A bit of frivolity kinda!

Everyone in blogland has made mention of the downfall of John Brogden in NSW, all I will say on the matter, is that things must be bad when you decide that you can't stick around to see your young child grow up, one may ask who is the real centre of your universe.

Having now divulged humdreds of blog entries about the Brogden issue, I will provide the best link I have found so far. Andrew Bartlett's Blog.

Here is a little test for all my readers that I got off of Supamum's Blog. It's called 3 Truths and A Lie. You have to guess which of the 4 choices below are false. I will post the answers tomorrow.

1. I once told Gough Whitlam on the phone I didn't believe it was him.
2. I used to play Ice Hockey.
3. I competed in the Australian Water Skiing Championships.
4. I haven't broken any bones.

The World according to Guess Who

Supamum has put into words a fine literary piece on the World According to Guess Who?

Supa has a relative who has suffered sexual abuse and knows how the victims feel.

Faith restored

Last night, I sat down and thought seriously about commenting on the vigilante happenings in Sunbury as I was getting the impression that I would be shouted down by the throngs, called a "do gooder", "bleeding heart", but I couldn't let it pass without comment and today I have been bouyed by the reaction that the Vigilante escapades have been met with on Sunbury Online. Many new people have joined the forum and expressed disgust at the actions of these people.

I suppose one of the biggest issues I have is that most of the protesters are my neighbours, people I see at school functions, the corner shop etc. People I never thought would have acted the way they did. Well they have and I will stand up and excercise my right to stand up for the rights of the innocent victims in this matter.

Vigilante Sadness in Sunbury

Well more on my posting about the terror being waged in Sunbury by media and JAKAS. The family that were targetted in this vigilante action live next door to a good friend of my son's.

What has happened to this family it an absolute traversty of justice. The household consists of a woman of about mid thirties who I will call L and her mother who is in her mid 70's who I will call V. 30 years ago L's father committed some crimes against teenagers in WA, he was subsequently arrested, charged and convicted on these charges and served time in a Western Australian prison. He was released a while ago and moved to Victoria to be closer to his family.

The man does not live with L and V, he lived in another location, however 2 or 3 weeks ago he came to visit for 2 days, this was all done legally with him notifying the relevant authorities that he would be there.

V is a fragile elderly lady who is terrified beyond belief that this is happening to her family, she has trouble sleeping and her health is failing.

Now enter JAKAS, somehow, he has found out about this situation and has decided to single handedly start victimising L and V, confronting them with TV Camera's in tow, last week. Now remember that L's dad was only at the house for 2 days and had left more than a week before this.

This wasn't enough, signs popped up at the corner shop, warning of a paedophile at L and V's address, then yesterday, a phone tree was apparently set up and numerous people in my street and ajoining streets were encouraged to wage an hour of more of horrible behaviour, that drove what was left of the family away from the house.

The house was hit with eggs, a car window was smashed. All for the sake of what! There was no one to drive away, the man wasn't there, only his completly innocent family were.

I would question how JAKAS became aware of the family's identity, I surely hope this isn't another example of a police leak, maybe the ethical standards branch will look into this????

I in no way condone the crimes that L's Dad committed, but L and V have done nothing wrong, please leave them alone.

I was also ashamed to hear about the way the local press have acted, a local reporter went to many lengths to get pictures of V's grandchildren.

Cricket

Why am I sitting up at 12.17am watching the Aussies loose the Ashes, maybe is is because I come from the home of the Ashes.

A drive up the street today

Thi morning, I awoke to read a story about a paedophile being moved to Sunbury, I needed to go out on a errand today and drove up my street and turned right, and was afronted by a mass of people and numerous police.

It appears that the man in this story was living with his daughter at this house around the corner from my house. It also appears that people had taken the law (what law) into their own hand and vandalise the house and cars in the driveway, on my nearing the house a couple of cars were attempting to reverse from the driveway, my take on the situation was that the people in the cars were very scared and trying to escape the mob that had accumulated on the front lawn of their house. I allowed them to depart without impedement with the police asking me to stop anyway, so I didn't have much choice.

Standing on the nature strip was JAKAS, no doubt enjoying the media scrum, but surprisingly he didn't get on TV, from what I saw.

I wonder who let on to the press that this was the address? Could this be an example of the press being led by an organisation such as PALS.

I don't really want this person living around the corner from my house, but from what I can find out, he has left the house and the only people left at the house were some of his family, should they be punished? Should they be ridiculed?

Just appearing on Channel 10 News update, it appears that it may be the wrong address all together.

It's settled then

I did promise the kids that I would take to see the Swans in the finals this year, but getting back from Perth by 6am next Saturday morning in time for Miss R's Calastenthics comp is an impossible feat. PHEW......................

I have the proof he has no mates

Way back in July when I went to a Council meeting, I did witness that JAKAS said "I have no mates", now I have the proof, take a look at page 52.

I must say the following exchange gave me a chuckle (page 56)

CR YIGIT: I said the pleasure this would give you would be like pissing in a wet suit, you would feel happy about it for a short stage.

MAYOR: Councillor I will ask you to refrain from such course language in the Council Chamber.

CR YIGIT: Ok urinating.

Oh Sophie! What Next?

Next you'll be telling your Greek elders not to wear black during a mourning period. We live in a free country however dear Sophie Panopoulos wants to ban young Muslim women from wearing the hijab. I seriously can't believe the ignorance of some people, does she also advocate that Jew's not wear the kipper and start shaving, no I haven't heard that one yet.

She says that they should adopt our culture, now in the words of dear old Pauline Hanson, puleese explain? What exactly is our culture, should they be walking around bear breasted wearing kangaroo hide? Should they dress in a business suit like Sophie does?

Our culture is one of immence complexity, it has gradually built over 200 years to be a culture of tolerance, now Ms Panopoulos wants to ban the wearing of a particular item of clothing, the hijab.

Watching A Current Affair this evening with Bronnie Bishop also backing this move made my stomach turn. I don't want our country to become another France, where they have banned the hijab, I respect people rights to wear what ever they want within reason, as long as it's not offensive.

Have we become so cruel?

Immigration blamed for elderly woman's death This is such a sad state of affairs, this woman was 79 obviously in the latter days of her life and DIMIA decide that they should hound her to see if we can allow her to stay in Australia. From the reporst I have seen, she wasn't a burden on Medicare, and even if she was, who cares. She is a citizen of the world which we, Australia are apparently a part of, have some sort of compassion DIMIA.

A night of Wine, Cheese and Murder

Although I still don't feel 100%, I trotted off to the Sunbury Library tonight to listen to a talk fiven by Melbourne crime novelist Shane Maloney. His narrative on how two of his books have become telemovies was extrememly interesting and the shame of it all is that Channel 7 have decided not to do telemovies of his other books as he points out.

Don't hold your breath. In view of the high ratings, which are contrary to network policy, Channel 7 has decided not to proceed with the planned series. Instead, it plans a reality series based on a group of celebrity chefs marooned in a backyard makeover with nothing to eat but Pauline Hanson.

I have read all of Shanes books and in a conversation tonight with him, I did sucessfully identify one of the characters from his first book.

Next Year

I will get a flu shot. This year I didn't cause I have gotten a little sick most times I have had the shot, but this year I have been so sick with flu like symptoms that I have missed numerous days off work and generally feel like crap most of the time. The Dr orders total body rest, yeah sure, like that is going to happen being a taxi to 2 kids, so I plod along feeling like crap and hoping that one day I will wake up feeling like I haven't been run over by a truck.

Hmmmmmmmm

Well Mr J has been in 2 unsuccessful Grand Final teams this weekend, not too worry, I am proud that the was at least in a GF. Basketball was lost by about 20 points and footy by something like 9 goals. If any AFL scouts are around, keep a look out for Taylor Hine who plays for Rupo, he was fantastic, congrats to Rupo. At least Mr J kicked one of the two goals we kicked.

LaborFirst Bloggers and weekend antics

Stumbled across this by accident, it appears that I qualify as a Labor First Blogger. Interesting list of Bloggers there!

The weekend is upon me, the finals are to be played, firstly the Basketball today at 5pm, Rupertswood Sharks v Superoos, Mr J plays for Rupo in Basketball, and in footy plays for the Sunbury Lions, who are playing Rupo in the Grandfinal tomorrow at 2.30, can be a tad confusing to be supporting Rupertswood one day and opposing them the next.

Only in America

A rush to purchase $US50 ($A65) used laptops turned into a violent stampede, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over.

For anyone interested I will have some G3's available at the end of the year, for about $350-$400.

Jacking Up!

Today's Age brought JAKAS out into the mainstream today. I wonder where they picked up JAKAS (Jack Also/Alternately Known As Steve) from, now all the hits on my blog from fairfax.com.au make sense.


And a note to The Age, it's not only the ALP that call him JAKAS, it now fairly mainstream.

What the papers say!

Independent Councillor has called on the State Government to sack the Hume City Council (including himself) I assume.

Reaction from some of the other Councillors did give me a reason to chuckle. Cr Abbouche's comments surprise me, maybe he heard the question wrongly.

Cr Kevin Sheahan (Mayor)

Council won't follow his will. The Hume City Council is highly regarded in local circles around Australia. He should be in the anti Hume Council not the Hume Council

Cr Gary Jungwirth

Cr Medcraft needs to have a good look at himself. He has been a dissapointment to the people of Hume and Sunbury. Some people in Sunbury voted for him and we have to put up with that. Anyone on council knows he is a non-performer who makes cheap headlines and totally stupid comments. His views have no influence on council outcomes because we don't take him seriously. We don't believe he has any common sense or vision.

Cr Burhan Yigit

I can almost understand the frustration he must go through. He has no relationship with any other councillor than Jack Ogilvie. He walks out and spits the dummy when he is the most ineffective councillor the council has seen. He is a school yard bully.

Cr Robert Sheahan

Eight out of nine councillors are working together to make decisions for the community.....

Cr Adem Atmaca

We are all sick of Medcraft and his attitude. He is a man of very little substance. We believe the people of Sunbury deserve better representation. They need a person who does deeds not words. He puts this council into disrepute and is constantly nagging and bickering. If he's not happy he should resign. He spits the dummy sometimes which is not very professional........

JAKAS himself

The have never been able to accept that I beat Anne Potter. A select group of councillors, the Potter support group have been working feverishly over the last two years to vote me off. They started from day one, which turned into an almighty blue

Please if you are going to mention me at least spell my name right, it's ANN. It appears that there is a Potter support group in action at Hume, news to me. Maybe it's just a few people that miss the old days when they could actually work with a Sunbury Councillor and not constantly bicker with them.

As Cr Atmaca said, if he don't like it, he is free to leave at any time, but no, in his usual way he insists its everyone elses fault.

and it only gets worse

I will be very lazy tonight as I feel the family flu is winding its way back to me.

My mate Sean at Sunbury Arts writes a very interesting piece on how the media treat our elected officials.

On another tact, at least I have a job next year by the looks of it. Our Department has been severly affected by the downturn in the IT industry and our student numbers have dropped dramatically. Today it looks like I have managed to convince them that I am value and should be kept, even though they don't realise that I realise that they are thinking of dramatically downsizing.

The winning streak over

BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER

The Bogan Twins win Big Brother. I even voted for the first time tonight.

Well in my eyes Tim was the winner, such a compassionate and thoughtful person.

Is this the start of something?

I am not a big believer in omens, but this weekend has been very satisfying, firstly Mr J played in the preliminary final for Basketball yesterday and after a boring and frustrating game, his team came out the victors by 4 points. This means a Grand Final next Saturday at 5pm.

Next was Mr J playing in the preliminary final for Footy, against a team that beat them by 111 points 2 weeks ago. Well another victory, by 8 points so this means a Grand Final next Sunday against Rupertswood.

Then there was the Swans, who absolutely thrashed Brisbane today by 84 points.

Lastly, Vesna has been evicted from Big Brother, which means that in my opinion that Tim will be the winner.

Overall a pretty good weekend.

I'm sorry Clive

I seem to have offended Clive on Sunbury Online with my latest postings, going by his latest posting.

Posted by: Clive M
Posted on: Saturday, 13 August 2005 2:40 PM
Ann, sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring more specifically to that so-called community forum. Actually I enjoyed your site and thought it had some interesting stuff

and

Posted by: Clive M
Posted on: Saturday, 13 August 2005 2:54 PM
Ann, I just went to your site again, and I guess I need to take back my apology. WHY is it that every time somebody says something that is not in agreeance with the people involved in these Forums, they automatically criticise them of being agents of Jack Medcraft. I just dont get it.

The really weird thing about the above postings are that according to my statcounter.com statistics, no one visited my site between 2.40pm and 2.54pm. However quite a few people visited it before that, and I can identify who they are as well, so I ponder the purpose of this posting, could it be that it was to generate a reply and therefore more readership.

Clive, you made a wrong move today and I am fully aware of who you are now, and understand your need to post under a pseudonym, maybe if I had known this previously I would have gone a bit easy on you in the my blog posting below.

As you said previously you will vote for Cr JAKAS. Good luck you deserve him.

The sacking of a council

Take a look at the report on Glen Eira, anyone who says that they didn't deserve being dismissed is kidding themselves. A quote from the report.

Some Councillors appear to have used their phones in contravention of
the policy; in particular Cr Goudge who made over 20,000 calls in 30
months at a cost in excess of $12,000.

20,000 in 30 months, I suppose when you think about it, it's a call per hour for 22 hours per day, astonishing. Funnily enough I would be a call in those 20,000, read it about it here.

No wonder he sounded to me like the last thing he wanted to was get involved with petty games that people want to play.

Big Brother is nearly over for 2005

I haven't posted much about this years Big Brother as IMHO it's been pretty boring, and has become too predictable. However it is now my time to speak up. Go and take a look at Jess's Ausculture site to see which strategy is best in making sure that Tim wins this years Big Brother.

A dill at the best of times

Heard a rumour tonight, it appears that someone may be asking the Minister for Local Government to sack Hume City Council. What a joke! Hume City is one of the most respected councils in Victoria with a reputation that I will take credit in building. To have a current councillor attempting to bring the councils name into disrepute is terrible. Maybe he has finally realised that it wasn't he who has contributed to the fine reputation that Hume has, rather he is a laughing stock in Local Government circles.

Given what Glen Eira Council had to do get sacked he has no hope of Hume getting sacked, however I wonder if a Minister for Local Government has ever sacked an individual Councillor for well, just being who they are.

It's bloody cold

I reckon it's the coldest I have ever felt since moving to Melbourne 17 years ago.

Anyway, the new Australian International University site has been doing the rounds of work today. It sound amazingly like my current workplace in some respects.

We have a wonderful corporate vision for the Australian International University. Our market research confirms that international students choose an Australian university education for two reasons. Firstly, the price is right and secondly, the quality is far superior to most universities in Rwanda.

Of course, most students would prefer a degree from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, or Princeton. But not everyone can afford the best. The Australian International University is proud to offer you the second best. While it is true that we won't win any prizes for the quality of the teaching provided by our SSP’s, it is also true that we are genuinely very affordable, and we are based right in the middle of an affluent Western country with a comparatively low cost of living. When it comes to value for money, the Australian International University is your number one choice.

Congrats Mr J!

Attended the Brownlow Medal Count for the Sunbury Lions Under 13's tonight, Mr J was judged 4th Best and Fairest, Congrats J, you have done a great job late in the season.

The Local Papers

The local papers attempted to pick up on the intimidation story this week, they don't seem to have quite understand that the current local councillors are using somewhat unsavory tactics to try an intimidate their potential opposition. Here are the articles.

The tale of 2 Jacks

No 1 Jack, is Ogilvie. I served on Hume City Council with him, whilst I didn't always agree with some of his views and knew that behind my back (no it was in front of me) he was plotting my demise, I found that some of his views were worthy of consideration. However having said that he always has it in the back of his mind the political ramifications of what he says. One of the first things he said to me was "tell people what they want to hear", something I tried, but found being less than honest unpalatable.

At tonight's Council Meeting, Ogilvie stood up and said that HUME don't want a Detention Centre, what he will gain out of this is anybodies guess, but he is in opposition to his mate, No 2 Jack.

No 2 Jack, is Medcraft. Who at tonight's council meeting continually went off track when talking to various reports. One report was a simple recommendation that a letter be received, no Medcraft who is otherwise known as JAKAS (Jack alternately known as Steve), couldn't comprehend that this was what the motion was about. He had to get up and read the letter from John Howards office, and try to do some political point scoring. Another item of general business was moved to write a letter of thank you to a community group regarding their support for Hume protesting about the Detention Centre, at one stage he was going to vote against the item, because he was grandstanding about the Detention Centre. He was then put back on track by the Mayor and crawled back into his hole.

On a brighter note, Mr J's team won the Semi Final yesterday so we front back up next Sunday for a Prelim Final. On a not so brighter note, I must refuse invitations to Sunday lunch at my sister in laws place, as my head was a bit sore today.

The sweetest victory!

The voice is gone, Mr J lost his Basketball semi by 1 point, after the scoreboard went blank with 50 seconds to go, so we thought it was a draw, and the amazing Swannies have finally beaten Essendon in Melbourne after a 16 year drought. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO

I am glad I am not

on the space shuttle, I truly hope they get back to earth safely. I am part of a group of internet mums that had kids in April 1996 and one of my group was a neighbour to one of the astronauts that were killed on Columbia, the memories of that are not nice so I really hope it doesn't happen again.

On other topics this weekend is a busy one, Mr J is playing in Basketball SF, the Swannies play Essendon on Sat nite and Mr J is playing in a Footy SF on Sunday morning, 10am to be specific, tooooooooo early. Sunday afternoon will be a moment to reflect and rest I think.

A Caviar Communist - thats what I am????

By the way I found a picture of myself holding an obviously doctored picture on a caviar communist webpage.

As quoted by JAKAS on something.

Please can someone enlighten me on the definition of a Caviar Communist?

I had all intentions

of making a blog posting about the various new bloggers that have popped up in the Sunbury community, but as soon as I logged on I found myself having 4 conversations with people on MSN, so it isn't happening tonight, so instead of commentary, just scroll down the page to the Sunbury Bloggers section and take a look at some of the fine and thoughtful insights being brought to the fore out of my community.

On another note, I must compliment the Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, my mum had to have a cataract operation today and she was treated wonderfully by everyone at the hospital, and special thanks to Mr J for taking such good care of his Nan today, you are a great kid.

This one takes the cake!

This morning I recieved a bizarre phone call, it was from a Councillor at South East Melbourne Council. This councillor informed me that he had got a few calls over the weekend informing him that he should watch what I and another person posted on Sunbury Online.

Apparently he was told that derogatory comments were made about him. Now I have never met this Councillor and know nothing about the Council he represents, and now I am being implicated in some sort of silly game that people want to play. The Councillor didn't know who the person was that called him was as they didn't leave a name, but they did leave a phone number, in the interest of privacy I won't fully divulge what the number was, but I will say that the number belongs to a current Hume City Councillor, it's his council provided fax number, I easily obtained this information as I still have the old Councillor listing from when I was on council. So put the peices together yourselves, he was on council when I was there and he comes from Sunbury.

Maybe the current Hume Councillor though that as the person they called is of Liberal persuasion that they had a ally on board, but it seems that they may have just made one wrong move. The Councillor that called me was most pleasant and perplexed as to why his name would be brought into the situation, as am I.

This is just the beginning of the bullying process, it has been known to happen before and it will continue whilst the people of Sunbury go about their lives blissfully unaware of the type of people that represent them.

I won't be intimidated by these people!