Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

Queensland Holiday Day #2 - Muttonbird Island

We promised ourselves in December that we'd return to Coffs and take a walk/picnic to Muttonbird Island.  The picnic didn't happen, but the walk sure did.  The path is very steep on both sides of the island and unfortunately the muttonbirds have left for their annual migration, but the walk was still great and the views spectacular.

 

Proud to be an Australian

As you may have gathered from the paucity of posts here, life has been fairly hectic.  School started two weeks ago and we're all on a pretty steep learning curve.  It's hard to blend being a teacher and being a mum...harder than I thought it would be.  I've blogged here about the things I have learned in those two weeks.

My head has also been full of what has happened in Victoria.  The numbers alone are staggering

• 181 dead, but that number will rise as the clean up goes on
• 2000 homes destroyed
• 7000 people displaced
• 400000ha of land burned
• $100 million donated to the Red Cross in the Bushfire Appeal

Still can't watch the news, current affairs shows or read the paper without tears.

The Australian spirit is something that we talk about, especially around ANZAC Day, but it's a hard thing to quantify.  What exactly *is* the Australian spirit? 

To me it was the guy that Channel 9 interviewed.  He lived in Kinglake.  He watched his house burn, he watched his neighbours' houses burn.  He lost family members and friends in the fires.  His face was burned and he was wearing a donated shirt as his own shirt had burned off his back...literally.

The reporter asked him if he had seen a counsellor.  "Yeah'" came the reply, "for a bit, but mate, there's people worse off than me, that need to talk to someone more than I do."

To me it was the people arriving at the relief centres in Whittlesea and Yea carrying the ubiquitous red, white and blue striped bags filled with clothes, toys and food.  It was the utes rolling up with huge bags of dog food for the family pets who survived and had nothing.  It was the six year old boys sorting clothes for other kids and doing it with gusto.  It was watching the Prime Minister comforting a weeping father and taking the time just to be there.  It was the faces of those who stood in the midst of the ruins of their home determined to rebuild...their homes, their lives and their livelihood.  It's the cash unstintingly given, the CFA firies still fighting Nature's worst, the sandwich makers, the lady giving free massages, the man stopping to give an injured thirsty koala some of his water...that's the Australian spirit.

I have never been more proud to call myself an Australian.

Chris, Cassandra, Wall St and the tin box under the bed

I'd like to introduce you to Chris Martenson.  He's so up-to-the-minute that he doesn't even warrant a wikipedia page yet.  He has, however, managed to do in 2.5 hours what Mr Warnes failed to do over two years and that is to get me to understand economics.  His crash course is excellent and I strongly recommend that you take it.  You'll never look at the "boring bits" on the news in the same way again i.e. Dow Jones, FTSE100, price of gold/oil and the dollar/pound/euro against the greenback etc.

Today Chris is foreshadowing a Bank Holiday.  Sounds nice, doesn't it.  It's not.  The last Bank Holiday was for five days in 1933 when Franklin D Roosevelt closed the banks.  Closed.  As in, no money in.  And no. money. out.

How would you do with no access to money for five days?  No credit cards, no debit cards, no EFTPOS, no ATM, no cash, no payments, no direct debit.  Nothing, nada, zip.

Some might consider that Chris is a Chicken Little wildly shouting that the sky is falling.  Others, after taking the crash course and using their brains a bit, might conclude that the sky IS falling.  Furthermore, some may realise that bits of the sky are lying scattered in the street, but everyone's too busy checking their Facebook profile, Thinking They Can Dance or pondering Sarah Palin's shoes, to notice.

I think the time has come to get the tin box under the bed.  It's a euphemism people...there really isn't a tin box under the bed!  It means that I think it's time to consider that nothing is safe, not even the banks.  It's time to pay attention, take responsibility and be prepared.  Lay in some food stocks on staples: flour, rice, butter, milk (powdered!  I mean it!!  It won't kill you), noodles, stock cubes.  Plant a few vegetables, even if it's just a single tomato plant in a pot.  Store up some tinned goods and cereals.  Pay cash.  Pare off everything you don't *need* from the budget.  If the world economy goes under - and it may well do so - your disposable income is going to go kaput.  We're planning ahead.  If necessary we could provide housing for a whole 'nother family in our home and we'd be prepared to do so.  A second family could be accomodated in the garage.  I'm not joking.  The toy room is being attacked today and the toys culled.  We've got double cupboards which are about to become a food store.  I'm teaching myself to sew again and have plans for the vegetable plot.  They've been sort of tentative plans for years, but now it's essential. 

This is the way it could go. 

I *know* our government is saying we'll be OK, our economy is strong, our banks are regulated, our commodities are still popular rah, rah, rah.  That may well be so.  But the days of economic isolation are over.  We are members of the global economy and what affects the US is going to affect us too.

I'd love to think that I've actually flipped my lid, but it ain't so.

Please.  Take the crash course.  Think about the issues for yourself.  Then start making some plans.  The day will come when you'll be very glad you did.

I am Australian

I am Australian
You know you're Australian if...

1. You know the meaning of the word 'girt'.
2. You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.
3. You think it's normal to have a leader called Kevin.
4. You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount
vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse.
5. You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for
something illegal such as watering the garden.
6. You believe it is appropriate to put a rubber in your son's pencil
case when he first attends school.
7. When you hear that an American 'roots for his team' you wonder how
often and with whom.
8. You understand that the phrase 'a group of women wearing black
thongs' refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds.
9. You pronounce Melbourne as 'Mel-bin'.
10. You pronounce Penrith as 'Pen-riff'.
11. You believe the 'l' in the word ' Australia ' is optional.
12. You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way
to Maccas.'
13. You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its
highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
14. You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you
really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'.
15. You think 'Woolloongabba' is a perfectly reasonable name for a
place.
16. You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.
17. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's
twice as big as its $2 coin.
18. You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga'
but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.
19. You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast
spread.
20. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they
stuff up,at which point they again become Kiwis.
21. Hamburger. Beetroot. Of course.
22. You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during
any rendition of the Angels' song 'Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face
Again.'
23. You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionary known
as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.
24. You still don't get why 'Labor' in 'Australian Labor Party' is
not spelt with a 'u'.
25. You wear ugh boots outside the house.
26. You believe, as an article of faith, that every important
discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to
the Yanks for a pittance.
27. You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you
like them.
28. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order
takeaway fluently in every Asian language.
29. You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, while 'scuse me'
is always polite.
30. You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your
nose.
31. You understand that 'you' has a plural and that it's 'youse'.
32. You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to
handle.
33. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules
for beach cricket.
34. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what
they call 'Anzac cookies'.
35. You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.
36. When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally
strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in
fruit.
37. You believe the phrase 'smart casual' refers to a pair of black
tracky-daks, suitably laundered.
38. You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction.
39. When working in a bar, you understand male customers will feel
the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.
40. You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national
anthem and then have trouble remembering the second.
41. You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed
essential in the government's new test for migrants.
42. You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one says
'cobber'.
43. And you will immediately forward this list to other Australians,
here and overseas, realising that only they will understand.

Thank you Birdie for sending this one!

and in case you were wondering, yes, it is illegal to water the garden with a hose unless it is before 10am and after 4 pm on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Want to have a go at translating #12 - native born Aussies need not apply ;)

Translate if you will:

No peeking in the comments allowed.  Points awarded per correctly translated word/phrase.  Highest possible score is 18.  Go for it!

In the arvo last Chrissy the relos rocked up for a barbie, some bevvies and a few snags.  After a bit of a Bex and a lie down we opened the pressies, scoffed all the chockies, bikkies and lollies.  Then we drained a few tinnies and Mum did her block after Dad and Steve had a barney and a bit of biffo.

Taken from the alternative Australian Citizenship Test which will be published here in a day or so.