Don't even go there

It's 10.15pm, I should be in bed awaiting a early start tomorrow morning as Miss R has to have her tonsils out tomorrow morning. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got a call today at about midday from the anesthetist (pardon the spelling) and after asking numerous questions he mentioned that he was uncomfortable with performing the operation as the Freemasons doesn't have Paedriatic Intensive Care. My mum was taking this call as I was out and was astounded that not less than 24 hours before the operation was supposed to occur these concerns were being aired. Mum then got a call from the Dep Director of Nursing saying that they won't allow Miss R to be operated on due to her allergy, and that they can't guarantee the optimal care. Now I don't have a problem with their decision, but why was is made 19 hours before the operation was to be performed. We have psyched up Miss R, she was excited, and now it's not going to happen.

I was at a loss, I called the Royal Childrens and got fobbed off to some Professor who is in Sydney so I can't get an answer till tomorrow as to whether they can do it and when, I was so at a loss this afternoon. Miss R's ENT called me about 5pm to say that the Melb Ear, Nose and Eye Hospital will take her, and if needed they will use St Vincents Intensive Care if required. It won't happen for a few weeks but it will happen eventually.

A horrible day, and they say that being privately insured helps, in this case the Freemasons Hospital were grossly irresponsible waiting until 18 hours before her operation to pull the plug. What happens in the future?????????????

Everyone seems to be doing it!

Mr J is home

Safe and sound. The insurance company, paid for them to fly home from Tamworth, I have just collected the brood from the airport, glad to see them, that's for sure.

They tell very funny tails of Walcha and country NSW, they haven't lost their sense of humour that's for sure. Anyway it's good to have him home.

Phone calls you don't want to get!

Mr J is on an adventure with a friend, driving up to Bellingen to pick up my friends son and bringing him back to Melbourne for the school holidays. Mr J is on a phone plan that means I can call him from my phone for nothing so we have been in touch every couple of hours whilst he was on the journey.

Tonight I had been trying to call him for a couple of hours, and kept getting that irritating out of range message, so I thought, sure that can happen for a little while, but I thought that most of Australia was just about covered by mobile phone coverage, no the case of Walcha in N.S.W. Why are they in Walcha, well they hit a Kangaroo, wrote off the car, but most importantly they are all safe.

Just got off the phone from the hotel where they are staying, and the owner has reassured me that they are OK, and have gone out to the local takeaway for a bite to eat. So I am yet to speak to my boy, and am still shaking but at least they are alive and they will continue the journey by train tomorrow.

UPDATE: Spoken to Mr J, he is cool about it, the roo jumped into his side of the car and crushed the front bonnet, he had just awoken from a sleep, and his words it was like OH SHIT! I don't know if the roo survived! My heart is beating slightly slower now!

Schapelle's Nightmare

My view is that this girl must be living a nightmare at the moment, personally, I feel that whilst our government have provided Schapelle with the services of 2 Perth based QC's, what I think has failed is non provision of an advisor that can lead both Schapelle and her family through this maze that they are in. They need a lot guidance, and it's not happening.

Everyday the story changes and whilst I was going to try and explain current events, it's already been done over at Alternate Option.

Oh what a game!

Back from Sydney and feeling a tad tired. The game last night was very exciting the last 3 minutes felt like hours, but at the end of the day we prevailed, even if it was only by a point.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the appalling umpiring that took place, I spent a great deal of the game completely perplexed by a lot of the free kicks awarded. On speaking to others after the game, I wasn't the only one. 30 frees to the wobbles, 19 to us, 49 free kicks in a game is far too many in the first place, and it was so obvious that the Umpires were so biased toward Collingwood, and I really hope that Paul Roos talks to the AFL about the issue, it just seems to be happening more and more often.

Mr J played footy today, they lost, but he played a great game and took a screamer of a mark, wish I had my video camera back from the repairer, it would have been worthy of Almost Football Legends.

Bugger, Geneva getting booted from Big Brother, I was really hoping it would be the Howard loving Dean.

A feelgood story

Today I had to do lots of shopping etc, and we were standing outside Coles in Sunbury.

A lady was having a panic attack (I didn't see it happening) and my Mum went to her aid, Mum called me over and I was just standing by looking on (cause Mum is really good at handling this type of thing), not really knowing what to do, Mum finally got the lady calmed, by talking to her about Footy, then the lady looks up and sees me. She exclaims, "your Ann Potter", I say, yes I am.

Mum tells her that I am her daughter. The lady then talks about how she admired me and hopes that I will stand again for council, she thinks what the papers did to me about the Schapelle thing was terrible. She was amazed that I did what I did for Schapelle, and said that the values I hold are lacking in Sunbury and that needs changing.

Cilla, I hope you are well tonight, it looks like the Bombers have won, and you got home safely.

To think I got a new hairdo and am still recognisable.

I'm sooooo excited!

About the ALP front bench reshuffle! AND....................

I suppose it's part of my ISPF personality, that I am slightly impulsive. Today I got my hair cut and colored, and my hairdresser who is a Colingwood supporter and I were talking about the big game tomorrow night. I lamented that I had left my run too late to book a flight up to the game. Arrived home and got a call from my good friend Greg from Swans Limousines, who encouraged me to just do it! So I hopped on the Virgin Blue Website and book myself a return trip to Sydney, leaving tomorrow morning and returning on Sunday morning.

So this time tomorrow night, I'll be at Stadium Australia, cheering my Swannies on! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Had 2 nights of them this week, Tuesday was Miss R's and it was a breeze, the usual story, she is very chatty, but tries hard, a pleasant evening.

Tonight was Mr J's, at best I will call it gruelling. 2 hours of being plastered with he doesn't do this doesn't do that, and I got sick of saying continually that this is a child that had an aide all through primary school and was deemed cured once he entered year 7, so he no longer has an aide (but I am still appealing), which means that he has no assistance in organising himself for classes. Of all the interviews I must say that his maths teacher was fantastic, she is a new teacher full of enthusiasm, and is determined to get the kids to learn.

I purposely went to see his electrical teacher, who didn't want to see me as he had passed the subject, but I just wanted to hear something good.

I had a little run in with the Librarian who has banned Mr J from the library, it became apparent very quickly that she wasn't a negotiator, so I thought it best to make a quick retreat.

ISFP

The first part of today was spent undertaking they Myers Briggs Personality Indicator, I did this about 10 years ago and achieved the same result. So what is an ISFP?

The Dominant function is the judging one of Feeling. Characteristics associated with this function include:

* Makes decisions on the basis of personal values
* Is appreciative and accepting of people - enjoying company and seeking harmony
* Assesses the impact of decisions on others, being sympathetic or compassionate
* Takes a personal approach

In the midst of all this fun, I had a call from Miss R's Ear Nose and Throat Specialist, our local hospital can't accommodate her for her tonsil operation as they don't have an intensive care unit. Why would a 9 year old have to go into intensive care? Well, Miss R has a Type 1 Latex allergy so just incase she goes into a reaction she needs to go to intensive care. So her operation has been moved to the Freemasons Hospital and brought forward to the 30th June.

A few gripes!

Firstly, to the television programmers that purposely run the programs over time, I HATE YOU! Desperate housewives ran into the beginning of Cold Case tonight, and if you miss the beginning you may as well forget the rest, luckily Andrew Denton started late so I get to watch his interview with Alice Cooper.

Douglas Wood, if you decide to go back to Iraq you get what you deserve, who could believe that someone that was taken hostage in a country would voluntarily return there, just to make some money, and as for him saying that he was sorrry for criticising the government and the US government for things he said under duress, this really makes me wonder.

I am trying to master Mambo, which is a Content Management System, this will hopefully be a feature on my new website at www.annpotter.info

If ur moving soon

Don't even think of asking me to help, my lovely, former sister in law moved into her new house yesterday, and we have spent hours and hours helping. Just a word of warning if you see a house that has a spiral staircase and the Real Estate agent tell you it's easy to move the staircase to get heavy bits of furniture up stairs, DON'T BELIEVE HIM!

Stay tuned for www.annpotter.info it will arrive sometime soon.

You know your tired when!

You forget to put the tuna in the Tuna Mornay, yep, I did it tonight.

PC woes today, my work laptop a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 karked it, firstly it gets an error saying "bad rtc battery" so off to Google and was surprised to see that most of the entries about this error refer to the Satellite Pro 6100. So I follow the directions which involved setting the cmos to default, easy. Reboot, fingers crossed. No go, now I get a disk error on start up. Next I think, well lets call Toshiba, as it's still in warranty, finally after 4 mins of wait music, Choo comes on the line. After explaining my woes, he basically says all is lost and a re-install of XP is required. THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANT TO HEAR. I then comment about the "bad RTC battery" is a common problem in these machines, to which Choo tells me, no!, it's not a common problem, but Choo there are 190 google entries about it, he then says that not everything on Google is true. My life is shattered with that comment.

So out comes the old Dell Latitude that I bought about 2 years ago second hand, boot it up and the usual issue with the screen showing black happens, but a few whacks and it's working a dream. It will get temperamental with prolonged use, but for the moment at least I can sit in my favorite chair and blog and surf.

In late breaking news it appears that the Australian hostage Douglas Wood has been released from his captures in Iraq, great news to hear.

The Other Cheek

Andy Landy may have uncovered the real story about the Electoral Roll saga, and if he didn't it still makes an interesting read.

Time to make a balanced comment!

The above is a title of a new posting by a very new member of Sunbury Online, first posting to be exact, welcome margaret peterson. Now I know I am known to be somewhat cynical sometimes, but my advice to those who contribute to the forum are if you are going to create a new pesona to post under, at least try to alter the syntax in which you write.

Since returning from overseas,I have noticed that a number of local activists have been attacking our local councilor jack medcraft. Surely people can see that this is nothing more than opportunism and reeks of political bastardry. I must say that the residents of Sunbury are very fortunate to have 2 councilors who put so much effort into their community and still wear the brunt of criticism from those people who have a different political ambition.

and another totally balanced comment

Sean, I think you know the facts quite well dear. I have gone back and looked at every topic that has been raised on here and everytime it has degenerated into a slanging match because you and yout ilk don't agree with the way he calls a spade a spade. As far as Ms Potter goes, anyone who can publicly call an elected member of the public a nazi on her own website doesnt rate a mention. If you seriously think this latest snipe at him will get anywhere you should revisit the performances of his fellow councillors on how they have behaved. At least he didnt take money for self promotion!!!!! or use taxpayers money for the same

Can't see where I called him a Nazi, I just said

For bit of a laugh take a look at Darps latest gem the Patriotik Yoof League Web Sight. I reckon that Councillor Steve or is it Jack may be interested. Given his unsympathetic views on refugees etc

Margaret then decides to take a swipe at the state government, now is this beginning to sound like someone we know.

Interesting to read the article on the much awaited regional rail service (fast train) in the Age on saturday. I can remember hearing from those connected to it that it would be a state of the art system operating by July 2005! Now we read that the signalling system has been called into question by experts in England and that the whole project may not be as safe as one would like. I for one would like a written guarantee from the Premier on it's safety before I travelled on it. I suppose that is why we pay consultants such heady fees but alas in this instance we should demand a refund.

I now await Johno, Marg, and Brendan hoping on board the forum.

Corby Net Woes!

Weez basically outlines what has happened to Schapelles net presence woes here

Rainfall is a happening!

Big event in Melbourne, it's actually pouring with rain as I talk, something we haven't seen for quite a few months, let it keep going, get those catchments a top up.

Secondly, Andrew Bolt has been getting a bit precious about some of the criticism he has been receiving of late, today on 774m, he had a real go at Stephen Mayne, as detailed by crikey.com.au here.

Stephen Mayne ended his stint as a fill-in presenter on ABC radio in Victoria this morning with a heated on-air debate with Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. Bolt turned up at the studio to have a crack at the Crikey founder for allegedly using the ABC as a platform to pursue a vendetta against him. Mayne said on air that Bolt was appearing because ABC management wanted him to.

A seething Bolt accused Mayne of using his week in the presenter's chair to "pursue personal animus," including "three highly personal attacks in three days." (Perhaps Bolt wasn't listening when Mayne defended him to a talkback caller...) Bolt also said the ABC had made a "gross error in judgment" in allowing Mayne on air, but he'd expect no less because "the left stick together."

But "I voted for Robert Doyle in the last election," said Mayne, pointing out that he was also a former Kennett staffer. "You're saying that I shouldn't be allowed to criticise you," he told Bolt, but "you're the most critical commentator in the News Limited stable."

"The ABC is disgraced by your presence," concluded Bolt.

CRIKEY: We rang Mayne who didn't want to comment before a meeting with ABC management but he said he and his producers were overruled. After giving Bolt five minutes on air earlier in the week, Mayne and his producers thought it was unnecessary to give him a second crack when he called to ask for another right of reply this morning. But Bolt then complained to ABC management and Mayne's producers were only given seven minutes notice before the irate columnist turned up at the studio. After the interview Bolt stormed out of the studio and the way the issue was handled is now being debated at an ABC staff meeting.

On listening to Mayne this morning, he was justifiably upset that management allowed Bolt another hearing, Bolt basically just kept talking over the top on Mayne, then proceeded to walk out at the end of the conversation.

How many lashes will Steve give Jack?

This story broke in our locals last week, now been picked up by The Age.

Oh Kylie!

Now listen my dear you should have checked into The Western Hosptial, where no complaints would have been made as the good old people of the west wouldn't have had so much to talk about in years.

Seriously, the girl is a celebrity that needed to be treated in privacy, obviously the Cabrini could provide that, by moving a few people around. This media beatup is just a joke, a older gentleman who is still in Cabrini, he was moved and has no issue with it, when he made a call into the ABC this morning. Surely it's not that slow a news week.

Edit: She would have paid highly for this also as the Cabrini is a private hospital, she paid for her special treatment.

Got 2 out of 5 requests for Commonwealth games tickets, we are off to the Gymnastics and Netball.

I will blog tonight, I will blog tonight, I will blog tonight.

For a few days I have been meaning to blog, however duties at Schapelles Forum have overtaken any spare time I may have. I have never done anything like this before and it has been a learning experience indeed. You get to realise how many extremists are out in our big wide world. As moderator we have to try and curtail this extremist point of view, we are very practiced at saying we are "not anti Indonesia we are pro Schapelle". There are also the trolls that try to have a bit of fun by posting horrible pictures and links to horrible websites, we are now pretty quick off the mark and these postings are usually deleted within 3-5 minutes.

There are some real nutters out there as well and they are tending to grab the attention of some other bloggers who have likened Schapelle supporters as bogans. This is unfortunate as I would say the majority of people on the forum are pretty well balanced and have only good intentions at heart.

I would also like to condemn the actions of the people that have placed some biological object at the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra, this type of action is not needed, for once I actually agree with John Howard on something, but the cynical side of me wonders if this may not be another diversion as Johnny was questioned on Lateline last night about the assistance he gave to someone serving time in a prison in Maldives a few years back.

Now that Schapelles team have the assistance of 2 QC's from Perth with Asian Law expertise, I feel slightly more confident of a positive outcome, but what ever the outcome is, it still some time away.

In other news, my 9 year old, has to have her tonsils out on 4th July, a visit to the ENT specialist on Monday and he took one look at them and said YUK, they gotta come out. So she will be spending the last week of the school holidays not feeling the best.

I spent a lot of today trying to get my new wireless router to work, doing the logical thing first in trying to get my desktop machines up on the router first, well I gave up after many attempts, I am sure it's something to do with DNS, but for the moment we will stay cablised.

Thats it for the moment, MSN is running riot with trolling alerts.