I love this Doctor! 
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart only good for so many beats, and that it...don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speeding up heart not make you live longer; it like saying you extend life of car by driving faster. Want to live longer? Take nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiency. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So steak is nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give you 100% of recommended daily allowance of vegetable product.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that mean they take water out of fruity bit so you get even more of goodness that way. Beer also made of grain. Bottom up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No pain...good!
Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING! Food are fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, they permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only be doing sit-up if you want bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for your figure, explain whale to me..
Q: Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' a shape!
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.
And remember:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO, what a ride!!"
AND.....
For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
1. The Japanese eat very little fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats
and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Back from Melbourne.
Lucky me. The week before I got to spend a few days in Sydney with our eldest and it was wonderful. Then a few days with our youngest in Melbourne. The girls places are where I feel most relaxe
d and under no pressure to be anyone but who I am. They, as no doubt I have mentioned, are two of the most giving and well balanced daughters possible and best mates as well.
Something a bit magic seems to happen when we get together and even better when all three of us are together which hopefully will happen at Christmas.
We have a few home video
s which we made - when Don was alive which bring us undone - not in a sad way but we usually hurt our throats laughing... he was an incredible mimic and if he decided to mimic you it was pretty cutting and usually well deserved.
Last time the girls and I were together (July 4 his birthday)we made the first new one since Don died and thought maybe we couldn't do the old magic without him - but the subject matter which shall remain nameless was so good and the mimicry so well deserved we only have to mention it and we are off. It was so good to see how it lifted the girls spirits up to be able to still do what Don taught us all so well.
I think along with respect for family and accountability, laughter and being able to laugh firstly at oneself, is probably one of the best things a parent can teach a child. Too many parents forget what it was like to be a child and how easily children laugh when not afraid to. Don was very firm with the girls and there were rules but they were reasonable rules and not ego based...something a lot of parents do...just to prove they have power.
About time to get the old hair colour out again, too from the photos...the old white hair is a coming through rapidly... so much of it.
I had a great time all up. One very sad moment was with Melissa when she was close to a man who had the same level of Quadriplegia as her dad...his arms and hands, the way he breathed when he spoke, his thin chest, the posture in the wheelchair all of it...and his sense of humour...and she was lost...she just took off in tears to the toilets . I think she keeps a lot of her feelings inside. She, after myself is the one other than Don who saw the most of the horrible things he was subjected to and no doubt like me carries a lot of what happened around like maggoty stuff just below the surface. It is to her credit and strength that she manages as well as she does. I think what she saw done to her dad would bring a lot of people unstuck. Its funny, to hug her like a small child when she is upset because she is six inches taller than me and I have to reach up...
For us and this is always there, its like a murder... caused by a system which has no accountability...therefore there is none of what people call closure...its open ended... I think this needs to be considered when something really gross is done inside the medical system... we can't call on the police to investigate, nor anyone as i have proved...the system doesn't work. So my daughters know and have to live with the fact that in Australia someone as frail as their dad could be brutalised, and killed and the authorities think its okay. Nothing is done. There is no reason to believe otherwise.
And yet these amazing kids of ours can still laugh be interested. I am so lucky because they are always considerate of my reality...
I know I have posted this photo before but the evening this was taken is as clear today as it was the
n 32 years ago. Don had just come home from work (it was winter) and we were all on the floor with pillows and blankies ...Melissa and Don were playing a foot tickling game with Alison and she kept putting her foot back for more... We rented that old house for $12 a week - it was tiny but close to the beach...it was heaven to live there. We had nothing much at all having arrived at Port Macquarie with an old dodge ex ambulance car, an esky and a suitcase of clothes each. In those days there were no tax file numbers, no I.D needed for most things and you could pick up work almost on the first day you arrived which we did. We acquired furniture by a sort of osmosis...people's hand me downs and second hand...I got all our wooden kitchen chairs...and they were solid and would be considered antiques these days...i got them from the furniture shop at the dump for 20cents each! I still always check out the second hand or op shops before I buy new these days because it makes sense. i like old stuff better anyway.
When I said goodbye to Alison yesterday at the airport, she hung onto me for quite a while, and then came back for more...usually its the parent who does this... She contacts me every morning to make sure I haven't been eaten by wild dogs or something overnight - but I make sure I make light of anything that does happen because I am quite capable and tough and too young to be taken care of...but its nice to know that the girls would be there for me if i needed them.
Its a stinking hot day all over NSW today...well into the 30's here and well over 40 degrees Celsius in much of the state...there are plenty of bush fires and we have to pray they cause no loss of life.
I was gobsmacked to see on the news down in Melbourne, that over a 100 lives were lost due to the fact that the electricity suppliers had not used a gadget on all the lines which cost only $5 and which would have prevented the fire that was started by those lines...and even now after a Royal commission, and all the sadness that the authorities still haven't added these gadgets to the lines!
Unbelievable. So it could all happen again because nothing has been done since the tragedy. The early warning system they all spruiked about...its not happened...nothing really. Same in NSW...I would bet there has been a whole government department working on and being well paid just trying to tackle the issue...and still nothing. Few homes have been replaced...
c
Lucky me. The week before I got to spend a few days in Sydney with our eldest and it was wonderful. Then a few days with our youngest in Melbourne. The girls places are where I feel most relaxe
d and under no pressure to be anyone but who I am. They, as no doubt I have mentioned, are two of the most giving and well balanced daughters possible and best mates as well.Something a bit magic seems to happen when we get together and even better when all three of us are together which hopefully will happen at Christmas.
We have a few home video
s which we made - when Don was alive which bring us undone - not in a sad way but we usually hurt our throats laughing... he was an incredible mimic and if he decided to mimic you it was pretty cutting and usually well deserved.Last time the girls and I were together (July 4 his birthday)we made the first new one since Don died and thought maybe we couldn't do the old magic without him - but the subject matter which shall remain nameless was so good and the mimicry so well deserved we only have to mention it and we are off. It was so good to see how it lifted the girls spirits up to be able to still do what Don taught us all so well.
I think along with respect for family and accountability, laughter and being able to laugh firstly at oneself, is probably one of the best things a parent can teach a child. Too many parents forget what it was like to be a child and how easily children laugh when not afraid to. Don was very firm with the girls and there were rules but they were reasonable rules and not ego based...something a lot of parents do...just to prove they have power.
About time to get the old hair colour out again, too from the photos...the old white hair is a coming through rapidly... so much of it.
I had a great time all up. One very sad moment was with Melissa when she was close to a man who had the same level of Quadriplegia as her dad...his arms and hands, the way he breathed when he spoke, his thin chest, the posture in the wheelchair all of it...and his sense of humour...and she was lost...she just took off in tears to the toilets . I think she keeps a lot of her feelings inside. She, after myself is the one other than Don who saw the most of the horrible things he was subjected to and no doubt like me carries a lot of what happened around like maggoty stuff just below the surface. It is to her credit and strength that she manages as well as she does. I think what she saw done to her dad would bring a lot of people unstuck. Its funny, to hug her like a small child when she is upset because she is six inches taller than me and I have to reach up...
For us and this is always there, its like a murder... caused by a system which has no accountability...therefore there is none of what people call closure...its open ended... I think this needs to be considered when something really gross is done inside the medical system... we can't call on the police to investigate, nor anyone as i have proved...the system doesn't work. So my daughters know and have to live with the fact that in Australia someone as frail as their dad could be brutalised, and killed and the authorities think its okay. Nothing is done. There is no reason to believe otherwise.
And yet these amazing kids of ours can still laugh be interested. I am so lucky because they are always considerate of my reality...
I know I have posted this photo before but the evening this was taken is as clear today as it was the
n 32 years ago. Don had just come home from work (it was winter) and we were all on the floor with pillows and blankies ...Melissa and Don were playing a foot tickling game with Alison and she kept putting her foot back for more... We rented that old house for $12 a week - it was tiny but close to the beach...it was heaven to live there. We had nothing much at all having arrived at Port Macquarie with an old dodge ex ambulance car, an esky and a suitcase of clothes each. In those days there were no tax file numbers, no I.D needed for most things and you could pick up work almost on the first day you arrived which we did. We acquired furniture by a sort of osmosis...people's hand me downs and second hand...I got all our wooden kitchen chairs...and they were solid and would be considered antiques these days...i got them from the furniture shop at the dump for 20cents each! I still always check out the second hand or op shops before I buy new these days because it makes sense. i like old stuff better anyway.When I said goodbye to Alison yesterday at the airport, she hung onto me for quite a while, and then came back for more...usually its the parent who does this... She contacts me every morning to make sure I haven't been eaten by wild dogs or something overnight - but I make sure I make light of anything that does happen because I am quite capable and tough and too young to be taken care of...but its nice to know that the girls would be there for me if i needed them.
Its a stinking hot day all over NSW today...well into the 30's here and well over 40 degrees Celsius in much of the state...there are plenty of bush fires and we have to pray they cause no loss of life.
I was gobsmacked to see on the news down in Melbourne, that over a 100 lives were lost due to the fact that the electricity suppliers had not used a gadget on all the lines which cost only $5 and which would have prevented the fire that was started by those lines...and even now after a Royal commission, and all the sadness that the authorities still haven't added these gadgets to the lines!
Unbelievable. So it could all happen again because nothing has been done since the tragedy. The early warning system they all spruiked about...its not happened...nothing really. Same in NSW...I would bet there has been a whole government department working on and being well paid just trying to tackle the issue...and still nothing. Few homes have been replaced...
c
Saturday, November 14, 2009
A beautiful day.
Today has been the most beautiful day possible. Sometimes there is something in the air, in the smell of it and a light in the sky and on the land which just takes your breath away. Today has been like this. Australia is an amazing place. We had not had rain for some time and I was worried about the cracks in the ground, about my water tanks becoming dangerously low, about the dam being so dry I was concerned that the neighbour's cattle might get stuck in there because it was now steep sided and boggy...and then while I was away last week it poured and poured.
Now it is so green it couldn't be any greener. Everything appears washed clean and the growth is phenomenal. There seems to be more birdsong and life is everywhere in evidence. Every tree seems to be a different green and light reflects off all the leaves, individually.
Its really quite warm about 30degrees Celsius (thats 86 Fahrenheit), but its not humid at all.
I wouldn't be dead for quids on a day like today.
(Don and I at our own craggy Island - see this link if Father Ted is unknown to ye)
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=Father+ted&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=CzH-SuPODseCkAXY9sDwCw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCgQqwQwAw#
Its family day at the shopping centre. I usually find weekends too hard to go over to the centre as everyone seems to be a couple, with children or family of some sort... there are plenty of people on their own, some by choice no doubt...and after this time I can spot the ones like me. I have become a good "widow spotter" or widower or whatever...these are the people who would not be alone had they the choice. But today I needed to be out of the place so went to the shopping centre...its always bittersweet being places where Don and I, and in the past the girls shared times together - a lot of silliness went on and we always seemed to enjoy ourselves. I think more so with Don and I because we knew the time was precious...
Today I handled it okay...just the odd thought...so that when I came back here to home...as I came down into the yard - it was like a welcome... I guess I feel very safe here...like its a healing place. It was for Don and I before. He would put the long back on the wheelchair and electronically lower it to almost sleeping position and lay outside in the shade of one of the big trees...much of the time he was just out there looking and taking it all in. I always left him alone at t
hese times. We all need our own space, especially those who have such little privacy.
(last Christmas at craggy Island 2006)
I learnt so much being with him. One thing which is total honesty with each other as to feelings. I am humbled by how much effort he put into making sure things ran smoothly in the last year of his life and now. Unlike too many husbands he was totally unselfish, but conversely always got his own way...strangely in the last years after 35 years...his way was my way and vice versa.
The lucky couples like us, reach a place where after storms and fights and jostling...the waves settle down and the pair of you sail together. It felt like we were sailing in the last years.
When I come back here everything is always beautiful. Sure its a "kit home" - sure its on a flood plane - but there is a feeling here and certain places have it stronger. Down by the sliprails into the next paddock is one strong place. out under the mulberry trees is another. Where our lovely old doggie thorn is buried is another...but the main place is as I walk down the gravel path alongside the barbed wire fence...just as I get near the straining post...there is like a 360 view and for some reason I feel as if I am much taller and straighter that I really am...I am not religious but its always here that I mentally or vocally ask the angels for any help they can allow - usually about the girls and how they are handling things...sometimes a cry for strength for myself...but mostly that somehow a publisher will pick up the manuscript. I have recently had three rejections but still have thirteen out there...and hopefully with angelic help one of them will pick it up. With publishers its all about money and cook books sell...not medical exposes.
On Monday I am off to My youngest's place to get the last of my varicose veins done - before summer. Yay. I am the only one of mum and dad's five daughters to inherit her dreadful varicose veins...her nose as well. The nose i am happy with...but the veins were becoming dangerously enlarged last summer so that even driving or sitting was impossible as it was all crimped behind one knee...sorry Victorians...but I got into a doctor down there quicker than in my home state...I am paying for it but still would have had an 18mth wait here...and they are butchers here.
So after spending five days with our eldest last week, I get to spend the same again with my youngest at whose place i stay for the initial healing stage.
Sometimes I wish I could get a big pair of scissors and cut right around the horizon where i live and transport it to close to where one of our daughters lives...but then it wouldn't have the magic it has.
I have been brave today...coming home up the stairs I almost trod on a tree snake which was dead...the first time I have touched a freshly dead snake..had to move it into under the trees...they are a pretty snake really.
Its strange to think that all this around the house exists in all its beauty whether I am here or not...and no doubt a thousand years hence and a thousand years ago...different but the same...minus house and fences. The birds all sang. The breezes blew...the rain fell. Sometimes I get a sense of the people before ... the aborigines. Not in a politically correct way -there is no such thing as the noble savage - they were and are people just like all of us...some good some bad and many indifferent...but it must have been a good place to live...many kangaroos around here...snakes for supper...large Ibis, parrots, ducks of all varieties ...bush tucker galore...
Yes its been a beautiful day - time for reflection... which brings tears always... we had such good solid memories and so much fun..but then I cry easily...its just my nature...but just as easily I laugh... so the balance is struck.
And yet in writing this all...sadly I have to remain aware that unwelcome and very rude members of my family think its okay to read in here when they have been told how unwelcome they are... I am loathe to expose myself to them...but still feel like I would like to express things as I did in the past. I heard from one brother in law that the other brother in law (who we all know couldn't give two hoots about any of us - he never has) was worried about my state of mind since Don's death...my God. In this way the gossiping and untruths circulate and I just have to be thankful that two of my four sisters are solid and know truth. The state of their ignorance is shocking. My suggestion to them all is to walk a mile in my shoes before you smugly sit up there all clean and undamaged to judge. One day one partner will be the one left. Lets see how you fare. Our mum and dad would turn over in their graves to imagine the coldness of these people...in their plastic lives. The sad thing really is that when it becomes their turn...there will be no one left to support them - you get what you give. I wish it could be different as I would not really wish this on anyone. No doubt as soon as the sneaks read this the phone lines will be a buzzing as expected...get a life people. Find someone else to persecute please.
Without the support I have had it would have been too hard given the extended brutality of Don's death which was no different to an unsolved killing really in effect. No closure there yet.
I have great support really. I have two of the sanest and most giving and compassionate daughters on the planet. Thank you Don. I have two very compassionate sisters and a very good friend who has stuck to me like
glue. And you lot. What more could I ask for?
(Don loved women... loved their company and other things!!) here outside our place
Today in a way I feel Don is with me, or around me...benign smiling and understanding of my many and varied human foibles.
Now outside to see the rest of the day as the sun lowers in the sky my heart feels open and blessed...but then i have always felt blessed. Lucky me.
Today has been the most beautiful day possible. Sometimes there is something in the air, in the smell of it and a light in the sky and on the land which just takes your breath away. Today has been like this. Australia is an amazing place. We had not had rain for some time and I was worried about the cracks in the ground, about my water tanks becoming dangerously low, about the dam being so dry I was concerned that the neighbour's cattle might get stuck in there because it was now steep sided and boggy...and then while I was away last week it poured and poured.
Now it is so green it couldn't be any greener. Everything appears washed clean and the growth is phenomenal. There seems to be more birdsong and life is everywhere in evidence. Every tree seems to be a different green and light reflects off all the leaves, individually.
Its really quite warm about 30degrees Celsius (thats 86 Fahrenheit), but its not humid at all.
I wouldn't be dead for quids on a day like today.
(Don and I at our own craggy Island - see this link if Father Ted is unknown to ye)
http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=Father+ted&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=CzH-SuPODseCkAXY9sDwCw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCgQqwQwAw#
Its family day at the shopping centre. I usually find weekends too hard to go over to the centre as everyone seems to be a couple, with children or family of some sort... there are plenty of people on their own, some by choice no doubt...and after this time I can spot the ones like me. I have become a good "widow spotter" or widower or whatever...these are the people who would not be alone had they the choice. But today I needed to be out of the place so went to the shopping centre...its always bittersweet being places where Don and I, and in the past the girls shared times together - a lot of silliness went on and we always seemed to enjoy ourselves. I think more so with Don and I because we knew the time was precious...
Today I handled it okay...just the odd thought...so that when I came back here to home...as I came down into the yard - it was like a welcome... I guess I feel very safe here...like its a healing place. It was for Don and I before. He would put the long back on the wheelchair and electronically lower it to almost sleeping position and lay outside in the shade of one of the big trees...much of the time he was just out there looking and taking it all in. I always left him alone at t
hese times. We all need our own space, especially those who have such little privacy.(last Christmas at craggy Island 2006)
I learnt so much being with him. One thing which is total honesty with each other as to feelings. I am humbled by how much effort he put into making sure things ran smoothly in the last year of his life and now. Unlike too many husbands he was totally unselfish, but conversely always got his own way...strangely in the last years after 35 years...his way was my way and vice versa.
The lucky couples like us, reach a place where after storms and fights and jostling...the waves settle down and the pair of you sail together. It felt like we were sailing in the last years.
When I come back here everything is always beautiful. Sure its a "kit home" - sure its on a flood plane - but there is a feeling here and certain places have it stronger. Down by the sliprails into the next paddock is one strong place. out under the mulberry trees is another. Where our lovely old doggie thorn is buried is another...but the main place is as I walk down the gravel path alongside the barbed wire fence...just as I get near the straining post...there is like a 360 view and for some reason I feel as if I am much taller and straighter that I really am...I am not religious but its always here that I mentally or vocally ask the angels for any help they can allow - usually about the girls and how they are handling things...sometimes a cry for strength for myself...but mostly that somehow a publisher will pick up the manuscript. I have recently had three rejections but still have thirteen out there...and hopefully with angelic help one of them will pick it up. With publishers its all about money and cook books sell...not medical exposes.
On Monday I am off to My youngest's place to get the last of my varicose veins done - before summer. Yay. I am the only one of mum and dad's five daughters to inherit her dreadful varicose veins...her nose as well. The nose i am happy with...but the veins were becoming dangerously enlarged last summer so that even driving or sitting was impossible as it was all crimped behind one knee...sorry Victorians...but I got into a doctor down there quicker than in my home state...I am paying for it but still would have had an 18mth wait here...and they are butchers here.
So after spending five days with our eldest last week, I get to spend the same again with my youngest at whose place i stay for the initial healing stage.
Sometimes I wish I could get a big pair of scissors and cut right around the horizon where i live and transport it to close to where one of our daughters lives...but then it wouldn't have the magic it has.
I have been brave today...coming home up the stairs I almost trod on a tree snake which was dead...the first time I have touched a freshly dead snake..had to move it into under the trees...they are a pretty snake really.
Its strange to think that all this around the house exists in all its beauty whether I am here or not...and no doubt a thousand years hence and a thousand years ago...different but the same...minus house and fences. The birds all sang. The breezes blew...the rain fell. Sometimes I get a sense of the people before ... the aborigines. Not in a politically correct way -there is no such thing as the noble savage - they were and are people just like all of us...some good some bad and many indifferent...but it must have been a good place to live...many kangaroos around here...snakes for supper...large Ibis, parrots, ducks of all varieties ...bush tucker galore...
Yes its been a beautiful day - time for reflection... which brings tears always... we had such good solid memories and so much fun..but then I cry easily...its just my nature...but just as easily I laugh... so the balance is struck.
And yet in writing this all...sadly I have to remain aware that unwelcome and very rude members of my family think its okay to read in here when they have been told how unwelcome they are... I am loathe to expose myself to them...but still feel like I would like to express things as I did in the past. I heard from one brother in law that the other brother in law (who we all know couldn't give two hoots about any of us - he never has) was worried about my state of mind since Don's death...my God. In this way the gossiping and untruths circulate and I just have to be thankful that two of my four sisters are solid and know truth. The state of their ignorance is shocking. My suggestion to them all is to walk a mile in my shoes before you smugly sit up there all clean and undamaged to judge. One day one partner will be the one left. Lets see how you fare. Our mum and dad would turn over in their graves to imagine the coldness of these people...in their plastic lives. The sad thing really is that when it becomes their turn...there will be no one left to support them - you get what you give. I wish it could be different as I would not really wish this on anyone. No doubt as soon as the sneaks read this the phone lines will be a buzzing as expected...get a life people. Find someone else to persecute please.
Without the support I have had it would have been too hard given the extended brutality of Don's death which was no different to an unsolved killing really in effect. No closure there yet.
I have great support really. I have two of the sanest and most giving and compassionate daughters on the planet. Thank you Don. I have two very compassionate sisters and a very good friend who has stuck to me like
glue. And you lot. What more could I ask for?(Don loved women... loved their company and other things!!) here outside our place
Today in a way I feel Don is with me, or around me...benign smiling and understanding of my many and varied human foibles.
Now outside to see the rest of the day as the sun lowers in the sky my heart feels open and blessed...but then i have always felt blessed. Lucky me.
Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger.
I accidentally came across this album yesterday "Bruce Springsteen (We shall Overcome) the Seeger sessions - it was playing in a shop I went into had trouble standing still...and made an impulse buy...the whole album is excellent and has a bit of everything, all with a good tempo...this is one of the songs on it...
then I found this on you tube - its like the old protest songs but I think much more needed than at any time in history before.
I accidentally came across this album yesterday "Bruce Springsteen (We shall Overcome) the Seeger sessions - it was playing in a shop I went into had trouble standing still...and made an impulse buy...the whole album is excellent and has a bit of everything, all with a good tempo...this is one of the songs on it...
then I found this on you tube - its like the old protest songs but I think much more needed than at any time in history before.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Just back from away - Makes sense) some catching up to do but thought this was amusing - an oldie but a goodie
These were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humour (not to mention a low tolerance threshold for cretins!) |
Sunday, November 01, 2009
The Best Day.
I had the best day today and all unexpected - and have to thank my longtime friend Carmel for this. Mainly some of my sisters and my daughters are my best friends, but Carmel has been a true friend since we met having our babies way back in 1977. She stuck through it all and understood. She would visit us regularly always phoning before which we appreciated and needed because of the situation. When she came if I was busy helping don she would get in and make the cup of tea or coffee and often bought little treats she shared with us - for no reason at all except that she cared.
She has gone on caring and understanding...all down through the years. Within the decade of the 1990's Carmel's mum and dad, brother and sister all died - and she weathered this as you must do, being the last of her family alive.
When Don went to hospital the last time, she was one of the few visitors who bothered during the whole five long weeks and she stayed for almost a week... sitting beside him, being with me. Being still and not needing any attention as too many do - she came for him and was content to be in the room with him - for hours on end. This type of visitor is especially welcome and needed...at such a time.
Since then she has stuck like glue...and every week or fortnight or so has come out here to my place and spent the evening...having tea, enjoying a glass or three of wine, watching a movie and both of us usually going to sleep like two old diddies. Then the next morning she would come out with me to Wauchope and we'd visit Don's grave - I am a bit olde worlde this way - cemeteries mean something to me - I need a place to go to place flowers and just think...but it was very emotional and sometimes still is. She never said anything much at all when i cried, or whatever - some people just know and maybe its life which has taught them - but some people are just like that from something which is inside them which was there from the beginning.
Today she just said "Lets go up to South West Rocks for a picnic"...and I thought "Why not"
Just being spontaneous like we all did years back. I am still not good at being in gatherings, and usually exhausted when I leave a group of people - wasn't always like this...but one on one with someone decent is good.
See photos (not mine) of South West Rocks NSW Australia,
http://www.southwestrocks.au.com
It had been decades since I made the hour drive there...and as I did it was so beautiful but again so hard as Don and spent a wonderful time in the caravan park at the beach many years ago in about 1975.
He used to install undergroun
d petrol tanks for garages all over NSW working for a Newcastle based firm. His boss got sick of his wanting to come home every weekend (Melissa was a new baby and we were very young) so he offered us the use of a large two room (new) caravan if don would work wherever in the state he was needed. it was wonderful - no rent and almost every week a new town to be in...
This shot was taken early 1975 at Mogo creek on the Putty Road NSW ...
we were sort of like gypsies at this time, but it was a time with no money worries (no overheads at all!!!) and every day or week was a new horizon - being a hippie and being paid for it. Don worked hard and sometimes I felt that taking care of the van, cooking and looking after our
baby was not equal to the hard work he did - but he said he liked it like this - to be able to come home and be in family - meant so much for him....too many men and women begrudge - he appreciated...lucky me...lucky us.
I know only one other man with the same spirit and love of family as Don had and it was my own Dad...again lucky me. Dad just loved us and life without the burden of an ego.
Don, Melissa (Eczema on her chin only days after first vaccination - she still gets it) and I at the Bathurst Show. he was24 I was 21.
Today as we drove past familiar places I felt like the intervening years were like wisps, nothing, in time - clear as a bell were the things and feelings that happened all those years ago - and sharing this as I did with a true friend who is not afraid to talk about issues like this was just wonderful...
Many of you out there travel a lot and this is wonderful. My blog mates all seem to be cut from the same cloth and enjoy and appreciate but some can not afford to travel anywhere much...we were like this and this time was so precious..because we got to see so much of our own area...which we never would have done otherwise. For the working class - the labourers, the pipe layers, the shop assistants, the cleaners (me), we don't jet off to Dubai, or Fiji, London or New York. We stay out of debt, live not on credit but on what we have and hope its there the next day... we don't think we have a right to the world as our own personal holiday camp. we don't want to experience the "poverty" in other countries. A little trip about our own state is good...a day at the beach with a picnic is good. The wolf is never too far from the door...not because we were careless...or lazy...
I remember once a woman at a political rally saying that of she could afford private health cover why couldn't everybody...the implication being that those who couldn't must be feckless...then I thought of my mum, unskilled apart from the most skilled job in the universe (being the best mum on the planet)...widowed at 42 suddenly (grieving because dad was wonderful) with 4 kids still at home in a town in which she owned her own house but with no employment...how was a good person like this to afford private health insurance? or paint the outside of her house, or install lights in her toilet, or even cover the grocery bill for the family???
So today was a good day...the best day for a while. I was driven through places which were memories. And here I am still standing...much older...older than my own mum was at this time by a decade. No matter the high points and the awfulness it has been well worth it all... today showed me this..
Sadly now because I know there are a couple of sickos daily reading my blog, and sadly they are blood relations (i vant to suck your blood) I have to say again to those of my ex family who i know read my blog for their own sick and vicarious reasons "BUGGER OFF OKAY! This life is short - eternity is eternity - and how you act now matters more - not now but when you mongrels finally face your maggoty faces in the mirror of your eternity - have some ethics and class and piss off okay! Get a life. You have each other and family...such as it is...I hope for you you never need family because you have never helped family...you will be on your bloody own if ever in true need and rightfully so. You still have each other...one day one of you will stand alone. You might like to think about that before you make judgements from your moral high ground...insects"
I had the best day today and all unexpected - and have to thank my longtime friend Carmel for this. Mainly some of my sisters and my daughters are my best friends, but Carmel has been a true friend since we met having our babies way back in 1977. She stuck through it all and understood. She would visit us regularly always phoning before which we appreciated and needed because of the situation. When she came if I was busy helping don she would get in and make the cup of tea or coffee and often bought little treats she shared with us - for no reason at all except that she cared.
She has gone on caring and understanding...all down through the years. Within the decade of the 1990's Carmel's mum and dad, brother and sister all died - and she weathered this as you must do, being the last of her family alive.
When Don went to hospital the last time, she was one of the few visitors who bothered during the whole five long weeks and she stayed for almost a week... sitting beside him, being with me. Being still and not needing any attention as too many do - she came for him and was content to be in the room with him - for hours on end. This type of visitor is especially welcome and needed...at such a time.
Since then she has stuck like glue...and every week or fortnight or so has come out here to my place and spent the evening...having tea, enjoying a glass or three of wine, watching a movie and both of us usually going to sleep like two old diddies. Then the next morning she would come out with me to Wauchope and we'd visit Don's grave - I am a bit olde worlde this way - cemeteries mean something to me - I need a place to go to place flowers and just think...but it was very emotional and sometimes still is. She never said anything much at all when i cried, or whatever - some people just know and maybe its life which has taught them - but some people are just like that from something which is inside them which was there from the beginning.
Today she just said "Lets go up to South West Rocks for a picnic"...and I thought "Why not"
Just being spontaneous like we all did years back. I am still not good at being in gatherings, and usually exhausted when I leave a group of people - wasn't always like this...but one on one with someone decent is good.
See photos (not mine) of South West Rocks NSW Australia,
http://www.southwestrocks.au.com
It had been decades since I made the hour drive there...and as I did it was so beautiful but again so hard as Don and spent a wonderful time in the caravan park at the beach many years ago in about 1975.
He used to install undergroun
d petrol tanks for garages all over NSW working for a Newcastle based firm. His boss got sick of his wanting to come home every weekend (Melissa was a new baby and we were very young) so he offered us the use of a large two room (new) caravan if don would work wherever in the state he was needed. it was wonderful - no rent and almost every week a new town to be in...This shot was taken early 1975 at Mogo creek on the Putty Road NSW ...
we were sort of like gypsies at this time, but it was a time with no money worries (no overheads at all!!!) and every day or week was a new horizon - being a hippie and being paid for it. Don worked hard and sometimes I felt that taking care of the van, cooking and looking after our
baby was not equal to the hard work he did - but he said he liked it like this - to be able to come home and be in family - meant so much for him....too many men and women begrudge - he appreciated...lucky me...lucky us.I know only one other man with the same spirit and love of family as Don had and it was my own Dad...again lucky me. Dad just loved us and life without the burden of an ego.
Don, Melissa (Eczema on her chin only days after first vaccination - she still gets it) and I at the Bathurst Show. he was24 I was 21.
Today as we drove past familiar places I felt like the intervening years were like wisps, nothing, in time - clear as a bell were the things and feelings that happened all those years ago - and sharing this as I did with a true friend who is not afraid to talk about issues like this was just wonderful...
Many of you out there travel a lot and this is wonderful. My blog mates all seem to be cut from the same cloth and enjoy and appreciate but some can not afford to travel anywhere much...we were like this and this time was so precious..because we got to see so much of our own area...which we never would have done otherwise. For the working class - the labourers, the pipe layers, the shop assistants, the cleaners (me), we don't jet off to Dubai, or Fiji, London or New York. We stay out of debt, live not on credit but on what we have and hope its there the next day... we don't think we have a right to the world as our own personal holiday camp. we don't want to experience the "poverty" in other countries. A little trip about our own state is good...a day at the beach with a picnic is good. The wolf is never too far from the door...not because we were careless...or lazy...
I remember once a woman at a political rally saying that of she could afford private health cover why couldn't everybody...the implication being that those who couldn't must be feckless...then I thought of my mum, unskilled apart from the most skilled job in the universe (being the best mum on the planet)...widowed at 42 suddenly (grieving because dad was wonderful) with 4 kids still at home in a town in which she owned her own house but with no employment...how was a good person like this to afford private health insurance? or paint the outside of her house, or install lights in her toilet, or even cover the grocery bill for the family???
So today was a good day...the best day for a while. I was driven through places which were memories. And here I am still standing...much older...older than my own mum was at this time by a decade. No matter the high points and the awfulness it has been well worth it all... today showed me this..
Sadly now because I know there are a couple of sickos daily reading my blog, and sadly they are blood relations (i vant to suck your blood) I have to say again to those of my ex family who i know read my blog for their own sick and vicarious reasons "BUGGER OFF OKAY! This life is short - eternity is eternity - and how you act now matters more - not now but when you mongrels finally face your maggoty faces in the mirror of your eternity - have some ethics and class and piss off okay! Get a life. You have each other and family...such as it is...I hope for you you never need family because you have never helped family...you will be on your bloody own if ever in true need and rightfully so. You still have each other...one day one of you will stand alone. You might like to think about that before you make judgements from your moral high ground...insects"
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