the talk of the town

Fire Bugs

2012-01-20T08:17:00.001+10:30

The fire flared in a reserve at Brown Hill Creek when a car was set alight and rolled down an embankment on Tilleys Hill Rd.

Task force set up

It's very worrying. We have arsonists or an arsonist in the McLaren Vale area and now the hills. It's a nightmare for people and the CFS. The firefighters are doing a great job but it means they are not home and resting. The police are doing a great job trying to get a strategy into place to catch whoever it is or whoever they are. What impresses me about the article is that it gets the information out and has kept it very straight forward so we can take it in and think about it. It's true, people are the best resource in these kinds of situations. They have eyes , ears brains, technology and the local community will know what is right or wrong about their area. Police can map strategies and the fire brigade obviously have quick response times and are able to manage. It's awful, though. The other thing which is impressive about the article is that it has drawn some sensible and workable ideas for how to deal with this because of the way it has been written. It's true, anyone who has or knows a child who is overly fascinated with fire needs to have an avenue they can approach to get early intervention. The other thing which is clear is that we understand that arsonists are not well. We have to stop them and we have to harness them but we have to help and treat them too. There is a great deal of compassion in the article and comments about the state of mind of arsonists. That will be our best weapon because we find them very hard to understand. Why would you light a car and shove it down a hill? Would you then pop off home on foot and watch a bit of tele, listen to some music maybe, check on your sleeping children? I cannot work out where these thoughts come from. Often it is in the earlier hours of the morning. Do they set an alarm and get up to light a car and push it down a hill or do they stay up all night and develop a black frame of mind which means vengeance is theirs? They must have a lot of physical and emotional energy to be doing what they do at the times they do it and setting fire to a car means they have stolen it or are prepared to burn something they own.. Given they are as dangerous as they are and are capable of wholesale damage to flora, fauna, homes, communities and other peoples' lives, it is in our own best interests to watch and to get a better understanding of how these people think and operate. In South Australia we can operate in a very low key but connected manner to resolve community issues. We need to raise community awareness again to get ourselves thinking.

Spindle Cell Tumour in Dogs

2012-01-10T20:30:00.000+10:30

My dog has just come back from a day of blood tests at the vet. You can clearly see the spindle cell tumour in this photo. She has had it for two and a half years now. When it was first operated it stayed down for a year. I am blogging about it because if you click on the link you will get the links to all my other posts. If you are here it is probably because you have a dog with a spindle cell tumour. They are nasty but my dog has lived happily for two and a half years and the good vetinary care and some googling on my part have enabled her to be a normal , happy dog. She literally takes it in her stride. She was at the vet today to have the blood tests to see if she really does have Cushings disease as I blogged about in my last post. It could be caused by the cortisone and it could be that she has developed it as an older dog.Recently she has had trouble getting out the back. She can no longer go up and down the steps and she has trouble getting up the ramp. She does it though. The heat made her breathe hard and we need to know what is going on so she can be helped. The bare skin on her leg next to the lump is from where she had her anaesthetic for her dentistry! She is even famous and on the vet website. She was glad to get home today but they had taken great care of her and said she had spent a quiet day, as she does these days. The lump has ballooned a bit because she needs the cortisone to keep it down but had to come off the cortisone for a few days so the tests could be done properly. It is a big balancing act. She'll lie quietly these days and then amble around the back garden. Her spirit is very strong and at peace but her energy levels are quite low...but then she is eleven and a half, likes to take an interest in things but is content to mosey along!

The violence has to stop

2012-01-09T09:22:00.000+10:30

"When he realised I wasn't going to let him go he punched me several times in the face, so subsequently I took necessary action to stop him from doing that and sat on him essentially until the police arrived," he said.

John Elferink, a Port Darwin MP came to the aid of a woman in Adelaide whose mobile phone and car keys were stolen. I was thinking he feels very confident when dealing with difficult, unstable situations and he caught and restrained the man until it could be dealt with by police. Most people would stand and watch. We have lost that level of self confidence here mainly because a number of people have been badly injured or killed while trying to intervene and help someone. You just don't know who you are dealing with anymore. John Elferink has reminded us we can do something about it if we use our heads and our skills. I have known others to intervene by using their mobiles for pictures or calls to the police but at the same time judging whether they are putting themselves at risk or not. It is not easy. I was wondering why the guy stole the mobile and car keys. If it was random it would not have done him much good in terms of cash. If he was known to the woman then it was just a mean act. It's a bit disturbing but John Elferink has dealt with it all in a level headed manner to show us you can do something about it and take the control back by being matter of fact . We wouldn't all have his capacity to deal with an onslaught of punches and we are not all in the situation where we can. There is another article about the cost and concern of violence in our hospitals. The government needs to urgently clarify when restraint can be used because that apparently has not occurred and we need to stop putting money into protecting ourselves from violence in hospitals when that money could be put to better use to help heal people. People are flaring up for all sorts of reasons. Like the lady who went spare at me because I backed my car out BEFORE she had got into the lane at the shopping centre car park but she was angry because she had to wait until I straightened my car up. Flouncy , self serving behaviour is becoming too common and people just go off. Some get violent so you have to be wary as you step around town and shopping centres. If it is a hospital then that is unthinkable and staff will then be tied up dealing with someone and their anger issues instead of people who need medical help. I can well imagine doctors and dentists may well be facing the same irrational anger problems and it will put them off the job. Is it expectation? Is it education? I remember sitting on a bus in Noumea and the bus inspector got on. I thought, there is no way anyone would mess with him. He was super polite as they are. He was really nice because he actually helped me find my way to the right stop when the driver was dealing with someone else. It was all very civilised...but you would not have done the wrong thing on the bus...nor brought on fish that wasn't in a thermal bag as the big sign said.

Potato Power

2012-01-08T09:49:00.000+10:30

Image: Carolyn Keeney

Personally I wouldn't go past local potatoes. I even grow a few of my own because fresh potatoes have a taste and class of their own. So I feel for our potato growers. The article articulates the situation well and in a well thought out manner. People do look at price and convenience and tend to think a bag of frozen chips will be easier to manage than real potatoes. It's not true and it means we probably have to do a bit of customer awareness and education. If I use potatoes out of my garden people always notice. They taste really nice. I don't get many so they are usually put into a potato salad or cooked with other vegetables. I buy potaoes by the bag and make my own oven fries, oven wedges, roast potatoes and the French certainly have plenty of recipes for potatoes which are actually quick and easy. Layering potatoes with other things like onion and a bit of bacon makes for a quick, easy treat. I also make potato pancakes which are a huge hit and people always are asking me to make more. So it's a matter of getting the information out about how to easily prepare real potatoes. There is quite a variety in Adelaide and it is good to try them. My favourites at the moment are the white ones with the little purple spots. They have a name which I never remember. I also give my dog some cooked potato on a regualr basis. I chop and microwave them. They are for her potassium levels which she needs. She loves them mixed in with her dinner. Now we have the information, we need the action. The newspaper article did a good job of drawing attention to the situation and everyone was talking about it...so give us a plan. Let us help!

Bonne Année - Happy New Year

2011-12-31T08:01:00.000+10:30

Wishing everyone a really Happy New Year . Je souhaite à vous et à vos proches une bonne année 2012.

Spindle Cell Tumour in Dogs

2011-12-28T19:47:00.000+10:30

My dog is still here and she is eleven and a half now. She still has her spindle cell. She also has the hard skin on her back still. Last week she had her teeth cleaned so she would not get any infections from her back teeth. They had suddenly become quite discoloured . While she was under anaesthetic the vet had a chance to take blood tests and have a better look at her. She has been on cortisone tablets for quite some time now. He shaved some of that hard skin off and told me to halve the dose of cortisone. She has Cushings disease which does not have a good pathway but dogs can live with it. It could be the cortisone has brought it on or it could be a tumour on her adrenalin glands or pituitary glands and the vet needs to establish what is causing it. In the meantime we have to manage that lump on her leg which grows without the cortisone. Cushings was not news to me. She has all the symptoms - the black, hard skin and loss of fur at the back of her, the panting, the excessive drinking and then the food fixation. She also pees a lot when she does pee. It varies from week to week how the symptoms are. She has been living with it because it seems to have been brought on or exacerbated by the cortisone tablets. She has been happy and led a quieter but pleasant life. You can see she is quite relaxed and has a really good coat except for near her tail. Since I have cut down the cortisone a bit then her hard skin is starting to soften and there has been a bit of an improvement. She doesn't pant as much. She has been fairly droopy though and not as energetic as she used to be. I have to take her age into consideration and that stupid spindle cell tumour on her leg. It has grown but not affected her walking at all. I take her back next week because Christmas week probably wasn't the best week to see how she was going. At the moment I'd say not too badly at all. My concern is she has a quality of life and can live with whatever comes her way. So far I have been able to navigate that path along with the help of my vet. His knowledge and level of care have been invaluable in keeping my dog going well. I am just taking things as they come and going from one day to the next. I am glad we have managed to get her this far because it is two and a half years since the operation on her spindle cell tumour. She has not put on weight as it says in some of the articles about Cushing's disease. She has lost a little but that is not a problem. So we'll see how we go.

Messenger Press Online

2011-12-27T10:10:00.000+10:30

I knew the Messenger Press was online but I didn't realise I could actually read my local version of the Messenger in its entirety. I was looking for a particular article which had been published to show someone over Christmas and I had recycled my paper. I went to the Messenger site and found they offered the whole versions of each paper. I shall use it now. The sooner we do away with paper the better. It'll make for a cleaner, greener, tidier world and we just need to convert ourselves to electronic alternatives.I have always read and valued the Messenger because it brings truly local news and events. It is important to have a sense of belonging when you live somewhere and the Messenger has always broguht that sense of connectedness because it deals with local issues and often will use its position to help promote good causes that the community feels need to be addressed. The fact we can now access it online needs to be more widely publicised and then perhaps we can do away with the paper version and move on into the 21st Century.

Adelaide Christmas

2011-12-24T14:20:00.000+10:30

Adelaide is getting ready for Christmas in a very relaxed style this year. Oh yes, the shops and post offices are busy. There are queues and you have to wait, but people are relaxed. Some are still taking their perpetual misery everywhere with them, but shop assistants and customers are generally very ahppy and cheerful. It is not easy on the retail personnel. One day companies will work out that cutting staff means cutting business. Staff hold a business together. Understaffing puts pressure on good staff who then become overly stressed and maybe even break down. Don't worry , we have noticed. We are doing our bit to help retail personnel hold it together. We have prepared at a leisurely pace. We are shopping but not over shopping. We are getting in supplies but not over supplies. We have reached a reasonably balanced approach to Christmas. Retailers have done well. Their food and gift offerings have been perfect no matter what end of the market you are shopping at. There are good things to buy, the food is good quality and interesting and the gifts to choose from have made us spoiled for choice this year. Adelaide has been doing Christmas well. Some have already started with their festive celebrations and some of us are waiting to kick it all off this evening. I have been really pleased with all the recipes which have been made available to me in the shops and the ones I have selected and tried have all worked well. I am not anywhere else , so I cannot speak for other places, but I think Adelaide can be well pleased with its Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T07:23:00.003+10:30

Breakfast at Rigoni's

2011-10-14T18:04:00.002+10:30

Considering we had been plunged back into winter again today in Adelaide, then the decision to breakfast at Rigoni's came into its own. It has a warm, friendly and pleasantly polite atmosphere and the food is beautifully cooked and created. So much thought and care goes into each meal. The coffee is superb. Best coffee anywhere. They have the European habit of serving water with a meal as a matter of course and I really appreciate that. Their service is understated but very efficient. They make you instantly at home and welcome. So a big breakfast at Rigoni's went down very well this morning. All the taste sensations made it less that ordinary and I haven't had to eat since! I have been there for lunch and their lunch menu is varied, interesting and very satisfying. Lunch time can get quite loud because everyone is so happy. Happy Adelaide tends to be loud. Breakfast is animated but not loud, so just the thing for a rainy , horrible day and it certainly is a good start to a big shop. Rigoni's is one of the places which is taking Leigh Street to a new level. All the places along Leigh Street have lifted their game and it is starting to become a really civilised, amicable, social area and a great place to eat in Adelaide. It is setting the example for our planned dream of making better use of the side streets. It is showing how good an idea that is and if each side street develops its own atmosphere and theme it will be so much better. it's the people who run the businesses who set the standard and you can see that clearly in Leigh Street. So bring on the side street development and let's have places and niches we can enjoy. The focus doesn't just have to be food. It could be energy saving, organic, arty, second hand and preloved, children's paradise, exotic... We could have a ball and Adelaide needs to be inspired that way because we respond to it so well.

Kenrick Monk

2011-10-02T19:26:00.001+10:30

"It's preparation now, you're leading up to the Olympics. It's not the brightest thing to be on a skateboard."

He broke down as he said he had made up the accident tale because it sounded "elaborate".

"It just kept snowballing and snowballing and more and more and more came out and it just got too much for me," he said.

I wouldn't normally say anything about someone like Kenrick Monk who is a Commonwealth Gold winner, a well credentialled swimmer and 23. When I saw the original interview I thought he had been less hurt than I thought he would be if a car drove at him but he looked such a mess and wasn't talking particularly well. So now we find out he had actually had a skateboard accident. If you read the article I have linked to he sounds like a young boy. He doesn't sound like he is 23. His whole way of dealing with this, and what he did in the first place, sounds like a young boy. It is not making sense. You cannot get as far as he has and done as well as he has without a total commitment to swimming, fitness, the team and a sense of responsibility that you will always be there training, training ,training and representing your country. The London Olympics are next year and he is supposed to be swimming in them. We are supposed to be more aware of mental health issues. He sounds like he has been unable to cope with this emotionally. He sounds like he just went skateboarding - why? It wasn't swimming. It was normal kid activity. It was being as free as the wind.In all of that he knew he was doing something wrong because he is currently a chattel of the Olympics team. He has actually been very self destructive and that is not someone who has achieved what he has. While they are busy disciplining him I hope they are busy looking at his mental health too because it looks like he has hit the wall. Is he normally a rebel? Is he normally defiant? Is he normally like this? I watched the Commonwealth games. I didn't get the impression he was reckless or irresponsible. But when he says, in this article,

"I didn't know what to do ... I panicked, I freaked ... basically to know that I've just fallen off a skateboard, something that a 10-year-old can ride,"

you have to remind yourself this is a 23 year old Commonwealth Gold holder. He will know why he did all of this but the self destructiveness of it is the thing which concerns me the most. If others were caught up in it then it's because we do respect our sports people and we do respond to what is happening to them. I wonder if we'll deal with the emotional aspect of this as well as we have dealt with it as a physical injury. A 23 year old man can't say he is cracking up and not coping , can he? You know the cry for help stuff? That's how I read this. I could be quite wrong, but why else would I bother blogging about it? I have nothing but admiration for how our swimming team sets such a good example to us of how to cope and get on with life. I hope they will help Kenrick and sort this out.

Revamping Adelaide

2011-09-23T08:32:00.005+09:30

OUTDOOR dining on Gawler Place, "pop-up" cafes, one-way streets and green bike lanes are among a raft of trial projects tipped to breathe life into the city this summer.

Any ideas to revamp Adelaide are welcome and these sound pretty good. Cutting the south bound train for 6 months has created a disconnect even though the train is back - because the second stage of the train line upgrade will put the train out again. Parking in Adelaide is not a good idea. It costs too much and it's awkward because there are reconstruction areas around Adelaide which are not necessarily known. Better to use public transport or a bike! Walking around Adelaide is easy and pleasant when you are there. People have abandoned Adelaide because working hours are quite bizarre these days and so people shop locally to ease the strain on themselves. Public transport issues and roadworks are making commuting difficult into town and then it seems to crawl with teenagers rather than a mix of age groups. Add to that the broader issue of online rather than real life shopping and Adelaide is going through some problems. Reports of aggression, fights and unpredictable people are continuing. It doesn't stop me going to the city because I think it's important to be there. I can understand why others do not go. The imbalance is nice and obvious. Using the side streets to better effect would be good. Using the city in different ways would attract different age groups. You need a balance in the demographics so that one group and their interests is not dominating. Spenders tend to be older. I hate seeing shops struggling because we have always had good shops but if you don't get and keep the people who want to shop comfortably then our retail sector will suffer. Melbourne and Sydney cater well to everyone and you see a mix of age groups shopping. We have a smaller population so we have to think this out carefully.

Adelaide is faking it

2011-09-16T08:36:00.002+09:30

Image: History of Australian Currency

POLICE are investigating the attempted use of fake $50 notes in the Brighton area.

I gather working for a living is becoming far too dull. Some people just like to live dangerously. The article has a link to Crimestoppers so that anyone with information can contact the police. It's not just Brighton. It was at Arndale too. If you consult the History of Australian currency site you will see that in 1996 we developed the technolgy for polymer notes which protects us from counterfeiting. The notes would be hard to reproduce. I understand that with standardised technology and software we are putting ourselves in the position that fakers can do precisely that but I'd like to think our key components for security are still using very unique and hard to duplicate technological applications and processes. I think so. These notes were obviously picked up quickly. What bothers me the most is I never get a thought that says , Oh, I think I'll just copy our money and print it before I go shopping. A lot of time would have been spent trying to replicate our notes and probably a sizeable financial investment too. If you have the skills and money to try and replicate our notes, you probably have the skills to earn a good living. It would require a very patient person and then a risk taker. I don't understand why then those skills are put into an arena which is the path to failure. Somewhere along the line these people have lost touch with reality and that is sad.The other concern I have is whether these notes could be used in self serve machines and check outs. I'd hate to think they could be. As human being we need to be smart but our technology needs to be too.

Spindle cell tumour in dogs

2011-09-10T16:53:00.002+09:30

The previous post about my dog is here and since then we have carried along quite nicely. After 4 baths and finishing the course of anti biotics the skin infection cleared but the hard, horrible skin on her back remained. This photo comes from Christmas just before the back fur fell out. Now you don't really notice she has a problem with her back unless you look. The weather went really cold and wet and we were over the baths. As soon as it gets warm again I shall bath her because it does help that flaky skin getting in her fur, probably from the cortisone. She turned 11 in July and I went away for a week and had a family member stay to care for her. She looked really well when I came back and her fur was much better. I made all her dinners up and froze them because I give her weetbix every day and then a potato about 3 times a week. I vary her diet and keep it as healthy and interesting as I can but it would have been too much fiddling around for someone looking after her. Bit by bit the hard skin on her back has cleared but there is still a patch down the middle. I have just left it alone through winter after all the bathing. It seems to have been the right decision. I have gone back to brushing her once a week instead of every day like I used to and that seems to be good for her and she likes it. She's slowed down but she is happy and we play ball sometimes when she wants to. I took her to the vet last week and they thought she looked better than in April and my daughter saw her this week and she hasn't seen her since April and she said she looked well. The tumour blew up badly the other week but I did not panic. I have learned to at least wait one day. I rested her indoors for 4 days and then let her go out as usual. My garden is quite big so she can get plenty of exercise for who she is now when she is in the mood. The tumour has come down a lot and the vet had no explanation for that either.Teh tumour can have a mind of its own. My vet and I have worked together on this ever since she got the tumour and that approach has been invaluable. When we both put our knowledge together we seem to have a good way of managing this evil tumour. So we carry on. I at least know I have done my best to provide her with a happy, fuss free life at this stage. I have avoided further tests and treatments as such because she is 11, she is okay and she is happy. If anything happens I know my vet will help me in a really good way and that is all I can wish for.

Typical Adelaide

2011-09-10T08:54:00.003+09:30

You know you are in Adelaide when you are looking at everything with your Adelaide eyes. While the media are banging on about this and that, are screeching headlines and scandal at you, you just have a bit of a chuckle and get on with your life. Adelaide doesn't have much time for scandal, sculduggery and squawking. Chook shed slapping isn't something which appeals to us. So, at times , we sit and listen to others from elsewhere making pronouncements about Adelaide or South Australia and our typical reaction is - what would they know , they don't live here. We know about Mike Rann and Kevin Foley. We have seen Jay Weatherill and Nick Xenophon was a part of our landscape for a long time. We listen to what is being said, about Whyalla possibly being wiped off the map - the toughest town anywhere which has survived who knows what . Whyalla has a strong core and spirit. It won't be going anywhere too soon but it will have its challenges again. We were the ones who fought and fought in our own way to get the water back to Goolwa. Democracy means as citizens we have to get in there and get dirty sometimes so we get what we really want for our state. We know politicians haven't really noticed us for a while. We'll watch the news, take in the information, have a bit of a chat and then get on with whatever it is we want to get on with. We are very well informed because news travels fast here. We can correct a news story in a flash . We can get information out and we will rally around a good cause pretty quickly. Social networking and the radio keep us in the information flow and our radio will work on our behalf because Adelaide people get to the heart of things spretty quickly and ignore the electronic dressing. We also look at local very clearly. We know local is important and we will take care of it. It's times like this I love Adelaide. I like to get away from it to get a fresh look at everything but Adelaide has that real feeling of the buzzer I saw in the shop this week - the bullsh*t buzzer. Hilarious. So us. We can buzz an alert so easily and it makes us laugh.

Women at the top

2011-09-02T18:52:00.002+09:30

Image: What is Domestic Abuse?

The longer Julia Gillard and Anna Bligh stay in their respective positions the easier it is to understand why women rarely get to the top and why they are unable to stay there in 2011 in Australia. Not only does the country keep telling us any number of men would be far preferable, even Campbell Newman who is bypassing being in parliament, the women are constantly being berated for their incompetence and any achievement is totally discounted. Anna Bligh's steering of Queensland through incredibly difficult and treacherous times was nothing short of awesome but it is dismissed in a sentence. Julia Gillard has worked her backside off all her life and doubly hard since she got into a hung parliament, is no fool and constantly is told she is a failure. Neither of those women had Christmas. Neither of them have had a break but still they are being belittled and berated. Today was ludicrous when leadership speculation was sent virally through the news because of the high court decision. Authority is now being questioned because of John Howard's comment. Cornelia Rau, David Hicks, Tampa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Baxter, the wheatboard, work choices, his involvement with the high court re Nauru all vanish into thin air as though we were amnesiacs.

"Emotional abuse is commonly defined as a systematic tearing down of another human being. "

what's the deal

Emotional abuse comes in many forms and the top women seem to be worthwhile targets for those who are abusers:

"Following are types of emotional abuse:

DOMINATION: Someone wants to control your every action. They have to have their own way, and will resort to threats to get it. When you allow someone else to dominate you, you can lose respect for yourself.
VERBAL ASSAULTS: berating, belittling, criticizing, name calling, screaming, threatening, excessive blaming, and using sarcasm and humiliation. Blowing your flaws out of proportion and making fun of you in front of others. Over time, this type of abuse erodes your sense of self confidence and self-worth.
ABUSIVE EXPECTATIONS: The other person places unreasonable demands on you and wants you to put everything else aside to tend to their needs. It could be a demand for constant attention, frequent sex, or a requirement that you spend all your free time with the person. But no matter how much you give, it's never enough. You are subjected to constant criticism, and you are constantly berated because you don't fulfill all this person's needs.
EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL: The other person plays on your fear, guilt, compassion, values, or other "hot buttons" to get what they want. This could include threats to end the relationship, the "cold shoulder," or use other fear tactics to control you.
UNPREDICTABLE RESPONSES: Drastic mood changes or sudden emotional outbursts (This is part of the definition of BPD). Whenever someone in your life reacts very differently at different times to the same behavior from you, tells you one thing one day and the opposite the next, or likes something you do one day and hates it the next, you are being abused with unpredictable responses.

This behavior is damaging because it puts you always on edge. You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and you can never know what's expected of you. You must remain hypervigilant, waiting for the other person's next outburst or change of mood.

An alcoholic or drug abuser is likely to act this way. Living with someone like this is tremendously demanding and anxiety provoking, causing the abused person to feel constantly frightened, unsettled and off balance.
GASLIGHTING: The other person may deny that certain events occurred or that certain things were said. You know differently. The other person may deny your perceptions, memory and very sanity. (If a borderline has been disassociating, they may indeed remember reality differently than you do.)
CONSTANT CHAOS: The other person may deliberately start arguments and be in constant conflict with others. The person may be "addicted to drama" since it creates excitement. (Many non-BPs also are addicted to drama.)"

Emotional abuse

The ongoing criticism , demeaning and discounting of what these women are doing has become quite systematic to the extent the agenda is now set for both of them to leave.They are now being threatened with losing their jobs as though that were appropriate justice for their "proven" incompetence. It's horrible and quite beneath our dignity. If domestic violence is a big no in Australia, and I actually thank John Howard for making that a clear message, then politcal violence has to be a big no too. We are not helping women to succeed in our country because they are subject constantly to emotional abuse. In the end it will break them and that is as wrong politically as it is on the domestic front.

"Insults, name-calling, shaming, and public put-downs are all weapons of abuse designed to erode your self-esteem and make you feel powerless."

Domestic Violence and Abuse

Even by the law of averages it is simply not possibly for all these men to be eminently suitable and qualified for these top positions but not one single woman and here we have two women who are making a big effort to try and make it possible for our country to be an equal opportunity employer. Unless the abuse stops we have no hope. We battle it on the domestic front. To see it played out in public and never being questioned is scary.

Steve Jobs

2011-08-28T16:37:00.001+09:30

Image :Justin Sullivan - Getty Images

It is heartwarming to see how the world has carefully worked out a way to let Steve Jobs know that they value him and that they wish him well as he continues to fight the good fight against his illness. Since he resigned as Apple CEO in a typically clear, fuss free way a number of articles and sites have popped up to let Steve Jobs know we see him as special and that the Steve Jobs effect is something we see as important. It has been as difficult a job for the world to strike the right balance with its articles as it has been for Steve Jobs himself at this point in time. With Apple and Pixar his creative imagination and seemingly fuss free approach to life and ideating has given us something so much more than diversion and entertainment. When the iPod Touches first came on the market I remember becoming instantly the coolest mother in the universe when my daughter opened her Christmas present from me and friends and family looked on. Her face of wonder was something to behold and our capacity to be impressed was really interesting. Gadgets are gadgets in our home. We've always had them but the iPod Touch was a whole new way of looking at technological portability and the fact it went straight on our wifi had us all gasping in amazement. Its coolness factor was its ingenuity and simplicity of design. The less is more. Uncluttered and cool. Steve Jobs has always been able to brush all the complication of modern living aside and a market crammed with things and recreate for us a new vision and new way of doing things. A new way of looking at lifestyle. That is art. He is a great artist and uses art to create new perspectives which then lead to new opportunities. That is how he took on Microsoft and we lived in a world where Bill Gates had revolutionized the planet and we could not see another way. Steve Jobs has created things which complement and enhance all of that and take it a step further into the realms of possibility and imagination. My daughter's life was transformed by her iPod Touch. It suddenly had a big place in her life and that was making a big contribution to the way she lived. She so believed in it that when she was ready to upgrade to the new one she decided I was going to inherit the one I had given her. The Steve Jobs effect came into play when she was prepared to give up a whole afternoon, surprise me with an iTunes card, mentor me through the process of signing up and syncing. She had even thought to work out which apps might appeal to me. She then let me explore and came and dug me out of the holes I got myself into. I am good at technology but the iPod was a bit scary for me and it was a totally new way of doing things. I laugh now. That iPod is still a good friend and a great travel companion. Steve Jobs has since given us the iPhone and the iPad. I am sticking with my iPod Touch and don't feel I need the other things, but I can see others have the same joy I have had with the iPod. That's the trick. He has brought us cool gadgets we like to use and which fill a distinct space in our life and enhance it. He should know we value his humour and how hard he works. We do value how he can be different and surprising. I'd like to think he will surprise the hell out of that illness. We'll see. In the meantime the world is doing its best to show him that we have all been inspired in some way by him and that it has been a very personal inspiration. We are thinking of him and wishing him well.

Apples ain't apples

2011-08-27T17:34:00.000+09:30

Image: Kathryn Hedges Pics4learning

There is understandably some real debate going on in Adelaide about Australia importing NZ apples. Our orange market has been attacked and undermined by the use of fruit concentrate. Trying to get real orange juice made from real, locally produced oranges is a daily problem. Buy them and juice them yourselves is the answer but we used to thrive on our own orange juice. Ditto pineapple juice with the pineapples from Queensland. Adelaide has really good apples and very solid apple growers. The thought of NZ apples coming into Australia and with it competition for our own produce and then the threat of things like Fire Blight is disturbing to us all. We know how things can easily get out of hand with infections and pests here.It is why we have to throw our fruit out at border crossing. It's a hot issue. We'll deal with having imports if we have to but we'll do it our way. We'll support our own growers and we'll buy our fruit because we believe in local produce. It is the carbon friendly way and it the best way for nutrition. Past that point I can tell you there is no competition. When I have been in New Calendonia they have to import our apples and apples form New Zealand. There is no comparison. Our apples sell faster and they are just so delicious. I know we will be wanting to support NZ because of the earthquake in NZ. I know we are finding ways to help them keep positive and cover the costs but I also think we can do that differently. Our bananas in Queensland are protected and we pay top dollar to support Queensland farmers when they hit the wall. We are proud to support them and thank heavens that bananas are less than ten dollars a kilo now. Well - Adelaide apples are just as much in need of protection as are Adelaide oranges and apricots. I buy local fresh food because it is fresh and carbon efficient. What do you do?

Hung Parliament

2011-08-25T20:01:00.002+09:30

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein.

I still don't have a problem with our hung parliament. Minority government has given us bang for our buck and we might even have decided that learning is a good thing. We are starting to distinguish between fact and misinformation. We are starting to discern between well thought out , considered responses and propaganda. We are starting to wake up to agenda hijacking, bullying, inequity, disrespect and what is important. We finally are working out when things are skewed and when things are balanced and we can actually articulate what the problems, irrelevancies and blocks are if we are finding ourselves in a shambles. Some would argue we are always in a shambles. Not so. The media still goes down that stuff and nonsense path of over reporting some things in a sensationalisitc way rather than offering a balanced diet of well thought out pieces. And we don't think we have a problem with being 70% Murdoch owned? We haven't woken up to that just yet. There are signs, though. We are saturated by yadda , yadda, yadda so we are starting to turn to things and people who offer us hope and well thought out, interesting information. We don't want things over analaysed all the time. We don't want to know every inconsequential minute detail of something and have it repeated ad nauseam . We are over fake narrative. We like to get information. We like to hear the different input by well credentialled , believable , credible people. There are reasons why we have separation of state, church and justice and we have recently embarked upon exploring those issues. Politicians are elected from within society so it is fair and reasonable to assume they will reflect us and our lifestyle. They will reflect our strengths and our weaknesses. We learnt this week that some things are above politics and we are exploring whether we need to keep justice, religion and state separate and how we might do that. Have we thought about how we can do that? Before it was a matter of protocol. In this day and age boundaries are broken, boundaries are knocked down and we have to decide whether we want to put them back up or not. So our hung parliament has covered a lot of interesting ground since it started and it has all been brought before us. We have all been involved and had feelings and opinions about the issues. We haven't left it to Daddy to tell us what to do and we haven't shrugged our shoulders and thought someone else can just work it out, and as long as it doesn't affect us , we'll let them get on with it. We are part of the discussions. The very thought of having a high speed train in Australia brought some fantastic people onto talkback radio with all sorts of insights. The sorts of things we are dealing with are not able to be fixed with an easy answer , a slapped up policy or a bit of a tickle and a tweak. We are having to think hard and long and then think again and change our minds. The live meat export is a classic. What do we do? We can't just tell another country how to kill our cattle. We cannot just leave our farmers in the lurch. We can't just shrug our shoulders and say it's not our problem. At this stage I think we'd like to see the live export trade go unless we can in some way help or influence the humane killing of our animals. We'd prefer to kill them here and then export them. Some of that is because we are so far removed from the food chain we just cannot stomach animals being killed full stop. It was great to hear one of our politicians, who is actually a sheep farmer, come and talk to us about this ---over dinner! This is the first time we have been involved. We have been learning about how to discuss everything in a more complex and rational fashion. We have heard from all sorts of politicians and I know more politicians now thanks to our media and our hung parliament. We can see for ourselves when there is broader coverage of events the sorts of people who are helping to shape our nation. It means for the first time in a long, long time we are able to know what kind of people we have in parliament. I like that. Somedays I get desperate but I have to say more often than not I am enjoying having a nation which is talking about everything. Everything.

Tariq Jahan

2011-08-13T08:54:00.009+09:30

Hypersonic bomber lost

2011-08-12T08:25:00.002+09:30

Image: en.wikepedia.org

Article: US military loses prototype hypersonic bomber

As you do. It can travel at 21 000 kph and is programmed to roll and dive into the Pacific ocean. I guess we'll post it back if we find it?

British riots

2011-08-10T20:44:00.002+09:30

Photo : Lindsay Parnaby The Guardian

The Department of Youth needs to be shut down and shut up. The service is being hammered from all sides and we need to get behind the police and support them in any positive way we can because they are out there in the front line dealing with what is open warfare. This is not just a riot. Buildings are being torched. People are being stripped, bashed and stolen from, shops are being pillaged and no one is safe from harm. There is a trail of destruction, fear and havoc. War has been declared and the warriors are out to get what they can. They are very well organised. They are using the means at their disposal and the rest of Britain is getting out their brooms and cleaning up after them. The police are the police. They are doing their best and they are fairly skilled at managing mayhem and dangerous situations but this is bigger than that. So blaming the police is just a decoy tactic. Blaming the government is the same. The government is elected from within the society which has now gone to war on itself. Rebellions are always about limiting authority , undermining it and destroying it where they can. Sometimes it can be for a just cause when the consensus of opinion is settled upon. I doubt anyone is going to say this is just. They are attacking their own neighbourhoods. They are making places unliveable for people. They are burning their bridges as they burn everything else.

"The events this week will undo years of work to regenerate the estate and restore the confidence of residents in their safety. Early on Tuesday morning, the estate resembled a desolate wasteland."

Pembury Estate

Some people are sitting there as I am in the safety of their country and home thinking this is Britain. Is it? How many people are actually responsible for this? How many people are actually creating hazardous and vile conditions for their neighbours? You just have to give me your best guess. This is not England. This is a group of well organised people who maybe should go to Afghanistan if they really want to go battle but I doubt the Army would take them. So it must be the fault of the police. Must be the fault of the government. Must be the fault of the welfare state. Must be someone's fault. What about theirs? I listened to two 14 year old girls on the news saying they were having a good day and had lots of things they had taken from the shops and they'd probably go back tomorrow. Pays to advertise, but not on national and international news if you are breaking the law and ought to be in school. Then I had to wonder how this was "good" and what kind of values they had come by.

Where there really is social injustice and horribly difficult living conditions, where there really is a deep concern in people about their lives and their future, there is silence. Look at Somalia and Japan. Those people have real issues to deal with and they are of mindboggling proportions. They are going from one hour to the next and one day to the next and they are doing whatever they can to make things better for themselves and their community.

We can thank England for showing us what the Department of Youth can do. Right now it's in Britain. Are you sure it would not be anywhere else? The masked gangs are always there. The G20 the G this or that...out come the masks, the mayhem and the blind violence. Whatever their reason , whatever their cause, they need to be shut down and shut up. We cannot live like this.

Yes, we have bananas!

2011-08-07T08:58:00.006+09:30

Ref Number: 04-29-57

Photo: Ian Britton

Freefotos.com

"Then you'll be getting back to normal numbers. That's my point of view anyway."

Mr Singh says the bananas are small, and any other year, would be thrown out rather than sold.

But he says these are desperate times.

They may well be small but they are our bananas!! There was a big reaction in the lunch room on Friday when one of our staff walked in eating a real banana. She laughed. "But it's only small!" It didn't matter. It had made us so happy to see someone eat a banana. Little things mean a lot in Australia and we run on bananas. 15 dollars a kilo has been far too much and 8 dollars for the over ripe ones. We have survived on mandarines, apples, pears and the occasional orange. The oranges have been good. Instead of banana cake and muffins we have been making apple cake, orange cake, lemon poppy seed cake...but we have missed our bananas. it is great news to hear they are starting to come back. It will not be easy for the Queenslanders. Those areas were totally damaged in a ferocious way to the extent some people will never go back there to live. That could mean a labour shortage. Maybe seasonal workers will take it on but our banana industry has been a constant in our lives so we shall need reliable workers. No one would blame people for leaving the areas. The floods and Yasi were so disturbing and heart breaking and yet, as you can see from this article, there are people who are willing to put their feet back on the ground and start all over and that Nature helps to give them hope. When I do buy my first bananas I shall be thinking of these amazing people and our amazing country and shall gratefully eat my banana muffin. Banana chips are just not the same.

Hit and run

2011-08-05T08:24:00.002+09:30

"They didn't do anything and just stood there for a good four or five more seconds and then floored it."

Alex is in a lot of pain and trouble this morning because thieves stole his car and tried to run him down with it. My heart goes out to him because he is learning a hard lesson but we need to get our heads straight about this. If someone stole my child, would I be out on the street running after them? Yes. Alex is 19 and his car would be so important to him and his pride and joy. It would be gutting for him to know someone was stealing it. He would be out there trying to do something. In my 20s someone tried to steal my car in my driveway. I sent the dog out before I went out there. The dog got hold of him by the wrist and the rest was a police matter. It is not ego. Those were thieves stealing his property but they were also prepared to run him down so they are killers. They were prepared to run his own car into him and yes, he is lucky to be alive. At that point I join the police and his parents in a lecture that says no car is worth your life. It is better to ring the police from inside the house. It is better to try and get mobile pictures. We need a list of things we can do that will help us feel as though we are not just being useless. I think we also need to be clear that anyone who steal and harms is wrong. They are the ones with the ego problem because they think they are above the law and more important than anyone. No respect for property and no respect for human life. This is the part of Adelaide which really needs to be fixed.

Anders Breivik

2011-07-31T09:18:00.003+09:30

Norwegian police say Anders Behring Breivik told them he had "several targets" in mind when they quizzed him about the twin attacks that killed 77 people a week ago.

Irrespective of what he might have had in mind, his mind works like a steel trap and my own personal concern is what he still has in mind. Not being dead, that's for sure. He put his gun down and handed himself over and has been compliant ever since. He has taken so many lives and he planned that meticulously so I tend to think he has planned everything else. If his incredibly well thought out writing is anything to go by then he is prepared to think things out in amazing detail and has an enormous amount of patience. His name came up on a chemicals register but nothing could be done about it because he was seemingly leading the life of a good citizen. He plays people for suckers and maybe the blast in Oslo was a great way to create a confusing set of circumstances which then left him free to go to the island. He has no heart. His soul is concrete and his eyes are steel. His mind is probably still working on the next part of his plan. He obviously would have factored in being caught but he plainly had no intention of dying for his cause. That is the most disturbing part of Anders Breivik and why we need to understand him well. He just has his mind and his plans. What happens has no emotional meaning to him. It is a to do list. The media seem at odds as to what to call him. They seem to have dropped the word terrorist and have called him a right wing extremist, an assassin, an assailant and a mass murderer. All of the above. A rose by any other name. No matter what the mot du jour is to describe him in the media, he is horrifyingly scary and a force to be reckoned with. They are still burying their loved ones in Norway and I am thinking about that. One person brought all this hell and pain but still lives and plans. I admire the Norwegian people for their solidarity in rising above it. May he be understood and stopped.