However, it’s an important milestone in my life as well as hers, so it deserves to be noted.

As a parent there are mixed feelings about having one of your brood officially become an adult. We’ve successfully steered her through childhood and now she’s able to make her own way in the world.

It probably won’t sink in until she leaves home, which may not be for a few years yet (and we’re happy about that).

I’m very proud of Kathleen. She boarded in Mount Gambier last year to finish Year 12 and achieved an adjusted ATAR of 95.8.

This year she will study Archaeology at Flinders University and hopefully will soon get her licence.

Also today, I took younger son James to register at the Lockleys Football Club, where he will play in the under 9 competition.

His brother wasn’t able to play football at that age because the youngest age group in rural Porepunkah was under 13, and he drifted to soccer instead.

I remember playing mini league at Traralgon when I was eight and then under 10s for Southside.

I hope James enjoys his sport. It’s an important part of life.

I know that because my wife works there and she served him.

He was with some older men she didn’t recognise, possibly team management or local supporters.

India plays Australia in a one-day international tomorrow at Adelaide Oval.

Tendulkar is generally regarded as the best batsman in world cricket since Sir Donald Bradman, and there’s even a case to say he’s the best batsman to have ever played the game.

Bradman’s statistics are awesome, but world cricket didn’t have much depth in his day and he didn’t play as much cricket overseas. I don’t think he toured anywhere except England.

The Tongue Thai’d restaurant is at 50-54 Henley Beach Road, Mile End, close to where we used to live. According to the Your Restaurants guide:

This little Thai joint opened in early 2005 and has been jam-packed ever since. There is no secret behind the success of this venture; the difference between it and its contemporaries is obvious. The timber-floored space is accented with bright red lighting and furniture as fiery as their spicy chilli jam, and both the interior and the outdoor heated courtyard are generally abuzz with lively chatter. Chef and co-owner Pichai Ngoensawang creates authentic Thai dishes from his homeland, stubbornly insisting on only the freshest ingredients, with no MSG or preservatives used. Everything on the menu is made fresh to order, from the spring rolls and fish cakes to the masaman curry. The difference is evident in the taste, which packs a fair punch without relying on heat for impact.

It’s interesting that Indians would visit a Thai restaurant, but not surprising I guess. We’d be unlikely to visit an Australian restaurant while visiting India.

My wife said Sachin obliged with photos and autographs throughout the evening, but she never thought to do so herself!

I’m neither a botanist nor an ornithologist, but the birds are some type of parrot and I guess the bush is a bottlebrush.

I’ll mention too the weather has been remarkably cool for Adelaide in February over the past week.

Temperatures have been around 20 to 23 degrees for several days, which I’m quite happy about.

I don’t mind hot weather when I’m on holiday, but not while I’m working.

The note reads, in part: “Dear Yellow Pages, see this big stack of unclaimed telephone books? NOBODY WANTS THEM. Please stop killing trees and GET A NEW BUSINESS MODEL.”

I agree entirely with the sentiment.

The hard copy of the Yellow Pages must surely be the biggest waste of advertising money and paper. It’s been over two years since I looked at Yellow Pages and I can’t imagine that I will ever do so again.

Just about everything I want to know about a business is now online and usually easy to find with Google.

On the rare occasions it isn’t online, such as maybe getting a tradesman or local professional, I’m more likely to search the local paper.

A huge pile of Yellow Pages went uncollected at our office for several weeks. The White Pages were picked up, and are sometimes useful, but their value is diminishing as well.

How often does anyone look up a person’s home number these days? Most individuals can be contacted online as well and the preferred phone number of choice is nearly always a mobile.

The Yellow Pages do serve some useful purposes. I like to elevate computer monitors with them. They also make handy door stops.

One of my offices looks over Victoria Square toward Gulf St Vincent. In fact, the sea is visible on most days, 10km away.

Another office looks in the opposite direction toward the Adelaide Hills. You know the weather is bad when you can’t see the hills.

The Parliament House office is like a dungeon, buried in the basement of the historic building.

My other office is close to Parliament on the ninth floor and I don’t have any view at all. Well, that’s not strictly correct. My direct vision is toward the hallway door to the toilets and I get to see a constant flow of traffic.

That’s handy when I want to see someone, but couldn’t be bothered looking for them. As most of my colleagues are women, I only have to wait 30 minutes or so and the person I’m looking for will materialise in front of me.

I know to wait until their return visit, however, unless I only want the conversation to be short, in which case I interrupt them before they head out the door.

This particular building offers some nice views, though. The above picture was taken from a colleague’s office, using my Samsung Galaxy SII phone through a tinted double-glazed window.

Government House, Adelaide

The photo is looking over Government House, down King William Road toward Adelaide Oval and North Adelaide; quite splendid on a fine summer’s day.

According to His Excellency’s website, Government House, Adelaide, is the oldest vice-regal residence in Australia.

The earliest part of the House to be built was the east wing (right side) of the present building. It was completed and occupied in May 1840.

Various additions and renovations have occurred over the years, the latest major one being in 1973 when some rooms on the first floor of the original East Wing were rearranged and modernised to form a separate suite for the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

Governors, their families and house guests make use of all the upstairs rooms.

According to the About page: Picture Australia is an internet-based service that allows you to search many significant online pictorial collections at the same time. When you search on Picture Australia, thumbnail images are retrieved from participating institutions on the fly and inserted into the search results.

Participating institutions include libraries, universities, museums and the Australian War Memorial.

Clicking on an image takes you to the institution’s website for details about the picture.

This is a fantastic use of technology, providing broad public access to cultural and historical treasures. It’s a wonderful tool for researchers, saving countless hours and cost.

It’s all under the umbrella of the National Library of Australia as part of the Trove, which is an online collection of digitised archives including newspapers, journals, photographs, diaries and audio.

I’ve done image searches in Trove before, but the Picture Australia page is cleaner and more visually appealing.

Something I hadn’t seen before was the ability for individuals to contribute photographs.

It’s as simple as joining the Picture Australia Flickr group for People, Places and Events.

I added a few photos and will be interested to see if they become part of the collection.

All of this makes it much easier for historians and genealogists to share and find information.

Update: The pictures I uploaded to Flickr are now part of the Picture Australia archive.

The 67-year-old Greek Cypriot, who is normally very quiet, today opened a conversation by asking if I had seen the news last week that France had condemned Turkey’s genocide against the Greeks.

A massacre of Armenians by the Turks.

Turkey denies the allegations, claiming deaths occurred in the course of war.

My limited understanding of this subject is the Armenians were literally slaughtered and many Greeks were also persecuted.

My barber was far more explicit. He recounted stories told to him by his father and grandfather about Greeks being thrown overboard at sea and left to drown, babies having their throats cut, bodies being washed ashore and so on.

Charming conversation.

Wikipedia states there was a violent campaign by the Ottoman Empire against the Greek population of the Empire during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1923).

“The campaign, also known as the Pontic genocide, included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary expulsions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments.”

This appears to be fact. I can’t see any academic disagreement about this having occurred.

It may have been in the context of a crumbling empire defending its territory, but that’s no excuse for genocide.

The Greeks and Armenians may have retaliated and instigated attacks, but that is no excuse for arbitrary state-sanctioned murder.

I just think Turkey should acknowledge that atrocities occurred (before the modern country was created) and move on.

• Here is an interesting article, which explains more.

Activists of the Ukrainian women's movement FEMEN stage a performance in front of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, on December 9, 2011, to protest against alleged mass fraud in the Russian December 4 parliamentary polls.

According to Wikipedia, in Kiev there are about 300 active participants in the movement, which comprises some 20 topless activists and 300 fully clothed members.

Most of their early protests were in Ukraine, but they have since appeared in Russia, The Vatican, Paris and now in Switzerland.

Ukrainian feminists protest against sexism in the media.

FEMEN justifies its provocative methods, stating: “This is the only way to be heard in this country. If we staged simple protests with banners, then our claims would not have been noticed”.

The organisation plans to become the biggest and the most influential feminist movement in Europe, a goal I suspect they will rapidly achieve.

This web page features a selection of powerful images (warning, may offend).

Issues that have prompted protest include:

• French former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s attitude towards women;
• Sex tourism and the trafficking of women in Ukraine;
• The death penalty given to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two children who was sentenced to death by stoning in Iran on charges of adultery;
• Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving cars;
• Animal welfare conditions at the Kiev zoo;
• Prostitution during a European soccer tournament.

I’m not one to support protest for the sake of it. In fact, I find the Occupy campaign somewhat strange and pointless, but FEMEN seems to have a point.

A scene from the FEMEN protest at Davos.

They have also brought to my attention the fact Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that shamefully doesn’t allow women to drive.

FEMEN clearly now has a more global agenda and it will be interesting to see if the movement attracts members and support outside Ukraine.

The potential downsides include that copycats will be less ideologically pure; the media and public will become indifferent about “shocking” demonstrations that are no longer shocking; and someone could get hurt if things turn ugly.

The issue that brought this group to my attention was media coverage of their current protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Mail Online reports: “With temperatures around freezing in the snow-filled town, they took off their tops and tried to climb a fence before being detained”.

While I don’t condone public nudity, I concede some admiration for what these young women are trying to achieve.

The issues paper seeks evidence and views about whether consumer detriment is caused by the purchase and use of gift cards by Australian shoppers.

In releasing the paper, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, David Bradbury, said the gift card market is estimated to be worth around $1.5 billion.

“Gift cards are often subject to terms and conditions which consumers need to ensure they read and understand,” Mr Bradbury said.

“As gift cards have grown in popularity, fair trading regulators have received complaints from consumers about a range of issues related to the cards, including the application of expiry dates, restrictions on using gift cards for low-value purchases, and the rights of gift card holders in the event of a company becoming insolvent.

“This issues paper invites members of the community to come forward with their experiences of purchasing and using gift cards to help inform CCAAC’s inquiry.”

University of Southern Queensland law lecturer Nicky Jones argues it is unjust for retailers to accept consideration for gift vouchers and then refuse to deliver promised goods or services when the vouchers expire.

In her paper “Gift Vouchers and Expiry Dates: When the Gift Stops Giving” (Queensland University of Technology Law & Justice Journal 213), Dr Jones recommends amendments to Australian consumer laws to protect shoppers from losing the benefit of unused and expired gift vouchers.

“Currently, the retailer can rely on the gift voucher’s expiry date to avoid providing goods or services under the voucher. Indeed, retailers have a commercial interest in their gift vouchers expiring unused,” she writes.

The CCAAC issues paper says gift cards are a popular choice with consumers for a number of reasons.

“Gift cards offer ease and convenience in choosing a suitable gift, are easily posted or delivered and allow the recipient the freedom to choose a gift they want,” the paper says.

“Retailers are also attracted to gift cards because they increase sales, reduce the return of unwanted gifts, build store loyalty and result in incremental sales as consumers may spend more than the face value on the gift card.”

In discussing expiry dates, the paper points out that card issuers have accounting considerations, such as financial reporting and the treatment of lost cards.

In North America, most US states and Canadian provinces regulate gift cards in some fashion. That’s not the case in Australia.

Group-buying schemes

I welcome the review and hope there is more discussion than there has been so far before public consultation ends on March 2, 2012.

Perhaps the inquiry should have been extended to cover group-buying schemes like Living Social and Groupon. The difference, I suppose, is that people generally buy group discounts for themselves, whereas gift cards are for others.

The issue of redemption is common though. I have been caught several times with restaurant vouchers having expired.

In relation to gift cards, I believe they should be valid for at least five years. They are effectively cash and if I choose to give my son a $100 voucher he should be able to redeem it at any reasonable time in the future.

It isn’t reasonable if a card expires in less than 12 months. As Nicky Jones observed, the retailer then has a vested interest in cards going unused.

• Visit here for details about how to make a submission.
• Here is the issues paper.

This website publishes press photographs of angry people.

As the author says: “I feel sorry for local news photographers. They are hugely skilled and poorly paid, and sent out to photograph miserable people pointing at dog turds. Here, we celebrate their work.”

Until discovering this site I wasn’t fully aware how many angry people there are.

I verified the anger by searching Google News for “angry residents”. Here are some recent examples:

Residents fear trees chopped ‘willy-nilly’

East Auckland residents (from left) Alison Dyson, Gary Muller, Bill Dalziel and Andrea Robinson are angry trees on Marine Parade in Howick have been felled. Photo: Natalie Slade.

The sight of a pile of tree limbs chopped to improve sea views has angered users of a popular coastal walkway in one of east Auckland’s premium streets.

“A lot of people are sick to the guts about what is happening,” said Alison Dyson, who lives near the scene of the clearing work on a subdivision overlooking Mellons Bay, Howick.

• Full story in the New Zealand Herald.

Hearing draws angry crowd of citizens, officials

Hundreds of concerned citizens turned out at Salem City Hall Annex on Jan. 25 to weigh in on the cuts to bus, train and ferry services and fare hikes proposed by the MBTA.

Inside two overcrowded rooms that spilled out into the hallway, outraged residents, officials and politicians asserted their opinions, insisting that the changes would be detrimental to the quality of life on the North Shore.

• Full story in the Cape Ann Beacon.

Fury over noisy road upgrades

Angry North Sapphire residents have left Roads and Maritime Services in no doubt about their feelings over the amount of noise road works on the Sapphire to Woolgoolga upgrade are creating.

Residents are fed up with the noise from compression brakes and heavy machinery and have asked for noise barriers to be installed.

• Full story in the Coffs Coast Advocate.

Bad case of gas riles Darebin residents

Raleigh Street residents say Darebin Council wasted ratepayers’ money landscaping their nature strips only a few weeks before a gas company ripped them up.

“Very annoyed” resident Enver Sakiri said he had had to put up with council machinery breaking concrete and digging holes in his nature strip late last year only to have to endure it again a few weeks later when gas company APA Group replaced mains.

• Full story in the Preston Leader.

Angry Mombasa clerics demand repair of roads

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya yesterday stormed the Kenya Rural Roads Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority offices in Mombasa to demand answers about the pathetic condition of roads.

Council officials led by nominated MP Sheikh Mohamed Dhor caught managers of the two authorities by surprise.

• Full story in The Star.

Angry parents demand action over dangerous crossing

Angry parents say they are still waiting for action two months after calling on the council to introduce parking restrictions on a busy road.

More than 600 people signed a petition demanding action be taken on a section of Inmans Row at the junction with Monkhams Lane in Woodford Green, where children are encouraged to cross by painted footprints on the pavement.

• Full story in The Guardian.

Residents join bid to save lollipop patrols

Angry residents and ward councillors have backed calls to save city school crossing patrols.

The patrols are under threat as part of Peterborough City Council budget proposals.

• Full story in Peterborough Today.

Comment

All these stories are from the past few days and I could have easily picked another 20 or more.

It shows that anger is universal, although the Brits seem to get more angry more quickly than the rest of us.

In some parts of the world anger is saved for life-and-death issues, whereas in England outrage is sparked if the local council removes a parking space.

All good fodder for local newspapers and now the internet.