The wet weather stew!!

No I haven't been cooking...well not in the kitchen anyway! I want to believe I tell myself. I want to believe in our elected members of our local government...yes the ones we put there to look after our interests...the residents of Ascot Waters Belmont. Am I naive? Just a little bit? I think you might be right if you think so.

A storm is brewing. Can we experience honest land dealings between our Council and possible buyers of 52 Grandstand Road? Yes it is believed that the building of a Retirement Village plus apartments with an ICONIC building of between 3 and 7 storeys high will benefit the residents of Ascot Waters.
 In what way we all ask? So the traffic noise, hold ups and dangers we face now coming from the roundabout will be intensified by friends' cars, visitors' cars , carers' cars and delivery trucks all searching for parking spots?

 My feathers have been ruffled! And for how much longer do we have to put up with all this deception...this quiet little advertisement in newspapers no one ever sees at this end of the city.
This endless greed for more and more rate payers while the ones who bought years ago sit in their sunless housing previously attracted by the award winning landscaping and walkways .... now  surrounded by people and cars.


But look there is some good news...they have remembered that locals do at times walk from A to B to enjoy the pleasant gum trees and walkways.
And wouldn't we all be so forgiving and compliant..if only we could be.

 What other footpath? This is the only one we have ever had!! But look....they are thinking of us....all the time...






A lovely speed limit! Haven't we asked for that for some time now? Yes In Lakewood Avenue...but no!
An accident has to happen first. We can't have everything. And look, we do have that lovely ICONIC
entrance....!! That'll make the retirees want to come to settle in Belmont......                                          
Gophers and all.

The wet weather read!!

And what else is there to do? Read a good book and let the storming outside your window blow itself out. But not without the expected power cut...it'll never happen to me...so she thinks...she doesn't live in those suburbs...not since the mega generator has been installed at the top of her street! No never!! Never? Well maybe...and what's wrong with lying in the dark for hours...the open book beside you...waiting....waiting...and without warning...sleep returns. But not for long! Why? Because the power is restored and the security door alarm lets you know...at 3.30 am? So why complain?
 'Worse things happen at Sea'

 Too right they do. And with great pleasure I continue to read my $9.00 bargain picked up at the local newsagent.
William McInnes and Sarah Watt let the reader in to their life unrestrained with home truths and full of amusement. So there is more to your writing besides cricket William? There sure is. And what if the creative life of Sarah Watt has been cut short I won't rest till I've experienced your contributions...'Look Both Ways'...'Unfinished Sky'...'My Year Without Sex'. The Children's book 'Clem Always Could' no doubt is full of good philosophy.And to have your work in the permanent collection at MOMA, New York is definitely something to be proud of.
Sarah Watt died on November 4 2011, a month after this book was published.
The Canberra Times put it succinctly and it was before this wet weather hit us...'If you could use some inspiration to seize the day, this lovely book could be for you'.
And a more true 'Australian' character study of life in Australia is yours.

A Trick of Fame!

Yes that is the book's title written by Samuel Merrill. And he asked me to read it and write a review. At first I thought this would be a 'blokey' book...you know all guns, corruption and violence. But no ...wrong again! Here is a writer who actually understands what makes people tick. He not only values relationships between family and friends but cherishes his loyalty to his own country.
His main character has this loaded personality which in my books keeps me interested because we don't want anything toward to happen to this really nice bloke...or to his longstanding mates, even if their life path.had been quite different. Needless to say the story was packed with history, the Vietnam War, conscription, pro war and anti-war nationalism and the perennial underlying theme often attributed to the USA. Anyone can make it in America!! Actually Australia is now looking a bit like that to many refugees.
Anyway I wish him luck! His first book available on Amazon and who knows where else.
I've now reviewed 51 books for Amazon and 28 have helped readers chose their next book. Not bad going!!

Miracles do happen!

And I'm not talking about last night's thrashing of  'Les Bleus' by the Wallabies or the beating on the bell of England by the Kiwis. although both were to be expected. But no, this surprise came closer to home.
I had decided to listen to the knowledgeable doctors who had been nagging me for some time now for my lack of exercise. So on went my sports outfit...the one with the back pocket...I could fit my IPod there nicely...connect my ear phones...and...ready to go on my long walk. But a call of nature seemed urgent...just before I started off...so rush rush...and whoosh! I watched my Ipod disappear into the deep waters of the toilet...yes, before I had left any deposit I might add.
So now what? A scream left me while on reaching the music machine I rescued it and could have been observed jumping around the toilet waving the Ipod desperately around the room, my nickers level with my ankles...slight drops of water flying here and there. Oh so that's what Abbott meant when he said...'Sh.t happens.'
So to share the long short story with you and save you a trip to the IGA Belvedere Belmont where I was asked ' have you had a nice day Dear?' I let this kind lady know the truth. And within a second she had shared her vast experience of reading magazines 'Oh no love you don't put it in the oven...you've got a battery there...in the Ipod I mean...you put it in a dish covered with raw rice...leave it for 24 hours...and then...let me know if it works.'
And guess what? It does!!! So the shopper at IGA Belvedere gets much more than the regular bargains advertised!! A bit of truth can go a long way.

So we are advised to only consume as few grams of red meat per day...where does that leave the Australian B/B/Q?

I spent a Saturday night recently supporting a fund raiser to stop cruelty to animals...stop live export shipping of animals to Arabia...these animals should be killed for food in Australia and the meat shipped...why couldn't it be so? Halaal requirements et all! But all the night left me was that life is not perfect....for the animals, the meat eater, the business man, the country and its economy but especially not for the consumer. So what do we have left? Is it fish only for tea from now on? Sometimes that has been my choice but after our visit to Marseilles in France...'m not sure!

 Of course we are spoilt in Australia! Never have our choices in seafood been limited even if the most fresh and the biggest and best make up the quota required by the export market.
Some of these we have never faced at the fish markets.....and that is the way I like it....I think....
today!

 

Frustration Plus!!

Talk about needing more help in using Lightroom! No it wasn't the manipulation of images that made me feel so stupid but the mere sight of the images with 'copyright' written in nice Roman script in the bottom left hand corner. no problem I thought I'll cancel that and seriously progressed to do just that....but what happened? exactly nothing! So I have chosen other photos to enter the club competition. But not to give up I am going to post the originals on my Blog...so there!! The theme is 'an image where light and shadow seem to vie for attention' and didn't I have just the right image for that? Of course... it was flooding time one afternoon in Venice. And a very interesting confluence of weather and waves. And just to prove that someone else is in control the bl..dy thing is still writing 'copyright'...I can't believe it! Help!!