fold from the rough edges of society and those who would disrupt the fragile structure of civilisation. The responsibilities of the job require that they are [...]

Schapelle Corby - not forgotten!

Schapelle Corby (aged 30) is an Australian woman currently serving a 20 year prison sentence after being convicted for smuggling drugs into Bali. She has protested her innocence from day one and continues to do so despite the possibility that an admission of guilt coupled with an appeal for clemency to the President might result [...]

Hell on earth… again.

The strength and courage displayed by Jane and Glenn McGrath in the face of their personal tragedy displays what is best about the human character. In the midst of their own struggle with mortality they found time to support not only each other but many, many others through the McGrath Foundation. The example of Jane’s [...]

Vale Jane McGrath

After an eleven year fight against cancers, Jane McGrath has finally died aged 42. She died surrounded by her husband cricketer Glen McGrath and her two young children. Jane first developed breast cancer back in 1997 two years after meeting Glenn, but after chemotherapy beat it off. She had two children and then in 2004 [...]

Bandwidth busters?

In case anyone wonders just why the posting rate dried up, I got ’shaped’ by my ISP. The effort involved in moving to an ISP offering a more generous data tranfer limit is too difficult currently, not least because nobody in our area can provide the high data transfer rates we depend on to function [...]

Faces of Australia: Bizarre records

There are all sorts of people doing all sorts of odd things in order to set world records, but I have to admit this guy from Queensland, Australia, is one of the strangest I’ve come across!
Back in 1998, Les Stewart completed 16 years hard work. As ‘therapy’ after sickness meant he had to give [...]

Faces of Australia: The quality of mercy.

In 2003 Graeme Wylie was diagnosed Alzheimer’s’ disease and he finally died at his home in Cammeray in March 2006 aged 71
Shortly afterwards Shirley Justins (below right), his partner of 18 years was arrested and charged with manslaughter. His long time friend 75 year old Caren Jenning (below left) was arrested and charged with being [...]

Faces of Australia: Stealing candy from babies

Below is a picture I’ve lifted from news.com.au taken by Robert McKelland. It shows 43 year old Chris Tonkin holding his six year old daughter Lucy. You might notice he has a few interesting facial features, most notably a severely bruised eye. Seems two days ago little Lucy was toddling around some 50 metres from [...]

Vale Cyd Charisse

Always seeming to be the bearer of bad news, we are sad to report the death of of another one of Hollywood’s greats, Tula Ellice Finklea, far better known as Cyd Charisse (87).
Ok perhaps Cyd Charisse wasn’t quite as ‘great’ as some, but she certainly had her moments. One of those ‘moments’, in my mind [...]

Suburban Starvation

Somehow over the past few months, two eighteen month old twins were allowed to starve to death by their parents in Sunnybank Hills, a Queensland suburb. Their bodies were discovered by an eleven year old sibling who went into their room to try to locate the source of a foul smell in the house and [...]

Racist Australia?

Over the time we’ve been here we’ve got almost used to the incipient racism underlying a lot of Australian society. The one thing in it’s favour is that it isn’t hidden away and that people are quite open about it which at least means it is able to be discussed freely.
However occasionally underlying racial tensions [...]

River Deep Mountain high

That doyen of the red carpet, Joan Rivers, has put her foot once again in her somewhat oversized (and some might say overused?) mouth when she let fly with some interesting expletives during a live broadcast on UK television.
During the Program “Loose Women”, Joan (aged 75) she described Aussie actor Russell Crowe letting fly with [...]

Waltzing Matilda - historical archive?

An interesting slant on Australia’s favourite folk song, and ‘almost national anthem’ has emerged thanks to the work of Dennis O’Keefe who spent 15 years researching the story.
The fundamentals seem to be that Banjo Patterson, who wrote the song, was ‘courting’ the daughter of the squatter who owned the land where the events took place [...]

Remembering Rahma el-Dennaoui

After several years no word has been heard about the fate of little Rahma el-Dennaoui missing now since November 2005 with no clue about her whereabouts.
We ran a short story on her disappearance in 2007 (Spare a thought… ) but nothing has yet been heard.
One of the problems hampering the police search was the limited [...]

Channel 7 up for contempt?

Despite having lost their defamation case with regards Mercedes Corby and agreeing to a settlement that involved (as usual) a non-disclosure agreement, the host of the offending show Anna Coren seems to have opened a can of worms by discussing the case on Brisbane Radio.
I’m no lawyer and didn’t hear the report… but the story [...]

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