Author: jkirkby8712

This date, in years gone past, often meant the playing of practical jokes on others, as an April Fool’s Day contribution. I have to admit that when I called in at the radio station this morning, for a brief sports report, before continuing to work, I would have loved to have created some form of  ‘April Fool’s joke’ for the morning’s host – but admitted to Ron that I simply couldn’t think of anything to impose upon him and/or his listeners!!!  I’m sure there will be something to ‘trick’ the readers in one or other of this morning’s newspapers, but with the one I have to hand, I haven’t ‘found’ anything yet!!  I guess that’s what makes such a thing, a success – if you can’t pick it!!!

It was quite chilly this morning – 5.5 degrees as I drove up the hill to the radio station, and later down to 5 degrees in the Airport area, but despite that, a clear sky and bright glaring early rising sunshine [the car drivers’ blinding variety] assured us that we were in for a beautiful Autumn Friday! That was indicated early by, initial count, at least five hot air balloons up over the city skyline – always a rather spectacular sight!  This morning I did something a little different – have been drinking very little coffee lately, just not enjoying the drink in it’s vasious guises, even the occasional morning cappuccino, and basically admitted this to various people, including the local Clifton Hill coffee house/cafe establishment where our organisation does much of our business for functions, etc – apologised to the manager, Ahmed, that he was not seeing so much of my custom lately! However, this morning, I called in with my paper, and settled down for 30 minutes to enjoy a cappuccino [which I did enjoy – perhaps it’s the take away varieties that my system is objecting to?] and a ‘light’ breakfast –  Iordered a poached egg with tomato, and I meant light, just one of each, but didn’t actually specify that so precisely. Now two eggs and two tomatoes on toast may not seem much to most people, but to this writer who seldom eats more than one bowl of cereal each morning, that little serving was probably enough to see me beyond lunch, and well into the afternoon!  All very pleasant but a little beyond the ‘light’ meal I’d had in mind!  Will remember to be a little more precise next time, though knowing Ahmed and his generosity, it probably won’t make much difference!!

Meanwhile, my day ahead looks like being another very quiet one – alone again, seems to becoming a trend, both at home and at work!  No wonder I was feeling lonely last night, and mentally very tired. Had a good walk earlier in the evening, but I believe I was asleep soon after 10 pm, rather unusual for this ‘historical’ night owl!!   I shall return >>>>>>>>>>>>>

After leaving work, doing a bit of shopping, having a haircut [well overdue, even if there isn’t a great deal on top these days]], I called in at Goonawarra to drop off a few bits and pieces – brief chats to James, Jodie, Nan and Val [and the dog!!]

Rather a coolish night – most of which I spent up at the radio station –  featuring two major areas tonight – a selection of music and songs from the Col Porter song book, a variety of artists, most of them probably from the same era of music that young Scott was playing earlier in the evening, 1946 to 1964, the main difference being the music genre – he was basically in the rock and blues format, my music tonight was basically jazz. Also played five lengthy tracks from a CD released by that great jazz pianist, Ahmad Jamal [whom I had the pleasure of seeing live at the Melbourne Recital Centre, last year], a recording which I think was basically recognising his 70^th birthday at the time, released in 2000. The arithmetic adds up – he will 82 this July, and was about to turn 81 when he visited Melbourne in 2010.

Didn’t hear anything from Susan, bit disappointing! She had suggested earlier in the week that she would not be home Friday or Saturday night. I think she must have called in briefly while I was at the radio station, but as it would turn out, I’d not see her until Sunday.

Yesterday, I made reference to the media report about Australia’s controversial plan for a refugee processing centre in East Timor, and the fact that proposal was effectively taken off the agenda by East Timorese authorities earlier this week.  I think it was obvious that the  plan would never proceed, when one considers the enormous developmental work still required in that new nation, with many problems of their own to be overcome. Thinking about that situation, took me back to a report I prepared for a church social justice group back in 2004, just four years after East Timor became an independent nation, albeit, not without some considerable sacrifice and loss of life over many years leading up to that time. I came across that report recently, and thought I’d include it on these pages. In many ways, some of the difficulties being faced at that time, are still concerns in this tiny nation.

So, writing in 2004………….”Over the period May 16-23, many churches around Australia will celebrate Simply Sharing Week. The theme this year, under the program co-ordinated by ForceTen is ‘Food for Life’, and particular emphasize has been placed on the basic needs of food and water in East Timor at this time..

Over many years, members of the Uniting Church, including individuals and groups here at St Andrews, have attempted to generate various means of support for the people of East Timor, one of Australia’s near neighbours. While East Timor, after many years of occupation and sometimes brutal suppression, became an independent nation four years ago, this young country still needs that kind of support. Just last year, the United Nations World Food Program launched an appeal for emergency food in East Timor. Under that program, food aid is described as “the provision of food for human consumption for development purposes, including grants and loans for the purchase of food.” In East Timor, malnutrition at the time was widespread, as thousands of families existed on wild roots and tubers, and made porridge from the stems of palm leaves. Much of this situation was a direct long term outcome of the occupation by Indonesia, and the terrible infrastructure and personal damage that was imposed upon this little nation in the years prior to independence.

It was noted in a newspaper article just two months ago, that in one of the world’s poorest nations, rebuilding needs a lot more than bricks and mortar. According to that report “The average life expectancy is only 57 years and 41 percent of the population live below the poverty line. Jobs are scarce and the health system is in desperate need of doctors, funds and equipment. There is no local government power base – budgets for the 13 districts are controlled by the central Government in Dili, which also elects the district administrators. And meetings between regional groups can resemble high noon at the Tower of Babel. About 33 languages are spoken in East Timor, many of them specific to isolated regions” [Australian, 3^rd Jan, 2004].

Meanwhile, on the wider scale, security continues to be a major influence in accentuating many of the country’s food, health & social problems. East Timor has turned to Australia as principal professional advisor to its national army,  and to provide support to its police forces.  My own brother is one of those advisors currently serving with the Defence Cooperation Program, in Metinaro, west of Dili, where he has been located since January, and trains the local forces in the defence of their small nation”.    While Ian was over in East Timor, he wrote a very moving summary of his time and activities there, and I will include that in a future contribution to these pages, in a few days.

Interestingly, on the subject of the refugee centre, our Prime Minister seems determined to proceed with negotiations despite the fact that the  East  delegate at this week’s ‘Bali People Smuggling Conference, has reaffirmed his nation’s hostility to a refugee processing centre on  it’s territory, and suggested that Australia should look elsewhere for a location for the centre. Dr Alberto Carlos said “For East Timor, it’s still not possible. Our land is very, very small…..the income is still very low. A lot of infrastructure needs to be built. That’s our main priority…..We would very, very much appreciate that initiative if Australia can find some other places in the region because we have a very, very limited space”.  Australia’s Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen says that Australia wants the centre in East Timor so it can transfer asylum seekers that reach Australia to the country for assessment of their claims and resettlement in other countries. But with East Timor [rightfully in my view] maintaining it’s resistance, Mr Bowen hinted that Australia has been approaching other countries as well.

On another subject, my admiration and respect for emergency services personnel, increased significantly today, after reading reports of yesterday’s terrible car accident. It’s not a job that I feel I could ever cope with  –  descriptions such as ‘two of the injured were not aware of the activity around them, the third was. He had his dead mate in his lap. Their legs were all entangled around the pole and caught in metal. It was really very distressing for everybody to work…to get them out……….It took several hours to separate all the men from each other and the twisted car’.  I could not imagine the stress of going home to one’s family, are dealing with that horror for some hours.  As one emergency officer said ‘Week in, week out, we seem to have a repeat of what we’re seen before. Unfortunately, you can’t put an old head on young shoulders, and we see the same mistakes again’.  Very sad indeed!

Did I note previously, that India won the 2nd Semi Final of the World Cup Cricket – well if not, I do so now – At the Chandigarb ground in India, the co-host for this tournament. India 260 defeated Pakistan 231. So the final this weekend – India versus Sri Lanka.

The news as I was driving into work this morning, was not something to lift one’s spirits – an overnight car smash down on the peninsula, involving a car load of young Naval  ratings, came into a very fast contact with a concrete telegraph pole, which spilt the station wagon concerned, in half, killing two and critically injuring the other three passengers.  These tragedies are happening on our roads all of the time, and yet the news reports of them,  never cease to leave  this writer depressed and upset about them, as though I was personally affected – touch wood, I never will be, but I continue to be disturbed.

It was another day when I virtually had the workplace to myself again –  I should like the peace and quiet that generally entails, but occasionally, the environment tends to become a little demoralising, and while it is a good opportunity to get many jobs completed without interruption, I found myself wishing I could be somewhere else today. And again, while it doesn’t affect me personally, the continuing crisis over in various parts of the Middle East and the Arab world of North Africa [Libya in particular],  together with the ongoing grim news coming out of Japan – not just the tragic stories coming from the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, but the growing concerns about the nuclear reactors – well, I feel for the people who going through all of those traumas at this time.

There was some good news coming through this morning  –  the Socceroos, under their new coach, early this morning, played a ‘friendly’ soccer match against Germany, over in Germany. Now of course, none of us fans here in Australia, can forget the 4-0 thrashing that Germany handed out to Australia, in last year’s World Cup, a result, that despite two good performances after that game, really made the difference in the Aussies continuing on in that tournament. Anyway, in this morning’s game, the Germans got off to another good start, and led 1-0 at halftime, but the 2^nd half saw a great comeback by the Socceroos, so that early in that half, Australia was leading Germany 2-1 on their own soil,. And apparently, despite a couple of chances late in the match, the Socceroos held on to win 2-1, against a team that had won 9 games in a row since the world Cup!!  Great effort boys!!!

A night at home, alone tonight, as is the norm during the week now. Went for a bit of a walk – would have to describe it as a ‘half-hearted’ effort – before returning to cook myself a meal, that I could spread over two nights! Your writer feeling a little lonely tonight. Over the last few weeks, I have been going through the various concerts and shows I would like to get to this year, but apart from the ASQ, I’ve not really done much about them as yet, wondering whether I should spent the money, with retirement coming up. One of  my favourite orchestras is of course the Melbourne Symphony –  I noticed that their season opener was on the radio, so decided, that while I attended to other things, I would listen to that concert – which featured the rather lengthy ‘Symphony No. 7’ composed by Gustav Mahler –  most of his symphonies are extra long [compared to other composers]\which is one reason why I seldom play them of a Sunday morning – take up too long a part of my two hour program, although occasionally I have spread a Mahler symphony over two Sunday mornings. I generally try and avoid doing that, but on occasions make an exception.

Interesting that the three major headline stories on the front page of today’s Australia were so varying in subject matter –we had Ricky Ponting’s ‘My journey as captain has changed my life’ story, as related yesterday,  to the Bali talks setback – ‘No hope for PM’s East Timor solution’ to her refugee problem – Julia Gillard wanted to establish a refugee processing centre in East Timor – an  idea I totally disagreed with, and which East Timor has obviously decided, they don’t want to be a party to the proposal as well.  Fair enough. Thirdly, former Prime Minister, Paul Keating has spoken out about the weekend’s New South Wales [NSW] election, claiming that NSW is a drag on the Prime Minister – he was speaking about the likely appointee to lead what is left of the NSW Labor Party following the election debacle. Keating said that Mr Robertson, a former head of Unions NSW, wore the political deaths of up to 25 NSW Labor MPs around his neck and was unfit to lead NSW Labor in the wake of Saturday’s election massacre. And strangely, while it seems the appointment will go ahead, there seems to be a general view that the former union boss was not worthy of the loyalty of his party colleagues.  I have to wonder why anyone would wish to take on a role of that nature under such hostile circumstances? On the other side of things, former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson has backed Mr Robertson, praising him as the one bloke who stuck with Labor’s heartland – tradespeople, single mothers and pensioners, during Labor’s final term in office. Interesting to see how that all turns out!

Had a very pleasant evening last night – my second Monday out in a row, which of course meant that I missed most of Q & A again last night – well, the TV version anyway, but as it happens, the program is simulcast on the ABC radio at the same time, and just happened to be on air as I was driving home last night. I gathered that most of the questions and discussions were related in some way to the past weekend’s New South Wales election, which of course, as related on Saturday night, saw the biggest electoral defeat that I can recall in my time, that massive defeat to the Labor Party.

Anyway, back to last night. From the office, I drove northeast to the suburb of Heidelberg for a bit of a reunion dinner with a small group of people whom I spent a number of years with during the late 1960s/early ‘70s – I think we called ourselves Wesley Young Adults – associated with the inner city Wesley Methodist Mission/Church – most if not all of us, were people who had come down from country areas to either work or study [I was doing both], and with a church background in most cases [though not all], we tended to meet up at Wesley – in fact most of us eventually met our partners, etc in the group, and through various means, the basic group has kept in contact over the 40+ years since that time. Two of the guys present last night were former housemates of mine  – in those days, all the guys lived in one house, the girls in another, a suburb or two away, and  most of us hitched up at different times with the opposite sex, went out on dates etc, them went back to our respective house or flat, or whatever. No one bothers with that kind of arrangement these days, all much more civilised and mutually convenient nowadays!!  

Now, last night, we had dinner at the Old England Hotel, a rather large establishment [which also has it’s own Art Gallery – pity I didn’t get a chance to have a proper look at that].  Judging by the size and quantity of the various ‘restaurant’ style eating areas, does in fact specialise in meals – rather evident, not just by the prices, but also the quality of the meals. I actually only had one course [very good of me]  – a dish by the name of ‘chicken brei’, very tasty indeed, though I’, not completely sure of everything on that plate, but I enjoyed it anyway –  when our guest of honour asked me what I was eating, I had to say in all honesty., that I wasn’t sure, though I promised to fill her in later, after I noticed someone at the other end of the table was eating the same meal – unlike me, they are sure to know what they were eating!!!

Actually the meal was in honour of a couple down from Sydney for a few days, and that was the other point of the night –  a number of us present  had been involved in a trip up to Townsville, for Christmas 1971, where one of my former house mate,  Don [and eventually, best man at my wedding] had lived before he came down to Melbourne. One of the girls who travelled up with us, took a liking to Don’s brother, whom we all met for the first time on that visit, and he took a liking to her!  Anyway, to cut a long story short as they say, those two got married [as did another couple from that trip  – me!!], and it was they who were visiting Melbourne this week, and had suggested that would like to meet up with some old friends, as well as his brother & sister,  whilst they were here. The visit to Townsville in December 1971 happen to coincide with a cyclone that hit the town –  while many other buildings in Townsville were not so lucky, Don’s mother’s home, where we were staying, somehow survived, though at times we were not sure it would. Unfortunately, a number of people lost their lives that night [it was Christmas Eve] and much damage and flooding occurred in the town, as is prone to happen in cyclones. I’ve written about that experience elsewhere, but might reintroduce it one day, when I having a quiet week!

Interesting to note that most of those present last night had travelled [overseas] on various occasions, and now, generally retired in most cases, planned further trips. I was asked if had  journeyed overseas, or was I planning to.  Probably not was the response – something I should have done in my younger days, it’s probably too late now. Interested in going to Britain, mainly for the history and family connections, and with two major sporting events coming up in next few years  – Olympic Games in London, and Commonwealth Games in Scotland, the temptation is there.  A little fear of long distance flying is not helpful!

Ricky Ponting

captain of the Australian cricket team.  Many have described him as Australia’s best batsman, after Don Bradman. He made his debut in 1995 at the age of 17 years,, and since then,  has played in 152 Test matches [77 of them as Captain].  Test runs scored total 12,363,  scored 39 centuries, took 178 catches [all, Australian records] and had a highest score in a Test match of 257 runs.  He captained Australia in 77 Test matches [which is a world record].  He may still have Test match opportunities, as he is planning to continue as a player in the team [under new  ‘Captain in waiting’, Michael Clarke] while his form last, and he is selected. Writing in the ‘Australian’ newspaper, Ponting said    “Being captain of Australia has not only changed my life, it has also taught me the real significance of values, the true meaning of accountability, a deeper respect for mateship and an overwhelming feeling of national pride and responsibility. It has also taught me to become a teacher, a trusted confidant and a better friend. You develop skills that you never thought you had, ensuring you provide your team with the best possible environment and direction to be successful. You learn to take criticism on board, you learn to give feedback in a way that your players respond to, and you learn to set an example in your everyday performance around the team”.  That last little comment was seemingly occasionally forgotten by Ponting over the last year or so, as his patience and temper were sometimes tested beyond their limits, but we will forgive him for those moments, amongst many glorious ones. Not sure that he has been so popular in India, although personally I would not regard that as being something to be too worried about, even if the rest of the cricket world seems to often bend over backwards not to displease the Indians!!! I guess his biggest disappointment would have been the loss of three out of four Ashes series he played in as captain, though to balance, before this current World Cup, Australia had won the three previous World Cups under  Ponting’s leadership.

I finished my Tuesday with two hours at the radio station – a selection of great old and contemporary show tracks, and including a feature of songs by the great Judy Garland. I was pleased to note that both of the presenters, on prior to, and after my show, actually turned up this week!! Wonderful!

At home, another pest of a virus, hacker, or whatever, attacked my computer hard drive again, and left me wondering what I had lost again – seems like I need Jimmy’s help once more, but will have to wait until the weekend for that assistance. So one is writing this up on the laptop [to which I currently have not connected the internet, wise move probably], and will post my work, at the office first chance I get!

Incidentally, in thinking of cricket, the First Semi Final of the World Cup was played today – a brave effort by New Zealand to break the sub-continent dominance of the finals, but wasn’t could enough in the end – Sri Lanka won a place in this weekend’s Final.  The result of the 1st Semi Final, played at Colombo –  Sri Lanka 5 for 220 defeated New Zealand 217.  They will play the winner of Thursday’s game between India and Pakistan. What a match that will be – pity it wasn’t the final!

I find it inconceivable that a jury currently sitting in Melbourne is unable to agree on a murder  verdict, where there is no question that the crime was not committed, but because of the views of pychiatrists and pyschologists, etc, claims of insanity at the time appear to alter the ‘seriousness’ of the murder in question. I know all the experts out there will disagree with me, but I don’t care – murder is murder, and sane or not, the act was committed, a young girl’s trust in the security of a father, and her life, stolen from her. This is the report, this morning, that has stirred up my ire!!

“Jurors say they will never be able to reach a unanimous verdict in the murder trial of a man who threw his four-year-old daughter off Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge.  Justice Paul Coghlan urged the jury to continue trying to reach a verdict in the case of Arthur Phillip Freeman, who flung his daughter Darcey from the bridge on January 29, 2009. The jurors will now go into a fifth day of deliberations in the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday.

On Sunday, they told Justice Coghlan they could not come to a unanimous decision.  “The jury believe it will never agree unanimously on a verdict no matter how much further time the jury spends on deliberations,” the jury said in a written question.  “The jury therefore requests that you direct us how to act in this situation.” Justice Coghlan said he understood that it was a stressful case for the jurors but urged them to continue deliberations. “Do I understand that it is stressful for you, of course I do, extremely so,” he said. “This is a difficult case with hard issues and I thank you for the work you’ve done.” Jurors were asked to decide whether Freeman, 37, was “mad or bad”. During a two-week trial, they heard differing opinions regarding Freeman’s mental state on the day he killed Darcey. Graham Burrows, a psychiatrist called by the defence, said Freeman was in a dissociative state and suffering from possible psychosis when he killed Darcey. But two psychiatrists called by the prosecution found he was not mentally impaired at the time.The jurors will resume their deliberations at 10am (AEDT) on Monday.”

Of course he was ‘mad’ when he killed his daughter – no sane person sets out to murder their own child, no matter what degree of insanity you wish to place upon the act. But in my view, that can never be a justification to allow the perpetuator to escape what he/she justly deserves.

Further to the above, I received a couple of interesting responses on the subject from friends, which I thought I would add here.

• [R] It is a difficult crime to comprehend- I have wondered if he may be simply a psychopath- cannot see the child as someone with rights, just a thing to use- but then anger makes us all insane- in that state we are physically capable but unreachable by our rational brain – maybe his level of anger was unbelievably great  cause of some impulse control or other brain problem? It seems a common scenario, kill kids to punish partner  – points to some lack of empathy, emotional maturity, capacity to really love – whether can be termed insanity though … very difficult? How can his family recover from this?
• [Bill] Thanks for your thoughts R. I don’t believe I’m vindictive or revengeful by nature, but with children in particular, where as in this case, no means of defence [presumably trusting to the last moment] is available, I cannot agree with or justify the ‘defence case’ type arguments, withthe aim of lessening a sentence or level of conviction.
• [M] The thought of killing one’s own child is so incomprehensible that in my mind I can only associate it with some kind of mental instability. The question for me is: is it temporary insanity or a longterm mental problem. I’m not entirely convinced there is something called evil which can be distictinctly separated from mental illness/stunted mental development.
• [R] I suspect stunted emotional and mental development is responsible for most such crimes- a psychologist once told me that many,many people dont get beyond an emotional age of 3-5, which is disturbing 😦
  They don’t develop empathy and impulse  control to an adult level – act now, regret it later.

 Subject to all of the above, the judge in this case urged the jury, which on Sunday had stated it unlikely they could reach consensus, to keep trying.  They went back today, and did just that. Early this evening, they apparently reached concensus, as this report indicates –  ‘The man who threw his four-year-old daughter off Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge has been found guilty of murder. Arthur Phillip Freeman stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as a jury foreman announced he was guilty of murdering his daughter Darcey.  At the end of five days of difficult deliberations, the jury delivered its verdict just before 8.00pm (AEDT) on Monday after it had appeared it would be unable to reach a unanimous decision.  Several of the five men and seven women on the jury wept as Justice Coghlan thanked them for their service’.

So I suppose that was the headline I was hoping to see, and if the truth be known, the verdict that most people in our society would believe was the right one. Fromthe same report overnight [9 News],   ‘Jurors were asked by Freeman’s defence lawyer to decide whether the father of three was “mad” or “bad” when he killed Darcey.  Minutes before he killed Darcey, Freeman had telephoned his former partner Peta Barnes and told her to: “Say goodbye to your children”.  He then parked in the left-hand emergency lane of the bridge, put his hazard lights on, left his two sons in the car and picked up Darcey. He threw her over the bridge.  As Freeman drove off, Darcey’s older brother Ben urged him to turn back. “Darcey can’t swim,” he said.  Freeman drove to the Federal Law Courts complex where he started sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.  He was later arrested there’. While it would not have made any difference to the horror of what was done, I’ve often wondered – why the little girl, and not one of the two sons? Perhaps his mind at the time was telling him, that the loss of the daughter would hit her mother the most!  The outcome of the court case will be reported upon in some detail over the next day or so – for myself, I shall leave it there!

Yes, the Australian F1 Grand Prix is to raced in Melbourne at the Albert Park circuit, in fact the race is due to start late this afternoon. Maturally, us Aussies are hoping that our own driver, Mark Webber can finally have some success in his home Grand Prix. I guess the favourite is the young German driver, Sebastian Vettel, who will start from pole position at the front of the grid, while Webber is back in third position – not a good beginning, because if Vettel gets a good start, he will be hard to catch.  The 23-year-old produced a performance of dazzling speed and masterful control around the Albert Park circuit to take pole position for today’s Australian Grand Prix for the second year in a row in his Red Bull Racing car.

Sebastian Vettel smiles after securing pole position while teammate Mark Webber sports a more sober expression after securing the third spot on the grid. [Photo: AFP]. I’m hoping those facial expressions might be reversed before the next two hours is over.  I shall return with an update, a little later.

Well the race result – no luck to Mark Webber, he came in 5th position, so despite winning in other parts of the world, has not seen success here in Australia. The race winner was  1st: Sebastian Vettel [Red Bull], 2nd:  Lewis Hamilton [McLaren] and 3rd, V Petrov  [Renault] [the first ever Russian driver to get on the podium in Formula 1]. That result should please my niece down in Ballarat, who for some unknown reason didn’t want our Aussie driver to win, according to her Face Book comments last night! I didn’t press her on the issue!

On the cricket scene, the two remaining quarterfinals of the World Cup have been completed over the past couple of days.  Surprisingly, Sri Lanka 231 have defeated England 6 for 229, the Poms just missed out it seems. While our neighbours, New Zealand have earned themselves a place in a Semi Final – New Zealand 8 for 221 defeated South Africa 172. A couple of interesting semifinals coming up in the next few days – India vs Pakistan, and New Zealand vs Sri Lanka. Naturally, I’m barracking for the Kiwis!!  Meanwhile, at the local level, two Sunbury teams were competing in the local district cricket finals – the senior competition saw Sunbury United defeat the team from Riddell [just north of here] scoring 348 against 187 and 4 for 123. In the B Grade competition, the Sunbury team that my son, Adam, is involved with, were defeated by a another team north of the town, Woodend – scoring 165 but surpassed by the opposition, 6 for 185 and 3 for 144 [winning on the 1st innings]. Adam who is a junior vice president with the club posted a note of congratulations for a brave effort by his team on the website.

Didn’t see very much of Susie this weekend – after working this afternoon, she went back to Jimmy’s place for dinner, before catching the train later to return to Bendigo.  Didn’t even require me to drive her anywhere in the absence of her car – Jimmy, naturally enough, as the boyfriend [and with a new car to show off] undertook those roles!!

The news came through a couple of mornings ago of the death of actress, Elizabeth Taylor.  At 82 years of age, I would have thought she was older as she seems to have been around as a star, or former star for so long, almost got the impression she would go on for ever, and of course, we were waiting for husband number 9 to come along!!!  I haven’t actually many of her films, and initially took note of her, with her marriages to Richard Burton, who was always one of my favorite actors. In actual fact, her age was 79, the report I first read was wrong. She died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles where she had spent the last six weeks for congestive heart failure. One description reported her passing as ‘Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed beauty whose hectic off-screen love life often eclipsed her most sultry film roles’.  The picture below is not the way I actually remember her – she was a few years older by the time I was taking notice of her films. Whether I have ever seen ‘National Velvet’ which she starred in at the age of 12 years, I can’t recall. Perhaps that is a movie to search out one day.

Wikipedia tells us that  Beginning as a child star then throughout her adulthood, she was known for her acting talent, glamour, beauty, and striking violet eyes; as well as a much publicized private life that included eight marriages, several life-threatening illnesses, and decades spent as a social activist, championing the cause of AIDS awareness, research and cure. Taylor, a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress,  is considered one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  I wonder how many of the actors or actresses from that era are still with us today – they are the people I grew up, watching in the movies down in Ballarat, as a teenager.

Meanwhile, here in Australia today, we have another state election taking place  – in New South Wales, where early on in election night, the predictions of a massive loss by the sitting Labor Government are coming true. The ABC said  a short while ago, the coalition was benefiting from a swing of 17.1 per cent, while it  needed only a 7.2 per cent swing to win government. ABC election analyst Antony Green said based on the figure, the coalition would end up with a majority of 49 in the 93-seat parliament. “We are seeing this massive swing from Labor to the coalition,” he said. ALP upper house MP and campaign spokesman Luke Foley said the situation looked dire for Labor, after predicting a “massacre” before counting had even started.  Luke Foley says the Labor vote has collapsed, a third of people who voted for them in 2007 have abandoned the party today.  “This is a massacre, a slaughter, the likes of which we have never seen sadly, for my party,” Mr Foley said. He said the “bloodbath” was the result of “white hot anger” against the government. The imminent defeat of the government was the result of “accumulated dysfunction over four years, and numerous changes of leader. The unfortunate most recent Premier, Canadian born Kristina Keneally  probably could not have done much more, having come to the leadership  at a very difficult time.  The potential new Liberal Coalition [Nationals] Premier will be Barry O’Farrell, pictured below.

Inching closer…NSW Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell and his wife Rosemary vote in the election. Picture: Kelly Rohan Source: The Daily Telegraph

I don’t seem to have worked out how to control the font size of these blogs I write on here. It doesn’t seem to matter how uniform I set out what I’ve prepared, it still seems to be published in a range of varying sizes print and font styles. Admittedly I don’t usually type straight to the blog page as I am now, nevertheless I am still bemused that every attempt to create a uniform display basically fails. So I should apologise to my readers for the variation of styles that you see on these pages. The menu on top here seems to have most things available except the ability to alter the size of the material. I wonder why that is?  Never mind, I guess I will work it out one day.

Back to the office again today, after giving my brief local sports report on the radio just before I left Sunbury. My boss ‘Jackie’ wanted to do an appraisal of the outcome of my findings in relation to the national Modern Award [for wages and associated conditions] from the workshop I attended at Bendigo on Tuesday. This was more or less a re-assessment of where our small staff fitted into the new structure in comparison with our existing classifications. The Award had been constructed by the Labor Government on a national basis, but because there were such large anomolies between the various states, the outcome favoured some over us, and as a consequence, as far as we were concerned, the comparitive classifications that our job roles slotted into, under the Modern Award were attracting lower salaries than our previous conditions had recognised. Of course, the idea was that no employee was to be worse off [supposedly], so with the recommended salary levels under the New Award, we would be all receiving ‘over award’ payments in order to simply stay where we were! I wondered if all organisations would take this approach, or whether some might take advantage of staff who they considered unlikely or unable to ‘protest’ – a fear I suppose of some of the opposers to the whole scheme.  Irrespective of that, I guess I was not showing as much concern as my colleagues in respect to their future payments –  the changes would be affected from the 1st July, and I intend to be gone a few months after that date, retired!

At home tonight, cooked a meal for Susie, expecting her to be home before I left for a stint on the radio, but she was later than usual – in fact, apparently came down by train this weekend, left her car behind. Jimmy picked her up, and the both arrived here at home some time after midnight.  My cooked meal [for Susie] remained uneaten!!! Ironically, if I’d not prepared something, she would probably have been looking for something!!

Anyway, as suggested last night, your writer was not feeling too well, after yesterday’s celebration lunch, and by this evening, was wishing I’d not made a commitment to go on air tonight! Nevertheless, we ignored that feeling – in much the same way as this morning, when I would have much preferred to have returned home to bed, after visiting the radio station, instead of facing that long slow drive through the traffic. In both cases, we proceeded, as planned, and tonight, enjoyed another three hours of great traditional jazz music, from some of the jazz masters of yesteryear………………………..

Today, I attended the 3^rd University Graduation of one of my children – this time, youngest daughter, Jodie, who had completed her studies at Melbourne’s ‘La Trobe University’ [Bundoora Campus],  in the Degree of  Bachelor of Business [Sport and Leisure Management] –  currently working at two part time jobs, one of them at a western suburbs Leisure & sporting complex, Jodie is seeking a  fulltime employment role in her field of expertise..

The Ceremony commenced at 10am, and for me was proceeded by another hazzle of a drive and parking search, something I thought I would avoid this time. These trips certainly don’t do much for my blood pressure, and the mistake I made this morning was to choose the wrong route  – traffic considerably delayed by a fatal accident involving a pedestrian [I guess in terms of that, I have nothing to complain about!!] For peace of mind, Jodie went ahead of us, so she didn’t get caught in those traffic problems, although she ‘spoilt’ my mood a little by warning that parking was going to be a problem!! The one aspect I’d counted on not being a problem!!!  Such is life. Despite that,  and a bit of  confusion at the university end,  parking eventually was not the problem thanks to the efficiency of the people running that side of things.  Incidentally, my passengers were Shirley [Jodie’s Mum] and her mother [Win, who turned 90 last week], the only three people that Jodie had been able to obtain tickets for.

La Trobe University is one of the newer universities in Melbourne, and first opened it’s doors in 1967 with 552 students, having been established as Victoria’s third university in 1964 [between Melbourne, and Monash]. It now has campuses throughout the state at Bendigo, Albury- Wodonga, Mildura. Shepparton and Beechworth   –  it is the Bendigo Campus that elder daughter is currently studying this year [she undertook her first combined Degree at Swinburne University].  Total current enrolments in 2011 are 30,071 students including 6,500 international students [some of whom study off-shore] from over 100 different countries. The number of overseas enrolments was fairly obvious when one took note of the list of graduates, particularly in the areas of tourism and hospitality.

The main faculties of study at La Trobe are Education [Susan’s current area], Humanities & Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Law & Management Science, and Technology& Engineering. I always find it interesting to look at the vision and values of organisations, small or large, these are the statements that essentially spell out what the organisation is all about, in broad terms, and what it hopes to achieve. In La Trobe University’s case, we find that Vision is to ‘promote critical enquiry, advance and share knowledge, and support the practical application of knowledge for the benefit of all. Following on from the Vision, it’s Key Foundation values are those ‘of responsibility, relevance, critical enquiry, integrity, participation and excellence’, considered to be as valid today as they were 40 years ago.

La Trobe University is named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, who was the first Super-intendent of the Port Phillip District [of the then colony of New South Wales] from 1839 to 1850, and then the first Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony of Victoria  [after separation from New South Wales] from 1851 to 1854.  He arrived in the colony in 1839, which was just  four years after the first white settlement when the population was less than 6,000. My home town of Sunbury was established in 1836, hence  the 175 Years celebrations this year. When La Trobe departed in 1854, Victoria  had become the richest of the Australian colonies [in part, thanks to the various operating  goldfields], and the population was close to 300,000.  Self-government had been won, and as indicated, the goldfields were booming,  the public library and art gallery were established, as was the first university  – Melbourne University where I studied for my first degree.

In fact, La Trobe did much for the early years of Victoria. Quoting from the Graduation booklet that came with today’s ceremony, we read:  “At Port Phillip [where Melbourne is now centralised], La Trobe encouraged the development of Aboriginal welfare and education and authorised establishment of the native police corps in 1842. Travelling on horseback, he visited many sheep stations, and saw the emergence of settled communities. In Melbourne, he had interests in the churches of St. James and St. Peters, the inauguration of the Melbourne Hospital, the National Museum and the Mechanics’ Institute. During the 1840s, the first Government offices were opened on Batman’s Hill, the Botanic Gardens site was reserved, the Melbourne Town Council was established and the first Elizabeth Street Post Office opened. La Trobe served as Administrator of Van Dieman’s Land [Tasmania] during 1846-47.  La Trobe gave assent to the Victorian act to establish the University of Melbourne in 1853, and in 1854 the Constitution Act was passed. Between 1851 and 1854, Government departments such as the PHG [Post Master General], the Goldfields Commission and the Police Force were created by La Trobe.  New towns appeared and the building of railways and telegraph lines began. The Supreme Court was established in 1852”.  And remembering, that 20 years previously, there was virtually no official settlement in the ‘eventual’ State of Victoria.

So you see that today’s little visit to La Trobe University was a bit of a reminder about facits of my state’s history – particularly of interest in Melbourne in the early 1850s, where my ancestor first arrived from Scotland,  settled himself into a new life of possibilities, married, and began the ‘dynasty’ that is ‘us’ now!!  Meanwhile, for Jodie, her little stint of fame came very early in the proceedings, being  the 13^th graduate up on the stage to receive her degree – not that that had any specific significance, simply the fact that her discipline of  the Business degrees was first to be called up – bit of an anti-climax for those of us of her family, as we then sat and watched for over an hour while all of today’s other recipients were called to the stage. A bit like Parliament with all the pomp, ceremony and rigid rules of procedures and formalities. I personally thought the ‘Occasional Address’ [which was given after the conferring of degrees because the speaker’s plane was late] was quite interesting, with a focus on the numbers of people who come through and influence our lives to different degrees and in different ways from immediate family groups, work colleagues and a whole host of others that we come into contact with throughout our lives – I think he suggested that about 1500 people is the average total of those, whom during the course of our lives, we develop some element of a personal connection of relationship with. I think the message was to learn from all those ‘relationships’ and ‘use’ them in the course of our lives, both in a personal and career sense.

Following all the procedures, we wisely decided to forego the ‘morning tea’ and it’s crowded conditions – instead, immediately commenced arrangements for the formal photographs [yet more money to hand over!!] – that was a move which saved us quite a deal of time [compared with the equivalent long wait at Susie’s graduation], a wait of just 15 minutes this occasion, with quite a good bit of attention from the photographer [a woman] to get those photos all just perfect. Pity there were so few of us, and Jodie had none of her siblings with her, but the resulting photos should be worth the effort [and likely cost!].

Shirley, Win and myself headed off, towards home, Jodie intended to follow later after she had arranged some photos with friends, and we would all meet up at a pasta restaurant in Sunbury for a celebratory lunch. In actual fact, Jodie reached Sunbury before us – and not just because she drove faster, but a stop on my part was necessary in order to allow the ladies to buy a coffee!!  Lunch which followed, was quite pleasant, although the risotto which I ordered, despite being a beautiful dish, was obviously not the kind of meal I should have been eating in the middle of the day –  I would ‘suffer’ into the night, and through to Friday, in one or two directions!!! I  realised afterwards I should have ordered something a little more ‘diabetes’ friendly, but on special occasions, one tends to throw caution to the wind!!!  Such is life, again!

Blues 2011 Update:  Yes, the Australian Football League [AFL] 2011 season began tonight, with what is becoming over recent years, the traditional opening season match –  my team, the Carlton Blues versus the Richmond Tigers. For the game, the Blues  named three new players in the 22 selected for the  round one match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground [MCG]. While one of the three, Jeremy Laidler, has played two AFL games, the other two, Nick Duigan and Ed Curnow, will be making their AFL debut in the season opener. Young Jodie, after her big university occasion, planned to go to the match with boyfriend, Ash, and did invite me to join them –  but I’m ashamed to admit, as a lifetime Blues supporter, that I turned the offer down – deciding that in view of the deteriorating weather that the MCG would be a very crowded, cold and breezy place tonight  –  at my age, I would find it much more comfortable watching from in front of my television set! A few years ago, I would not have hesitated at such a suggestion. Told Jodie I would happily join them later in the season

Anyway, just the one game tonight, to open the 2011 season.  By halftime, it looked as though the Blues were going to repeat the performance of the last two years in this equivalent game, and romp away with the match. But as can be seen by the quarter by quarter scores below, Richmond completely dominated the Blues in the 3^rd quarter kicking 6 goals to Nil. By that stage, I must admit I was feeling as though a loss was a real possibility, as Richmond seemed to get more on top as they took control of most aspects of the game, However, to my relief, Carlton fought back in that final quarter, to in the end, have a convincing win. It would not be long after the games’ conclusion, that I received a text message from Jodie, simply stating ‘You should have come’!!  True enough!  In front of a lower than expected crowd of  60,654, the Blues ran out winners by 24 points, not a great margin, but least a strong comeback. A nice start to the Blue’s year.

Carlton Blues:                     2.8.20      9.10.64       9.13.47      FINAL: 14.20.104

defeated

Richmond Tigers:               3.0.18      7.0.24        13.3.39       Final:      13.6.84

The other big ‘sporting’ occasion overnight, was the World Cup Quarter Final game between Australia and India. I actually felt the odds were on Australia losing this game, but watched the first part of the telecast [after the football] where the Australians were batting – pleasing to see captain Ricky Ponting score a 100 runs in that innings. Australia’s score of  6 wickets for 260 runs, was a reasonable total, yet I felt that against India, it would not be enough. At that point, I switched off the TV, and went to sleep.  Woke four hours later – to discover that India needed about 11 runs to win, with over 20 balls in which to get them, and plenty of wickets still available.  Well, I kept watching, not expecting any miracle turn arounds, and as the following report explains,  they didn’t happen!

‘Ricky Ponting’s spot in the Australian cricket team is safe for now but he was devastated on Thursday when they lost their World Cup quarter-final to India.  Ponting, 36, scored an inspirational 104 under immense pressure to guide the three-time defending champions to a total of 6-260.  The Indians were largely untroubled to reply with 5-261 with 14 deliveries to spare.  Yuvraj Singh, fresh from his 113 on Sunday in a Group B match against West Indies, hit an unbeaten 57 to win the man-of-the-match award and Suresh Raina was 34 not out.  Sachin Tendulkar (53) and Gautam Gambhir (50) also scored half-centuries for the home side. Ponting said Australia lost wickets at crucial times which limited their ability to push the scoring rate up and he also blamed his bowlers for poor execution.  But he added: “I think it’s premature to say it’s the end of an era for Australian cricket. “We were very competitive tonight. “We’re all pretty devastated to have finished where we did.”  Earlier, Ponting used all his experience to carve out his first hundred in international cricket for 13 months in a masterful display on a slow-paced pitch.  The veteran No.3 batsman was finally out in the 49th over, popping a catch off an attempted reverse sweep at 6-245.  Ponting hit seven fours and one six from 118 balls. It was his 30th one-day international hundred and fifth in World Cups.  Ponting has endured a lean summer, averaging only 16.14 in the Ashes and scoring 102 runs at 20.40 in the World Cup’s group stage. Meanwhile, David Hussey, recalled in place of all-rounder Steve Smith, hit a crucial unbeaten 38 from 26 deliveries after opener Brad Haddin made a hard-hitting 53.  The match was played  in front of 42,103 fans at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium.

The Liberal Party & Tony Abbott are continuing with their current anti carbon tax campaign, but a few days ago, temporarily turned their ‘attack’ away from Julia Gillard, to the former climate change minister, Penny Wong. This is what a release a few days ago had to say about Penny.

Labor is a mess. We all know Julia Gillard lied before the election when she said “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”. But did you know Labor’s former Climate Change Minister and current Finance Minister, Penny Wong, previously criticised the carbon tax they now want to impose on Australian families? In Senator Wong’s own words: “I have been very upfront about why I think a carbon tax isn’t the most sensible thing for Australia.” (Press Conference, 3 November 2009)   Here’s more of what Senator Wong has had to say about a carbon tax:

• “A carbon tax is not the silver bullet some people might think.” (Speech, CEDA State of the Nation Conference, 23 June 2010)

• “The introduction of a carbon price ahead of effective international action can lead to perverse incentives for such industries to relocate or source production offshore. There is no point in imposing a carbon price domestically which results in emissions and production transferring internationally for no environmental gain.” (Speech, Australian Industry Group, 6 February 2008)

• “A carbon tax or regulatory mechanism would take not allow Australia to take advantage of emerging international economic opportunities.” (Speech, Australian Business Economists Lunch, 20 February 2009)

• “A carbon tax does not guarantee emissions reductions.” (The Australian, 23 February 2009)

• “A carbon tax … is a recipe for abrupt and unpredictable changes, as the government would need to adjust the tax frequently to try to meet the emissions reduction target.” (The Australian, 23 February 2009)

• “A carbon tax is a less efficient way in the Australian Government’s view of dealing with this issue.” (Interview, ABC News Radio, 16 April 2010)

• “We know that you can’t have any environmental certainty with a carbon tax.” (Interview, Sky News, 30 April 2009)

At a time when Australians are already doing it tough, the Labor-Greens carbon tax will unnecessarily lift electricity, grocery and petrol prices and attack jobs in our key industries.  The Coalition knows there is a better way. Our direct action plan on climate change is economically responsible and won’t cost Australian jobs.

As the Opposition, I guess it’s easy enough to make broad statements such as the ‘Coalition knows there is a better way’  without feeling the necessity to go into too much detail about that ‘netter way’. While the Liberals do have a policy of sorts, as an alternative, I don’t think it is widely pushed around the electorate in general very much [fine for the recipients of Liberal emails, but then they are probably converted anyway, by being on the Liberal’s distribution list, as I am partially anyway] –  I think the reason this is, relates to the amount of time, effort and energy that  Tony Abbott and his chief  supporters put into the ‘attack and criticism’ of the government’s approach to the detriment of a much clearer and easily understood campaign on the ‘economically responsible alternatives, that the Liberals claim to have. I’m personally tired of the sniping, and name calling, and general attack mode that is constantly adopted – maybe that’s the nature of an Opposition ‘beast’, but I’m sick of it. I don’t want to be constantly reminded that the government approach is wrong  because ‘Julia Gillard’ lied before the election!. I think the public in general accept it as a given fact that politicians are ‘always breaking promises’ for one reason or another – let’s more on a little!!

Ina different competitive environment, the World Cup Cricket  is getting to the interesting stages, with the Quarter Final matches beginning today   –  in the first of these, a rather easy win for   Pakistan –   0 wicket  for 113, a  humiliating response to  the West Indies score of just  112. Australia plays India on Thursday.