I had a good cry tonight

I finally got to watch "In America", I bought the DVD in Bali earlier this year and have meant to watch it during the year but only just got around to it. At the end of the movie I was bawling, Mr 12.5 year old just turned to me and said "your pathetic", I told him to watch the movie again when he is a parent and see how he reacts. I don't feel that bad about the cry after reading these reviews.

Cricket today, Mr 12.5 year old scored 17 runs, and got out once. Then he helped out the Under 16's team and scored a bruised thumb from fielding at cover and had to have a Dr pierce his thumbnail to drain the blood from it.

Ugggghhhh daylight savings tomorrow, I loose a valuable hour, but will get it back in March. Oh no I won't as we will be OS. Arrrhhh well thems the breaks!

From The Glasshouse

The American Election is very important to Australia as it will decide who governs Australia for the next 4 years!!!!!!!! So Sad but True!!

Am I that old!

That I can say it feels like yesterday that I was listening to the first release of Skyhooks "Living in the 70's" Christ 30 years ago it was released. I was more a Sherbet Chick, but I was quite happy to listen to "The Hooks" as well....

This is interesting!

Judging by recent decisions Hume may have multi councillor wards and proportional representation, not before time!

Local Government Act 1989
NOTICE UNDER SECTION 219C
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1989 OF
FIRST COUNCIL ELECTORAL
REPRESENTATION REVIEWS
I, Candy Broad, Minister for Local Government, give notice under section 219C for the purposes of section 219C(1)(a) of the Local Government Act 1989 that reviews for:Cardinia Shire Council; Casey City Council:Hume City Council; Mornington Peninsula Shire Council; Whittlesea City Council; Wyndham City Council,
shall take place in accordance with the following timeframes:
(a) the earliest date that the reviews may commence is 1 February 2005;
(b) the date by which each Council must appoint a reviewer is 16 December 2004;
and
(c) the date by which the final report must be submitted to the Minister for Local Government is 25 May 2005.
Dated 17 October 2004
CANDY BROAD, MLC
Minister for Local Government

The Boltster has been bullied!

Poor Andrew Bolt has apparently been subject of bullying by email, over his tantrum he had about John Butler last week.

Musician Dave Walker aka Daily Dave writes: "Bolt's column about John Butler made me so mad I wanted to grab him by his cheap tie and punch the absolute christ out of his smug hit me head."

Onya Dave, as they say any publicity is good publicity, hope you sell a few records from Bolts tanty.

You never really realise until........

You never really realise until you experience something how hard things can be for certain people.

My Daughter has a Type 1 Latex Allergy, which basically means that her allergy is bad enough that it could cause death if a reaction is not treated quick enough.

As I mentioned here Riley has to go under a General Anasthethic for a Dental Procedure, and because a large part of operating theatres contain Latex, finding a hospital that will accommodate her has been a challenge. The Sunshine Day Hospital refused to accommodate her, and finally the Sunbury Private Hospital said they would do it.

The health system is going to have to realise that the occurrence of this allergy is escalating and they will have to accommodate it.

Back to Winter!

What a day, I don't think it got over 12 degrees, it was freezing both outside and inside at work, bloody airconditioning, they spent $20 million on furbishing this building 2 years ago and promised to get the air con right but it's still crap. Our team is on the top floor of the building, closest to the plant room, closest to the blowers, so it blows a gale nealrly all day.

Spent a lot of the day researching Collaboration Software, and not reading the papers as I am a bit over the Labor reshuffle, but managed to get a laugh from The Daily Flute.

Chris Fryer wrote an incisive piece on Conservative Christianity the following paragraph from the article is so true.

Conservative Christianity has abandoned the values of tolerance and forgiveness, they are not making the world a better place. These churches need to have a good long think; they can ponder the following bible quote, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or for the biblically challenged, "Treat others as you would like to be treated." I had this principal drummed into me as a child, even though my mother is not a church goer.

Oh and I had my first abusive comment, I wonder who it could have came from, I have deleted it as it's wasn't something that I would like my children to read, but I have kept the evidence and the IP address for future reference.

Other Elections Happening

Looks like the Liberal Students got beaten at the Student Union Elections at work, at least that's something positive.

Poor Mallrat is a very unhappy blogger, s/he (but I think she is a she) got censored on Sunburyonline

There are a few Victorian Council Elections happening in November, so far, I have found Iain Lygo is standing in Surfcoast and there is a cast of thousands standing in the City of Melbourne.

They are proud of being known as the Banana's

I was invited as an ex Mayor to attend the Hume Annual Report Meeting, it was a pretty dry night, the steak was horribly undercooked and B2 announced that he was proud to be known as the other half of B1 and B2. Mallat over at braveourburbs has done a pretty good analysis of the Bananas

Weekend Over

Yesterday concisted of Cricket and Basketball, I missed the kid get 2 wickets at Cricket but saw his team win by a point at Basketball. Spent the evening at Pete and Sallys place and convinced them to download skype so I can have someone to talk to.

Today was Family Day at the junior footy club, the under 15's played the dads and guess who umpired, ME! In future if I ever criticise an umpire remind me of this day.

OFF to sleep, but I am now talking to pete on skype

I have moved to Haloscan

Seems like everyone else has it, so as the saying goes, when in Rome do as the Romans do!

I am pretty proud of this effort 

Bloody Petrol Prices

I wandered down the street today at about 12ish, past my closest servo (gas 40.9 cents) heading toward the Coles Express to make sure I got my 4 cents off a litre, arrived there to find it was 54.9 cents a litre, so I U-turned and headed back to the 7/11 and got it at 40.9, even without the 4 cents off, I still got it 10 cents cheaper, how can a rise of 14 cents a litre be justified in an hour.

Then I headed off to the Golden Arches for a quick lunch, grabbed the Herald Sun and a burger turned to the editorials and nearly choked on my Fillet of Fish, RWDB Andrew Bolt was having a go at John Butler for the lyrics in his songs and just his general view of life, no doubt Andy doesn't like John Bulters view on HoWARd

Clearly stung by the election result, Butler told the hey-dude crowd: "In a day and age where lies and hate get more votes than humanity and education and peace, it's good to be hanging out with cats celebrating music and the beauty that it brings to the world.

Then I arrived home and realised that lots of others had seen the same article. I then thought can't I for once get a blog entry in first about something, doesn't look like it.

Telstra does a Dell!

400 Telstra jobs head for India Dell Australia have done the same thing and for me this has meant that I try my hardest not to have to deal with Dell as trying to deal with people in India about a broken desktop is very frustrating.

American Express also do the same, as I am always forgetting to pay my Amex Card bill and I get a call from a nice Indian Person one day after it was due, the call starts as "Hello this is American Express Calling, Can you please tell me your name and date of birth before I carry on with this conversation?" My answer is now a bit more laid back but the first time I got a call, it was like " huh, you called me, I am not giving out my personal details" to which their reply was that "madam, we can not continue the phone call unless you give us your personal details", guess what happened next? The little red button on my phone was pressed and the Amex Indian was flushed away.

Now I just have to find time to get right out of Telstra's stranglehold on my telecommunication infrastructure at home, christ, my mobile, foxtel, landline and broadband are all with the Evil one, so it may take some time, but I will do it.

My job is a changing

Over the past few year my role in the Dept at Melbourne Uni has changed, from being very administrative with me going out of my way to provide Technical Support to various staff members to now being a fully integrated member of our Technical Services team.

During a recent look at our structure it was determined that my skills lend themself to being classified as an "Applications Manager" basically the best I can explain it is that I am the person in the Dept that has a lot of knowledge of most of the Applications that the University utilise.

Therefore now that the University have purchased Blackboard for Learning Management, I am the person that is designated to provide the support for it in our Department. The last 2 days have seen me attend meeting and courses about Blackboard, it looks interesting and fairly intuitive, something new to learn, and it is re-jigging my interest in learning more about "How People Learn"

The Jax don't like it

Sometime the press are so lazy, this picture was taken over 18 months ago and the middle one is GuruAnnn  

Darp revisits Hillsong

It's a 23mb Video but funny to watch.

The Ferguson Shadow Ministry

Lord Sedgwick has created a cracker of a blog entry about the new ALP Shadow Ministry, as an ALP member the antics of factions within really shit me.

I have never and will never be a member of a faction.

Evangelistical Society - is this the future

Articles like this from the eternal Right Wing Think Tanker Gerard Henderson make me shudder.

I am an athiest and I respect those who find solace in worshipping but these Evangelistical Groups that are gradually trying to take over Christianity worry me.

Why, one of the biggest reasons is the money involved. What happened to the days when the church had a priest/minister that was supported by the congregation with modest donations. These days being involved with one of these Evangelistical Movements means signing over part of your salary for the running of the church. I can't imagine how much money it takes to run Hillsong

I got it right!

Marty's gone!

Reincarnate me as a Dentist Please

My youngest had a toothache today, I got a call at work from the school saying that she was in a fair bit of pain, so I called the local Dentist and they slotted her into an emergency appointment.

Sure a filling, I had expected that, but the news that was to come was mammoth. Quite a few of her baby teeth have bad holes, this is despite bring given the all clear a year ago. It seems that the semi regular use of steroids for her asthma has contributed to her teeth being very chalky.

Well the full synopsis is that she has to have 4 teeth out under a general anaesthetic in about 6 weeks time. I was promptly handed an invoice for $900 for the dental work to be done and have about another $400 worth of Medibank excess and other expences.

To my ex husband, THIS IS WHERE YOUR CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS GO!

John Butler Trio

John Butler and Jet are cleaning up at the ARIAS, the uncomfortable thing about tonight is that any criticism of the HoWARd Government is being met with silence. SAD

Self-absorption Wins the Day

Great interview with Executive Director of the Australia Institiute Dr Clive Hamilton on Meet the Press this morning, he pretty much sums up what the Asutralian Society is all about. It's a pretty sad summation but very true. I don't like to think I am one of the people he mentions but maybe I am, but at least at the same time I think about wider social issues.

I didn't see any other shows this morning, I was too busy getting elected as the Vice President of the Sunbury Junior Footy Club.

Sitting here watching the ARIAS tonight, if Guy Sebastian wins another bloody ARIA I will spew.

Tonights Idol comments

Marty - Power of Love - Huey Lewis - Very very ordinary performance, but the judges liked it.

Chanel - Stop - I think she could have chosen a better song, pretty good perfomance, and she looked very cheap, then again the 80's were like that. I agree with Dicko that her voice is not sounding too good at the moment, but she is one of my faves.

Casey - The Flame - Cheap Trick - I liked her performance, a lot better than last week, great rendition, great voice for a 16 year old.

Courtney - Oh Sheri - Steve Perry - strong performance, brought back memories, the song really suited him. Mark didn't like it, Dicko did, I think I am a bit ambivient about it.

Hayley - I feel the Earth move - Carole King - It was OK, not a big fan of Hayleys, could have been stronger.

Anthony - I want to know what love is - Forigner - Very good performance, fantastic voice, a bit drowned out by the backing vocals.

My opinion is that Marty will go

Dumb and Dumber

Mallrat seems to have a bit of a facination about Sunbury judging by his/hers latest entry. Great Photochopping. Pity the story is so sad, but knowing Steve (or is it Jack today) Medcraft its not surprising.

What we use the World Weird Web for

Today, much fuss was being made, what seemed like dozens of kids were streaming into my house, then I noticed one of them had soething with feathers in his hands. "What's that?" It's an injured bird! Now I have never had too much experience with injured wildlife as we do live in Suburbia.

So to the trusty WWW I went, typed in "wildlife victoria" into google and found Wildline, I called the number listed and explained my predicament and they gave me a phone number of someone who could lend assistance. I called a guy called Vid in Gisborne and within an hour, he and Heather came down to collect the injured bird and take it back to their property to recover. Great community resource found on the WWW.

Say something nice Dave!

Say something nice about George Bush

Dave Hughes: He brought the price of Iraqi housing down

I actually cooked a Roast Chicken

Tonight actually today I decided to have a Political Free Day, well sort of (I could never really do that).

I cooked the kids a Roast Chicken dinner, the stuffing took after its name and was indeed stuffed, but the rest of it turned out OK.

We then finally settled to watch one of the 200 DVD's we brought home from Bali. We watched 50 First Dates, it was a real feel good movie, I even shed a tear at the end of it.

Now to Glasshouse and Lateline

Voting in America

Ever wondered what it looks like to Vote in the USA take a look at this

Monarchs of the North

Mallrat ran a very interesting poll recently.

Good to see that Bernie O'Farrell (who once tried to sue my mother) only got one vote. One more than he deserved!

Give me a break! Puleeese

Tolls think yourselves lucky that you don't have to pay for a road that already exists like us in the North West do. Jeff Kennett put a toll on the Tulla Freeway, I didn't hear the whinging then like I do now. Listening to Robert "weazel" Doyle saying he will scrap the toll if elected could be dangerous for him. Bob Carr promised the same thing a few years back and found out he couldn't do it, so he now has to reimberse the drivers directly.

This weeks Headline!

Great Bulletin Page


Aint we just... 

Are they core or non core promises Peter?

I nearly choked on my wheaties this morning reading The Age

Treasurer Peter Costello has cast doubt on Treasury projections of four years of good growth ahead, warning that Australia faces big risks and its growth could slow.

In a stunning shift four days after an election won on economic issues, Mr Costello said Treasury's forecasts were "optimistic", and if high oil prices were sustained for a year or more, they would slash growth in Australia and the world.

He defended the campaign pledges, which spent $14 billion from the budget surpluses estimated by Treasury before the election, saying the public expected new spending policies in an election campaign.

On another note, The Chaser Decides was the funniest TV I have seen for the week, if you didn't see it, beg or borrow a copy, sorry I didn't tape it.

I've been exposed!

As I told Jeremy at Melbourne Lefty, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. When I originally chose the template for this blog, I chose it cause I wish for a clean green world. So I set it up and it was pretty bare. I then started populating it with links etc, then I came across Melbourne Lefty and thought oh, shite! He will think that I have copied him, if he ever sees my blog. So I swiped his idea of the clock and a few of his links and the rest is history. I would like to change my template over to something not so much the same, but I am scared of loosing my well built up links.

Remembering Bali

2 years since the bombs went off at Paddy's and the Sari Club, seems like yesterday.

But for me, this is a sad day, and one that I will never forget. For the survivors, wounds heal, but the memories remain. For the dead, may they rest in peace. And may the guilty rot!

You gotta laugh!

REal or not, this is funny!

Some Positives

There are a few positives coming out of Saturdays devestating result.

Andrew Wilkie took the lying rodent to preferences in his seat of Benelong and sounds like a fantastic guy who one day may be a great asset to Politics in Australia.

It seems that Family First are in favor of saying Sorry! All of their other policies are loopy at least they may have one policy that is reasonable.

Please don't blame me for Family First getting a Senate spot, I voted below the line.

Plagerism at it's best

I have been trawling the Blogs and this is the best post I reckon from AusCulture

Last But Not Least…

Someone called MPL left the following comment on Back Pages. Something I hadn’t really considered, and I must admit it did make me smile a bit.
Well, its depressing, but take heart friends & comrades.

Latham has won, in a way. It has to be said - he’s the most effective opp. leader in recent Ausrtalian history.

Here we have a Howard govt. boosting childcare payments, maternity benefit, family beneft, throwing (admittedly mistargeted) money hand over fist into medicare (which they hate HAHA! WHITLAM WON THAT ONE FOR ALL TIME YOU RIGHTWING SHITHEADS - admittedly you’re screwing it up, but no, you cant abolish it. You have to pretend to like it. So sit on that, culture warrior).

Sure, Howard’s version of all these things is rubbish, mistargeted and hollow - but the truth is, Latham is setting the agenda. Howard has been following behind for 10 months.

Another thing: 2007 is ours. 3 Years of LNP with Senate backing will be enough for anyone.

LIfe goes on!

Thank God, (not Family First) that today looks like being the start of summer, I woke to blue skies and warm weather. It's amazing how much more I get motivated if the sun is shining.

I hit the garden big time, getting rid of all the weeds that I had killed off with some really nasty weed killer a few weeks back. Then had a thought, it must be BBQ time. So I took the cover off the Barby and cleaned it went and filled the gas bottle up and fired it up for dinner.

In between all of this I went shopping, waxed my legs, did my nails etc, had a few drinkies with the neighbours.

Considering the shocking result of last night, I feel rather good with my efforts of today.

Sad Night

Not much more to say!

Not much more to say

Tim Dunlop sums it all up here!

Depressed and Praying

I know I shouldn't get so worked up about politics but the thought of Howard and his mob being returned to government tomorrow is making me sick on the stomach.

Every major paper in the country have advocated for Howard, I can only hope that the Australian people see through all the crap that the Liberals have put out and do the right thing by the country and vote for a Latham Government.

I'll be up in McEwen tomorrow doing my best in one of the tightest marginal seats trying to get rid of Freaky Fran.

I'll leave you with this prayer (yes, I am praying) courtesy of Guido

I pray for a government that will allow the spirit of understanding and
generousness that Australians undoubtedly have to be nurtured and flourish.

I pray for a government that will continue in its process of
reonciliation with its indigenous population and heal this rift that
has continued for the last 200 years.

I pray that when people talk about 'family first' they include families
of different creeds and beliefs, from different places on earth, from
disadvantages backgrounds, not only of their own.

I pray for a government that protects the unique environment of this
place and its spiritual energy.

I pray for a government that help us to see the best parts of ourselves,
that spurs us to look beyond our backyards and in so doing fulfill the
potential for Australia to become the great nation that it can become.

FF Part 47

Are these people really nice people, I think not! I am sure they are taking a leaf out of Pauline Hansons Dummies Guide to Politics.

Exhaustion Plus!

Well we survived the Royal South Street Calastenthics Competitions today, only just mind you. Next year I will forget about socalising with the other "mums" and consuming copious amounts of wine the night before.

The girls came 3rd overall today and won the Song with Action item with a superb rendition of Madeline.

Got home to find out my dad's roof had been damaged during the high winds that lashed Melbourne last night, so a quick trip down to Glenroy to checkout the damage and do a quick repair was done.

I am nearly over the election, I actually turned 774 ABC Radio off this afternoon as I just couldn't bear listening to JWH again.

I will be scruitineering for Jenny Beales up at Bolinda on Saturday night and now that we have found out that Jarrod has a bye for cricket it means that I can devote a lot more time on election day to electioneering.

Off to Ballarat

Just about to leave work and head up to Ballarat for the Big!!! Calastenthics Comp, back tomorrow.

FF Part 46

These bloggers just keep coming up with the goods, they make my mission easy.

Family First Part 45

Continuing my obsession with Family First yet another blogger has taken up the cause as well. Maybe we can form our own cult..... what could we call it....... Last Singles

First SMS Spam now Phone Spam

The benefits of living in a Blue Ribbon Labor seat is that I won't be phone spammed

One Christian's View

The Interesting read about the Family First movement.

Back to Politics

Are people really this stupid probably, that's the sad thing.

I found the most amusing paragraph of this article to be:

"Despite the Coalition's impressive reforms, there is still much work to be done. Mr Howard has the dubious honour of being the highest-taxing Prime Minister in Australia's history yet he has shown little enthusiasm for reforming our clumsy, inefficient and inequitable tax system or rationalising archaic Commonwealth-State relations."

Well that's a good reason to vote for them!

I've Had Enough!!!!!!!!!

Has anything exciting happened in the world of Politics this weekend, I wouldn't know. Today was spent down at Essendon Keilor College. Rileys Roselind Calastenthics team were runners up in todays Westside Competition. Well done girls.

Back to the election tomorrow.

Critical

Critical - Cameron Reilly's I.T. Innovation Conference Alternative just blogging this as it may be of interest of those at work.

Very tired, endures 80 items of the Juniors Calatsenthics today and need to do it again tomorrow.

What is happening in the world? I have been in a dark hall all day.

I must have been asleep for the last 15 years

My job is the internet, and this is the first time I have ever heard of NetAlert. The ICT Ministers have been pretty inocuious and Helen Coonan is no better. Lateline was not as exciting as last night, Kate Lundy v Helen Coonan . Kate, in the words of Marcia Hines, Go Girlfriend!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to footy for a Minute!

As a long time Sydney Swans supporter my sprits have been elevated with the release of the Official 2005 Fixture we have 6 game in Melbourne, this year we only had 4 games in Melbourne and 1 in Geelong, so this is a considerable improvement, thanks should definatley go to Tony Morwood from the Swans Melbourne office.

In other late breaking news, the oven and kettle have decided to die on the same day, money money money. GRRRRRRRR

Hop over to Daily Daves site and enter the Freaky Fran Full Forward Competition, the question being "If Fran Bailey were an AFL full forward, which one do you think she'd be?" I have a few ideas but won't be sharing them cause I want to win a CD.

This entire weekend will be devoted to Calastenthics, comps on both Saturday and Sunday to attend.

Can't wait until tonights Lateline lets hope that it out does last nights edition

Am I a Guru?

Well I reckon that I could be considered a Guru doesn't seem that some of the thoughtful folk who contribute to Sunbury Online think so. Seems some people are sensitive to the truth.