Between the Equator and the South Pole

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  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I voted today in our general election. The polling booths have been open for a week or so, but I waited until the last day as I was dithering a bit about my choice. Of course there were some that I wouldn't vote for if they were the only candidates running, so ruling them out wasn't a problem, but there are some others who would be reasonable parliamentarians, just not the best - in my not so humble opinion.

    Voting here isn't compulsory, but my family had a rule that if you didn't vote, you couldn't complain, so I have to vote.

    We don't have anything as exciting as barbecues, even in the days when everyone had to vote on the same day.

    I remember the first time my oldest brother voted he got dressed up in a suit to do so because he took his responsibility seriously. Youngest brother is a lot less formal - putting on a clean bush shirt is about as formal as he gets. :smiley:
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Huia wrote: »
    I remember the first time my oldest brother voted he got dressed up in a suit to do so because he took his responsibility seriously. Youngest brother is a lot less formal - putting on a clean bush shirt is about as formal as he gets. :smiley:

    And some shorts or jeans I hope....
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Definitely - too cold not to. :grin:

    I was wandering through town yesterday when my cell phone in my backpack rang and started broadcasting an emergency message. I couldn't work out what it was because I'd removed my hearing aids as the wind was so strong I was afraid of losing them. When I got to the bus Interchange to check my message it announced that the gusts of wind were reaching 120 to 140kph, that power was out in some areas and to
    treat any broken lines as live. At least it wasn't a tsunami, which could have been worse.

    I went to the library and got home unscathed. Now I need to do the grocery shopping as strong winds are forecast later today too.

    I'm seriously thinking that I need to buy some non-electric means of boiling water in case of an emergency when the neighbours are out. (They have gas cooking and have offered help if I need it. I am so fortunate in having generous neighbours who bought my tea last time there was a power cut).
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Glad to hear that you're basically OK. Hope you can get out and back with enough food to get you through. Are you able to get even a small gas ring that would see you through power lines down? Enough to boil water for a cup of tea, and to warm a can of soup, that sort of thing?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Well, the referendum was lost. Some strange results when you look closely at the voting patterns. In our electorate, the polling booths along the train line voted quite strongly in favour of the proposal. Once you got away from the line, the proportion of the No vote grew closer to the result for the Sydney metropolitan area as a whole.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Yes, I need to sort out some kind of small gas burner. At a pinch it's easy to have a supply of food in cans or sealed packages, but If I can't make a cup of tea I will feel very sorry for myself indeed.

    I've just heard the latest news. An hour's drive north from Christchurch people may be without power for up to four days!!!

    The strong wind watch has ended for now, but this coming week I will explore what I need to do to ensure I have enough supplies to cope with whatever else may happen. Also, because of volunteering at the community library, I know a few people surviving on benefits who may need extra help, so I will stock up more than usual.
  • A gas cylinder and hot plate is your friend
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Gee D wrote: »
    Well, the referendum was lost ...

    I may be missing the point, but why would anyone vote for Indigenous people not to have their rights enshrined in your Constitution?
  • Thousands, alas
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    Well, the referendum was lost ...

    I may be missing the point, but why would anyone vote for Indigenous people not to have their rights enshrined in your Constitution?

    Exactly
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I can't speak for Australia Piglet, but the answer here would be "Because they are racist bigots".

    The party that won the most votes in the NZ election ( National) will not have enough MPs to govern, so are having talks with the Act Party, who are libertarians. I've read comments from two different sources (both trustworthy) that Act want a referendum about the status of the Treaty of Waitangi which was the Treaty signed between the Crown and some Maori iwi (tribes).

    Christopher Luxon (Leader of National and the incoming PM) says a referendum would be too divisive, other commentators say it would lead to blood in the streets.

    Reluctantly, I agree with the latter and I would do my best to oppose it (non-violently)
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    Sojourner wrote: »

    I will leave that to your imagination and Zappa’s trans-ditch( the Tasman Sea) fond recollections…

    No ... I sound like a cracked record, even without encouragement!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    10 days since the last post. It's only the end of October, and there's a total fire ban for Sydney and much of the State again tomorrow.
  • Still 29C @ 9-45 pm in central Sydney & tinderbox dry; tomorrow will be much the same
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    I wish I could donate some clouds or even rain. Today the weather was weird as the low clouds were coastal, which meant that my home was enveloped by them, whereas 1 km west it was warm and sunny. It's challenging dressing appropriately.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    The suburb next to us has several Catholic Schools, including a couple for children with special needs. A terrible tragedy this afternoon has seen a 10 year old boy die at one of the special needs schools, somehow being crushed under a lift.
  • Yes, I saw that. Horrible.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    We both feel very much bashed around by the news. We were there just a few weeks ago, voting in the referendum, and over the years have cast other votes there. We've sometimes wandered up to their school fête and bought the odd item. Now this has happened.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    How awful - poor little fella. :cry:
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Took some flowers up. There's a good sized table in the lobby covered deep with flowers. Everyone at coffee this morning was talking of it, it's a terrible tragedy.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    What a horrible thing to have happened. Thinking of the family and the school community.
  • We too are thinking of the school community, we have a friend whose child attended there many years ago and I have the impression that it is a loving school and community. Thinking of all impacted by the sad event
  • Dropping in after a long absence.

    One of the young teenagers at church attends that school - it's hard to imagine.

    As far as we go, there are no real dramas, just a whole lot of busyness - father-in-law going into aged care, then cleaning up his house (still living alone in the large long term family home) ready for a member of the family to move in as caretaker.
    We took 5 car loads of books and stuff to our church Flea Market last week - next is moving furniture around including a truck load to the weekender we've just purchased in the Blue Mountains. Then we can do some cleaning!
    At some stage in September we hosted 100 people in the backyard for my 60th.
    Little Miss is in the process of moving home after finishing her degree at CSU Bathurst, so that's. car full of stuff that doesn't fit in her bedroom. Dead line for most things is a few weeks when we head to Perth for my 40 year (+ COVID delay) school reunion.
    You should have seen the look when I asked Mrs Curly if she was going to make the Christmas cake before we leave.
    Nothing to complain about, in other words.

    mr curly


  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Welcome back.

    It's hard to understand how the incident occurred, why people carrying out construction work at a school did not make sure everything was super-secure.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Welcome back, Mr Curly, and many happy returns - welcome to the bus-pass club!

    And congratulations to Little Miss!

  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Yes, oDidn't she do well, I'm gad those years ate long past for me, although I enjoyed them at the time.

    Yesterday I looked out the bus window and there was a Papango (blackscaup) and its ducklings on the river. They are the little diving ducks. They're a lot smaller that mallards and look like the plastic ducks children have in the bath. When they are only a few days old they can dive 5 feet down in the water. I haven't been walking along the river so much this year so had missed seeing them before. I must go down to the Avon, the river that flows through town, there will probably be more there at the place where the eels are fed (the ducks hang around there are share the food - those ducks aren't stupid).
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Apologising for the first sentence int my last post. I swear I was sober at the time.

    I believe a squad of firefighters from NZ are about invade somewhere in Australia to help fight bushfires. I once asked my youngest bro. who belongs to his local bush fire crew if he had ever thought of going, but he said they left that to the younger blokes, the older ones stayed home to ensure local safety.
  • The northern hemisphere summer showed how extreme the weather is, and the signs here aren’t good. Normal November weather isn’t happening, not even here in the tropics. I fear the fires this year - the whole country looks like it’s in for it.

    I am very grateful that the local council has installed water pipes for firefighting on our hill. The bush there is very dry and we haven’t had any sign of the wet starting.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Christchurch had a fire on the Port Hills - which are mainly grass covered with some exotic trees (exotic in the sense of not native, rather than fancy). it was fortunate that the wind blew the fir4 up the hill, rather than down into an industrial area.

    Today the new government made up of 3 parties, are set to announce new Ministers , spokespeople and who gets to be Deputy Prime Minister, a role that both the Leaders of the 2 minor parties have both argued for.

    The incoming P.M's main role seems set to be Ringmaster in the 3 ringed circus.
  • There will be small country church congregations looking enviously on at this: https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/01/carngham-church-snake-valley-victoria-sale-uniting
  • For sure
  • Just over five years ago, we stared down a proposal from our Bishop to sell off the two smaller churches and their halls, redundant rectory and move the opshop [in one of the halls] into a rental property in one of the town centres.
    The rectory was sold, relieving us of the burden, but everything else was retained, and we used the diocesan ordinance to ensure that a substantial portion of the proceeds was retained for parish use.
    Most of these funds have been applied to the revamp of the opshop operations which are both important ministry to our low socioeconomic status towns and strong contributors to parish revenue. I'm still not sure whether the initial letter was an ambit claim.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Well done on re-vamping the op shop. I have found our local op shop invaluable and quite frankly the only place I could afford when I needed an extra bed, easy chair and a set of plates because of having family come to stay. Our best local one is run by the Sallies, and is in the local shopping area. It is well set out, easy to navigate and the staff are friendly and approachable.

    I have also managed to declutter things I no longer need there, so it's a two way street.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    It's been a glorious early summer day here. The breeze has picked up and it's great to see the eucalypts on the top of the railway cutting moving.

    There's a small Op Shop run by the Red Cross just by the next station south from here, and we often look in there and pick up a bargain. 3 such shops (Red Cross, Vinnies and Sallies) in the larger centre a couple of stations south from us. Again, they've been a source of real bargains.
  • They surely are. I used to go regularly to Tempe Tip ( the Salvo megastore in the formerly insalubrious suburb of Tempe) for useful items such as metal cake containers ( for posting Xmascakes), bulk cleaning stuff and the like. I don’t have a car anymore & it’s a fair schlep by public transport. The local Vinnies, Red Cross and Anglicare are pretty OK. Bought a 3 L capacity trifle bowl from Vinnies for $ 10 ( trifle requested for Xmas by amiable spouse); very pleased with that.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    A good bargain, and no doubt you've expounded the efforts to which you had to resort. We've never been there and I have no memory of even driving through the area.
  • If you’ve ever driven to the South Coast you’d have passed it on the Princes Highway just before the Cook’s River bridge; a dreary stretch of road even worse than Parramatta Rd
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    We don't travel that way - down Pennant Hills Rd, then Cumberland Hwy and south past Liverpool and so forth until we take the road across to Mr Ousley. Since the Cumberland Hwy was completed, it's a fast trip.
  • Yes true; must be 10-15 years since that bypass came in
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Thinking back, I suppose that it must.
  • Eldest Beaky daughter and family arrived safely from NZ on Wednesday and they came bearing gifts- I may have eaten rather too much Peanut Block...😆
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    That sounds like something I might like. Enjoy the visit @MrsBeaky and I hope more treats appear from NZ.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    After a very warm morning, the change has arrived and it's starting to rain. A real summer day, with the heat and the change. I had thought of bbqing over gas, but bbqs are banned today.
  • Very cloudy here and hope the rain arrives soon. It was 41C at midday today in inner western Sydney where I drove for a couple of parcel drops. If that was bad, outer western and southwestern Sydney would have been worse.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Just saw reports of the extreme heat in Australia -- Sydney airport reached 43.5C? Thinking of you.
  • It was 43 here sometime this afternoon and 28.9 at 9pm. Thank the the Lord for a/c. Unless the cool change arrives soon will have to let it run all night
    .
  • A piddling amount of rain here around here 6 pm but cooled down to 32c at least
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    Just saw reports of the extreme heat in Australia -- Sydney airport reached 43.5C? Thinking of you.

  • Thanks has been horrible
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Crikey - that's hot!

    Stay safe, everyone.
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