Friday, October 31, 2008

Friends Reunited

I finally started opening the email from this group and
was delighted to find a number of ex-students from my
class at Marist Sister's College on their site.

But even more wonderful was the fact that Kathy O'Hara
was on the site. I send her an e mail and hope she will
answer it. I couldn't belive it but when I saw her name,
tears actually sprung up in my eyes!

As I have stated she has had my address all this years
(as far as I know) yet I have not received a letter from
her since she moved to the acreage. Hopefully that will
change now.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

"Diane Keaton" Fest

Over last week end I had a Diane Keaton feast. It was not
meant to be but just turned out that way.

On Friday 24th I got Mama's Boy which Cliff and I watched.
The mother was played by Diane Keaton. It is about a young
man still living at home, like Ross. The son works in a
book shop and Cliff owns and operates a book shop!! SPOOKY!!

On Saturday 25th I picked up Maddy and her little friend and
withBeryl we watched Horton Hears a Who. Good example of
ethical codes.

Saturday night Cliff and I watched Smother which again had
Diane Keaton as the mother. Interesting note both the 'sons'
in these films were 29 year old men.

On Sunday 26th Beryl could not come as she had a headache so
I watched Made of Honour by myself. It is a remake of the
Julia Robert's film My Best Friend's Wedding. But of
course beacuse the main character is the man he has to win
through while Julia Robert's character of course being a
woman had to suffer and miss out!!!

That night Cliff picked up a movie called Mad Money, which
was a remake of an English film, but I can't recall the title,
but it is about women working in the 'bank' where paper money
is destroyed. Well the American version followed the English
version and Diane Keaton played the leader of the gang!

So she must have really had a busy year with these three films
and how many others??

Monday, October 27, 2008

It's Official!!

Meg and Mark are dating!

It was official at approx. 1 am on Friday 24th October 2008.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

"We Care" Program, Latrobe Valley, Victoria.

I was finally contacted by Marya Stait. It seemed I must
have passed the police check. She aske me to attend a one
day training session at the Latrobe Regional Gallery on
Wednesday 22 October, 2008.

There were ten of us, nine women and one man. Eight came
from Traralgon one from Tanjil South and myself from Morwell.

The session was run by Judy Setches who operates the program
in Moe and outlaying areas from there and Marya who does
the same for the Traralgon, Morwell and outlaying areas.

They went throught the 3 R's, Our Roles, Rights, and
Responsibilites.

We had two 'guest speakers' Joelle Champert from Vision
Austraila, who told about loss of sight in the older
Australian and aids that were available to aid impaired
people. It sounded such a responsibility, I'm not sure
I could cope with a 'blind' friend.

Then Carole Ayres from the Latrobe City Council spoke
about OH & S issues for us as volunteers.

The next step will be the matching up process, like
finding a date! The ladies did say they had a number of
individuals on the books waiting for 'friends.' So I'm
hoping that by the New Year I have a new friend to visit.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Coffee

As a child I watched my mother have a cuppa at mid morning
and mid afternoon. I had my first cup of tea at eight years
of age. It was not till I was 19 and flatting with 'flatmates'
that I discovered coffee.

At its' height I was drinking nearly 10-12 cups a day (late
1980's early 1990's) but then I received a redundancy package.

I guess it was 'the stress' of work, because my coffee drinking
fell away to about six cups a day.

Now I am lucky if I have two cups a day. There are days when
I have three cups and other days when I have NONE.

So what brought this memory up?

I was looking through a scrapbook magazine and a scrapper had
done a layout on coffee using a 'Gloria Jean' thermal mug.

I have decided to do a similiar layout.

Being a Gloria Jean (by name) (I thought I had written this
before) I went with Beryl to 'Gloria Jean's' (the Traralgon
store)for a coffee and despite proof of name they would not
give me a free coffee, but I bought the thermal mug so now
everyone knows it is my coffee.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN BACK TO BUY ANOTHER COFFEE!

I have tried MacDonald's coffee and it is O.K. but I like
Subways Cappuccino. I read someone that the Italians
consider Cappuccino to be a breakfest coffee only and refuse
to serve it after 10 a.m. Of course the best coffee I have
had in the last couple of years is at Clauda's cafe in
George St, Morwell, an iced coffee that is $1-2 cheaper than
any where else!

However about the same time Beryl and I discovered sachet
coffee. It is more expensive than buying a jar of coffee,
but less fuss and mess and the coffee doesn't go hard as
it is a one serve sachet. I prefer Nescafe and I buy them
when they are on special, $4 for ten sachets, so it is a hell
of a lot cheaper than paying $5 for a coffee in a fancy cafe.

Nescafe have so many varities Cappuccino, Sweet Cappuccino
Latte, Mocha, Caramel, (my favourite), Irish Cream, (Beryl's
favourite), Hazelnut and Vanilla.

So now my coffee addiction is under control!( and not the
one that Maxwell Smart works for!!)

Monday, October 20, 2008

"Sex and The City" (The Movie)

Beryl and I saw "Sex and the City" on Saturday morning. I had
been the one who put her onto it in the first place. She loved
the series as did Meg.

Meg has seen the film twice at the movies.

Well I kept the tissue box beside my chair and went through 8
(Yes E-I-G-H-T) of them!!! I don't think Beryl shed one tear.

Though I have to say for a 40 year old woman Carrie acted quite
stupidly, (e.g. throwing away her phone!.) She goes on about
wanting to understand what happened yet would not take Mr. Big's
calls and listen to his explanation. Miranda was just as bad,
taking over 5 months to 'confess' what she had done at the
rehearsal dinner.

But then if none of these 'silly' things would have happened
then there would not have been a 2 and 1/2 hour movie!!!

I will watch it again!!!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Moe Cup 2008


Thursday 16th October 2008, dawned a lovely sunny day. This
year I decided not to attend the Moe Cup. However Meg had
the day off to go and eventually dragged
Don Jr along with her.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Girls Night In

On Tuesday 14th Curves held a 'Girls Night In' to raise funds
for Cancer research into breast cancer. As it is awareness
month for breast cancer it all made sense.

It was a $2 entry fee and $2 for raffle tickets.

I 'won' a door prize of some 'summer eye make up.' As I
haven't worn eyemake up for about fifteen years, it wasn't
exactly the most useful prize.

I had bought $4 worth of raffle tickets (3 for $2). So that
was 6 tickets. Mandy T bought $10 worth (15 tickets.) I
won nothing and Mandy won 6 prizes, a return rate of 40%. If
I had that return rate I would have got two prizes. What I
wanted to win was a sweat head band as I have one and it has
to last all week before I wash it while it realy should be
washed at least every three days.

Other members and friends who do party plans were invited to
take a stall for $30 and promote their products.

There was a PartyLite lady and I told her the sad story of
the items I had returned as one broke within three months and
the other arrived broken. She also took one of my candles that
cost about $25. It was all suppose to be replaced free of
charge. I chased the girl for nearly TWO years till she
completely disappeared but never got the items replaced or
returned. I eventually spoke to her local supervisor who said
I should contact the company. She gave me a nice candle holder
(free) but I really thing she should have contacted the company,
for me.

The items outstanding cost about $100.

Anyway there was also an auction of goods and services to
members to help raise money. When a PartyLite item came up,
Brenda said it "was a $17 candle and a $50 voucher." So I
eventually won with $32. When I went in the next day I found
out it WAS NOT a $50 voucher but a Hostess incentive certificate.
"Hold a party and when guests spend over $400 THEN the hostess
is entitled to receive $50 worth of products." Which is worth
nothing to me as I am already holding a party!! So it seems
PartyLite have GOT me again as I paid $32 for a $17 candle.

What is the saying "Buyer Beware?" How true!!!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

OV

On Thursday 9th October, Cliff and I attended a free concert at
Kernot Hall, Morwell, given by Orchestra Victoria (OV).

It was the first classical music concert I have been to and I
quite enjoyed the music. Of cousre they played the well know
Carmen and Cliff was so carried away that he started humming and
tapping his foot, much to the disgust of the lady in front of us
who turned around and glared.

We arrived just as they were announcing the first 'band' which
was the local 'Youth Brass Band.' I found some of their music
somewhat tinny but that could just have been me.

When OV came on I was amazed at the number of strings they had.
Three double bass, four cello and violins and one harp player.

There were four men in the percussion section one played the
drums, another the bass drum and once the cymbals. The other
two played the cymbals, the triangle, castanets and tambourine.

There were five men with grey hair in various sections of the
orchestra but only three grey haired ladies and they were all
in the strings.

The big disappoinment was "The Supper." In the Lifestyle magazine
it had said that at the interval there was to be a supper and all
proceeds to go to the local cancer section of the hospital. As I
had no time for tea I was eagerly awaiting the break. but the only
'food' available was chocolate bars!!!

So the second half was spoilt for me by the rumbling of my stomach!!!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

E Bay

Well I am no longer a virgin. I bought my first itmes on Ebay
this week. It was OK buying the first three as they were BUY
Now items and I paid straight away. But on the last three
I had to bid on them.

Lucily I won the bids but I had no idea what to do next and had
to wait for an email from Ebay. I tried to follow it to contact
the bidder and it took 4 days and over have a dozen attempts before
I got to the right section. I had no idea: it was that hard to
follow the instructions!!!

But hopefully everything is fine as I have now paid within the
five days asked of the buyer. I hope to have the books by next
Tuesday at the latest!!! That will make my collection of
Scrapbooking murder mysteries by Laura Childs complete!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Meg Comes Home.

Well Meg brought her main furniture back on Wednesday 1st Oct.
Her smaller stuff came on Thursday the second. Now I can't
move in my own home.

Still have not found a place for everything. She says WE will
get stuck into it tonight (Tuesday 7th) before she goes to netball.

One can but hope. Of course she will want everything her way.
So I don't see us having a very good night!

Last night I was working on her Christmas scrapbook when she
just rushed into the bedroom she saw I was scrapbooking but
thankfully I managered to cover the work before she could get
a really good look. I told her she will have to knock and wait
for me to say come in as I am working on her Christmas present.
So she said she will do that UP TO CHRISTMAS!!!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Does The Punishment Fit the Crime?

The world is going mad. Once more we have a case of no
common sense!

In the Herald Sun Thursday Sept 11 2008. (I missed this
article first time around and only read it this week end.)
There is a case of a mother Mrs. Aziz who complained her 4
year son had to help clean up a puddle of urine.

From the article this is what happened. A childcare worker
at an ABC center finds two boys in an indoor area with a
puddle of urine. Now there are two ways it could have got
there.
1. An accident or
2. A deliberate anti social act.
As neither boy had wet clothes the logical conclusion was
that it was a deliberate antisocial act. So the worker
asks which boy did it. Both boys deny all knowledge.
Thus they have now lied as one did do it and the other
boy knows 'his friend' did it.

The worker now has a choice.
A. She can clean up the puddle which re-enforces the
following:-
1. It is OK to urinate on the floor.
2. It is OK to lie about it.
3. It is OK not to say 'my friend' did it.
4. Any mess I make a woman will clean up after me
(and this is REALLY BAD! re-enforcing such a sexist norm)
B. She can choose one child to clean up the puddle.
(Which could allow the 'real guilty' child to 'go free.')
C. Order both children to clean up the puddle.

Of these options the only real one is the last. Thus the
'guilty' child learns
I can't do anti-social things and telling a lie about
it does not do any good. There is also the unaddressed
question that when the punished was metered out the 'guilty'
child DID NOT step up and say "I did it Miss" thus allowing
the innocent child Not to be punished.

The innocent child learns that not all 'friends' are good
friends and it is best to choose wisely and it is OK to step
up and do the 'right thing.'

It is certainly not an over the top punishment, now if she
had taken a rolled up newspaper and swatted them on the nose
with it or rubbed their noses in the puddle THEN that would
have been an over the top punishment but to clean up a mess
you have made - NO WAY!!!

This mother has re-enforced so many BAD things
1. Disrespect for an adult in charge of him.
2. Disrespect for the safety of others (What if another
child had slipped and fallen??) and
3. It is OK to perform anti-social behaviour and lie about
it because a woman (the mother) will clean up after me.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

To Smack Or Not To Smack

In the Herald Sun on Monday Sept 29th 2008, Robyn Riley wrote
an article called "The Caring Smack."

She states the case of a grandmother who smacked the bottom of
a child in her care who went down a drainpipe. She has now
lost custody of the grandchildren in her care. It seems the
"NSW Dept of Community Services thinks children would be better
in foster care than with a family member who smacks the bottoms
of naughty children."

She asks the question "Has the world gone mad or am I missing
something here?"

In answer to her question YES the world has gone mad.

As she states about an altercation between her children "I heard
myself shouting at the top of my voice" and "thats all we can do,
isn't it. Shout like a maniac until someone hopefully listens."

Gone are the days when it was "Spare the rod and spoil the child."
Personally I think 'sparing the rod' is the reason why our crime
rate is on the increase. Children learn there is no consequence
to their actions and thus keep up their anti social behaviour.

Parents are aware of what 'abuse is' and it is NOT a smack to a
well padded bottom or a tap on the back of a hand, it is where a
strap, belt, strop or worse is used on a child causing severe
brusing and even broken bones.

Joe Tucci get some perspective and stop the push for a national ban
on smacking.

As far as I can see smacking has not produced violence in my children.
This year both Donald and Meg received Best and Fairest for their
sporting activities and if ever there is a venue for 'allowable
violence' it is in sports!!

Whenever I looked after my oldest grandaughter Kirsten I smacked her
on the bottom or hand when she did wrong. It was always accompanied
by the stern look and shake of the head WITH the reason why she was
being punished in a firm voice. She is 10 now and I just have to use
the firm voice and look, for her to burst into tears as she then knows
she is out of favour for doing the wrong thing.

Training a child is very similar to training a puppy!!!