Vale Wendy Richards

We learned this morning of the death of Wendy Richards who finally succumbed to breast cancer after a long struggle, she was 65.

Wendy was a favourite on the small screen for in Britain for many, many years both as a ‘blonde bombshell’  Miss Brahms in the classic series “Are You Being Served”, and as the [...]

What does it mean to be “British”?

Some statistics have been released which, if correct, maye you wonder what’s happening over in ‘dear old blighty’.  The figures released imply that 1 in 9 people living in Britain were born ‘overseas’.
Globalisation, cheap travel, easy migration and wide differences in living standards have encouraged people to move in ever greater numbers from place to [...]

Mohamed al Fayed – a real reason for complaint?

You really have to ask yourself if there is something to the continuing complaints of Mohamed al Fayed (the owner of Harrod’s) that the ‘powers-that-be’ (including Secret Service, the Royal Family, and the police) in the UK are conducting a conspiracy intended to ruin him… in other words… people are out to get him… and have [...]

From bad to worse.

The fires are not yet out… the death toll not finalised… and Melbourne suffers another blow as projections of some of the long term issues become clearer.
This time the problem is water supply. Rainfall in the catchment area for Melbourne is already at its lowest on record, and the dams are currently only at 30% [...]

Death toll etc.

The death toll currently still stands at 181 but there are areas yet to be accessed by police and there are known dead waiting to be moved and counted amongst those lost. The end total is still estimated at ‘300′ but it will be some time before anything like a final ‘exact official figure’ can [...]

The first arrest.

Police have arrested a 39 year old man in connection with the blaze that killed 21 people and wiped out 36,000 hectares of South Gippsland. The man’s solicitor said his client was “in a fragile state” and needed immediate psychological support.
Police consider the cause of fires started at Marysville, Murrindindi, Buxton and Narbethong to be ’suspicious’. If [...]

Firebugs or Natural Disasters or… ?

Theories are beginning to be mooted about the causes of the Victorian Bushfire Disaster, and whilst they are many and varied it appears nearly all contain an element of ‘truth’ about them that could explain just what went so horribly wrong.
To make it a little simplet. it’s useful to look at the situation in several [...]

The environmentalist.

The kids went out in the garden a weeks or so ago and found an old bowl we’d been using under a tap as an extra water source for our dogs. Over the months it managed to develop a hole a few cms from the bottom so was pushed to one side. Still, it does hold [...]

The wheel turns.

The fires in Victoria are still burning though some overnight rain has given the firefighters some chance of finally gaining a measure of control over the course of the twenty-one blazes they are currently dealing with. Currently no more homes are under threat, as far as we’re aware but of course the clean-up has yet [...]

Soul of a Nation

We’re relative newcomers to Australia having only been here 15 years or so, but ‘new’ or not we *feel* Australian, which is really strange when you think just how*huge* this country is.
What brought it into perspective was the concern we feel here in Sydney for our fellows down South in Victoria where they are suffering [...]

And… we’re back.

So here we are again after the long summer break raring to go with a load of topics to discuss. Yet what a place to begin. With the possibility of 300 or more people dead in the worst bush-fires Australia has seen hanging over us it’s hard to restart the blog with anything positive.
That we’d [...]

Free Rice?

Ok here’s a little ‘game’ to occupy your mind and do some small thing for world hunger as you go. You can find it at Free Rice and it’s just a little something to keep our brains active..
Basically you determine the definitions of words on a given list, and click on the answer. [...]

Vale Tony Hart

Sad news that Tony Hart, a gentleman and an inspiration, has died aged 83. He’d retired a few years ago after suffering a couple of strokes, and the loss of his ability to draw accurately hit him very hard. He is probably best known for his TV show HartBeat and of course that little plasticine [...]

Political Correctness gone mad.

Over here in Australia the law has decided that the characters drawn in the Simpsons cartoons are the equivalent of real people. Someone who was found to have accessed and downloaded drawing showing the chacters engaged in various sexual acts was fined $3000. He appealed and the appeal was denied.
I’ll accept quite happily that *some* [...]

For United Kingdom read ‘Police State’.

Hot on the heels of the unprecedented arrest of a Damian Green, a Member of Parliament, and the police raid on his Parliamentary office comes news of the imminent arrival of ID’s for every person on UK soil and a threat of *arrest* if ID is *not* presented on demand by the police!!
This move not seen [...]

On a theme…

This little offering is entitled “Burying the Truth” and, again, is a YouTube ’short’ about Schapelle Corby and the way the media have portrayed her. Her major problem was the prima facie case that she was in possession of the drugs therefore the onus was upon her to prove she had nothing to do with [...]

Getting the sharp end of the pineapple!

Seems all Senior/High School in NSW are to get their promised laptops by the end of term two next year… all those in *public* schooling that is. For those of us funding private sector schooling… there’s nothing.
Forgive me for mentioning this… but aren’t *we* taxpayers as well? Isn’t it likely in fact that ‘we’ will [...]

David Hicks – the saga continues

The majority of people around the world have probably never heard of David Hicks or if they ever knew the name have all bar forgotten who he was, the troubles he got himself into… and the abandonment of this Australian citizen by the politicians who were sworn to protect his rights.
I’m not one to claim [...]

They’re coming!!

We’re a scruffy bunch here sometimes. For example, I like a bit of ‘wildness’ in the garden and so apart from throwing handfuls of slug pellets out now and then I tend not to do much in the way of pest control. Likewise I do *very* little pruning in some areas.
Once such area is the [...]

Australian Child Protection Laws – new guidelines.

New draft guidelines related to Child Protection Laws have been released by the Australia Council in the aftermath of the Bill Henson controversies. and require that anyone taking photographs of children needs to obtain parental permission first. Ok we’ve been pressing for changes to the law but some of the recommendations offered constitute *far* too [...]

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