Wednesday
Category: House, Garden and Dogs
The line in the sand is here!
Finally, we have a government. As expected the government has claimed victory in the election with the opposition conceding defeat. It has been a very tight election with a rise in the major voting stats for the minor/independent parties. I think part of the message is simply that the people in general are fed up with the constant sniping and point scoring that goes on in Parliament between the two major parties. I sometimes think they forget that they are there to run the country not waste time scoring points off each other. If they don’t learn this lesson then we are going to get a lot of close elections and hung parliament with the independents demanding greater and greater concessions. What we really do not need at this stage is “Meet the New Boss – same as the Old Boss!”
The race is on for a new Mayor to replace Jim Pollock who died recently. People are looking to elect a retired member of the State Parliament as Mayor, which I am totally against. All the years she was there she was led around by the Adelaide Boys Club. She was made Speaker then stood aside so one of the Adelaide Boys Club could have the job instead. I honestly believe she would be a disaster since she would simply do and speak as North Terrace told her to . I do not believe she would be an independent Mayor and more than anything we need an independent Mayor not a party hack.
Just over a week now and the army will be gone. It has been interesting having them here and it has been fun doing the catering for them. Yes, they do have their own catering but they wanted a number of “Not for Profit” groups to do catering so that they could inject funds into the local community and whatever supplies they did need, they purchased locally.
Adelaide is being battered by wild weather with more predicted tonight. This front is passing below us but I expect we will get a bit of the rain and some wind. — This is what happened. We did get some rain and some wind but nothing to really write home about. Adelaide took another battering with snow on the Adelaide Hills as far down as Handorf.
Andrew is heading down to Adelaide on Sunday afternoon for a meeting early Monday morning. I’ll get home from church, get changed and he will pick me up just after noon. He can go off to his meeting on Monday and I’ll get into the Apple Shop in Rundle Mall and either see about getting something done with my laptop or if it has reached the end of its life and cannot be upgraded, think about a emplacement. My current laptop is at least two upgrades behind and I don’t know why it wont upgrade. If it is a replacement I’ll probably look at the MacBook Pro again.
Today I left the room. I could not watch the news. I know what has happened but I could not watch nor listen to it. I cried and found everything overwhelming as the tears ran down my face. I wept for the horror, I wept for the loss, I wept for France. The tears of sorrow gave way to feelings of anger together with my feelings for Angela Merkel – so better to leave it here rather than say something I may regret.
Bastille Day!!
Marshal of France
Wednesday
Cuttlefish and Cold Water
As I mentioned in another post, the Royal Flying Doctors Service (Support) were catering for a three day diving course about 3 million miles out of town, in the middle of nowhere, right next to the sea and very little shelter. Man it was cold. Well, ok, a slight exaggeration on the millage, but it was a long way out of town. The dive was organised by the “Experiencing Marine Sanctuaries (EMS) Group” to view the Giant Cuttlefish in their
natural environment and to give people the opportunity to interact with them. The water in this part of the gulf is very clear and most people used a boogie board to allow them to get face down in the water and a snorkel for air. The more adventurous had weights and got down among the creatures – there were hundreds of them. They are a strange creature – weird looking with the ability to change colour at will to attract females. The EMS Group kept trying to persuade us to leave the catering Gazebo, don a wet suit and get into the freezing cold water. Oh did I ever mention that I do not have masochistic tendencies, plus the fact that it was quite cold enough where we were thank you. I actually would have gone with them but not without any preparation – like very warm clothes to change into and a cup of our own hot soup afterwards. They are going to run the course again next year so I may well take the opportunity to go out with them then. Also this is the first time we have been involved with this and we didn’t know what would be required. Next year we will be better organised. Like with the Operators- Advertising was not all that great and on the first day people bought their own food because they didn’t know we would be there. Apart from hot food we also provided, hot tea, coffee, chocolate and hot soup. There were three dives each day – 10am / 12 noon / 3pm. It was cold and colder when the wind
was coming off the water. The Cuttlefish mate in the cold water during winter.
The election goes on and will continue for some time yet. We still have no outcome although it is looking more likely that the government will survive – just – and that it may well have a workable majority although the wheeling and dealing with the independents continues.
I did say that the rain had passed and it has – sort of. It’s still wet but the rain has been reduced to a drizzle with the odd overnight shower, which means that garden work is mostly out for the moment. The army are still here and we have a group catering for them at their camp in Jubilee Park. I don’t have anything to do until Saturday week.
The WaWa continues to attack Benji and Benji will not defend himself. Annabell and I have decided that if Sooah does not return to Australia, then we cannot keep the WaWa. It would not be fair on BJ. The WaWa is a friendly, playful little thing and is all over me when I come home after being out for a few hours. I can play with her and I can “fight”with her, but she hates BJ with a passion. I also have a fear that BJ will snap and retaliate and really cause some serious injury – and that bothers me more than a little because a snap and injury could well change the whole nature of Benji and I really don’t want that to happen. And to make matters worse, Sooah has not been in contact with us so we really don’t know what is happening.
Since writing this Sooah has been in contact with us and we now know what is happening. Her husband is still working on brushing up his English and should be good enough to get through
the English Test and all being well she hopes to be back in Australia by October of this year – or very shortly afterwards. That’s fine and gives us something to work towards. I have also been to see the Vet and sometimes next week we will get the WaWa up there and perhaps see if we can get a muzzle small enough as a temporary measure and protect Benji. Meanwhile we have a water spray bottle to use, also as a temporary measure. We have tried that already and she definitely does not like that.
Wednesday
Elections and 4th July
Well the rain finally stopped and although it’s been dry it has been cold. How cold? well an escaped prisoner in New South Wales telephoned the police, told them where he was and asked them to come and collect him and take him back to prison because he was freezing cold and worried about hypothermia. Of course, it does not ever get that cold in South Australia – at worst about 2c overnight and about 11c during the day,which is quite cold enough for me. It has rained a little bit – nothing quite exciting, but wet enough to soak the ground to a slight mud area. There’s really not a lot I can do about this at the moment. I really need a few days of completely dry weather to be able to work in the area.
The largest military exercise ( Operation Hamel) in South Australian history and one of the largest ever staged in Australia has started with almost 10,000 military taking part. The fictional Country of Cultania is under attack by heavily armed terrorists and the Government of East Cultania have asked for assistance. A task force of Australian, New Zealand, British and American troops are currently evacuating expats and other nationals to the now military secured Whyalla Airport. I believe 5 RAR have moved into the city center and more evacuations are underway. Annoying that the main camp at Jubilee Park and the Airport are not to far away, but the most I have ever seen was the troops and equipment at the “Show and Tell” last Friday. I have not even seen any of their patrols day or night. Of course the exercise has really only started and it will go on for a while yet.
So sorry to hear that a freak major storm seems to have paid a visit to the area around Denver Colorado. Not fun for poor Sam and some damage to the roof of the house – which is a worry. I think our wild weather has passed for the time being. Probably just as well or we would have a lot of soggy soldiers. As I have said before, really serious storm are a rarity here. Generally storms pass above us and head into New South Wales, or below us and go visit Victoria. Now we seem to have settled down to our normal winter – cold to colder and dry.
Friend said the other day that he was all electioned out and he would be glad when this election is over. Well, it’s not over and wont be for a while yet
We are starting to look like Italy and some of the other European countries with a multiplicity of political parties. Everybody wants to have their own political party and we are getting to the stage where neither of the major parties can govern without making deals for support from independents. The Senate paper with all the independents looked very much like a Ancient Scroll rolled up at the ends. I’m convinced half of them are British Monster Raving Loony Party ( real registered party – honestly) in disguise. I don’t know why we don’t have a “Destabilize the Governance of the Nation”Party According to what I can find, there are 57 “Parties” that contested this election. Hey I just figured it out – we’re a Heinz Country – 57 Varieties. However, not all of these parties or groups are contesting in every state. Some are purely state based but the fact remains that taking so many votes has ensured that we have a hung parliament for the second time in six years and more chaos and possibly an early election. Wheeling and dealing and souls being sold for a financial advantage – irrespective of what excuse they give for accepting. What – me Cynical? Never.
What will happen – whoever wins – is that we will have three years of no government. Well, yes we will have a government in name but a government unable to get any of its legislation through – a government that will run in the name of its political party but not a government that can function for the benefit of the nation – a government that will be at the mercy of independents,who could change at any time. There are still seats that are not yet declared and at the moment the government party is ahead, but that will still not give them enough seats to govern in their own right. There are still over two million votes to be yet counted. Interesting times…
PS: All the pundits are predicting that we will have a new election within 12 months.
Monday 4th July
Happy Birthday U.S.A.! I hope you all are having a great 4th July weekend.
Wednesday
A welcome break but hard work.
I know, hard to believe, but it’s raining again. By this time I expect your thoughts are along the lines of “I wish he would just shut up about that rain” Well, I just wish it would stop raining for a while – I’m getting waterlogged. To add insult to injury it’s cold – freezing really. This is not surprising because the fiction writers that forecast the weather have said cold, wet with the possibility of snow in the Adelaide hills this weekend. In Scotland it rains from time to time and one of my most loved definitions of Scottish weather comes from a Ken McClure book
“Fenton’s Winter” where the two main characters are in Edinburgh sheltering from the rain in a doorway. One says to his mate “All this rain – do you think maybe God has something against Scotland?” His friend’s reply “No – I think it’s a character development agreement He has with John Knox. I mean, lets face it, if we were enjoying ourselves we’d feel guilty!”
But if it rains so much how can we tell the difference between winter and summer ? Oh that’s easy – in Summer the rain is actually quite warm – wet, but warm, whereas in winter the rain is very cold, and we have a special name for it – Snow.. I know, Scottish people joke about the weather all the time, but what else can we do ?
The seriousness of the weather is such that the Adelaide central bus station has said that it will stay open all night during the extreme weather. It will provide a place of warmth and shelter for the elderly and the homeless. There will also be food and hot drinks provided. I have to say that the Bus Station has gone up in my estimation of it. There is flooding in most areas in Adelaide, expected flooding in the Adelaide Hills and still looks like snow in the wee small hours. But we have been told to brace for wild weather over the next few days. Like the weather we have had thus far has not been wild enough?
Tomorrow (Friday) we have been asked – at very short notice I might add – to organise catering for part of the army group that has taken over parts of the town. Presently there are about 4000 Military Personnel, soldiers and admin. here in town. No we are not catering for all that lot – but we are catering for about 200+ who have organised a “Show and Tell” day at Civic Park . The bulk of the Army Group are stationed at Cultana – which is the military playpen of about 2090 square km. and that’s only part of it. Anyway it’s part of the main training area for the 1st. Brigade, 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (7 RAR) as well as units of the Australian Light Horse – so a lot of soldiers wandering around the town. Annabell has medical appointments tomorrow so I can’t help out until later in the day. On the Sunday, we have organised a Cake Stall so that should be interesting. I wont be at that! This is being held in the Stratco (hardware company) carpark. Oh Annabell is making
cakes and biscuits (cookies) for
this, but I wont be there other than first thing in the morning to take her things down to the RFDS stall.
Next weekend ( 1st. 2nd. 3rd. July) we are catering for a big diving course being held out at Point Lowly – about 30 km from here. I am there on the Saturday and I have to pick up a couple of people and take them out there. We are three groups, one Friday, one Saturday and one Sunday. I have the Saturday group. Our contribution to Central Operations will be $45,000 this year – which is pretty good for a small band of people. It’s been a lot of work at times but we have the highest number of RFDS landings in Australia – 573 this year. It’s not that we have a lot of sick people here but if there is an accident or an emergency in a community hospital further north, the RFDS will pick up the patient and bring them to the nearest major hospital – us. It may well be that all we can do is stabilize , call back the RFDS and get the patient off to the Flinders Medical Center or the Royal Adelaide Hospital for specalised treatment that we cannot provide. So a lot of that accounts for the large number of landings.
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