Saturday, December 17

After our Manchester marathon of TV shows, I looked around for something different and came across From Darkness. The blurb said it was set in the Western Isles. That sounded interesting: exotic islands with names like Rhum and Eigg. Maybe the accents would be a problem but worth a look.

You wouldn't believe it - within ten minutes, she is on her way to Manchester to get involved in a twenty year old murder. Manchester again! My cousin lives near Manchester; I wonder if she realises that she lives in the crime capital of the UK.

Life is quiet as we count down to Christmas. Jamie and Nera are hosting the Filipino Christmas Party on Christmas Eve and have already started to prepare. Nera is working today and tomorrow so Jamie will be starting to cook. Part of the celebration is the Media Noche or Midnight Feast and there are lots of traditional dishes to be prepared.

This will be a big event with many kids. There will be games and people will bring tents and sleeping bags, so having the larger space will be helpful.

Wednesday, December 14 (2)

One of the things we missed at Dilston was not getting catalogues in our letter-box. It's a small thing, I know, but catalogues keep you abreast of how much things cost and what is trending in the commercial world. Years ago, JB HiFi and Harvey Norman were full of ads for laptop computers; now it's Fitbit bracelets and Smart Watches. They're not cheap but clearly some people can't live without them.

Now that we're living in Newnham, I can't believe how many catalogues arrive every week, so many that I've got over the idea and they go straight into the bin.

The other things that I used to enjoy but now find a nuisance are free magazines. We get them every month from Rotary and Probus, RACT and National Seniors. We get something called Prime Time and various others from odd places. Even Princess Cruises sends a glossy booklet every few weeks. Again, I'm bored with them. Once upon a time they had informative articles; now they're full of ads for holidays. Everything's marketing nowadays, isn't it!

Wednesday, December 14

I don't know whether it's coincidence or synchronicity. Marilyn and I have just finished watching a UK TV mini-series called Prey. It was pretty good although we struggle a bit with the accents which turned out to be Manchester. Funnily enough, this is the third series in a row which was set in Manchester.

Scott and Bailey was the first, followed by Blue Murder and now Prey. I had no idea that Manchester was such a hotbed of crime.

We found ourselves in Mole Creek yesterday, at the hotel enjoying the Probus Christmas Lunch. It was a good, old-fashioned pub lunch so Marilyn and I took the chance to have the Roast of the Day. She had turkey; I had lamb.

Tuesday, December 13

My word of the week is fatberg. This is not a word I can imagine using every day but it has a certain ring to it. Fatbergs are clumps of non-flushable items that coalesce with fat and oils to form sewer-blocking clogs.

Water authorities blame so-called 'flushable' wipes for causing fatbergs and they're becoming a problem. In February a one-tonne fatberg took out the pumping station near Lake Macquarie and had to be partially removed by hand, bucket by bucket.

I don't think I'm paranoid but the thought of some huge gelatinous mass lurking underneath my toilet bowl has the potential to keep me awake at night.

Friday, December 9

I’ve really enjoyed the book, ‘The Short and Excruciatingly Embarrassing Reign of Captain Abbott’ by Andrew P Street.  It’s cheeky, irreverent and scathing of the extraordinary few months of the Abbott Experiment.  Of course, it’s not only Tony who gets the treatment; many of his Cabinet get short shrift as well, and the Labor side doesn’t do much better.   I would love to quote great chunks of it but I’ll content myself with a couple of paragraphs from the final chapters.

‘It’s easy to pretend that there was a golden era of Australian politics when we had real leaders and people were concerned about nation-building and Australian values and forging a national identity and other meaningless phrases that are all but spoken in italics. Conservative Australian types get misty-eyed about the Robert Menzies epoch, while lefties canonise Gough Whitlam, and both are endlessly cited as periods when Australia was led by men of vision and principle, unlike the sorry specimens we have before us today.

And it’s arse.

Politics in Australia – as in every country – has always and forever been a slippery dance conducted by manipulative snakes, utopian idealists, hardline ideologues and power-hungry careerists looking to exert power and/or line their pockets, mixed in with dedicated, principled people genuinely interested in making a positive contribution to their country.  And right now, with Australia’s two major parties basically offering a choice between more of the same and a bit less of the same, the citizenry could be forgiven for thinking that these are the only choices on offer’.

He goes on to outline his vision for better governance but I think he has missed the point that we, the people, have already woken up to the 2-party system and are starting to vote for something else. Sadly, the extreme Right have been quickest off the mark and are grabbing the protest vote but we can only hope that some other more moderate voices start to fill the void.

Thursday, December 8

Who could resist this ad. on Launceston Buy Swap and Sell.

Hey, anybody want to buy my ute? A bit rough but only
$2500 ....

Tuesday, December 6

Well, our hard-working politicians have all gone home for their summer break and for many it's a chance to catch up on their reading. You wouldn't think that anyone would be interested in what they choose, although, if they had a preference for Lolita of Lady Chatterley's Lover, we might raise an eyebrow.

I suppose it's a good thing that our pollies read, and that should be encouraged, but do we have to buy their books for them? Surely they could use public libraries like the rest of us. Or maybe we could get them a cheap ebook reader and download what they fancy.

George Brandis, of course, takes maximum advantage of this perk. We built him a bookcase for his office at a cost of $15000 then, when he moved offices, we had to build him another one because the original was too large to move. No IKEA modular for George! And he is assiduously making every effort to fill the shelves, at our expense.

Among the purchases George has made, and we have paid for, this year is a collection about the ill-fated Abbott government. The collection includes Credlin and Co by Aaron Patrick, Road to Ruin by Nikki Sava and the wonderfully named The Short and Excruciatingly Embarrassing Reign of Captain Abbott by Andrew Street. They're all in our local library and available to borrow for nothing.

George was a Senior Minister in that government which is pretty well rubbished by the books so I can't imagine he will enjoy his holiday reading.