Hoping you have all been a little goody two shoes just like me and awaiting all the tribute from your family with as much anticipation as I am...

But should they not recognise your worthiness and give you a pair of socks in the middle of a hot summer, or undies five times too bloody big then just kick back and find some Moet like I am going to do soon

and you'll have a good day...the Moet is a pressie from future sone in law... he knows how to get in good with me. Hope he keeps it us hee heee.
..

I had heard about this remarkable incident from World War One, but was plased to come accross this article about this incident which as stated sent shudders through High Command...

The Christmas Truce by David G. Stratman
From his book We Can Change the World
It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War I. German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front (a crime punishable by death in times of war). German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."
"You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.
A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.
Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?' "
I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.
Christmas in The Trenches - Song To listen to this inspirational Christmas story in song: click here (free RealPlayer required) Words & Music by John McCutcheon, c. 1984, John McCutcheon / Appalsong
This song is based on a true story from the front lines of World War I that I've heard many times. Ian Calhoun, a Scot, was the commanding officer of the British forces involved in the story. He was subsequently court-martialed for 'consorting with the enemy' and sentenced to death. Only George V spared him from that fate. -- John McCutcheon
My name is Francis Toliver, I come from Liverpool.Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here,I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung.The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung.Our families back in England were toasting us that day,Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground,When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound.Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear,As one young German voice sang out so clear.
"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me.Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony.The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more,As Christmas brought us respite from the war.
As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent,"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent.The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "'Tis 'Silent Night,'" says I,And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried.All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side.His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright,As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night.
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land,With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand.We shared some secret brandy and wished each other well,And in a flare lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home.These sons and fathers far away from families of their own.Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin,This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more.With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war.But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night:"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung.The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung.For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war,Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore.
My name is Francis Toliver, in Liverpool I dwell,Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well,That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame,And on each end of the rifle we're the same.
Note: For an engaging movie based on this inspirational Christmas story, click here. For an article in a leading U.K. newspaper on one of the last survivors of the Christmas Truce, click here. For more on the history of the Christmas Truce, click here and here. For a highly decorated U.S. general describing how wars are waged largely to fill corporate coffers, click here. For another, even shorter inspirational Christmas story, click here.
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My sister came for a visit and bought her old cat Pussy Gardner on the trip...






she stupidly volunteered to bring her old cat and our old cat Archimedes in for the night but had to be rescued when they soon showed her a thing or two about carrying to rival cats in one set of arms......











you should have heard the howls and hisses. We could see their claws extended for slashing from behind the camera lens...















she gave in and let us rescue her... but was good to see older sister have to admit defeat...hee heee. 

Its been a dreadful day in Australia for bushfires. I was quite bemused when I happened to go past the tele which Don had on (he was alseep...so I won my $20 bet with him) and there was some sort of international racing event on at Phillip Island in Victoria and they were apologising or explaining to "International" viewers about the haze on the track being from bushfires...and I wondered at the ingongruity of this big crow of fellas mainly and brave racing drivers "melting" in their souped up cars...
and the harsh and brutal reality that only miles away people were fighting for their lives and homes...volunteer firefighters men and women were out there exhausted fighting to help others they did not know, risking their lives...a few of these seem to die horribly every summer here...

and I wondered how people could justignore this stuff because maybe (and how could they be sure) it wasn't a fire in theor street, and it wasn't their brother or sister fighting that fire.

We live a few miles out of town..hundreds of miles from Victoria. In our little street the Rural fire volunteers held a meeting and showed us how to save our homes and lives should a fire come. I know what to do and would choose to stay with the house... (after making sure Don was out and safe)...its only the houses that are empty and whose owners don't know what to do which burn...a bushfire passes quickly and it is the embers in the gutters, and cracked glass windows etc which let sparks in...if you stay and enclose the house 9draw all curtains, fill up bathtubs sinks etc etc... and have your gitters filled with water (foam or a tennis ball down the downpipe works a treat and a metal bucket and mop for putting out embers - because the power goes down in a fire, and for those of us in rural areas on a water pump system that means no water...) the mop will put out embers which catch hold after the fire passes...most homes can be saved this way...

As far as I am concerned the wimps are in the race cars and at the track while the real heroes are five miles away fighting to save what they can of other's property.

A bit of a rant but it makes me bloody mad it does!

Happy Christmas y'all

Subject: Fw: AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup ofboiling water down your throat and presto. The blockage will be almostinstantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by gettingsomeone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with your partner about lifting the toilet seat bysimply using the sink.

4. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed fora few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember touse a timer.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent youfrom rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snoozebutton.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then youwill be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad toothache? Smash your thumb with a hammer and you willforget about the toothache.

8. Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life reallyare: You only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't moveand should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the ducttape.

9. Remember: Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

10. Never pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom.

11. If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You get another chance.

12. And finally, be really nice to your family and friends; you neverknow when you might need them to empty your bedpan.

Big Brother: Watching, Listening And Shouting http://www.infowars.net/articles/november2006/281106BB.htm

you Scots men especially will enjoy this but yur wives will enjpy it more... http://www.resiststorage.org/images/ScotishWife_New6.wmv

Mums Petals

Mum's Petals.

She dropped free flowing the petals, in her daily travel,
Just a hand shake or movement and they'd gently unravel.
As the sky drops its stars and the waves drop their sand.
Her petals dropped quietly all over the land.

Finding one of her petals, we'd say, filled with the devil.
"Oh! Mother dear, it does appear you've dropped a little petal.
Her action of retrievement, by tucking into strap or sleeve,
To our delight forced other petals there, to take their leave.

At all birthday parties and on every Christmas night,
A batch of photos taken of Mum all show tiny bits of white.
Clutched in hand, or at a sleeve, or nestling round her shoes,
Were her lovely little petal friends, in more than ones and twos.

She was a 'petal' person, on bus or on a train,
She always took them while out walking or on a jumbo plane.
Leaving petals, in her wake in a manner very grand,
Her petals dropped like autumn leaves, from sleeve and from her hand.

At the Kiwi wedding of her darling child, she left the petal-trail.
The petals travelled to New Zealand, it was their holy grail,
To appear in every wedding shot, in that frigid foreign land.
and make a 'petal protest' against the man who took her baby's hand

From a myriad of mum's old handbags, came petals white and soft,
So good for waving us goodbye, when held up high aloft.
From behind all lounge chair cushions, mum's petals could be found,
Squashed sadly flat within the fluff, or very finely ground.




It is no lie, but solemn truth, the petals bred like rabbits,
Ensuring their survival, because of mum's petal- dropping habits.
And true it is they'd hide away, before mum went out, to the store,
And puzzled, she'd declare, 'No petals - I'd better get some more!'.

We called them mum's little petals, so freely they did fall,
She'd use them to do everything, or use them not at all.
Huge piles of petals, found a cosy haven in mum's friendly place,
To be firmly held while writing letters and always while saying Grace.

Each small petal, waited patiently, its brief moment of petal- glee.
As Mum gave her "Petals of Kleenex" their one chance to be free.
I'll bet there are soft white petals in heaven, without number or end,
For mum to drop and scatter, or just hold and to tend.

Vera

Vera.

Does the music played by my Grandmother still circle old Earth, disipating with time to become part of the hum I still hear when I lie in peace on the verandah? Do the gentle inland autumn days in the mountains still breathe in her music, drifting though windows long since submerged under water? Do the soft, frost rimmed stars, still resonate with the joy of her youth and her dreams and her love, as she sits softly stroking the notes into life eternal? Ah! To have known her, to have seen into her eyes. To have this memory of her to give to my daughters; would it make my life richer and theirs? - I think so.

My own Mother now gone, remembered so little of the young mother who, generations ago, bent over the toddler and said ,to "Put your shoes on Margaret, my dear!" Thats all her words recorded . But there's the music, handwritten in books whose delicate language sings to my ear, of a soul for whom beauty was much more important than waxing the floor, and sifting the flour. Now I have no doubt she did these things, in the high heat of summer, I have no doubt she cleaned chamber pots, broke horses, killed first and then stuffed dead chooks with her hands. But there is no doubt in me that when her heart was a stirring, those same hands stroked the music, that still hums in my head.

How different as she than I and my sisters and daughters? A few years and time are all that seperate us all? Would we, could we have been friends in a time that is nowhere on earth? Is there so much between us that would make us seem strangers? My Mother, her Daughter. My Daughters, her shoot into the future, wherein her music still circles the globe of our living, her sense of beauty still pulls us in complete understanding.

The fey-faced bride with her large eyes still looks out of her youth at me from browning photos, and fading dreams of my Mother. The stories I gleaned from my Mother and Aunty, see my Grandmother still young and moving like perfume through my own aging life. And yet she is older than this century and those still living around me. How much of her lives in me, in mine and on into the future? Where does she bide?

In the dear eyes of my Mother, my daughters and my sisters, she lives in the beauty, the fun and the laughter. She lives in the twinkle, the eyeshine and the suprise. She lives in the wind, and the sky and the starlight. Those who have loved, and been loved are never lost to old earth. Somewhere she lurks, still childlike, behind doors. Poking her tongue out at the years that are weighing the rest of us down. But I'd have rather I had known her, and she having the life with us.

There is music in the hum I hear in the autumn air. It sounds like bells on water, on sunlight in cool places - up high in the mountains. Its there in the night stars, its there by the fire. Its there inside my heart , the music played by my Grandmother, Vera.

What is the point of all of this nanny state stuff



Thu 23 Nov 2006
Big Brother is watching you!
GEMMA FRASER (

gfraser@edinburghnews.com)
SMOKERS stubbing out cigarettes in the street have been chased by environmental wardens armed with cameras in a city centre litter crackdown.
A council team has been scouring the Old Town this week trying to catch litter louts in the act, a drive which has raised more than a few eyebrows.
One girl was stopped and quizzed after discarding the end of her sandwich, while another untidy citizen was reprimanded during his music class after being followed by the wardens.
And the keen-as-mustard environmental officers even attempted to track a diner to an Old Town restaurant after he was spotted throwing away his cigarette.

If you have a view on this or any other subject, let us know. Tel: 0131 620 8747 Email: news_en@edinburghnews.com
The council today defended the use of mobile cameras alongside the highly-visible wardens, and said the crackdown reassured local businesses and residents.
The Evening News joined traders and commuters watching in slight bemusement yesterday morning as the CCTV van parked up on George IV bridge.
Two large pivoted cameras and several smaller ones filmed passers-by, while at least two pairs of environmental wardens patrolled the streets.
Simon Angelosanto, 21, who works in the Elephant House coffee shop on George IV bridge, said: "It is a total waste of money - I dread to think what that van costs. They just sit there waiting for an unsuspecting member of public to be caught on camera dropping litter."
He said a friend had been caught out by the environmental wardens this week in the Grassmarket area.
"They interrupted his music class at Sound Control because they saw him dropping litter and he was given a £50 fine," he said.
Staff at an Old Town restaurant revealed that environmental wardens came in looking for a suspected litter lout. One worker said: "They came in and said they saw someone in an orange jacket throwing a cigarette and coming into the restaurant.
"They asked if we had any workmen on site, but we hadn't seen this man. It was just so bizarre."
Alice White, 18, who also works at the Elephant House, said: "My friend was eating a sandwich and she chucked her last bit of bread on the ground and they tried to fine her, but in the end they didn't.
"What's going to happen is the same as what happens with speed cameras - if people see these cameras and wardens then they're obviously not going to drop litter round here."
Smoker Michael Grant, 20, who also works on George IV bridge, said the cameras were "a bit extreme" and added: "It's definitely a bit 'Big Brother'.
But trader Abdul Mula, 33, who runs Mediterranean Gate on George IV bridge, is delighted the council is doing something.
"I think it's great," he said. "The cigarette ends are the worst. I think it's good that they're giving out fines because it might make people stop."
George Gear, 40, from Kirkliston, agreed the operation was a good idea. He said: "I think anything that keeps people on their toes is a good thing. Saying that, if I got lumbered with a £50 fine, I don't think I'd be very happy."
The CCTV unit, which is operated in partnership between the council and the police, has been used on a weekly basis in the Capital since 2004.
Sheila Gilmore, executive member for community safety, said: "Technology such as CCTV helps us to identify possible offences which otherwise may not have been picked up by the human eye.
"The presence of the mobile CCTV unit, which is a marked council vehicle, not only stands to reassure local business owners and residents but also to act as a deterrent to possible offenders.
"This is reinforced by the highly visible environmental wardens who work on the streets."
The council has issued 4847 fixed penalty tickets for littering and fly-tipping offences and 648 dog-fouling fixed penalties since October 2001.

You might enjoy these. A writing group I belong to was going through Metaphors. It was a warm afternoon and we were all half asleep and bored out of our skulls so our metaphors were half asleep and boring also... but these these are a real hoot.

Metaphors found in NSW (Australia) Year 12 Essays: (Year 12 are usualy between 16 and 18 years old)

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

3. She grew on him like she was a colony of E coli and he was room-temperature prime English beef.

4. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

5. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 6. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

7. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.

8. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

9. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

10. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Sex & the City" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

11. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

12. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot oil.

13. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

14. Even in his last years, Grandad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

15. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

16. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

17. "Oh, Jason, take me!"; she panted, her breasts heaving like a Uni student on $1-a-beer night.

18. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

19. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

20. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

21. She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.

22. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

23. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

A mysterious and learned [ ; ) ] friend sent this to us...

"I thought the meaning of the 33 foot sculpture (pictured below) recently erected at Grand Rapids - the home of the world's first mass fluoridation experiment - by the West Michigan Dental Association, was quite clear.

Regards Dennis Stevenson

Firstly, at the right of the picture is a patient. That they are a dental patient is obvious from their mouth being wide open. As their tongue is all the way out, obviously they are screaming. We'll get to why they are screaming in a moment. Gathered around the patient are 5 dentists. Equally obviously, as there are five dentists and not just one, it must be a training session, as only one dentist is required to extract whatever money a patient might have.

The two dentists on the left can be seen to be senior to the other three, as is clearly shown by their height. The tallest dentist is the lead instructor and his colleague, on his immediate right, is the 'watchdog'. I'm sure all of us are aware that when a dentist speaks at a public meeting, there has to be another ADA approved dentist in the audience to report on what the first dentist says.?Naturally the same requirement exists when dentists are being trained. Though it is almost preposterous to consider that any ADA approved dentist would tell the truth (remember what happened to Mel Gibson in the movie Conspiracy Theory) the ADA is ever vigilant to ensure that no dentist should mention, even accidently, that fluoridation is anything but "absolutely safe and effective". Though it seems silly and is extremely unlikely to occur, imagine the repercussions if a dentist told students that fluorosis was chronic fluoride poisoning of the 'whole body' and not just a 'minor cosmetic effect' on teeth only?

Which leads us into exactly what the trainee-dentists were learning at the time the picture was taken. This is revealed by the attitude of the students. You will note their proximity to the patient: this shows that the 'cosmetic effect' of dental fluorosis is being discussed and specifically, the vast fees that can be made from gluing white plastic covers over the fluorosis disfigured teeth of patients - at $600 to $1,200 per tooth. This is, of course, why the patient is screaming.?

However, you can imagine why the trainees are so excited. Not only have they just learned how much they can charge patients, but they have also discovered that fluorosis, or 'egg-shell white' mottling as they prefer to call it, is a never-ending source of money, provided they keep promoting fluoridation, as this is what causes the mottling. Now they realise how they can easily pay cash for a new premier Mercedes every year, not to mention the endless golf and wonderful conferences sponsored and paid for by Mars Bars Pty. Ltd.

You will also notice at the bottom left side of the picture, almost hidden behind trees, is what can just be seen of a car window. The window, exactly positioned so that it has a clear view of the meeting through the trees, looks black. However, expanded digital film analysis reveals that state of the art video equipment is recording everything that is being done at the meeting. This is another requirement of Sigma-Delta-Sigma, the secret society of dentists, which dentists are on a blood oath never to mention. You may recall the deputy President of the NZ Dental Association who accidentally acknowledgedly that the society exists before he realized his error and stumbled out with "My membership of any organisation has got nothing to do with your interview." Have you ever seen him again?

Something to also be seen in the photograph is the golden path. Because of poor reflection, this shows in the photograph as a white section on which the dentists are standing. This is always there when dentists are being trained to ever remind them of the dental brotherhood and the riches that await them if they obey the 5 Golden Rules.

You will notice one of the dentists, the smallest and most junior one, has the 5 Golden Rules written on his back. Enlarged, they read:

1. I promise to always pretend I and brother dentists are doctors though we are not medically qualified and do not have doctorates.

2. I promise to protect any brother dentist who kills a patient with mercury or a topical fluoride treatment.

3. I promise to?charge every patient extras for: cleaning, topical fluoride treatment and x-rays and to never reduce fees or disclose to outsiders how many hundreds of thousands of dollars I make annually.

4. I promise never to publicly debate fluoridation but only to forever repeat the dental mantra "Fluoridation is absolutely safe and effective". I will always vehemently deny that fluoride is a rat poison.

5. I promise to follow the 50 year old published advice from the American Dental Association to always denigrate and ridicule those who speak against fluoridation, no matter how well qualified they are.

Hopefully this brought a smile to your lips...it did to ours but we are too easily amused.

This is my little family taken last Christmas. Some of you know, but for others, he has been a Quadriplegic since 1982 after an accident. Luckily we had had our two lovely girls just before that...why muck about?

This man may be frail in body...and he is that, after all these years with rotten bones and teeth, dislocated hips which can't be mended, and levels of pain which would knock a horse...but he is mighty in spirit and with the advent of computers (he got his first in'82) he has been a real agitator for many causes which have made us unpopular with bureaucrats and others of that ilk...

Its been a tough road for him because he will not compromise his ethics and secretly (don't tell him) I am sooo proud of this. There is nothing namby about this man...nor is there about most Quads and Paras...they are people...full stop. Old attitudes do not die they just go underground ... today my heart broke a little for this mighty man...

He's independent when and where he can be. So when he had to go to the dentist this morning... I agreed to meet him at our favourite coffee shop... this is something we have done for years...we are too fiery to ever shop together.

I was horrified when he told me of his experience on the way from the dentist (only about 2 country town blocks) to the coffee shop. He had been crossing the road...safely...when for some reason known only to the electric wheelchair it lurched. He over balanced...but still in the chair just leaning over hard over the right armrest he was unable to get himself back upright... this would have been very painful for him as his ribs would have been up against the armrest hard.

He was in the middle of the road and unable to control the chair. I have never heard him sound so heartbroken as when he told me that there were about 10 cars banked up in front of him and not a one got out of their car to see what was wrong. It would have been totally obvious he was in distress.

Then he began to fall over forwards onto the controls and he knew if that happened he would be out of the chair on the ground... for him, with limited breathing and bones so rotten that any fall or excessive movement will break them, this is for the likes of us a tragedy. Bedbound means shortened life and life is pretty good while you have got it...no matter what.

(My husband explained to me how it felt as a Quad... that its like trying to balance your head and shoulders on a big plate of jelly.) but in his case that plate of jelly is usually racked with such pain that it takes Physeptone (methadone) to shift it.

It took all of 3 mins - they sat there angry because they could not move - for anyone to actually get out of their car and see what was wrong and only happened after this man's girlfriend yelled at him to do so.

May I add this was not out on the highway...all lonely and scary... no excuses for this pack of shits...this was in town...in the little shopping centre.

Some things shake my husband... not much after all these years and the crap we've dealt with from the'norms' who are anything but... but today he was shaken, scared and I feel had his faith in humanity tampered with a fair bit.

If EVER you see anyone in this situation, or an old lady fall on the train steps, or any one young or old, whatever fall, or in danger, please do not look away...to do so takes away your humanity nd the humanity of the person you ignore...

I wanted to write to the local paper re this but my husband said not to as the editor would think its just another whinging person in a wheelchair... and thats how it is in todays wonderful cvilised society...

If you can still scrunch your toes in the sand, walk on the grass, and have no great personal tragedy in your life...please look outwards to others...for "there but for the grace of god"...you know the rest...

You know we usually find that it is those who have other illnesses and things to deal with who "SEE"....a few too many norms are just too wrapped up in imaginings and self gratification and a crazy treadmill which allows them to sit on a road and watch a frail man in a high backed wheelchair in distress...and not even get out of their car to see why.

BASTARDS.

I recently began writing to a very old relative about family things...we discovered each other on a genealogy site... He had spent a lot of time at my mother's farm when they were chilfdren in the '20's and '30's...

There was an uncle who was always hard to get close to for me as a child...he didn't seem to like kids much...fair enough. But this younger uncle said that he had been gassed in WW1 and had other things happen to him, which he hasvn't told me about yet. Knowing this quiet, gentle dignified man who never married, and loved his horses his experiences with his horses in France must have been dreadful.

Some of you might be interested and horrified at the treatment of the horses and the men as I was. But I am glad I know now at least some of the things which made him who he became. Once he was a lighthearted good looking young fellow... and he has no one else left really to tell his stories so I am really honoured to have been able to find out what I have..., This is a part of the letter I received today,

"I think you said you had obtained Alf's war records (from the Australian Archives in Canberra??). If so and as I recall you may see his rank as "Dvr" short for Driver, but not of the motor vehicle kind.

Alf served in France with the field artillery which consisted of batteries of 18 pounder guns, the 18 pound being the weight of the shell they fired. These were the standard field artillery guns for the Brit army at the time. The guns plus a limber which contained ready use ammunition plus seating for the crew of four were pulled by six horse teams in tandem.

The lead horse on the left was controlled by the "Driver" who sat astride and was responsible for getting the gun and crew into action by galloping to wherever they were required and unhitching the horses so that the gun could be prepared for firing. The horses were taken a distance to the rear and held there by the "Driver" until they had to move to another position or bug out as they say.

The Driver like his mates wore leather leggings but he also had a steel wrap around "legging" on his right leg to protect it from the offside horse gear which rubbed against his leg as they gallopped about.

Given the situation in France the field artillery was under continual counter battery fire from the German side and suffered severe casualties with whole gun crews being blown to pieces from time to time.

Alf told me at one time that the thing that really got to them all was the screaming of the horses when they were wounded. As time went by the army vets cut their vocal chords so the troops would not hear them screaming and later they replaced the horses with mules who seemed to be less sensitive.

Another piece of info which you may or may not find interesting but I pass it on anyway

Incidentally Your g/father Tom, and his brothers Frank and Alf were all superb horsemen and Alf and Tom always had excellent stock horses on the property.

When Pam and I drove into the Rouchel some years ago coming back to Q'land from a visit to Canberra we noted that the properties from Aberdeen out all had stockmen on horseback and as it was around lunchtime we noted a couple of places where saddled horse were hitched to rails outside the homesteads. The country around there is all a bit hilly and not suitable much for motor bikes which are used in other districts to round up sheep or cattle.

Love to all"

I see this Shopping Trolly Faery everywhere. She is a portent of my future... I feel. One da after years of lugging groceries I know I will "give in" and get myself a TROLLY!! My Mum has one and when she died it was a treasure for me for a short while...then I gave it to St. Vincent de Pauls so someone else could use it.

My 29 year old has a shopping trolly... She is proud of it...she needs it...

I NEED IT TOO!!!
 

Lancert article warns of Brain damage

Lancet Article warns – One in Six Children Brain Damaged by Industrial Pollutants

See link below for full story -
‘The Hastings Safe Water Association has just been informed of a study published in leading medical journal “The Lancet” that millions of children – “One in six children” throughout the world may have suffered brain damage as a result of industrial pollution. Says Therese Mackay, President of the Hastings Safe Water Association. In the past year there have been at least ten scientific articles like this warning of the extreme dangers of Fluorides to human health, now this latest one in the Lancet should have alarm bells ringing in even the most inflexible Fluoridation proponents ears.’

Therese Mackay says, “In light of this all Councils have a responsibility first, to the residents, especially to children, to call an immediate halt to any plans to fluoridate our water.”
In the Lancet, the two scientists Philippe Grandjean, from the University of Southern Denmark in Winslowparken and his co-author, Philip Landrigan, from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York conclude: “The combined evidence suggests that neurodevelopmental disorders caused by industrial chemicals has created a silent pandemic in modern society.”
The American and Danish researchers say that “ lead, methylmercury, arsenic and solvents such as ethanol and toluene are among 202 industrial and agricultural chemicals with potential to damage the brain... Other substances that could prove to be toxic in excessive amounts include fluoride, a common additive in drinking water and toothpaste.” End quote.

The Lancet article stated, “Potential effects of exposure to even tiny amounts of toxic chemicals include lower IQ scores and conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, and cerebral palsy.”

‘How many more nails does the coffin of Fluoridation need before the lid is finally secured? Worldwide, almost weekly, responsible and credible bodies of scientists are warning of grim long and short-term effects of Fluorides. One out of six of all our children worldwide is too big a price to pay. Therese Mackay said

‘We have kept our Council informed of these studies and they will not be able to say they did not know. But far better for the health of our community if they stop Fluoridation before it begins. President of The Hastings Safe Water Association said.
Contact Therese Mackay – President of the Hastings Safe Water for comment.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2442654,00.html

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/06/OCEANS.TMP

The plastic garbage pit of the Pacific Trash particles, looking like food, imperil sea life
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Monday, November 6, 2006
Plastic trash caught up in a swirling vortex in the North Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii is killing sea life, choking birds and fish and entangling seals and sea lions, a new Greenpeace report says.
Soda six-pack rings, plastic bags, condoms, beach toys and stray nets -- much of it washed off U.S. shores and some tossed directly into the ocean -- float in a mix of plastic pollution that injures hungry animals as big as whales and as small as zooplankton, according to a report by the international environmental group.
Scientists traveling aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza said Sunday they now are gathering firsthand data on threats to the world's oceans from pollution, overfishing and whaling. As part of that investigation, they released the report, a compilation of studies published since 1990 on plastics in the marine environment.
The current research examines plastic as it weathers into particles the size of sand grains, so small they become part of the tissue of ocean organisms.
"These small fragments of plastics may pose more of a threat to marine life because they resemble the prey of lots of organisms -- everything from zooplankton to whales,'' said Adam Walters, a chemist speaking by telephone aboard the vessel and an author of the report.
These bits can fill the stomachs of birds and other sea creatures that mistake them for food, causing malnutrition and eventually starvation. The researchers are measuring the distribution of the particles as they that float or fall to the ocean floor.
This latest report on plastic accumulating in the North Pacific comes just three days after a study in the journal Science concluded that, if trends continue, the world's fish stocks are headed for severe depletion by 2050 as a result of global warming, fishing and pollution.
The Esperanza, headed for San Diego, is conducting research in a Texas-sized patch of ocean called the North Pacific Gyre near the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. As winds and currents circulate clockwise in the oceans, this area stays calm in the summer and becomes a collection basin for plastics and other litter.
Over the past three decades, marine biologists have found plastic bags blocking the digestive tracts of sea lions, discarded fishing line strangling sea turtles and nets cutting off the flippers of manatees.
The research on micro-particles is new.
Since last March, scientists on the Esperanza have sampled plastic particles in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and near the Philippines. Next come the Sea of Cortez and the South Pacific.
Thilo Maack, a marine biologist with Greenpeace in Hamburg, Germany, also speaking from the ship, said he has been diving for samples.
"Between the plankton, you see the red, yellow and all colored plastics floating. We find the plastic in the tissues of animals. For us, this is a very worrying signal,'' because it could be accumulating in the food web, Maack sad.
They often find "ghost nets,'' abandoned floating nets filled with fish.
"The marine mammals try to feed on these fishes, and get entangled in ropes and loose net parts. Eventually they drown because they can't get to the surface,'' Maack said.
The report, which doesn't contain the results of the research on micro-plastic, offers solutions.
Floating plastic debris can be cut worldwide by cleaning beaches, reducing garbage in storm drains, improving the handling and transport of raw pellet and other plastic materials, and adopting an international treaty prohibiting vessels from dumping trash at sea, according to the report.
The ultimate solution lies in policies that allow the use of plastics and synthetics only in cases where they are absolutely necessary, it said.
Other findings in the report compiled by Greenpeace are as follows:
-- At least 267 different species, including 111 species of seabirds, are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of plastic rubbish.
-- Plastics consistently make up 60 to 80 percent of all marine debris. The seabed, particularly near coasts, is littered with plastic bags.
-- About 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean washes in from rivers, storm drains, beaches, sewage treatment plants and other sources; about 20 percent gets dumped in the ocean from vessels and fishing boats.
-- Much of the plastic litter in oceans comes from derelict fishing debris, since plastic and other synthetic materials have replaced natural fibers over the past 35 years.

My youngest sister sent these...taken at our place at Easter time. These are two of her three children. I know what I am getting them for Christmas... have a close look at the hair...(a brush and comb set)...its funny you can tell when their mum is down the street and father is minding them...their hair stays like this all day...TRUE ... l 

I was sent these two beautiful photos from U.S friend in Florida who was sent them by a friend of his Paul Carson...I believe he may have taken these so giving him credit...if not so sooorry.

This bird is juat amazingly beautiful.
 

You just have to watch this...this bird is amazing...


Lyrebird Unbeleivable Jungle Bird Mimics Bird and Human Sounds

BRAIN CRAMPS

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."Miss America 1995 from AlabamaHeather Whitestone

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."Popular Pop SingerMariah Carey"

Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life,"(During an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.)Model, movie and TV actressBrooke Shields


"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body," University of Kentucky Basketball ForwardWinston Bennett "

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,"Washington DC MayorMarion Barry

"Half this game is ninety per cent mental."Philadelphia Phillies ManagerDanny Ozark

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."Vice PresidentDan Quayle

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves, how much clean air do we need?" Chrysler Chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca

"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." NFL Quarterback and Sports AnalystJoe Theisman

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." ROTC InstructorColonel Gerald Wellman

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." President Bill Clinton

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."Keppel Enderbery

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."Greenville, South CarolinaDepartment of Social Services

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, whenthey wake up dead, there'll be a record."FCC ChairmanMark S. Fowler

King O'Malley was a Australian Federation politician with a gift for language and insult which is sadly almost gone forever.

King O'Malley, (his mum and dad were called William and Mary - so being pissed off Irish they called him King) who had maintained a keen interest in Australian politics over the years, was stirred by what he saw as yet another attempt to emasculate his beloved Bank

Although over 80 years of age, King O'Malley vigorously entered the 1939 'Save The Commonwealth Bank Campaign', publishing a little booklet in which he demonstrated that he was still capable of the type of language for which he was famous during his campaign to have the Bank established.

He wrote,
"I trust that good and patriotic Australians will swear by the altar of their gods, the tombs of their Ancestors and the cradles of their children, that they will never vote for Parliamentary candidates whose secret mission is to destroy the Commonwealth Bank ... and whose brains, if extracted, dried and placed in the quill of a cocksparrow and blown into the eye of a bee, would not even make him blink." (Brilliant)

Still true. His own Labor Party Under Keating in the '90's opened the floodgates to Privatisation by privatising the Commonwealth Bank.which was designed as "The Common Wealth bank" and intended to be the people's bank; lending at really low interest. Both sides of Australian Gov. are dead set keen on privatising everything that we own.without our consent. We could do with some of the King's insight these days with the morons we have running the place...

People say we get the Gov. we choose...but what choice is there? The corruption of the system ensures that only the bastards and their sycophant smaller parties get seats in Parliament...and the only person who ever offered an alternative in Australia was packed off to jail in a conspiracy involving all the other parties -the smug self righteous bastards. She and her running mate were fully pardoned after serving 3 months of a three year sentence ...She has not yet been compensated for that criminal conspiracy against her and the chattering classes can not see the double standard in that...thinking its a right hoot that thi mother of four was terrorised this way.

I bloody well hope that God knows his own when we all pass on because it always appears the bastards get the honours in this world.

Doomsday For The Internet As We Know It?
Paul Joseph Watson/PrisonPlanet.com February 6 2006
Several developments that are coming to the fore indicate a noticeable advance towards a government regulated, taxed and controlled system that spells doomsday for the Internet as we know it.
The first steps in a move to charge for every e mail sent have already been taken. Under the pretext of eliminating spam, Bill Gates and other industry chieftains have proposed Internet users buy credit stamps which denote how many e mails they will be able to send. This of course is the death knell for political newsletters and mailing lists.
The New York Times reports that "America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely."
The end game is a system similar to China, whereby no websites even mildly critical of the government will be authorized.
The Pentagon admitted that they would engage in psychological warfare and cyber attacks on 'enemy' Internet websites in an attempt to shut them down. The fact that the NSA surveillance program spied on 5,000 Americans tells us that the enemy is the alternative media and that it will be targeted for elimination. Court cases are pending after the Bush administration demanded the Google search terms of American citizens.
The first wave will simply attempt to price people out of using the conventional Internet and force people over to Internet 2, a state regulated hub where permission will need to be obtained directly from an FCC or government bureau to set up a website.
The original Internet will then be turned into a mass surveillance database and marketing tool. The Nation magazine reported last week, "Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out."
We see a move to demonize the Internet and tar its reputation. AOL is running ads equating Internet users with terrorists. In the next few years we may see a staged Internet shutdown which is blamed on cyber terrorists.
For the aspiring dictator, the Internet is a dangerous tool that has been seized by the enemy. We have come a long way since 1969, when the ARPANET was created solely for US government use. The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate the world under a global surveillance panopticon prison.

Get Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson's books, ALL Alex's documentary films, films by other authors, audio interviews and special reports. Sign up at Prison Planet.tv - CLICK HERE.

This is my little family... some favourite photos of mine taken about 5 years back and on a wonderous day... these three make it all have meaning.









After this Don's health got much worse, and also our youngest (with the dark hair became dreadfully ill and still fighting back from that).











It was a perfect day. Sometimes we are given these days to remind us of what can be.










They were laughing at me in this shot which is okay...I am used to being laughed at, chaffed at and flung shit at :) thats what families are all about!

I sent this to the New York times I was so bloody mad...

"It is unbelievable that the US Gov., has banned anyone from bringing in Vegemite from Australia.They say it is because it is high in folate and as US breads etc contain folate thats a problem. Duh!

Vegemite is cheap for the millions who can not afford the expensive supplements so many of need to take as a result of tired soils and questionable food growing pratices.


The original recipe of Vegemite as a concentrated yeast extract has remained virtually unchanged for 80 years. During the depression and war years it was a staple and as the jingle goes it did "Put a rose in every cheek". Australian kids were and still are some of the world's healthiest... those who don't live on MacDonalds which is imported from the US.

A single serving of Vegemite (5g) on a slice of bread provides a large percentage of your daily vitamin B requirements.Thiamin, 50% RDI; Niacin, 25% RDI; Riboflavin, 25% RDI and Folate,50% RDI - Thiamine (B1) plays an essential part in converting carbohydrates to energy, as well as being important for growth and normal functioning of the nervous system and heart. Riboflavin (B2) is also important for the release of energy from foods, in particular protein metabolism. Riboflavin is essential for the development and repair of tissues, including the skin and eyes as well as being necessary for growth. Niacin (B3) is necessary for normal energy metabolism.Folate is essential for the formation of red blood cells and the production of enzymes and other body proteins. A deficiency in folate results in a type of anaemia, which can cause weakness, tiredness, diarrhoea and weight loss and growth may be affected in babies and young children. Folate also plays a vital role in the growth of a developing embryo. Research has revealed that the risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect can be reduced up to 70% if women increase their intake of folate.

Vegemite is fat free and low in kilojoules, supplying only 38kj per teaspoon.Could it be that it is such a healthy product which has bought the ban on?

Australians are being searched and having their Vegemite confiscated in what has to be the most stupid law ever made by the US.

For a country infamous for its exports of dangerous garbage foods such as MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken to ban such a healthy product is curious.So much for friendship between the two nations.

If Vegemite is banned then so is anything from the US as far as I am concerned. But this is not a worry as you have the Chinese manufacturing just about everything you used to make except for your sugary, fatty "foods".

And yes at aged 52 I still lick the knife so as to not waste any Vegemite at all and "No Mum in Heaven I have not yet cut my tongue as you warned I might when I was about 5".

I had forgotten about this photo...it brings back some terrific memories. It was taken in 1970, at a country school in Australia...we were all fifteen... we had the best year ever for all of us that year . Nothing was sacred and we laughed often and laughed hard.The names come easy to me. and the day this was taken is so clear a memory.

It was a harmless time - safe enough and finding this again has made me feel good.

The next year we were to all go in different directions and I have only ever caught up with the two in the front...Pam and Gwen. I am in the back on the right trying hard to show as much knee as possible in the daggy uniform, as did we all. We would have been about as naive a bunch of teens as ever waked the face of this earth and about as knowledgeable...but there was nothing we didn't know or thing we could do...which is okay.

The two in front caught a bus to and from school which left at 7am and got them home at 5pm...they lived way out in the bush. I lived in a total other direction in a small town...the other two in the small town. Such was the nature of the rural school that the main social life for a lot of us was at school as we didn't see each other on weekends and holidays...no phones mostly and no transport at all.

th

Like Charlie... my husband Don hates Cats (poor lovely defenceless creatures)... he was spotted recenty absconding from his very expensive electric wheelchair and astriding a very special bird...the BIRD OF REVENGE ON CATS!!! I could not believe it... but Ishould have suspected... crazy as a Loon and twice as bad...and I am talking aout the Sea Gull...as for Don...Shame...Shame... Shame... cats are such lovely creatures n 

Our eldest daughter sent us these photos of her July trip to Greece with her partner who is Greek Australian...we were tres amused by the lovely shorts he had on but as Melissa said it was 40degrees centigrade at 7am so whatever kept them cool was okay.

Ther ate heaps of fresh seafood and Melissa commented that in many places the cafes (restaurants) had their own vege gardens of tomatoes, etc..said she had never tasted tomatoes so lovely...ours are all shit ane we know that...
I do not know what this piccie is about, but Melissa was born smiling and cheerful and looks as if the wind got hold of her and sent her into a real tizzy or she's saying "don't take my photo or you die!" 

My little sister is theonly person on the planet that I know who would sit down on the cold snow to breast feed her youngest (while her own middle child looks on)... what a gal...now that is true dediction and a cold bottie to boot. 

My sister and her husband are partners in the Milford Sound Backpackers Lodge, right down the very bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. One of my other sisters took these photos while on a visit over there...for someone like me used to wide open skies these are amazing shots... it looks like something out of a fantasy. Lord of the Rings was filmed in NZ and I can understand why with these shots.

 

Respite Rorts
The policies that are set in place by Government legislators,
Are NOT for us... just for them... the bloody pack of traitors.
Jobs for the girls and boys, its become an immoral “Rort”.
But never will our powerless cause, bring them before a court.

They’ve made their rules to save their jobs, in case they come unstuck.
But should we try the same ourselves we’ll find we’re out of luck.
They use OUR GRIEF and our real needs when fortune knocks us flat.
They take OUR FUNDS, convert it all and never give it back.

There are Advocates galore, for us, the disabled and their carers.
Consulting Committees... Respite Resources, it couldn’t be more fairer.
Surveys, reviews and meetings, ‘tween well-appointed walls,
Show the need for Conferences with nibbles at lots of charity balls.

No one calls them to account for the waste of money allocated,
To help the Carers in their plight, its just all been ADVOCATED.
They’ve ADVOCATED new computers and creation of their employment
You’d not be wrong if you recognised, it was all for their enjoyment.

The cars they drive (with air, of course) are pretty bloody new,
But remember as they speed away, they’re doing it all for you.
Cheer them on as they return to their office to “De-stress”
And turn back to your lonely role, pleased they have earned their rest.

And if in the wee small hours in your ungrateful desolation,
You call upon the Crisis Line of the Carer’s Association.
A rabbit voice suggests, “A local group is not too hard to find.
They are only two hours drive away, or can’t you find the time.”

“We’ll send you out some literature, you’ll have the time to read.
And please remember to call on us again when you feel the need.”
“PISS OFF!” you say (can that be me?) “You don’t have to be so rude,
You’ can’t hope to win CARER OF THE YEAR with that attitude.

“Respite, you say, you need a break, you’ve not had one for years?
Oh really... thats so very sad, you’ re reducing me to tears.
Just hang in there, chin up old girl, you’ll get a break one day,
I’ll be back to facilitate it after my much-needed holiday.

You’re not impressed, you’re feeling mad, you’d like to get a gun,
Whatever for, and why me, I’ve never helped... er... hurt anyone.
So there there dear, calm down, you’ll get all the rest you earn,
But we’ve a policy in place at the Pearly Gates, to ensure you wait your turn.
by Circa 2001 - We’ve all had enough...!!

Issues Concerning Carers (relatives/friends as opposed to paid Carers)
All Governments are very big on ‘Mutual Obligation’ these days. Whilst to many this seems a clear cut issue, Government and community awareness must be raised on the issue of long term, and knowledge able neglect and abrogation of any Mutual Obligation or human rights to the hundreds on thousands of family carers in Australia.

This issue seems a complicated one to those who have never been involved in long term, full time care for an ill or otherwise disabled relative. To those of us on the “inside”, and that’s how it feels at times; it is a simple issue. The issue is that there are growing levels of Government Bureaucracy coming between us and the funding we are supposed to be receiving, so as to provide urgently needed respite, to help manage financially and to just begin to right the great injustice that is being done to all long term carers, by the system. That system consists of firstly Government bureaucrats, who are grossly ignorant, not because they have not been informed, but because of sloppiness, self interest, and the desire not to rock a very comfortable boat. Then we have a three tier system of Government sponsered Carers Associations, National and State, Resource Centers, Respite Information Centers, and on. None of these achieve anything at all for the home based carer, and manage to eat up millions of our dollars, ensuring that although there is plenty of information out there, it never translates into anything useful. Also none of the above are accountable.

I urge you to keep reading, as it is vitally important that you come to as complete an understanding of the rightful anger and feeling of total betrayl, we Carers all share. A growing number of us are aware of what the problem is, whilst most have no idea of the depth of the rorting that is going on, and are just hoping that someone, someday, will help them. Most of us do not really have the time and mental energy to keep on tackling this issue. It is about time someone in Government, or hoping to be in Government, helped us hold up our banner of grievances, because to date, although all Partys have been contacted by many of us individually, they have all turned their faces away.



The Australian Federal and State Governments are denying carers basic human rights. Though they are generally considered “Welfare”, they would be the only people to be on active call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, year in and year out, over periods of decades. Carers are ‘a hospital of one’, but there is no superannuation, no sick leave, no weekend and certainly no holidays. There is no workers compensation for back injuries, or other health issues caused by long term caring for the loved one or loved ones in some cases. There is no Union. Many of us along with our role as Carer, are also Mothers of small children, wives, fathers, and have other responsibilities, which can be neglected through necessity, due to the role as principal carer.

The Federal Government provides funds for a bevy of ‘information services’ to advise carers about Respite, which does not exist, and services that are only there on paper. We have three levels of ‘information providers’; not one of which ever achieves anything practical for the Carer in the home – at the coalface.

Who are the Carers?
Carers are often disliked, distrusted, and dismissed by doctors, nurses, and others who come into contact with the loved one they are caring for. Generally this is because we are the ones who insist on adequate medical, humane and dignified treatment for our loved one. We ensure that society can keep its hands clean of the realities of disability, because we are generally eager and competent in our care for our loved one.

There are short term Carers, such as those who nurse and provide care for a few months, or a year. There are middle term Carers who may have a relative or close friend needing four or five years care. Then there are long term Carers who will care for ten, twenty, thirty years, and some for the rest of their life. There are also people who have full care for more than one person. Carers are the only people who work for any pension they may receive, be it a full pension or Domiciliarry Nursing Care Benefit (under $80 a fortnight). They work hours that leave most physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. There is for most, no respite, no home care, no regular time off, unless they are able to pay for it themselves, which most cannot afford.

If and when they finally collapse, they can be treated dreadfully by others, especially official bodies, and made to feel as if it was all somehow their own fault, when in fact the reverse is true. Most Carers will endure levels of illness and discomfort and still manage to provide all the personal care needs of their loved one, keep the house going, do banking, groceries, and cope with whatever health crises that happen regularly with the one they are looking after.

The mental strain, isolation; desolation at their inability to be an autonomous individual, (a basic human right); back injuries and other illnesses such as flu; pneumonia; heart disease; or cancer, are often caused by the unrelieved stresses and relentless nature of their role. That and the lack of any suitable assistance from Government bodies charged with ensuring that the system looks after its people in real need.



1. What would you do, if you had to provide 24 hour a day, seven days a week, year in and out, care for your Husband, Wife, Child, Brother, Sister or Friend who was a High Need Disabled person?

a. If you cannot continue this level of care by yourself, the Government will pay, without question or hesitation, $100,000 per year to take over. (You were only paid $1352 per year – Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit - for the same work.

b. If the Government take over, your loved one will not receive the same level of care and attention you can give. Their chance of recovery is reduced. They can suffer neglect, abuse and even sexual assault.

c. The government will provide a few hours a week of Home Services, if you are lucky. They will pay strangers $15 to $20 per hour. They will pay you only 16cents an hour. The Services provided are not always suitable.

d. Failure to maintain proper care will result in the death of the one you care for.

e. Duties include feeding, (naso gastric), and toilet functions – cleaning, incontinence – attending to all personal needs around the clock.

f. There is no Superannuation, Holiday Pay, Sick Leave, Overtime or Workers Compensation.

g. The work is onerous, exhausting and relentless, and delivers isolation by its nature.

h. The Government will allow you only 42 days off per year (not even one day a week), but you can only take this time if you can find someone who can stand in for you. How you pay them is your problem. Try working out the wages, at $18 per hour, 24 hours a day for a week, and see how easy it is to try and afford even minimal respite. At the minimum it will cost the Carer $2,324, just to pay for this care for the one week. Money still has to be found in that week for groceries for the paid Carer and your loved one, for yourself and for any travel or accommodation you might incur. For most it is financially impossible.
This is a serious abuse of Human Rights. Why can not the Government assist the Carers in their work? There are only a few people saving the “System” a huge amount of money. Legislation has been passed which has not been enacted. Why not? Ten patients at home saves $1million dollars per year. The Health System does not provide for long term care.

No Union would tolerate these conditions for one day.

1. Aquired brain injury can be caused by:-
Motor Accident… Heart Attack… Stroke… Sports Injury…
Electric Shock… Assault… and others.
The only hope is that your family can take you home to care for you. Sedation is commonplace if you are placed in a Nursing Home or Hospice. This will make your recovery highly unlikely.

2. The Nursing home will cost the Government some $2000 per week, to care for you. This will cost the Federal Government $ 100,000 per year.
3. If you family take you home, apart from any Pensions you may qualify for, the Government may pay the Domiciliary Care benefit to cover the cost of your care. This is 16 cents per hour. That is $26 per week. $1,352 per year..



Appendix 1. – Therese Mackay
How do you get proper Respite? My husband is self employed, working from the home, but also needing a lot of care. He is a C5/C6 Quadriplegic Complete, and has been since 1982. Respite in a hospital or ‘Home’ is inappropriate for someone like him. He works, uses his computer and is able to access so much himself about our home, because of how we have set it all up.

I do not agree with the draconian changes to the Industrial Relations Legislation about to be enacted by the Federal Coalition.

But perhaps those workers threatened with loss of four weeks annual leave ‘rights’ might spare a moment for those of us one million plus full time family Carers who are on duty twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, year after year, decade after decade, with no adequate respite, far less a real holiday, free from care.

We have no Industrial Relations Act to protect us and no rights to the basic human rights workers expect and deserve. We have no Penalty Rates, no Sick Leave, no Superannuation, no Workers Compensation and no retraining if we are injured. We just keep on going because we have made the only choice available to decent human beings, and that is to love and care for our loved one.

If we are still standing at the end of our caring, we will endure dreadful grief, because of the intimacy of our role and the understanding and compassion that brings. We will be left untrained, old, often unwell, often poor, often uneducated, and after usually lifetime of incredible levels of responsibility and heartache we will find ourselves needing care but without any decent resources to access it for ourselves.

So with all the justified protesting by Unions and workers, please remember us when you are facing just one slither of our reality. Please Union officials, Union Members, paid workers, politicians – please remember us.

We are the glue which holds a civilised compassionate society together and you have all neglected us for far too long. You have allowed a triple, or is it quadruple layer of paid advocates in organisations to siphon off any funds which might have been meant to dribble our way. Advocates who all have penalty rates, sick leave, super and workers compensation. Maybe many of them are out there on the streets dear darlings that they are protesting alongside you all.

We, the one million plus of us, realise that it is easier, more convenient for you to forget we exist, even though our hard work, endless as it is saves the country well in excess of $25billion per annum.

If you have any conscience at all we ask you to please unfurl a banner or two for us in your marches. We are unable to march because we are on duty full time, and we would never strike because those we love would suffer.

Think about what you are facing now and try to begin to comprehend what we have endured for decades with no outcry from the community, no outcry from the Unions, no outcry from the politicians, and little real coverage by the media apart from some syrup.

Think and then give us your support too because, ‘there but for the Grace of God go all of you Workers, Employers, Union Officials, Bureaucrats and Politicians.

No one is immune for our plight, but pretending we are invisible is shameful.

I intend to blog a s

I intend to blog a series of articles I wrote in 2001-2002 which may only be of interest to others in our situation. In Australia we have 19million people. Of those 19M well over a million of us are full time unpaid family carers  - and I bloody well hate that word carer -  we are wives, mothers, husbands, fathers, children, brothers sisters and other…but we are called “carers” by Social services world wide… and even in doing this we lose our identity if that makes sense to you.

This is the first article I wrote…

It is clear to most Australians that we are becoming a nation weighed down by bureaucracy, government information services, call centers and paper shufflers. The result of the billions of dollars spent in these areas, is that little of the money we are told is provided for Carer Respite, Home Care, Community Nursing, actually gets through to the people who need it the most.

If you succeed to wake up a politician about a real issue of social justice or human rights, the first thing that they want to do is have an inquiry. Expensive adds are placed and submissions are called for. Then a committee has to be appointed. The committee needs an air-conditioned place to meet in. They need stenographers, computers, and phones. The have to have access to catering of some sort. Months down the track, a report is released with much fanfare.

Those of us needing to access basic human rights, such as home based respite, home care; whatever, naively get copies of the reports which invariably say that we have a case, that things must be changed and that more money must be allocated. Hearts sink from past experience when as time passes, nothing changes for those at the coalface. There is no decent or adequate home based respite for the elderly looking after brain damaged adult children, nor any human right to sleep at night for those looking after those with chronic illnesses, but there is always money spent.

The Government, Federal and State are big on providing multi-levelled layers of Information servers, who after ringing a swag of 1300 numbers direct you, often back to where you started. Then they let you know that there actually are no services available, because there is not enough money and there are so many needy people, but that they are very sorry and fully understand your position.

It seems to many of us that what qualifies as “needy people” are the Conference organisers, the Facilitators, the Social Workers, the useless Call Centers, the editors of Government backed ‘Carer’ magazines; a seemingly endless list. This is what leaches the system dry before it comes anywhere near the actual people we are told it is put in place for.

So what to do about this shameful state of affairs? You can’t work from the inside to change things, because you are then powerless, and this happens to many who honestly seek to change things. Submissions, surveys, meeting or writing to your MP is worse than useless because it steals your precious time and usually results in an “acknowledgment” possibly but not always followed up with letters form Minister’s secretaires which do not address the actual issues raised. Like many I know this from experience, so this is not anecdotal

It is a fact that the bureaucrats have set up an infallible system that protects all levels of bureaucracy from any real changes, questions and accountability. It is also a fact that the bureaucracy is self-replicating, so that any irritation or questioning of its existence sends it into a flurry of internal activity, which only calms down when yet another level of bureaucracy has been created, to absorb the irritation or question.

It appears that Australian Government is unable to control the monster it has created, and the monster is growing more ravenous, more out of control, and more stupid and self-serving.

And that word “self serving” is the key. As the cogs in the wheel each clock off from their various Centerlink, Carer Link, whatever other bloody link, they sincerely believe they did a good days work. They have created more surveys to fill out; more reports to be read; more useless letters of acknowledgment and placation; all ‘gently but firmly’ worded in the language that only they can understand. I don’t feel that we are meant to neither understand nor make sense, because when you do finally nut the terminology used by the bureaucrats in place, it is actually nonsense.

And just in case we are feeling low, there is a special sort of bureaucrat, called the Editor, of whatever Government funded publication we have subscribed to in a vain effort to keep up with the bag loads of Legalisation, and rules we are governed with, and for which they have lobbied so hard. A construct that they spare no amount of glossy paper and coloured print to remind us of, just in case we should start wondering what they are actually there for and how much they are costing. Along with these reminders of their dedication, are the endless editorials telling us all what wonderful people we are to endure; how much we are worth to society; how stressful and sad our lives must be and how much they really care about each and every one of us.

And do you know the really tragic thing? We believe all of their lies some of us never wake up, and that is the betrayal. Those of us who wake up become increasingly disgusted, and in our little spare time begin to contact others who are of like mind. We start to write letters first of query, then of disbelief and then of anger. We realise that nothing we say will ever penetrate the Teflon coating of any of the Members of Parliament, nor of the various people between us and treasury.

I believe that this is how it is meant to be, was set up to be, and it is only when you start to test the system set in place which syphons off millions of Australian Taxpayers dollars, but which pretends, even to itself, that it is all there for our benefit, it is only then that you realise the sinking reality of how things really are.

I don’t know what the solution is. Even suggesting a solution bears the very real danger of someone setting up a committee, another arm of officialdom, complete with money wasting accoutrements.

Somehow, the money allocated specifically for those who care for loved ones (as opposed to those who are paid carers and who go home) at home for long periods, must be made available to them directly, and cut out the incredible waste and useless levels of so called ‘information’ providers. This must be in the form of regular payments for in home respite, at least six monthly breaks, and for other things only Carers know about, such as retirement homes where parents are able to be with disabled children, and not have to face separation as their own health worsens.

We are the ones who know and we are asked too often what is needed. But what is needed is never delivered. Those of us, full time Carers save the Government at least $400 a day, and depending on the level of care, this would escalate. Yet here we are out here in the community, hidden. We are the gold and glue which holds our society at a certain level of civilisation but the level of human rights we experience in this ‘generous’ country is anything but the treatment we deserve. We are given scraps, no hope and no say. We have no ‘career advancement’ to look forward to, no reason to dream. And we work hard and long hours constantly being responsible, being on call, and being able.

There are no basic human rights for us. No sixty-hour week, much less a forty-hour one. For most of us we are on call, or on active duty, one hundred and sixty eight hours a week, all year round, for years on end. There is no union. No workers compensation for injuries received on the ‘job’. There is no Superannuation, no holiday pay, and most of us go for years, decades like this. If our time of ‘Caring’ comes to an end generally through the death of someone we love more dearly than life itself, we emerge only qualified to clean toilets or wash floors, as nothing of our vast knowledge is valued by the ‘system’. How we survive is our own business. Most of us pace ourselves. After time it appears to others, heading off to gyms, to the movies wherever, that we appear not to want to take part in these activities – hard for them to understand. But our spare time is too precious to us to waste with others, and the experience of just being one, on call to nobody is sweet to us and we know what this is about. It is an internal thing seldom spoken about, because what is the point? But we all know what this state of affairs is.

But as a seeming contradiction it is not just the workload, but it is mental isolation, which continues even in company. We know what this means. When we have time out, we do not really want company. Most of us just like to wander, not speaking just looking about, with no one needing us to look at this or to participate in any way shape of form. We know about this.

The NSW and National Carers Associations do not ‘know’ about this. Their knowledge is second hand, and I would query how many full time and current long-term carers they have on their boards. I think that one of the big problems is their total lack of accountability, and their political correctness. It is very hard for you to question people who are supposed to be working so hard for the good of carers.

The NSW Carers Association and the National Carers Association need to be held accountable. Like many, for all the time I have been a paid up member, apart from the “Kit” and a Ceramic Mug one Christmas, (I know who the real mugs are) they have not produced one single thing I can say has eased my lot which has personally improved temporarily due to my husband being more stable. It was almost unbearable at times and I feel I came very close to a breakdown. What would happen then? I doubt the lot of other carers has been practically improved by them although they talk a lot about what they achieve. Where are the results?

Its not just in the area of GST and petrol prices and other very important areas that the people are throwing up their hands in frustration. If the Coalition and Labour do not hurriedly address areas such as the issue of the millions allocated for respite etc not getting through to the carers, because the triple levels of bureaucracy eat up all the funding first, then they will find a very angry electorate at the next Federal Election.

Carers need to be spoken with, especially those non-metropolitan based. They are the only ones who can voice their concerns. It is an insult to us to appoint others to speak on our behalf. Unfortunately many of us are unable to travel, due to our roles and the fact we cannot get away from home without financial disadvantage, and worry as to the care of our loved one when we are away. This is very important to consider.

I wrote this in 2002…the only thing which has changed is that this has become much worse.