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I was interested in the little dispute which seems to arisen within the new Coalition government in Victoria, regarding the grazing of cattle and sheep, etc, on public lands and national parks. Back in 2005, the then Labor Government decided to ban grazing of cattle in  Victoria’s high country alpine areas, a decision which was attacked widely at the time. As a rural editorial today notes “It was a decision, they believed, symptomatic of a government that had lost touch with the views of the bush, prepared to trample over the heritage of rural Australia in it’s quest for green votes’, probably all true.  The ‘greenies’ are generally not even persuaded that cattle grazing keeps grass levels down , and so reduces fire hazards in those areas. Mind you I don’t for a moment consider that the graziers have that aspect as a high priority in their desire to use public lands for ‘cheap’ grazing of their stock, particularly in times of drought, etc.

But, it is an agument that has been around for a while, and seems to be a no real win argument for either side, although so far,  the conservationists who consider cattle grazing in public lands to be ‘ecological terrorism’  [talk about emotive blackmail!!], are probably never going to change their views on the subject. And apparently on their side, are such organisations as the Victorian National Parks Association [whom I used to work for] and  the Department of Sustainability and Environment, who consider that cattle grazing is not an effective means of fuel reduction, and that the disadvantages of allowing it, outweigh any benefits because of the trampling of ‘fragile ecosystems for no better reason than to provide a priviliged few some cheap summer agistment’. Probably a fair enough comment, however I do become annoyed at times at the level of undue influence that environmental and green groups constantly seem to force upon various parts of  working and cultural population of the State – their views can’t be argued with! That is the impression often generated.  Today’s editorial in the ‘Weekly Times’ partially comes to the same view – ‘Emotive views from both sides which could never see common ground’. Somewhere, a compromise is going to have to be reached. Interestingly, the issue really only affects a small number of graziers in the North East, Gippsland East and along parts of the Murray River, which forms part of the border between Victoria, and New South Wales.

Of course, where this led to a report of a dispute within the current government, arose out of apparent discrepancies in the views of National Party [with more rural interests] and the Liberal Party on just what their overall joint policy should be on the question of grazing on public lands, etc. Probably a headache that the new State government could have well done without!

Took a bit of time off work this afternoon, in order to do the bulk of my ‘Christmas shopping’ [rather than leave it all until the last two days as is my usual habit!].  Mind you, most of my shopping took place at the one store – Readings bulk bookshop, etc, etc, in the inner suburb of Carlton on  bustling Lygon Street – an area which could be almost described as ‘little Europe’. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of day you come here,  the place always seemed to be packed with people shopping, eating or drinking over the few blocks of built-up restaurants, coffee houses, and retail/business establishments that make it such a vibrant part of inner suburban Melbourne. Fascinating place, wish I’d spent some of my younger days in this part of town!  Not much of a place for me to wander around on my own for entertainment or dining purposes however,  the Readings store is my main attraction to the area in 2010.

After tonight’s stint on the radio – where I featured some of the recordings of blind American former singer, Ray Charles –  I called around at the local police station – just a general enquiry about the possibility of some kind of leniency being granted [if applied for] in the case of Susie’s penalties last night, particularly in respect to the loss of demerit points. I already knew that there was a basis for an appeal once the actual fine notice was received, just wanted to get an idea as to the possibility of success in such a case. As expected, remote, but worth a try!! At home, Susie mentioned that friends had given her similar advice.

Sometimes it doesn’t always pay to do a good turn for someone else. A few years ago my son lost his driving licence for 12 months plus incurred sundry other impositions and costs [think I met some of those] because he tried to help a mate out whose car had broken down – had left his own car at home while he enjoyed a night at the ‘pub’, then drove another friend’s car seeking assistance for the earlier mishap. Result a minor collision, police called, and subsequent penalties imposed. A costly mistake & wrong call – for the sake of helping someone in s spot of bother!

Tonight, my daughter, after a game of volleyball, acceded to a request from her boyfriend’s sister [a team mate] to give her a lift home. That’s fine, except the sister had her five year child with her, and presumably made the request, fully aware that Susan did not have the appropriate legal child restraint seat in her car – why should she, had no children, and had never transported a young child before. So while that probably occured to the mother, Susan never gave a thought to the fact that she was breaking the law! Subsequently stopped at a breathalyser check point [alcohol & drug check of drivers] – no problem there, until police noticed child in back seat restrained by a normal seat belt, not the official legal restraint seat for a child that age. The law has to be applied, no dispensation or consideration of lack of knowledge and a strait out honest mistake on Susan’s fault – $300 fine and the lost of three demerit points off her licence –  and child & mother told to exit car and find another way home, in a probably restrained vehicle, this all at 9.30pm! Yes, the law must be obeyed, but is there never any flexibility – unless perhaps you are a politician or someone of fame. Susie was reasonably philosophical about the whole thing, but like myself for her sake, particularly upset apset about the loss of demerit points, which seemed a grossly unfair penalty under the particular circumstances.  I guess it will be a waste of time, but I must enquire as to any possible appeal avenues in regard to the licence points. I think the system here is that each driver is allowed 10 demerit points against their licence – apart from more serious traffic offences where you lose your licence automatically [as in Adam’s case], once you ‘lose’ those 10 points, you also lose your licence. I imagine the majority of drivers lose points for offences such as speeding, etc.

Anyway, when that bit of news came home tonight, I had been in the process of writing out some Christmas cards, having taken advantage of the fact that my computer was out of action temporarily. Suddenly, the good spirit associated with writing greetings to friends and family dissipated, and I felt quite disappointed, on my daughter’s behalf………………

Moving onto other things, on Sunday afternoon, I had a fascinating 2-3 hours playing and enjoying the music and songs of Leonard Cohen, a singer about whom I’d not taken a great deal of notice I have to be honest. Realised immediately what I’d been missing, and as a consequence, thoroughly enjoyed introducing him to myself and to all my listeners who may or may not have been as unfamiliar with Cohen as I obviously had been.  And I also had the pleasure of the company of friend Ruth, whose references to Leonard Cohen had brought him to my attention in the first place. Like most people first time up, she was a little apprehensive about coming on air but it did not take long for her to admit that ‘it’s not so bad after all’!!

Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time for over four decades,  and as one scribe described him, his songs [music, lyrics and poetry], have set a virtually unmatched standard in their seriousness and range of subjects including  sex, spirituality, religion, power and generally, a broad spectrum of  issues in human lives, always with a full appreciation of how elusive answers can be to the vexing questions he raises.  But, as the writer illustrates,  those questions, and the journey he has traveled in seeking to address them, are the ever-shifting substance of his work, as well as the reasons why his songs never lose their overwhelming emotional force, and have not done so through almost two generations of fans. And of course much of his lyrical work demonstrates his fine background in the composing of poetry, and literature generally. To quote again ‘his dual careers in music and literature have continued feeding each other over the decades – his songs revealing a literary quality rare in the world of popular music, and his poetry and prose informed by a rich musicality. Each of Cohen’s albums reflects not simply the issues that are on his mind as a writer, but the sonic landscape he wishes to explore as well.  The through-lines in his work, his voice and lyrics, are as distinctive as any in the world of music’.  As Ruth & I agreed, there are powerful messages behind all of his songs, but of course to get the full meaning of those messages, you need to actually listen to the lyrics. How many people listen to a song but don’t really hear what is been said?  Many I fear!

At 76 years of age, he is still touring internationally, and recently visited Australia and New Zealand as part of a world tour – in fact he appeared not very far north of here just recently, though I stupidly wasn’t aware of that at the time.  Wikipedia describes him thus: – “Leonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships. Famously reclusive,^[ having once spent several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, and possessing a persona frequently associated with mystique, he is extremely well-regarded by critics for his literary accomplishments, for the richness of his lyrics, and for producing an output of work of high artistic quality over a five-decade career.”

Anyway, that highlight of Sunday was part of a rather long day at the radio station, beginning with the morning classics between 6.30 am and  9 am, back at 4pm for 2 ½ hours of Leonard Cohen  – we did throw in a few non-Cohen tracks throughout the program, though I would have found it hard for anyone to become bored with the range of diversity of his songs – although Ruth and I agreed that the younger generations, including my daughters and her two teenagers were unlikely to take to Cohen!! It was also interesting to listen to a comparison of his singing from the 1960s to the past 10-20 years – the more gravelly, rich deep throated  more mature  sounding voice of today appealed to me more so than his earlier years by coincidence. One thing I did do was to compare his singing of ‘Hallelujah’ with the version sung by the late Jeff Buckley  – the Buckley version has always been my favourite, although KD Lang’s version sung at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada earlier this year was hard to look past! Anyway, I played the Cohen version, followed by Jeff Buckley’s singing of the song  – I’m afraid Cohen came a distant second on that occasion, but I had no complaint with anything else we played of him, on Sunday.  I was actually at the studio until 7.45 pm –  the station on Sunday night was presenting a live broadcast of this year’s Sunbury Carols by Candlelight service on our Village green, and we usually need someone to be present up at the main studio on such occasions. I stayed around for a while until our technical  guy was able to give it his full attention.  They were rather lucky that a major rain storm did not thoroughly disrupt the program – it did rain a little but not enough apparently to dampen the spirits of those who were on the Village Green too much!

Cohen in 2008

I’m reading, off and on, a fascinating little book at present, called ‘Outback Spirit: Inspiring true stories of Australia’s unsung heroes’, edited by Sue Williams [the author herself, of 11 books].  These ‘heroes’ are the volunteers, who most times, work behind the scenes and out of the public spotlight, who often, against difficult and seemingly insurmountable odds, help out those who inhabit Australia’s outback areas and ‘untamed’ frontiers – usually where government and welfare services are non existent and/or negligible.  That fact alone is a sad indictment on our society, but nevertheless true in so many areas,  that the welfare and health of so many disadvantaged has to be so heavily dependent upon volunteer and not for profit individuals and organisations.

There are great stories of such people in this book. One concerns such an organisation and individuals who for many years have been going to remote Aboriginal [and sometimes non-Aboriginal] communities and carrying various forms of maintenance to their’ homes’ in order to try and improve the lifestyle, health, and general well being of those communities.  For years, there has been a common perception that the houses which Indigenous commnities live in, are not cared for, and are purposely damaged by the occupants with little pride for theoir circumstances. This particular group of ‘unsung heroes’ put paid to that perception quite clearly, from their personal findings of the kind of maintenance and other issues common to the communities concerned. This is best illustrated by the following extract from this particular chapter of the book.

“The reasons for such a poor state of public housing in communities is depressingly familiar. While popular myth has it that deliberate vandalism is the cause of much of the problem, the long years of careful research done under rigorous conditions has revealed quite the opposite, that the incidence of deliberate damage is absolutely miniscule. Instead, 65 per cent of housing defects are a result of normal wear and tear, often because poor quality fixtures have been installed in the first place, and a lack of regular maintenance by housing authorities.  Paul and his team found that inferior products are regularly installed in kitchens and bathrooms in remote areas – flimsy fittings simply not up to the harsh environments in which they’re used – and, in rural areas, the supply of bore water eats the heart out of poor-grade water systems. Pipes that can no longer carry water as they’re become so encrusted with salt, shower roses completely clogged and the cheapest of taps that simply fall apart when used regularly for more than a few weeks are very common stories. In most cases, there are much better, more suitable products available that could have been used to avoid most of the problems occurring. The second major problem, accounting for 25 per cent of faults, is poor initial construction, and incorrect products or specifications…………..These problems are probably a result of poor supervision, the fact that it’s hard to get people to inspect work done in rural and remote areas, and self-certification, where trades certify their own work……………..As a result of all these factors, some of the houses we see are highly dangerous’. p. 189-190]

It goes on to say that ‘There’s no point talking about the bigger issues like better housing design if someone’s standing in three inches of shitty water,’ says Paul, matter-of-factly. ‘We’ve found if you solve the simple problems first, then you can focus on the more complex problems later. The things that will kill you today, we fix first: electrical faults, bad wiring, crumbling walls; things that affect you tomorrow we’ll fix as a second priority. The problem is that many people believe the situation with Aboriginal housing is too complex to tackle, and that sense of hopelessness underpins much of public policy. But what should be done isn’t a mystery. It can be very simple to improve people’s houses in a very fundamental way and, in so doing, you can have a huge impact on people’s health’. [p191]

Some examples quoted of unsuitable and dangerous [to life and health, and quality of living] included the wheelchair bound man living ‘outside’ his house because of narrow doorways and steep steps – he couldn’t get in;  the single dad with five children, and no hot water, meaning the children were constantly sick with bacterial infections because of inadequate washing facilities, etc; dangers created by uncovered wires, or water too close to electrical sockets, potential for gas explosions, or structural collapse of a building where repairs have never been undertaken; and so on. As another comment on this story revealed – “I think it often comes down to a lack of supervision. If people think this work is never going to be inspected, it’s no surprise that some might do such a bad job. They might say, ‘Oh, it’s only a blackfella house’.

A terrible state of affairs to be allowed to continue to exist. Reports and research have clearly indicated the relationship between poor housing standards , and health & physical and mental well being of the occupants.  The people [heroes] at the centre of the program which is the subject of this chapter have so far repaired over 6,000 houses and transformed the lives of many thousands, but until the mindset of the broad community and authorities is changed, the need for such work will continue. As Paul says ‘People don’t want a lot, they should just be able to demand the basic things: a good roof, taps and electricity that work, a place to wash themselves and clothing,  and a clean place to prepare food’ [p15].  Many of these things were non-existent before this group’s repair work was carried out!

That story is just one example of the many tales portrayed in this book, of men and women who embody the spirit of remote and rural Australia – as indicated, those people we never hear about, and who generally don’t seek the publicity – simply have the desire to help others in need of assistance, who generally will not go looking for that assistance, and have become attuned to  accepting circumstances as they are!



The highlight of my Saturday – a great deal of which was occupied in preparing radio programs for shows scheduled up until the end of December –  was a visit early evening by my youngest daughter. I think I must have mentioned to someone else that I’d not seen Jodie since Cup Day [2 November] even though she lives 10 minutes away  –  anyway, she called around tonight and the visit was particularly appreciated because the dear girl was rather tired, after a late night ‘partying’ in the city [not new], and working all day over at a leisure/sporting centre in the western suburbs – she was ready to sleep.  She also came bearing a bag of my books that she had borrowed from my collection over recent months, some of which I’d forgotten about, and which eldest daughter Susan suggested I’d probably blamed their mother for coming over and ‘borrowing’ them at some stage, which she had occasionally been prone to do, before I lodged ‘my formal complaint’ lol!!

I was interested to discover that Jodie had a special interest in reading ‘biographies’ [of which I have many]  – and in fact she left with another book, Nelson Mandela’s ‘Walk To Freedom’, and mentioned to me [as a Christmas hint]  that he’d had just put out a more recent book on his life. Strangely enough, Jodie was not overkeen to borrow John Howard’s book which I’m currently reading  – apparently she is interested in biographies of a range of people, although politicians were not high on her preference list!  Meanwhile I have three of my ‘children’ currently looking for a job/full time employment  – the two girls, having just completed their university courses, while eldest son James is not satisfied with his current employment. I think it’s a fair excuse for this writer to be getting a little bored with full time employment [with retirement on the horizon] but one would like to feel that one’s son,  who is some 35 years behind me, work wise, was becoming a little more settled in that aspect of his life! Hopefully, 2011 will be more promising for all of us.

I have a couple of programs to present on Sunday next, probably over 5 hours of music in all, maybe longer, and it seems to have taken me most of the evening to plan my music and sort out just what tracks I want to play.  Featuring Leonard Cohen during the afternoon, and I have to admit that I’ve not really listened to much of his singing in the past! But one or two friends were quite keen on him, and got me interested enough to do a special program on the man. So thanks to those friends, I have five cds here from which I need to choose from 2 to 3 hours worth of music.  Certainly, I’ve enjoyed listening to his singing, although that was not the comment I received from my daughter as she passed by a short while ago!!!  Not to her taste in music obviously!!  Anyway, will be interesting see what kind of reaction I get on Sunday [from listeners]!  I think the man in now in his mid 70s, and recently did a concert a few kilometres north of Sunbury, part of his ongoing performing routine. It has been interesting listening to the changing texture of his voice through his recordings over the last 40 years or so.  Needless to say, his singing of ‘Hallelujah’ is quite good, although I actually prefer a version, probably not so generally well known, by the late Jeff Buckley who died by drowning at a young age [30 or thereabouts] at the height of his growing career. So I’m planning to play both versions together, and see if that creates any reaction! The Buckley version is tremendous!

The radio team [well, those who turned up] had a bit of an end of year ‘barbeque’ at one of the local community parks last evening, and surprisingly, the rain pretty well held off until we had finished, although it did get a little cool as time went on. Pleasant enough evening however, although I had to be careful that I didn’t over indulge in the ‘sweets’ that were on hand!

Time to get off here, the night is getting late.  And thankyou to those who have  submitted comments, keen for some feedback!!

It was only a few days ago that the electoral result in this electorate [Macedon] was finally decided after a recount of votes, and a very close call. The result went to the sitting Labor member, Joanne Duncan, probably the first time she’s had to ‘sweat out’ an election outcome. I personally felt that was a good thing for the future of this electorate [even if the wrong side won, from my viewpoint!].  I couldn’t resist, in view of some recent comments by others, to have my little say on the matter, and it went like this  –  ‘Well, it seems that congratulations are due to Joanne Duncan, finally, at retaining this electorate. for Labor. Meanwhile, well done Triston, best effort here in 10 years, and at long last, the Members in this part of Victoria at both State and Federal level can no longer just coast along, and take their position for granted, but will have to earn & fight for the right to be our representatives’.  I did get a few expected responses, though they were fairly kind to me, no real aggro, but making sure that the successful candidate’s past ‘achievements’ were recognised. An example  –  ‘And Joanne has done just that Bill- earnt her right to be our representative. You only have to look around our town to see what she has done compared to the days when we had a Liberal Member- the only thing he did for us in four years was put Sunbury in Hume and vote for tolls on the Tulla!’  [obviously spoken as  a true to the bone Labor supporter, in fact he was a candidate for Labor in the Upper House].  In fact, I partially agreed with my correspondent there, in respect to  the former Liberal member referred to, and on that point, there was generated a few other comments from other friends during the discussion. 

 Anyway, I thought that I’d better continue with a response, which was:-  ‘Point partially taken, but I consider that the development of the past ten years would have happened whoever the Member was, but instead of this continual jibing we get, about what happened in history, let’s look forward shall we! Joanne can really prove her worth, from the Opposition, if she is as good as you suggest, and we will all be better off for it, hopefully.
Just as a query, is there a record of how many speeches the Member has made in Parliament since 1999 [in Hansard, I guess] – I know she has made plenty of speeches and appearances at ‘openings, social and artistic gatherings, etc, and does a great job in that respect – but my understanding of a parliamentarian, that’s only part of the job – one doesn’t see much feedback about the parliamentary side of things, where I feel the real advocacy for getting things done should be more apparent’.    My Labor correspondent, added further that ‘And can I add on the Mr F. topic- he is the reason I didn’t join the Liberal Party! As a local, young person interested in politics, I went up to his stall at the Sunbury Fair when he was the local Member only to find him swearing at a local family!!!!!!!! Horrid man in my opinion..”  At this point, I added that    ‘Well, quite obviously, there’s a shared viewpoint on that particular subject – but as I said, he’s history, and irrespective of who we ‘barrack’ for, not all history is the way we would like it to have been!!’

Apparently, I was wrong, the gentleman we were talking about was not history, as another Labor stalwart & friend was keen to remind me, about that, and again, the achievements of Joanne. That was fair enough, as I would expect her and others to stand up for the person they were campaigning for! Ann wrote that – ‘Unfortunately he is not history, he has a seat in the Upper House, the one thing I will congratulate Ted Ballieu on is not giving him a cabinet position.  F. is still putting forward his far right wing views particularly in regard to the Abortion Reform Bill of 2008, which the majority of the Vic Parliarment voted for. I am not pro Abortion I am pro the choice of a woman to choose what they do with their body. Personally I would probably never have an abortion but I wouldn’t want to deny any woman that choice. Speeches mean nothing, last night I was criticised by the Mayor as I didn’t grandstand at an an awards ceremony. I attended the ceremony, in a fair bit of pain and didn’t feel the need to get my head in a picture.   Joanne does an amazing amount behind the scenes, one of her big achievements that would be of interest to you Bill would be the retention of the VU site for Public Use, which the Liberal Party have not committed to. Feel free to join my Save Vic Uni Site’………..Fair enough Ann, but I think that one is still up in the air a bit, we will see how things pan out over the next few months under the new government. 

I respect Ann for her views and standing, even if I don’t agree with her political leanings, and she is a genuine person with a lot of care and concern for others. The reason I didn’t reply and carry on the ‘debate’ any further, when I realised she was dealing with the after affects of a personal tragedy involving a friend. Overall I appreciated the input from both Jamie and Ann, in addition to  input from others.

It all seems quite ironical – a few months ago towards the end of last Summer, our farming communities were optimistic that the decade long drought, and very little rain that came with it over ten years or so,  would be reversed during 2011 and the drought broken.  Yet here we, at the beginning of December – and yes, over the past few months, the drought really has broken  –  but, grain growers across southeast Australia, as reported in today’s ‘Weekly Times’ are facing financial ruin from continuing heavy rain. It seems that already, crops in New South Wales and Queensland have already being decimated by the rain in those states, and now over the next few days, as heavy rains continue to fall, much of the Victorian grain crop is threatened.

I guess it’s not a new story – through history, and around the world – that farmers and their livelihoods will always be at the mercy of climate vagaries, be it drought, rain, frosts, floods, bushfires, and also currently, locusts!!  It was noted yesterday that if the rain forecast for that day, and today occurred,  grain farmers face disaster.  Well, certainly, the rain has come as expected, particularly today, and apart from the farming communities, the threat of major floods to many regional towns and communities, and parts of Melbourne is being given serious attention tonight, as rivers and streams, which in many cases were basically dry twelve twelve months ago, are now close to breaking their banks and inundating low lying land in nearby areas. In fact there are many areas of New South Wales [NSW] and Victoria facing flooding, a follow up from the rains and floods that took place back in September.  The problem with talking about disaster relief yet, is considered a bit early because of the varied nature of the rain –  with rain and hail dumped on some farming areas in massive quantities, others remain basically untouched. Hail can be a particular problem, with some farmers  having crops destroyed, eg, one area in southern NSW saw where  ‘Two hailstorms shredded barley crops, shattered canola, stripped lupin pods and flattened heavy wheat crops’ [Weekly Times, p. 5, 8/12/2010]. Fruit and vegetable growers are similarly being affected, with the unseasonably  wet Spring and early Summer taken a toll on crops like cherries, stone fruits, strawberries, wine & table grapes, etc. No doubt, this will flow on to higher costs to buy those kind of foods in the near future, although the stone fruits seem to be perpetually highly priced, almost to the luxury standard!

Oddly enough, even here at home, I was out briefly tonight, building a bit of a rough levy and drain around the rear of the house – those areas I haven’t cleared of weeds yet!!  –  not that there was any danger here, but I noticed quite a build up of water during one heavy downpour earlier this evening around the back of the house, so decided to try and give it an ‘escape’ route. Reminded me of my first year or two in Sunbury in the middles 1980s, during another wet period there for a while. Our home was one of the first in a particular area of the Goonawarra Estate, and still had a large area of vacant land behind us, which tended to slope partially downhill towards our back fence. During times of particularly heavy rainfall, the water would flow down from this vacant land, through our back fence, and straight through the property, and out into the street at the front. If it was particularly heavy,  the water had difficulty getting beyond much of our backyard, and would soon be lapping at the doorsteps. I recall three or four occasions, been outside at night with the big gumboots on, digging a series of drains [in places where I didn’t want drains] in order to divert and force the water away from the house. At the time, I think I was more worried about the ‘scars’ I was creating in the rear part of our property than the actual water itself!! I think I still have some photos somewhere of those occasions. These days, I don’t think that same degree of problem occurs because all of the area at the rear of the property has now been developed with roads and houses etc, and any water flow from that area is better controlled now. And of course the land around the house is much more developed itself these days.

Of course thinking about the weather here, and much has been written about the cold spell over in parts of Europe and Great Britain and present. Reports from over there have indicated record early widespread snowfalls in more than 17 years. I really couldn’t imagine living over there in England in those conditions –  in extreme weather which has apparently covered  Scotland and North East England in snow, and closed schools, and not surprisingly, created mayhem on the roads. I’m happy to read about it – would certainly not want to be a driver in that kind of environment! Some of the Fscebook comments from friends and relatives over there, are almost too bizarre to believe, as I commented, it’s like describing to an Australian in this relatively warm climate, conditions of another world!

Such comments as   “Is snowed in at work and cant get home!”  and   “We have just come back over as we went to see if the Indian was open..it isnt..neither is the chippy..and the Byre beyond our budget. The canteen are giving staff free food up to value of £3.50 so me and Eileen each got a chicken burger and…(tharr be more) chips..with ketchup and vinegar !! Even had enough for bottle of Irn Bru. Brian, the traffic apparantly round the town centre area is grid locked. I wouldnt wish you to come out in it. Eileen and I have “borrowed ” blankets and pillows from the Ward as there are no beds left for us !! We also have wine, lol !! “  and later “Eileen and I listening to the radio. We have 7 pillows between us and 2 blankets…and 5 chairs so sure we can make a bed somehow !! Also got a bottle of wine each from Alberto and thats on standby..could easily chill it by hanging it oot the window !! Pamela, hope they get home safely but its taking 2 hours to get from Hairmyres to EK town centre and thats about 2 miles…the gritters are stuck in the gridlocks. Hairmyres is on “major alert” status.  Or  “There is a HUGE jam around the M74 area and M8 due to 2 jackknived lorries. There is traffic jamming back on M8 in the motorway just outside Glasgow. Its madness. Roads in East Kilbride are not moving at all so we wouldnt even be able to make an attempt at getting cars out until after 8pm. and heard on Radio Clyde that STrathaven is hell !”  So there you go, things could be worse here!!  [incidentally, those comments made by a ‘distant cousin’ whom I met recently through my current family history research].

From the Sydney Morning Herald tonight –

“Australia’s Ashes hopes are in tatters after their last-day capitulation at the Adelaide Oval allowed England to take a crucial 1-0 series lead.  Resuming at 4-238, the hosts lasted only 20 overs before falling at 11.27am for 304, with Peter Siddle the last man out, giving off-spinner Graeme Swann a five-wicket haul. The result, a loss by an innings and 71 runs, is Australia’s first innings loss to England since the Boxing Day Test of 1986 [which from memory, I was a spectator!!] Australia must now win at least two of the last three Tests of the series to win back the Ashes. Furthermore, if England win any of the last three Tests it would be impossible for Australia to win back the urn, as a drawn series would go in favour of the holder: England”.  Final scores in the Second Test at Adelaide  –   England: 5/620.  Australia: 245 and 304.    Enough said!!

Don Bradman would have turned in his grave at the Australian cricket performance. But then, he would have moved on like I did tonight – and listened to some music.  In fact during tonight’s show music program, I played a couple of track from a two CD set of ‘The Music that Don Bradman Liked’  –  tonight, Paul Robeson’s ‘Ole Man River’ [from Showboat],  Harry Secombe singing ‘If I Ruled the World’ [from Pickwick], and Mario Lanza’s ‘Golden Days’ [from The Student Prince].   I also played some songs from an album by the Irish singer Ronan Keating called ‘Songs for my Mother] which was released last year – this was a Cover album, so they  were his version of songs recorded by other people. While I generally prefer to play a singer presenting an original song, the Keating version of songs such as Time after Time, Both Sides Now, and Vincent. There was one song which I’d not heard before named ‘Mama’s Arms’. In the CD liftout, Keating wrote “This song got me through my mother’s passing. It tells the story of a young boy dealing with his mother dying. Regardless of what age you are, it’s hard to say goodbye to your Ma’

Earlier, I had another slow day at the office today, after ‘another’ poor sleep  – woken by a painful ankle affliction, I knew I would have to live through it for most of the day – the inflammatory tablets take the best part of the day to get rid of that problem,  which seemingly started from the little lawn mowing exercise on Saturday!! Must be something to do with the way I push the machine around!!

A couple of hours north of here, this is a problem which is creating major concerns – as reported in the media,  “Warm weather across Victoria could worsen a locust plague already threatening to become the state’s worst in 75 years as the pests pop up in Melbourne. The highest-density swarms – more than 50 locusts per cubic metre – have been sighted around Echuca in northern Victoria as they head south. Swarms have also been reported across central Victoria but the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) says they are not posing a serious threat to crops. Department of Primary Industries (DPI) state locust director Rob Walker said warm weather on Monday provided favourable conditions for the locusts to breed across most of Victoria. But further rain was expected to stop the locusts swarming.\  Mr Walker said the movement of locust swarms was unpredictable but swarms varying from low to high density had been reported from areas along the Murray River and south of Swan Hill’. In fact, I see that tomorrow’s forecast is for heavy rain and thunderstorms across much of the state, but that kind of relief from the locusts is only going to provide a temporary hiccup to the problem, and in some areas, I understand the situation is worse than the scenario painted in the preceding media report.

A pleasant dinner tonight, over in Chapel Street, South Yarra, with Committee and staff of my work team, and I was god [no, I wasn’t, but I was ‘good’]  –  ordered a lamb salad meal, had one beer, and no dessert!!!   Must admit it’s a pain at times to have to be considerate of what I eat whenever I go out for a meal, though if I do so, I’m usually grateful for that ‘pain’ by the end of the night!

More interruptions  by rain in the Test Match today  – at stumps on Day 4, England looks to have the only chance of winning, if the match isn’t going tp be another draw!  The progressive scores are:  England:  5 for 620 declared.  Australia: 245 and currently, 4 for 238 runs, still behind by 137 runs!!  Not a good situation at all!