Author: jkirkby8712

An early morning session at the gymnasium today, which I think I enjoyed.  Oddly enough, later in the day, during an early afternoon visit to the radio station, we suffered a minor dizzy spell which I put down to trying to walk up the hill from the car-park, a little quicker than I   perhaps should have! Feeling a little light headed for the rest of the day, and not in a particularly talkative mood by the time I got to tonight’s General Meeting/Community consultation session for the radio.  That was actually quite a disappointing meeting, with low numbers of members turning up, and no-one from the community to whom the meeting had been especially addressed. These meetings are generated to allow the listening public the opportunity to come and voice their concerns and/or ideas about programming on the station – we are obliged by the industry regulators to undertake this process and obtain community involvement. Well the station has met all of the requirements in terms of  involvement, publicity, etc, and can do little else, other than drag people from their homes and make them participate!! More disappointing, from my viewpoint was the poor attendance of members, and as is probably common to many organisations, it is the members who complain the most about the organisation, who don’t turn up to events such as this and/or participate in  other activities and fund raisers. Oh well, the old story!!!  Not a new phenomenon  to 3NRG!

An interesting documentary on the ABC tonight [which I watched after returning from the radio meeting] about the author, Bryce Courtney, and his family life, his writings, and effect of the death of his son from Aids and the traumatic book which he would write about that time in his life [April Fool’s Day] on the ‘destruction’ of his family. I read that book in July 1994, and commented afterwards that it was ‘A real eye-opener. A very sad story, which offers much in terms of educating and learning about the reality of, and suffering caused by AIDS’.  Bryce Courtney has been having a book published just before Christmas for years now – last year, I noticed it didn’t happen, and tonight’s program explained why. A series of illness and medical treatments during 2011 for the 78 year old author, meant he fell behind his deadline, and eventually because of the way in which that was obviously distressing him, his wife rang the publishers and told them the next book would not be finished in time! Hopefully, we might see it’s delayed arrival  within the next month or so.  Bryce Courtney has usually being my ‘January’ reading!  The ABC program is called ‘Family Confidentials’ and takes an intimte look into the lives of some of Australia’s high profile families and reveals the dramatic private events that have marked their extraordinary public journeys. The following was the synopsis of tonight’s show, as submitted by the ABC.

‘”He’s a great storyteller. If truth is a problem there, well whose truth?” Celeste Coucke, Bryce’s daughter-in-law.  For the past twenty years, Bryce Courtenay has reigned supreme as Australia’s bestselling novelist. It’s said that every home has at least one of his books on the shelf; and every year, he writes a novel for Christmas that generates ten million dollars for the Australian publishing industry.  This is the story of a man conditioned from childhood to win, and who discovered himself in his imagination. But the journey has come at a cost.
For Bryce, a good story always comes first. His work takes precedence over everything. It means there is little time to spare for his family – and even his new bride sees little of him when he’s working. And, when he wrote about his own family’s tragedy, everyone suffered the consequences.  Nothing has stopped him – until now. In 2011, fate dealt Bryce a cruel blow. Ill health has cost him a deadline. For the first time in twenty years, there will be no Bryce Courtenay blockbuster in the bookshops for Christmas, and a man for whom stories are life, faces an uncertain future. This episode of Family Confidential exposes the private side of a man for whom the story means everything’..

Also taped and watched late tonight, was the 3^rd episode of ‘The Straits’, rather a dramatic and again, violent episode, with two of the principal characters meeting a violent death.   Vlad, a hired killer, sets out for Cairns with a high-powered rifle. Harry [the patriarch family father] is his target, but who has hired Vlad?  Meanwhile, having wrestled with the discovery of Paddy’s fraudulent operations [as Harry’s accountant], Sissy finally tells Harry [her father] what she has learnt. Harry is deeply upset by the news. He takes Paddy on their weekly fishing expedition to confront him [and get rid of him]. When Sissy learns what has happened on the boat, she has an almighty fight with her father.  Meanwhile, third son Gary who has been bitten by a snake on Zey, and believes he is going to die, makes a confession to his father [he’d slept with the wife of Harry’s  2^nd son].  Harry threatens death to the participant, the wife, if she doesn’t leave the family immediately. Before he has time to follow up on this however, Vlad makes his move!!

Earlier this afternoon, the harness racing horse in which Adam has a part ownership of – Dimensions – was racing over at Melton!  Adam never gives me much notice of when it is running, as I would like to try and go and watch it on one occasion. Melton would have been perfect! Anyway, I put a couple of dollars each way on the horse, just in case it got up into the placings  – I didn’t actually find out where it eventually finished in the field except that it was not in the first three places.  I lost my few dollars!!  Will ask Adam the outcome next time we talk.

Tuesday, 7th of February, was the third Anniversary of Black Saturday [7^th February 2009], when those devastating fires swept across large areas to the north and east of Melbourne In many of those areas, recovery was still taking place! Meanwhile, parts of the states of New South Wales and Queensland continue to suffer the consequences of major floods over the past few days. These extreme consequences of weather seem to be becoming more of an annual occurrence over the past few years..

I recall another extreme case of the weather in this date – back in 1983 – when a severe dust storm blew down from north western Victoria and shrouded Melbourne. We were living in a rental home at Keilor Park at the time, while the home in Sunbury was being built – with only James around at that stage, and Mrs Seipolt living with us. That storm was perhaps a precursor to the tragic Ash Wednesday bushfires which occurred in Victoria and South Australia on the16th February [including much loss of life and property at Mount Macedon, just north of Sunbury].  At the time I was working at Keilor Council, and recall one of two fellow workers were directly affected by those fires.  Had we being up at the home building site in Sunbury that night, we would have had a ‘spectacular’  [and frightening] view of the fires on Mount Macedon. As it was, I was down in Carlton for a while early that evening visiting brother Colin, who was living in the inner suburb at the time, and recall coming out of his house to find ash in the streets of inner Melbourne, having blown down from Macedon, 50 kilometres to the north. That was an eerie night – recall lying awake listening to the radio reports. But we were the lucky ones  – safe in Keilor, not so the people to the north of us going through a night of hell, both there, and in other parts of the state.

Meanwhile, throughout the British Commonwealth, celebrations have commenced for the 60^th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II is the international celebration throughout 2012 marking the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries upon the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. Queen Victoria in 1897 is the only other monarch in the histories of the United Kingdom, Canada,  Australia and a few other Commonwealth realms to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee. Following the tradition of jubilees past, a Diamond Jubilee medal is being awarded in various countries and holidays and events will be held throughout the Commonwealth. Quentin Bryce, the Governor-General of Australia, announced that the Diamond Jubilee will be celebrated “with a host of national and community events throughout the Commonwealth.” Paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia in the Australian House of Representatives in Canberra on 6 February 2012, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated the Queen was a revered figure in Australia. Gillard also announced that she would on 4 June light a beacon atop Parliament House and a street in the parliamentary triangle in Canberra would be renamed Queen Elizabeth Terrace.  The Queen’s  special message to mark the year was as follows.

In this special year, as I dedicate myself anew to your service, I hope we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship, and good neighbourliness, examples of which I have been fortunate to see throughout my reign and which my family and I look forward to seeing in many forms as we travel throughout the United Kingdom and the wider Commonwealth. ………..Elizabeth II, 2012

Here in Australia today, ‘hostilities will recommence between the major political parties, as Parliament resumes in Canberra, also the location where the Reserve Bank made another monthly deliberation on interest rates this afternoon.

But I really had none of that in mind myself.  I left for Ballarat at 11.30am, leaving James’ dog  behind – in the house, against my better judgement. However, although she was out at that moment, I was hoping she would be around to keep Murphy company until he was collected for Goonawarra. I think part of that happened today,  although I’d not discover until my return, that in fact the dog stayed a second night with us, and for most of Wednesday – that day he was alone all day, while Susan was at work. I was a little annoyed, not at Susie, but at James for just taking it for granted we would be around to look after his pet for an extended time!!  Anyway, despite all that, it apparently survived it’s visit, and was eventually collected some time on Wednesday.

Casual drive to Ballarat, with one stop at Bacchus Marsh along the way – call of nature –  and to respond to a brief message from Susan – ‘Sorry Dad! Didn’t say goodbye, had a doctor’s appointment. Have fun!’  –  Originally, I’d thought she was working today, but apparently came home late last night unwell, and rang Adam to say she was sick today. She had rushed out rather quickly not long before I left – I was happy to hear from her, at least Murphy would have some company for a while – I had providing that since early this morning.

I think it was around 12.45pm when I reached the Central City Motor Inn, on the outskirts of the CBD, booked in, etc, then went for a wander down to the city Mall area, leaving the car behind. Had an iced coffee and a sandwich, before proceeding on up to the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

At the Art Gallery,  I collected my two tickets for tonight’s concert, and then spent an hour or so, having a look at the current exhibition on display  –  the paintings, etc of Michael Shannon. A retrospective Michael Shannon  [referred to as an ‘Australian Romantic Realist] is one of Australia’s most under-regarded major artists from the 1950s to the 1980s. In his heyday, Shannon’s distinctive paintings were as avidly collected and frequently displayed as those of near contemporaries, John Brack and Fred Williams.  I rather liked the exhibition  –  he had a lot of emphasise in his early decade or so on pictures of suburban scenes, buildings, structures, still lives, and so on, some of them rather plain and to many, would appear uninspiring. Later in life, after he became ill, and moved out to the Heathcote area in Victoria, he began to paint many rural and country town scenes, much more to my liking.  Born in South Australia in 1927, his biography explains how the late 1970s saw this change in focus. In 1980 he bought a small house near Heathcote (north  east of Sunbury). His interest in landscape had grown following a visit to David Chapman in Tasmania in 1974 (he exhibited small studies at Macquarie in 1979) and in the 1980s the landscape became the central concern of his work. It is a landscape he clearly fell in love with – from the rock faces of the quarry paintings through the more intimate glimpses of hill sides with trees and bush tracks, to the large canvasses of spacious hills stretching to distant horizons. A long battle with Parkinson’s disease preceded the artist’s death in 1993. Anyway, in my usual manner, I purchased a copy of the official catalogue – bought the slightly cheaper soft covered version this time, which apart from illustrations of most of the paintings on display, and others, included two or three excellent essays about his life and work. A good investment.

Whilst I was at the Gallery, I rang Heather to let her know I’d arrived, by car. Her mother was not the best, but Heather was determined to join me at the Art Gallery concert tonight, and as I’d driven down [after originally intending to come by train] we agreed that I would pick her up from her home this evening. From the Gallery meantime, I walked back through the main City area and back to the Mall – when I was a teenager, this area was open to traffic, and included the tramline down the middle. Bridge Street, as it was called, was quite narrow, and I guess eventually it was decided to make it a pedestrian only Mall [the trams were long since gone].  My next visit was Collins Bookshop [of course] . Quite a large store, and I was assuming that it would have stocked copies of the books of the Wordsworth Poetry Library. My perusal revealed none, although I did bypass the actual ‘poetry’ section. However, the shop manager assured me that there were none of that series in stock.  Well, despite that, I found one – ‘Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling’. He was surprised that there was a copy left in the shop, but then began to quote verses from a couple of Kipling’s poems!!! He was ahead of me here, but anyway, I made the purchase, and so added to my library collection of that series of 3 books now, with two others on order from Amazon.

At this point, rang my sister Jean, to ascertain if she was in fact here in town somewhere – yes, not far away, with eldest son Vincent. We arranged to meet up in 30 minutes, and have a coffee. In the interim, I walked back to the motel, deposited my purchase, etc, and then returned to the Mall – perfectly timed, met my sister and nephew walking from the opposite direction. Chatted for half an hour over cappucinios – not that I really enjoyed my drink, don’t seem to have any favourable taste towards coffee of any sort at present [other than the iced coffee version, the one of least benefit to me!!].  Vincent, who was in between studies and work at present, had been distributing his resume [with the needed help of his mother apparently] at various businesses around the town. There was obviously quite a contrasting difference between him, and younger son, Alwyn, in terms of self-confidence and a the ability to face a challenge, and this became obvious on today’s meeting. Vincent currently lives in Ballarat, sharing a house with his sister, Rosemary & her boyfriend, Marc. Before we parted, I arranged to drive out to Jean’s place, at Enfield [about 20 minutes out of Ballarat] for a brief visit in the morning.  From the ‘coffee lounge’, it was back to the motel via the supermarket, where I purchased an evening meal to eat in the motel before going out later on.

Heather, who had been being through two disastrous marriages, since I last saw her in the late 1950s  [apart from our lunch in Bacchus Marsh the other day] lived in a unit up in the Ballarat North/Wendouree area, not far from the old Ballarat Cemetery [which is actually called the New Ballarat Cemetery!!].  It is many many years since I have purposely picked up a young lady [well, she is my age of course – we went to primary school together] for the purpose of  going on an outing –  some people might call it a date, but I think we just both looked upon it, as two ‘old’ friends catching up, and what better way to do that, than at a musical concert, within the environs  of the Art Gallery of Ballarat, such institution of which we both happened to be members. I gathered that at different times, both her late father, Charlie Jones, and her brother Ross, had been heavily involved in the management of the Gallery. We had a common interest.  Actually, I’m not sure if Heather and I were ever ‘friends’ as such – we went to school, and Church/Sunday-school together, but I don’t think we were ‘buddies’ or anything of that sort. Yes, as a ten year old, I was fond of her, though never communicated anything of that nature as far as I can recall, while Heather regarded shy Bill as ‘rather sweet’ [that wasn’t communicated either, at the time].  Now all of a sudden, 50+ years later, we are friends!!  That’s rather nice actually.

In any case, tonight, we have come to see the ‘Helen Davey Trio’ – a poetic world/folk group with a contemporary twist, made up of Australian lady [in her 40s], Helen Davey [who sings and plays guitar and the piano], and two guys from Switzerland [about the same age as Helen] – Ferdi Rauber [a percussionist, who also ‘plays’ a variety of other instruments and implements, such as tablas, gong,didjeridoo, frame drum, udu, cymbals and percussion, amongst other things], and David Aebli [on double bass, mandolin, bouzouki, & solo guitar]. They had called the concert tonight ‘Carvings’, and that was in fact the name of the CD, of which both Heather and myself purchased a copy during the evening.  An interesting trio  – mixture of ‘almost’ jazz, folk, blues, and some other odd genres of music, it’s hard to describe. I expected a short program, in fact it was split by quite a long, and we thought too long, an interval, and then another lengthy period where Helen called for ‘stories’ from the audience – to which she would then, on the spot, create music, words, etc, to fit in with the particular story. She got that started by referring to one of the classic European paintings on the wall where we were, and calling for ‘descriptions’ of what that painting was depicting – can’t recall the name, but it has been on display for many years, featuring an old couple in the prime of their years. Interesting, the painting underneath that one, is of a young nude lady bathing – a picture I’ve always admired, and one of the audience, thinking that was the painting Helen was referring to, very aptly gave it the title of ‘cheeky’!!

In any case, I think we both enjoyed the concert overall – some of the music or style was a little ‘strange’ or different, but an entertaining night  – we both agreed on two things, it was perhaps a little too long, could have done without the story telling segment, and we both had trouble understanding the lyrics of what Helen was either saying or singing – maybe the acoustics just didn’t match her soft [though at times, deep voice] – anyway sometimes, I simply gave away trying to pick up what she was saying, [was giving me a headache, to add to a nagging toothache!] and simply sat back and enjoyed the music.

The musicians invited those of us present to join them after the show at a restaurant around in Sturt Street which had apparently remained open for the purpose –  certainly, I doubted there would be much else of the ‘coffee lounge’ nature still open at this time of a Tuesday night in Ballarat. However, Heather & myself jointly agreed that we would not bother to join the crowd – the concert had gone a bit later than anticipated, and I don’t think she was used to late nights over recent years.  I declined the invitation to have a drink back at the unit – instead, if time permitted, we would meet up again tomorrow afternoon for a drink, before I returned to Sunbury.

Back at the motel, though I was not ready for sleeping, I didn’t even bother to switch the TV on, and couldn’t get the internet to connect up to my laptop, so instead,  I opened up the ‘Rudyard Kipling’ poetry book, and had a look at the introductory essays, the most interesting of which was the piece written by George Orwell, originally written in 1942. It was described by many critics as a ‘hard-hitting account of Kipling’s poems’, and apparently has been generally considered as one of the most important contributions to critical discussion of Kipling. That detail is too extensive to canvass here, but as I started to read the early poems in the book, I tried to reconcile the contents with what Orwell was saying. At the time of writing, I’ve not got too far, and not really sure if I have enjoyed [or sometimes even understood] very much of what I’ve read so far!  Time will tell –  on page 36, with over 800 to go!!

Wednesday, 9^th February –  woke earlier than I really needed to, and had over an hour before the breakfast I’d ordered, was due to arrive.  That breakfast included an especially prepared juice combination drink of carrot, apple and celery –  not sure whether that was going to do me good or not, but it was an interesting and enjoyable drink. Anyway, I remained at the motel until near checkout time, in no rush, and in a relaxed mood.

When for a drive up to Lake Wendouree – beautiful sight to see the lake full of water again – and whilst there, rang my sister, Jean to make sure she was home out at Enfield. It’s about a 15/20 minute drive out to the Skilbeck property – being a working and school day, Jean was the only one home, and I stayed for about an hour, over a slow coffee [which I wasn’t really enjoying] and a bit of a family chat. Ross apparently was not really happy with his job at the Grammar School anymore, and was looking elsewhere. They were all going up to a family wedding in Cairns in a couple of months – the suggestion had been made that he might find something up there!  I made the comment that such a move would leave just the one Kirk sibling down here in Victoria!!

Rather a busy morning – expecting James to bring his dog over any time for us to ‘dog sit’ for a day or so, even though Susie and I will be missing for a lot of that time!  Rang the RACV, to come and start Susie’s car, so that she could drive it down to the Kmart vehicle service centre. Thankfully, the RACV were fairly speedy in responding, although Murphy [the dog] had arrived before they did.  Engine running, so that shortly after 10am, I followed Susie into town, she dropped off her car, and returned with me.  I was off again, shortly afterwards, for a Monday morning 11am session at the gymnasium. I think I was left to my own resources today – the instructor had another customer to attend to, and I must admit, I felt a little more comfortable working solo, rather than having somebody ‘looking over my shoulder’ etc.  Was quite a good session. Judy Unwin was doing a circuit again, and surprisingly, although I didn’t get the chance to speak to her, I noticed that Tricia P [Ruth’s mother] was also there this morning.  Interesting over time, the people I am running into here!

[Incidentally, the first of the One Day International cricket matches was played yesterday in Melbourne in the three way series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka –   Australia won the first match, scoring 5 for 216 to defeat India 151.  These days, I don’t take as much interest in the one day limited over matches, as compared with the Test cricket, but still like to keep a track of how things are progressing].

The rest of my car – after a phone call, soon after I left the Gym, from Susie, to tell me that total car service, new battery and other repairs, were going to cost about  $900!! Could I help out?  –   was spent basically dog-sitting, for most of the afternoon, and into the early evening. Susan’s cats were not happy with Murphy’s presence in their environment!!  Overall though, the dog was well behaved, and no real trouble – very friendly, but very insistent on human company at all times. Unfortunately, over the next day or so, it would be left alone for quite a bit.  The family at Goonawarra had all gone down to Rosebud for a few days, for a brief break, and to visit the grave of Shirley’s sister, Susan [who died Christmas night, in 1985], and James had joined hem. Jodie, who was working all week, called around briefly this evening, checking up on Murphy, etc.

Earlier, we took the dog for a drive to town, to pick up Susie’s car, the repair costs for which came in at just under the quoted figure all of which I paid for! It will come back one day, though I’m not too concerned.

I had my Smorgasbord ‘radio’ show tonight, from 9 until midnight – a good show, which I enjoyed but a little disappointed at no calls in again.  Exchanged a couple of text messages with Heather  in Ballarat, re my visit down there tomorrow, wanted to make sure her mother was well enough to allow Heather out for the evening concert.

Tonight, a poor sleep between  1 and 3am, at which point,  woken by Murphy, in the laundry – took him outside briefly, then returned him to laundry, but he was restless – brought him up to my room, which I’d earlier not been intending despite James’ advice that the dog almost slept in a room with someone!!  Mot something that I would want to encourage, but because it was just the one night, and the animal was in a strange place, I relented this time.  Truth is, I needed some sleep. From that point onwards, a bit of sleep was gained on both counts.

This sounds like a repeat of 12 months ago with parts of both southern Queensland, and northern New South Wales in the midst of major floods concerns from recent heavy rains. For example, as the following report from ‘The Australian’ indicates, the south Queensland centre of St George is suffering from the unfolding inland flood crisis, with its residents now being urged to flee their homes.  Authorities will consider mandatory evacuations amid predictions that the Balonne River will hit 14m, topping the 2010 flood that swamped the town. The town of 3800, about 500km west of Brisbane, is the latest to be threatened by floods that have precipitated the declaration of a state of disaster across southwest Queensland. Army helicopter have been deployed to assist with evacuations and supplying communities cut off the sea of flood water, that stretches from the central-west town of Alfa to the Queensland-NSW border. Moree and other centres in northern NSW continue to be cut off. A search continues at Roma for mother-of-two Jane Sheahan, who was swept away on Friday when her car, with 7-year-old son Darcy inside, was caught in floodwaters. She pleaded with rescuers to “save my boy’’ before being carried away. Darcy was saved but grave fears are now held ofr his mother. Levees at Charleville, 740km west of Brisbane, continue to just hold, with the swollen Warrego River lapping at the top of the barriers in some places. Local authorities say they are confident the worst of the emergency has passed – provided there is no further rain in the catchments. At Mitchell, 590km west of Brisbane, locals returned to heart-breaking scenes as receding waters allowed them to re-enter flooded homes. Queensland police deputy commissioner Ian Stewart says emergency crews are focusing their efforts on the town of St George, which is facing record flooding. Mr Stewart believes it may be necessary to evacuate most of St George and neighbouring towns. “We are working on our contingencies to manage the potential evacuation of areas south of Roma and in particular, St George,” he said today.  “There are very large volumes of water in those systems getting to record levels as the predictions are currently telling us. “Whilst there is some time to make these arrangements due to the water flows, certainly we are taking very seriously the potential for mass evacuations in that area so that people are absolutely safe from this very large scale event.”  By this evening, as the situation worsened in St George, the order was given for the whole town to evacuate, with no exceptions!

Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard hosts a barbeque for fellow Labor politicians today, the widespread media and other speculation about her future as leader continues to keep many journalists and media commentators on the payroll!  While most Labor MPs were putting on a strong front today, it is widely thought within caucus that a challenge is unavoidable, yet despite a reported shift in support to Mr Rudd’s camp in recent weeks, it is not yet clear he will have the numbers to be successful in any leadership challenge.  Certainly people like the PM’s deputy, Wayne Swan, and other senior cabinet ministers have brushed off leadership speculation ahead of an ALP crisis meeting being held for the new parliamentary year, which was also being held today I believe –  with Mr Swan and Finance Minister Penny Wong kicking off the gathering with presentations about the state of the economy and Labor’s economic framework.  In an interview this morning, Treasurer Wayne Swan denied that Kevin Rudd was plotting a return to the prime ministership. “The fact is a lot of the media coverage at the moment is simply bizarre,” the Treasurer told ABC’s Insiders program. “I think the community has had just a gutful of so much of the commentary and speculation that is out there. Most of it is just a huge beat up, sure there are one or two individuals out there who are disgruntled and they are feeding some of these stories but the great bulk of the coverage that I read is completely divorced from reality.” Mr Swan said he took Mr Rudd “at his word” that he was happy being foreign minister and said that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had the “overwhelming support” of caucus. “She is someone who is getting things done,” he said. “Our Prime Minister has the strong support of caucus. She is a tough leader, a person of integrity and great strength and great vision.” Meanwhile Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said the leadership issue was being blown up by the media but said the government was determined to “get on with the job of governing”. “I think once parliament goes back this week people will see the business of government taking place and that begins today with the special caucus meeting,” Mr Albanese told Sky News’ Australian Agenda. “What we need is for government members to continue to focus on selling the government’s message. That’s a job not just for the Prime Minister but for the whole team.”

Some of the other conflicting media headlines this weekend relating to the leadership issue included:-

• Opposition leader Tony Abbott said this morning Labor would gain very little from changing leaders and denied Kevin Rudd would be tougher to beat than Julia Gillard at any future election. “In the end the government doesn’t have to change leaders – it has to change its policies,” Mr Abbott told Network Ten. “If they have Rudd or Gillard they’ll still have the carbon tax, they’ll still have the mining tax and they’ll still be a government that is addicted to spending.” Mr Abbott said the leadership should be decided at an election. “They’ve got to change the way they do things,” he said. “People should choose the Prime Minister of Australia at an election. That’s what we need. “Unfortunately I think we’ve got to the point where this Labor government is so tainted that it needs a good period of time in opposition to work out what it actually stands for.”
• Kevin Rudd hasn’t got the numbers to defeat Julia Gillard yet, but his support is growing in the Labor caucus.
• Julia Gillard’s days are numbered. The dilemma is: who could replace her?
• After 2010, no political analyst is prepared to say something can’t happen – that no matter how outlandish, it is not possible.
• Two independents say they have grave concerns about whether they could support Kevin Rudd as ALP leader.
• Labor MPs supporting Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd agree there has been a shift in support to Rudd.

In the meantime, the weather down here in Victoria [this part anyway] has seen a bit of a change this afternoon, after temperatures reached 33 degrees again. By 3.30pm here in Sunbury, the gauge had dropped to below 28 degrees, and the strong winds which have been blowing all day, freshened a little and brought a few patches of rain with them. When I was up at the radio station early this morning, it was quite warm, even in the studio – perhaps that led to my feelings of tiredness in the subsequent time since then, though admittedly, with the air feeling a little cooler later in the afternoon, my energy levels rose somewhat.

The major piece of music I played in the classical music program this morning, was by the Spanish composer, Joaquin  Rodrigo [born in 1902, died 1999], and his composition called the ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’, written in 1939.  A piece of music which has enjoyed widespread popularity from it’s first hearing to the present day. In the recent ABC Classic FM’s vote for the 100 most popular 20^th century classical compositions,  it came in as No. 6.There were a number of reasons for it’s popularity. As Thomas Kahlcke writes [translated by Mary Adams] – ‘In a time of great political and cultural uncertainty – in Spain the Civil War had just ended and many intellectuals and artists were fleeing the Franco regime – the guitar concerto sounded [and still sounds today]

like a soothing reminder of an idyllic epoch. And indeed it was Rodrigo’s intention to provide musical compensation for the outward and inward ravages to his native land by recalling with the harmonious music an age long forgotten. Even the title manifests this: Aranjuez, the name of the magnificent summer seat of the Spanish kings, not far from Madrid, awakens associations of luxurious indolence and the splendour of past times, of vast gardens, fluttering breezes and cool fountains. And the music affirms these associations in that it transports folk elements from the Flamenco culture into the framework of  of a classical form, evoking a subtle atmosphere of vitality and elegance and overlaying it with an archaic patina….’  In other words, the music attempts to transport the listener to another place and time through the evocation of the sounds of nature, through the guitar and orchestra, and it does so beautifully.   According to the composer, the first movement is “animated by a rhythmic spirit and vigour without either of the two themes… interrupting its relentless pace”; the second movement “represents a dialogue between guitar and solo instruments (cor anglais, bassoon, oboe, horn etc.)”; and the last movement “recalls a courtly dance in which the combination of double and triple time maintains a taut tempo right to the closing bar.” He described the concerto itself as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” in the gardens of Aranjuez.

For myself, the second movement [the ‘Adagio’] represented 12 minutes of pure beauty, and while it had at times a familiar melody from traditional adagios of other composers, it became something special with the addition of the guitar as the principal source of melody. Apparently,  Rodrigo and his wife Victoria stayed silent for many years about the inspiration for the second movement, and thus the popular belief grew that it was inspired by the bombing of Guernica in 1937. In her autobiography, Victoria eventually declared that it was both an evocation of the happy days of their honeymoon and a response to Rodrigo’s devastation at the miscarriage of their first pregnancy.  I suggest readers find a copy of the internet, and have a listen for themselves, to the second movement in particular. It should provide inspiration.

Susie’s gone out again, Dad’s home, again, with a ‘upset’ digestive tract again, this is beginning to become rather annoying, almost distressing!! Putting off going back to complain again, for a while!!

We didn’t have much to say yesterday, but I did get the back lawn mowed, and although the workmen out in the street have moved along a few doors from here, they did actually clear up most of the refuse they had left behind – although on closer inspection, I think a fair degree of ‘raking’ will be required before I put the lawnmower over that area!!  Seems to be a lot of mini gravel material left behind!  And at least this morning, I was not disturbed by an early morning ‘banging’ on my front door, as occurred yesterday – to eventually open and find two police gentlemen awaiting my attention, asking for the name of somebody I’d never heard of! I guess they were satisfied that I was not whom they were looking for, as they were soon on their way, although I noticed their car was parked out the front for quite a while thereafter ‘considering their options’!

Anyway, it’s Saturday morning, and a rather warm day is anticipated – rather glad that today’s gym session was a 9am starting time before too much heat gets into the day. Incidentally overnight, I noticed that India finally had a win in the cricket – the second of the two 20 over matches, played here in Melbourne saw the Indians win rather convincingly in the final analysis, by 8 wickets – India 2 for 135 defeated Australia all out for 131 [including 4 run outs!!] .  Now I believe a triangular  50 Over series with Sri Lanka joining Australia and India, commences on Sunday, here in Melbourne again.

A bit tougher at the gymnasium this morning, the instructor felt I did things too easily on Thursday, so put things up another level for me, again!!  Legs felt a little heavier or more tired than usual. However, followed up with a bit of a Saturday morning wander around the town centre, called in at Blues Plus for my Saturday morning iced coffee, then up to the Sunbury market – not really to buy anything, but have a brief chat with a couple of people from the radio station, who have stalls at this monthly market.  Admittedly, I did adjourn briefly at the book stall – accosted by the owner who obviously loves a good talk and dropping names of the rich and famous that he knows!! While all of his books are second hand, I feel that they are generally a little over-priced, however he had a lot of great Australian historical stuff there, but not exactly what I was looking for. So in my case, all of his taking didn’t earn him any cash! Actually, I spent my weekly [or monthly] book buying quota yesterday, at Collins Book Shop in Sunbury – purchased another poet from the ‘Wordsworth Poetry Library’ series – this time ‘The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson’.  Now, there was a fascinating little opening quotation to the ‘Introduction’ written by Karen Hodder.

‘He’d been out walking one morning and he came back with a great wide-awake hat full of the most terrible-looking fungi, which he brought into the drawing-room where I happened to be with my mother. He showed her his hat full of these objects and said “Emily, will you please have these cooked for luncheon?”  My grandmother was absolutely horrified. “MY dear Ally”  – she always called him Ally – “you couldn’t possibly eat those. I’m sure they’re most unsafe and poisonous”. He said “Emily, I know quite well what they are. They’re very good to eat and I should like to have them cooked for luncheon”. I think my grandmother, although she was said to influence his poetry unduly, always knew when she was beaten, so she rang the rang and gave the hat full of mushrooms to the butler,  who carried them off and had them cooked. At luncheon they appeared on a very large dish, and they were handed all around the table, and everybody refused them until they got to him – he was, of course, last on the circuit – and rather aggressively he cook the whole contents of the dish and ate them all with everybody glaring anxiously at him, thinking that he would probably fall down dead.’  ^{[from ‘Sir Charles Tennyson, cir. Norman page, pp. 166-67].}

Now in this particular series of books, I now possess the grand total of two books  [works of the poets, Tennyson, and Wordsworth]!! The only copies in fact that the local book shop had in stock, so I must look up the relevant site, and see what else is available  – I see that I have 35 still to find!!!

Thinking about books, yesterday I finished another of Jane Austin’s novels –  Northanger Abbey, which was the first of Jane Austen’s novels to be completed for publication, ready for press in 1803, but not actually published, posthumously until 1817. I must have begun to read this about a decade ago, according to a bookmark I found in the early pages, but presumably decided at that stage of my life that I was not really in a Jane Austen frame of mind! Anyway this time, I read the complete novel over a few days, and rather enjoyed it, intending to work through the other six of her novels as time goes by – actually, I’m sure I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, have certainly seen two or three movie/drama versions of it on the TV over the years in any case.  Here’s a little plot summary of the story which I found.

.‘Northanger Abbey follows seventeen-year-old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath. It is Catherine’s first visit there. She meets her friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and goes to balls. Catherine finds herself pursued by Isabella’s brother, the rather rough-mannered, slovenly John Thorpe, and by her real love interest, Henry Tilney. She also becomes friends with Eleanor Tilney, Henry’s younger sister. Henry captivates her with his view on novels and his knowledge of history and the world. General Tilney (Henry and Eleanor’s father) invites Catherine to visit their estate, Northanger Abbey, which, from her reading of Ann Radcliffe’s gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, she expects to be dark, ancient and full of Gothic horrors and fantastical mystery’.  The story contains a number of major themes, obviously applicable in particular to the period in English history and cultural practices at which time the novel was written. Those themes include:

• The intricacies and tedium of high society, particularly partner selection.
• The conflicts of marriage for love and marriage for property.
• Life lived as if in a Gothic novel, filled with danger and intrigue, and the obsession with all things gothic.
• The dangers of believing life is the same as fiction.
• The maturation of the young into skeptical adulthood, the loss of imagination, innocence and good faith.
• Things are not what they seem at first.
• Social criticism (comedy of manners).
• Parody of the gothic novels’ “gothic and anti-gothic” attitudes.
• In addition, Catherine Morland realises she is not to rely upon others, such as Isabella, who are negatively influential on her, but to be single-minded and independent. It is only through bad experiences that Catherine really begins to properly mature and grow up.

I guess those are the kind of themes and subject matters that one would be asked to elaborate on as am English literature student of Jane Austen’s novels.  I don’t remember studying any of them myself, though I undertook English Literature at my final year of secondary school –  my favourite subject, but disappointingly, on perusing my old school reports, I see I only gained a normal Pass in the subject!! Presumably my teacher that year didn’t agree with my synopsis of the above kind of questions. Trying to recall which pieces I actually studied that year – one was Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’, then there was also ‘The Getting of Wisdom’ by Australian author Henry Handel Richardson, and the ‘exciting’ [how I felt, not, at the time] the ‘Selected Poetry of Robert Browning’ – will us students that year, ever forget poems of the likes of ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘The Bishop Orders His Tomb’, or ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ –  nine and half pages of the latter, though all I can recall is the name.  There must have been other books on the syllabus, just can’t recall them now [we are speaking of 1964!!!]  –   ah yes, of course, I knew William Shakespeare had to be there, somewhere’  –   my favourite Shakespeare play, ‘Hamlet’. I even have a vinyl recording of the play here at home, with Richard Burton performing the role of Hamlet!!  Enough of this literary reminiscing!

An interesting new ABC drama series commenced last night titled ‘The Straits’. Part of the pre-advertising for this was produced in the form of a 4 page newspaper spread-sheet supplement under the  title again ‘The Straits’ and supposedly representing Australia’s Top End Independent News . One of the exclusive reports on the front page served as a preview I guess, of the actual series. It read like this:-

‘A special investigation by The Straits has revealed that the Montebellos, a local Cairns [in Northern Queensland] family are involved in multiple illegal activities. Using a complicated web of legitimate business as a front, the family business involves transporting drugs into Australia, and guns and exotic wildlife out, making use of ties of blood and loyalty in the Torres Strait Islands. However The Straits secret investigation reveals cracks have started to appear in this once strong family empire. Disgruntled sources close to the family have told The Straits that crime syndicate boss and family patriarch Harry Montebello has started to plan his succession which has sparked a power struggle within the family’.  The ‘article’ then continues with a bio summary of each of the family members that become a part of this power struggle. I had to tape the opening episode last night, and then watch upon my return from the radio meeting. I quite enjoyed that premiere though in my usual way, was not keen on the violence and criminal aspects which actually form the basis of the show. But it appears to be the beginning of another outstanding production by the ABC.

Interesting was the fact that the ‘newspaper supplement even included a couple of advertisements – one for what was presumably for a family controlled restaurant in Cairns – ‘The Golden Fish’ [the best Chinese food in Cairns],  and for the Montebello Croc Farm [we guarantee you’ll have a snapping good time!]

For those who might not be familiar with the geography of the Torres Strait, the following might be of interest. The Torres Strait is located in the Coral Sea between the Cape York Peninsula and the western province of Papua New Guinea, and is the northern most part of Australia.  It is approximately 150 kilometres [or 93 miles] wide at it’s narrowest extent.  The Strait was named after the Spanish navigator Luis Vaez de Torres who sailed through the region in 1606. There are 8,000 people who live on 18 of the 100 islands, coral cays, reefs and sandbanks dotted throughout the Torres Strait, and a further 42,000 live on the Australian mainland. That perhaps explains the references from time to time, when speaking of Australia’s Indigenous communities, to the term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.   Most of the people are of Melanesian background. There are 5 traditional island clusters in the Torres Strait including two Torres Strait communities on the Northern Peninsula area of Cape York. The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited for at least 2,500 years, and likely, much longer.  There are two traditional languages spoken – Kala Lagua Ya in the western, central and northern islands, and Miriam Mir in the eastern islands. A third language has also developed over time – the Torres Strait creole, Yumiplatok, which is a mixture of the two traditional languages and English. This is in fact now the region’s most common language.

After a rare reasonable overnight sleep, felt better this morning than I have for a while, although still slightly apprehensive about this morning’s gym session [went today instead of last night, when I’d felt any attempt at doing so would have been unhelpful].  Today’s session actually proved a little more comfortable than Monday, and I felt quite good afterwards. Even ‘shouted’ myself an iced coffee in the town before I returned home.

Some of the headlines from today’s ‘Age’ newspaper included:

• Historic day as gender pay gap narrows  –  big pay rises for more than 150,000 community sector workers will help narrow the large pay gap between men and women in Australia after an historic equal pay decision by the workplace tribunal  [the sector has a mostly female workforce, nit sure why the disparity existed?]
• Optus snaffles free footy – Optus has won a landmark copyright case that changes television and internet broadcasting in Australia. The Federal Court ruled that the company can record and transmit free-to-air television shows over the internet to consumers. Optus was seeking protection from the Australian Football League the National Rugby League and Telstra, which wanted an injunction against its ‘TV Now’ service  [the technicalities of this are well above by head t the moment!!].
• PM plays down job losses as economy’s ‘growing pains’  –  Prime Minister Julia Gillard has given a firm pledge to bring down a 2012/2012 budget surplus, and played down rising job losses in manufacturing and office work as ‘growing pains’ as the economy moves to a higher level [must keep an eye on the surplus promise, as the year proceeds!]
• Rinehart close to 14%  –  Mining magnate Gina Rinehart last night inched closer to her target of a 14% stake in Fairfax Media. Mrs Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, has emerged as the single-biggest shareholder in the company, putting pressure on its directors to invite her to fill one of the newspaper digital and radio group’s vacant board seats [that aim has been thwarted so far because she is not considered to be able to show enough experience in running publicly listed companies – ‘it has to be on the merits that she’s the person for the job – not simply because she has 10 per cent’]

Well, I guess that latter item is not an area I will ever have to worry about!!

In the meantime, this is an event that seems to happen regularly at this time each year somewhere in Australia  –  as NineNews reports…..  ‘Thousands of residents in northern NSW are bunkered down in evacuation centres, as the worst floods in over 35 years hit the region. Across NSW, more than 12,000 people were isolated by rising floodwaters on Thursday as heavy rainfall lashed the state, sparking 13 flood warnings. Evacuation operations continued in and around Moree late on Thursday afternoon, with about 2300 residents rushing to sandbag their homes and leave before darkness fell.  Helicopters descended on nearby Pallamallawa to airlift some of its 600 flood-stricken residents to safety, with the Gwydir river expected to peak there at 6pm (AEDT).  NSW SES deputy commissioner of operations Steven Pearce said the Pallamallawa operation was challenging. “But we are very confident we will get everyone to safety,” he told AAP. At Moree, both the Mehi and Gwydir rivers were predicted to peak on Friday morning, matching or exceeding the 10.6m levels reached in the February 1976 flood. “We’re looking at water up to the knees (in some areas),” Moree Mayor Katrina Humphries said in a statement urging affected residents to leave their homes. About 1600 Moree residents and 80 people from Biniguy were expected to evacuate to south Moree evacuation centres before dark, when the main bridge at Moree would be closed and the town split in two. “Everyone is really pulling together to help sandbag properties and there’s a really strong community spirit,” SES spokeswoman on the ground, Heidi Groom, told AAP. NSW Police and Emergency Services minister Mike Gallacher extended natural disaster declarations on Thursday to the Moree, Narrabri, Gwydir, Tenterfield and Greater Taree local government areas. “The emergency service personnel deployed to these areas have done an outstanding job helping communities who are in the thick of this weather system,” Mr Gallacher said in a statement. Premier Barry O’Farrell, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner and Mr Gallacher will tour the flood-affected regions on Friday. The SES estimates about 12,150 people will be isolated across the state by Thursday night’.

North of Australia, disaster has struck early today, with as many  as 130 people missing after the ferry MV Rabaul Queen sank off the east coast of Papua New Guinea.   Authorities have confirmed that 219 survivors have been pulled from rough seas between PNG’s second largest city, Lae, and New Britain after their ferry sank this morning. But rapidly diminishing light and poor weather  late this afternoon, meant the search had to be  put on hold until tomorrow. I know rescuers were desperate to find survivors before darkness fell, but the hopes of finding any of the missing tomorrow would sadly be most unlikely.

Back into the meeting schedule tonight  – first radio station committee meeting for the year, with all members present. A couple of ‘controversial’ items discussed briefly, and the problems they generated were resolved as best could be done at this stage. A very amiable meeting as is the norm for this group, and despite the rather humid condition of the room in which we have to meet [no air conditioning], it is a pleasure these days to be a part of this particular management team. Further work still needs to be done and followed up on the question of the streaming of our radio programs onto the internet – it has often been referred to and talked of in the past, but there were various technical obstacles that needed to be overcome first  – progress in the past 6 months has been substantial,  and it is now not really a matter of if the procedure, simply when all of the technical and setup procedures can be finalised. I look forward to advising readers as to where and where, they can tune in to my specific shows, via the internet. Wish it could have been done years ago!

I wrote back to Lesley in Scotland the other day, as a follow on from our brief discussion about Scotland becoming independent of Great Britain.  I said that

 ‘According to various articles I’ve read over recent times, it’s obviously a subject of debate in some quarters, but on the basis of your comment, almost seems a point of division between generations. Much the same out here in respect to Australia becoming a republic and ‘disowning the Queen and her representatives’ [our various State Governors, and Federal Governor-General]. I’m trying to read up on Scottish history a bit lately [again], and am currently [though not all Scotland related] reading a book by Nora Chadwick about the history and origin of the Celts from their ‘beginnings’ through parts of Europe and the Mediterranean world – currently ‘wading’ through the early centuries of the AD period and the Roman ‘invasion’ of Britain. Interesting that the Romans never bothered to go too far north into Scotland’……………………………Lesley’s brief response was rather interesting  itself  –  ‘I live on Roman Road and we Strathaven has an old Roman fort in it. Would love to get a metal detector as sure there is an old wall under one of our fields’ .  Now that would be a rather exciting activity, searching for an old Roman fort!!  While equally important in their own way, the only archeologocal finds here in Australia will relate to our Aboriginal populations – don’t think the Romans got this far – not until post World Two anyway, when they came in their thousands!

Meantime, I see my calendar is telling me we have reached the first day of February.  This is the last month of our Australian summer, and certainly in most of the continent, it tends to be the hottest month of the year [just after the schools have gone back]. Up in the top end of Australia, this month is in the middle of the Wet season, which is often accompanied by rain, floods, cyclones, etc, as we saw with disastrous consequences 12 months ago. I’m rather pleased that I’m not working this February – some of those peak hour afternoon drives back from the city in high 30 degree heat used to become quite unpleasant. The weather has cooled down a little for a couple of days, which I enjoy – I’m thinking that somewhere like Tasmania, our island state to the south of Victoria, should be my ideal climate to retire to, being somebody who doesn’t mind the cold weather we get here [is not too extreme] but am finding it difficult to cope with heat and humidity. One reason I have reneged so far on the numerous requests over the years of my sister & her husband to move up to Brisbane. The humidity of that city at certain times of the year can be rather unbearable,  although that needs to be balanced against the relative warmth of their winters compared to down here.

Now this was a ‘feel good’ story in today’s media……………….’Company boss gives his employees $15 million in bonuses after selling up………….Employees at the Grenda bus company have been left feeling overwhelmed with gratitude after owner Ken Grenda gave them $15 million in bonuses.   Etty Talauega, who plans to use some of her bonus to help her children with their hip-hop dancing dreams, said she was reduced to tears when she found out.  “I really didn’t expect this to happen,” Ms Talauega told Nine News.   Vernon Franklin, a driver with Grenda for five years after moving to Melbourne from India, said the bonus was just part of what made the Grendas a great family to work for.  “I was overwhelmed with the generosity of Mr Grenda,” Mr Franklin said.  Mr Grenda decided to sell the company after 66 years and thank staff by sharing some of the profits. Some are receiving as much as $30,000.  “I think we are losing a great man,” Mr Franklin said.   Iain Beberidge, who has driven with the company for 15 years, insisted the appreciation the employees felt was not all about the money.  “Ken looked after his employees, he treated them like family,” he said.  “Every time he comes past the depot, he shakes everyone’s hands, and says ‘g’day’.  “He knows everyone by their first names.”  Another employee Jeff Winfield told Nine News that the new owners would have a lot to live up to.  “Hopefully the new boss will get the hint,” he said.

I imagine there would be a few envious employees out there in working land, wishing they had a boss like that. However, I think people like that only come along every now & then, mostly the latter.

In the meantime, while I generally have less interest in the shorter form of cricket [as compared to the traditional Test matches], I noticed that the first of a couple of 20/20 Games between Australia and India was played tonight in Sydney [20 overs per team] – a rather different makeup of players for the Aussie team for this competition, with the only member of the recent Test series being the opener, David Warner. Nevertheless, the match outcome was the same – Australia 4 for 171 defeated India 6 for 140. I think the 2^nd game is scheduled for here in Melbourne, in a day or so.

PS, not sure why the first part of this article has a different font size, etc, seems to hve a mind of it’s own, won’t change for me!!

Over the past few days, we have being inundated with images of Prime Minister Julia Gillard being swiftly ushered away by security on Australia Day, and these images have been broadcast across the world. According to one commentator I read, we Australians were polarised by the incident and many different views have been expressed at dinner tables, in bars and at office water coolers. That viewpoint goes on to say that just when we thought the issue had run its course, the Opposition is now calling for a full Australian Federal Police investigation.

One media outlet noted that ‘Australia Day ceremonies are usually the dullest of events. But not when Australia’s political leaders are together just walking distance from a gathering at the contentious Aboriginal Tent Embassy. When the crowd there heard a report that earlier in the day Opposition leader Tony Abbott had suggested its removal, a spontaneous protest  took place at the Lobby restaurant where Prime Minister Julia Gillard was awarding emergency medals.

The fracas quickly turned to farce. Developments have included: that Mr Abbott’s remarks were misreported; the original tip-off came via Tony Hodges, one of the PM’s media advisors (who has since resigned); accusations of a media beat-up of violence; a shoe lost by Ms Gillard was returned after suggestions of an ebay auction; a go-between was named followed by strong denials. At least that’s the best guess at the moment.

This photo of Prime Minister Julia Gillard ‘escaping’ from protesters has gone viral

My take on it was that it  all come about when both the PM and the Opposition Leader were at an awards ceremony last Thursday when tent embassy members arrived to protest against Tony Abbott. The Opposition Leader claims that members of the PM’s staff alerted the protesters to his whereabouts, after earlier comments from him seemingly calling for the tent embassy to be removed.  The PM’s now former press advisor Tony Hodges resigned after he revealed that he was the one who told a Union ACT official that Tony Abbott was at the awards ceremony.  However, the Australian Federal Police has released a statement saying it has “evaluated the information and no evidence of a criminal act was identified”.  One question which arose was that Tony Abbott was accused of claiming the tent embassy should be torn down and eliminated, a complete fabrication of what he actually said. The protestors presumably on the basis on the incorrect interpretation [presumably again, deliberately made] of Abbott’s words.

Another view  on the issue, was that many of us have  become a little bit tired of the photo of Prime Minister Julia Gillard being ushered away by her security guard from those Australia Day protests. It certainly didn’t look very much like an encouraging long term image of our PM, and as that view further expressed, the annoying thing about the depiction was  how our PM has been painted as the “damsel in distress”. Some feel that she has being made the subject of sexist views as our first female PM and this image merely adds fuel to the fire.  Some people even suggested that this was her chance to leave her legacy and perhaps even show us what she was made of, i.e., rather than allow herself to be hustled out of the building in such an unflattering, that she and Abbott should have been permitted a more controlled and calmer exit.  Well of course, not having been there in the situation as it was, that’s easy to say from an external viewpoint, although I must admit that the idea of taking that approach did occur to me as been more appropriate.  Or in reality, a  ridiculous approach, and I guess one has to respect the judgment of those who job was to protect the PM, and they obviously saw a very real danger to her safety, if any other approach than the one taken had been followed.  In that respect, I’d agree with the view that a more important legacy would be the type of policy and long-term changes that she can bring to our country [rather than a hasty decision to stand and face potentially violent protestors, who seemed already to be out of control].  Also, as pointed out, how exactly would John Howard or Kevin Rudd have responded to such a moment?  For most, it would be difficult to picture them making a heroic exit, walking calmly and unflinching through a hectic throng of people [though in my own view, I can somehow see John Howard attempting to do just that, subject to the efforts of his ‘minders’ to prevent him from doing so].  In any case, the writer that prompted the above comments, expresses a hope that the media outlets will start to ration the use of the photo referred to, and also that the  people will forget about our PM’s gender and let her get on with the job of running our country.

Meanwhile, this afternoon I received an email from the Liberal Party, expressing the following:-

Dear Bill

Today at the National Press Club I spoke about the Coalition’s plans to restore Hope, Reward and Opportunity for all Australians. The only foundation for a successful country is a strong economy. The only way to take the pressure off family budgets, to increase job opportunities, and to have the better services and infrastructure that every Australian wants is to build a stronger economy.  That’s why the Coalition’s plans for a stronger economy is to scrap unnecessary taxes, cut government spending and reduce the red tape burden on business. The Coalition’s plan to reduce the cost of living pressures on families is to take the carbon tax off their power and transport and make government live within its means. That way, there can be lower taxes and less upward pressure on interest rates.

Regards,  Tony Abbott.  Leader of the Opposition

Now, I actually watched that address by Mr Abbott, at the National Press Club today, and I was to be honest, disappointed at the content and nature of what he said. What was a looking for?  Difficult to say, but hopefully, some degree of optimism about a change in the Abbott/Opposition style tactics of attack and negatism that have dominated the parliamentary scene over the past year or so. Some form of inspiration for 2012 that would leave us Liberal supporters feeling a little more confident about what the Party stood for, and the manner in which it was going to approach the role of Opposition and presenting a viable alternative government. But I didn’t feel Mr Abbott gave that to us, but instead, simply stood at the rostrum making a Policy Speech, and continuing with the same format of attack and negativity.  His speech consisted of an extension of the above paragraph that has been emailed, but where I would have liked those ‘plans’ promises, inspirations, etc, to have been detailed in more substance, we found instead so much time again devoted to criticism and ridicule of the government.  Some, maybe most of it is justified, but we all know what has happened, the mistakes made, and so on – I would like to see parliament move on a little to what can be done, in the future in the absence of the spin and rhetoric of times past. But on the basis of the Press Club speech, that is a forlorn hope, I fear!

As for myself, this last day of January was unsatisfactory – still feeling unwell, lethargic, and the ongoing works out in the street becoming just a bit of a headache.  Gave Susie my car to use to get to her work today, so I restricted myself [perhaps deliberately] from going anywhere.  In fact, decided after a light evening meal that I didn’t have the energy to do anything of value, even reading and/or computer work was proving tiring, so simply adjourned for the night, and actually slept in patches off and on between then and just before 3am Wednesday morning, at which point, much more sleep proved difficult.

After reading an interesting article in the paper the other day, I enquired of a friend in Scotland [2^nd or 3^rd cousin actually], via the following query.

Hi Lesley, this was the start of an interesting article in one of our major papers over here, today – is this really a likely outcome within the next few years, and how much do today’s Scots really care?
‘Scots defy Cameron on vote for breakaway – Scottish prime minister Alex Salmond has taken a formal step towards an independence referendum that the government hopes will secure a mandate for withdrawal from the United Kingdom within five years.’……………………….Lesley replied that  ‘A lot of people in my age group don’t want to break away. Scotland would never cope on its own. I don’t like Alex Salmond 😦  Unfortunately they seem to be targeting the group that are almost ready to start voting and they seem to think it’s a fantastic idea. Us adults will need to make sure we get out and vote to stay in UK !’

It’s certainly an interesting question, and I suppose in Scottish history, has over the centuries been the subject of debates, wars, assassinations, and so on between the two ‘states’ [England and Scotland]. It wasn’t until the Acts of Union of 1706/1707 that a more formal and settled unity between the two existed. An article written by a former Melbourne Jesuit scholar who completed a PhD in international and administrative law in 2008, commented on the aspect of the right of self- determination on the one hand, and territorial integrity of states on the other. Part of what he wrote follows:

’Who or what constitutes a ‘people’ for the purposes of self-determination has, in any event, been very hard to define. People have argued for separation on grounds of ethnicity (the Basque conflict), religion (the Bosnian war), political difference (the Northern League in Italy) or a mixture of the above (compare the history of Ireland).

Multi-ethnic post-colonial states, especially those with large indigenous populations, have been particularly reluctant to concede anything like a general right to secede.

Current international law thinking reconciles the tensions between self-determination and territorial integrity by declaring that there is an ‘internal’ right to self-determination (the right to one’s own language, culture, religion and the like) which must be enjoyed within existing state boundaries. It is only when this right is frustrated that a right to ‘external’ self-determination (i.e. secession) arises.

In short, territorial integrity ‘trumps’ self-determination in the absence of exceptional circumstances (such as decolonisation or gross human rights abuses).

The theory, however, gets rather murky in practice and mired in politics. States which recognised Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on the basis of the right to self-determination did not extend the same recognition to Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s declarations of independence from Georgia, despite the obvious parallels.

(Each case involved a region with a large majority in favour of independence. The majority had historically faced discrimination and had declared independence following a war in which a major world power had effectively carved the region out of the larger country.)

So where does all this leave the Scots example? Scotland is certainly no colony. Nevertheless, it was historically independent of the rest of the UK and, crucially, was merged with it by treaty (the Acts of Union of 1706, passed by the English Parliament, and 1707, passed by its Scottish counterpart).

Scotland retained a measure of independence even before devolution began in the mid-1990s – it has always kept its own legal system and cultural identity.

There is therefore no question of creating a new state from scratch (as there was in Kosovo and the Caucasus). What has been done by agreement can, in principle, be undone the same way. It seems that Westminster agrees.

Whether or not this will actually happen, of course, will ultimately depend on what the Scots themselves decide’.

On the basis of my friend’s comment, it seems there is no clear-cut direction amongst the Scottish people as to where they want to go. I always find it interesting, in sport for example that in some areas, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are all lumped under the heading of the United Kingdom for ‘team’ purposes, yet in other instances, they have separate state teams [World Cup soccer, cricket, etc]. This past week, we have seen Andy Murray the tennis player, officially representing the United Kingdom, yet in many circles, when he is winning, England claims him as theirs, while he is losing, he is ‘the Scot’!!  Anyway, although we don’t here much on the subject out here, there still remains much debate in Scotland on the broad topic amongst writers, commentators, etc. We will retain a bit of a watch on things, particularly because of personal interest in Scottish history.

It was a very noisy day in our street today – after a break for a few days, the workman were back with their heavy machinery, digging up parts of the street, and in fact, all of their time and efforts today were spent in front of my place – I had to request a brief halt and rearrangement of barriers, etc this morning in order to get my car out of the driveway, where I left it around the corner in the adjacent street for most of the day [Susan’s car stayed where it was – it has a dead battery, and she doesn’t seem in a rush to get the problem remedied at present].  My main outing, prior to some shopping was a rather strenuous hour at the gymnasium late morning  – most of my levels were ‘raised’ somewhat, and that combined with a weekend of little sleep, hot nights, and late night tennis viewing, etc, left your correspondent feeling somewhat exhausted by early afternoon, on a day which continued to be hot and humid until a cool change began to move in late in the day.  No chance for an early night this evening either –  finished my radio program at midnight, and while it was quite cool outside by then, I was finding it still quite humid in most of the radio building [apart from the min broadcasting studio]…………………….so, while enjoying my usual Monday show of folk, blues, jazz, country, show and world music, etc, I was not unhappy to be able to finish up when 12 am arrived!! Admittedly, also a little disappointed that I’d not heard from any listeners, because despite not having felt 100% on this and last Monday night, I don’t believe that has come over in any way, but nevertheless a little element of feedback would overcome that occasional feeling that one is simply ‘talking to oneself’ for 3 hours!!