V.I.P. Milestone Birthday!

Fiona Uncategorized

Dammit, Boss, I was going to put this up and surprise you!!!

Oh well . . .

and

Also, I thought that if CK Watt would like to run the raffle tomorrow night, this could serve as a very early raffle post – but please don’t order your numbers until the usual time.

724 thoughts on “V.I.P. Milestone Birthday!”

  1. Everyone hates Tony –

    Aceh residents use #KoinUntukAustralia campaign to offer to repay Australian aid

    Enraged citizens from the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh, Indonesia, have started a movement to collect coins to “pay back Australia” in a backlash against provocative statements by the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott.

    Venting their anger on Twitter under the hashtag #KoinUntukAustralia, or Coins for Australia, Acehnese have taken to the social network in droves to lambast the Australian leader

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/21/aceh-residents-use-koinuntukaustralia-campaign-to-offer-to-repay-australian-aid?CMP=soc_567

  4. Gonna be in the 40s agin tommoro!…had a gutful of this bleedin’ weather…we better hunt down these climate change deniers and string them up from lamp-posts

  7. Everyone hates Tony –

    Aceh residents use #KoinUntukAustralia campaign to offer to repay Australian aid

    I can just imagine DFAT staff and our embassy staff reacting with dread whenever the idiot says anything, and I wouldn’t blame them, they’re the ones who’ll have to try and smooth things over.

  10. Hi folks. It’s not real easy to have contact with the outside world on the net. It’s the only way to get out from here and I think it is more than the feeble, battery powered wireless system can cope with. damn you to hell Abbott & Turnbull.

    I should have been hooked up to the ABN in March last year. All I got is rotten copper that was corroded beyond saving years ago. Wireless can’t cope on its own in situations like ours.

    60,000 people with electricity just in Rockhampton alone with at least 40 or 50,000 more at the beach & Gracemere.

    it may be weeks before some are re-connected. Poor old Rocky has been absolutely smashed. I get internet sporadically when the demand drops off for a while, but it is slow. I reckon 14 to 34 klbs. Like real slow dialup.

    We got no idea when we may get electricity back on again and it could be a couple of weeks for some they say. There’s countless hundreds of power lines down. Dozens just close to me including my own.

    I think the stores are pretty well cleaned out of anything to eat, generators, gas cookers, gas bottles and the lines of cars wanting petrol at service stations are unbelievable.

    Streets are closed everywhere with huge trees & power lines & poles down everywhere.

    The place is a total mess with trees shredded and smashed everywhere with hundreds just blown out of the ground roots & all.

    Totally unbelievable. I hope my little comments aren’t boring anyone, but I feel it helps to get some things out of your system. I think I only stopped shaking this afternoon. It was a truly terrifying experience.

    I’ve been trying to post this comment for more than 15 minutes & it won’t move. Gives me time to add a bit more like this & do a quick edit! 😉

  13. Scorps,

    Just because we were so pleased to see you had survived without MAJOR damage doesn’t mean we’re not still concerned.

    We are: the situation you and your fellow regions in Queensland have already endured, and still must put up with, is horrific, as is that faced by some Top End communities – Milingimbi, Gapuwiak, Galiwinku and Milingimbi, in particular, and even though I’ve never visited them, I have a certain relationship with all four. One day, I hope.

    I do hope the Great Australian Community Spirit rallies round and helps you out asap.

    I also hope that self-aggrandizing politicians keep their noses out.

    My best wishes to you, your family, all in Rocky and surrounding affected communities.

    And to my sisters and brothers up north.

    Please – all of you – let us know if there is anything vaguely constructive we can do to assist.

  14. I wonder if those soldiers that Abbott was prancing about in front of the cameras with today were happy to find out that he would’ve sent the lot of them to some hellhole across the world to shore up his own popularity?

    Also, good to hear that you’re okay, Scorpio. I really hope that repairs to Rockhampton and Yeppoon and other towns in the area are fixed up quickly.

    I’m disappointed with the media about its coverage. So far it only seems to be giggling at that over-excited sign language interpreter with Palaszczuk. And has Abbott even acknowledged the cyclone yet? Or is he adopting the attitude of “Stuff Queensland, they voted Labor”.

  15. Fiona,

    Big day tomoora!

    Puffy and I are going to the War Memorial to do some stuff on a relo of hers. Out from the house hole at 9:45, leaving the AWM 11:30 and hoping to catch you all unawares at Kingston.

  16. Good to hear you’re ok…hope your property comes through ok too…it gets a bit tough pulling things back together at our age!….regards to your good OH.

  18. “So far it only seems to be giggling at that over-excited sign language interpreter with Palaszczuk. ”

    Don’t those fuckwits realize how important that AUSLAN is?

    Haven’t checked the noise on the web.

  19. Ducky,

    I hope you and Puffy have a productive and not too tearful time at what I called in my VERY early childhood the Warm Memorial.

    The table is booked for midday.

    I have (I devoutly hope) snared Joe6pack to give me a diagnosis of a possible problem with my vehicle before we head to the Kingston.

  22. Sleep well, Ducky on your hay and SmaugESS on your jewels – and see you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow.

    AJ,

    If there is even a remote possibility you could drop by for a few moments, you would be as welcome as the flowers in May (an old northern hemisphere expression, as I’m sure you understand).

    Though, given climate change, it’s probably mid-March these days.

  25. Fiona ,

    I do hope the Great Australian Community Spirit rallies round and helps you out asap.

    It is times like this that people really rally around. My place copped a hiding with huge branches of trees from my yard falling into my neighbor’s properties at the back and the side.

    The one at the back turned up with a chainsaw and all his kids & a guy that works for him, the next door neighbor helped out with his wife & kids who helped pile up the footpath both sides of me with branches.

    The footpath on both sides of me is piled up with tree branches. This is repeated right around Rockhampton..

    We even had a guy from about a block & a half away that dropped in with his chainsaw for an hour or two (after cutting up a couple of trees down in his property) and then when he thought we were on top of things, carried on up the road to help out others.

    You wouldn’t believe the mess that we had here. (still have till we can get rid of all the mess

    I understand that there are hundreds of people coming here to help out. There is certainly plenty of work for them here..

  28. On a somewhat different topic:

    OOOH UMMM ERRR

    I’ve just done a Bushfire Bill – or, more accurately a Bushfire Bill’s Hero of the Campsite.

    To set the scene, we are staying in a rather pleasant apartment in Kingston, one of Canberra’s oldest southside suburb, now rapidly changing from old redbrick 1920s/1930s houses into apartments.

    Lots and lots of apartments.

    Quite a few strictly residential.

    Some of them so-called “serviced” apartments (and yes, the service here is fine).

    Anyway, it’s a warmish and humidish night in Canberra, so my bedroom window is open, as is the door onto the balcony.

    Starting around 10:30pm Canberra time, I was regaled by the voices of a couple of women having an enthusiastic chat, with lots of laughs, in an otherwise peaceful soundscape. If I paid sufficient attention, I caught all sorts of interesting snippets about their office life, their love life etc etc etc, but I really wanted to read my book.

    After 40 minutes, I decided enough was enough.

    Now, my voice in the company of my fellow mortals is soft and low (an excellent thing in women, someone once said), but I can project, and have done so successfully in many auditoriums without the assistance of microphones.

    I went out onto the balcony, worked out where the voices were coming from (another group of “serviced” apartments across the side fence – and quite some distance away).

    Cupped my hands around my mouth (just in case) and said:

    Oy – d’ya think ya could tone it down a bit?

    Stunned silence.

    Followed by a little twittering, while (I suspect) they quickly finished their ciggies.

    Then the sound of sliding (balcony?) doors closing.

    Sweet are the sounds of silence.

  30. Scorpio

    Thanks for letting us know how things are going for you, sorry to hear about the awful damage.

    msadventure and a couple of others are hopefully okay too, but without power probably can’t let us know, we’ll wait with fingers crossed that they are okay.

  32. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Abbott’s on the back foot as his colleagues leak on him – that’s an unintentional pun!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/new-wave-of-leaks-forces-tony-abbott-on-to-back-foot-20150221-13l52i.html
    More damaging information on Abbott gets out.
    http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/pm-scuttled-secret-plan-to-kick-millionaires-off-the-aged-pension/story-fnii5s40-1227233764992
    Peter Martin suggests Australia is going to get stitched up by the US with the TPP.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/trans-pacific-partnership-whats-the-deal-being-negotiated-in-our-name-20150220-13jci9.html
    Today will see the release of the first Lindt Cafe inquiry and it is said that Abbott will draw on it for his national security speech this week. Can’t wait!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/release-of-lindt-cafe-siege-inquiry-to-inform-prime-minister-tony-abbotts-national-security-address-20150221-13l61b.html
    Here’s a hint of what he will say.
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/21/tony-abbott-hints-at-crackdown-on-welfare-abuse-by-terrorist-suspects
    The Independent Australia examines Morrison’s motives.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/scott-morrison-a-kinder-gentler-approach-to-welfare,7402
    The 25 worst things the Liberals did yesterday.
    http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2015/02/21/the-twenty-five-worst-things-the-liberals-did-yesterday-202/
    Jack Waterford is unconvinced of the effect of new bikie laws.
    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/new-act-bikie-laws-wont-address-problem-20150221-13k3rv.html
    Medicare is the wrong target.
    http://theaimn.com/medicare-is-the-wrong-target/
    It should be Abbott that Bishop calls, not Indonesia!
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/bali-nine-executions-julie-bishop-phones-indonesia-to-ease-tensions-20150220-13kkcl.html

  33. Section 2 . . .

    Peter FitzSimons says it’s time we treated drug usage as a health problem.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/its-time-drugs-were-treated-as-a-health-problem-20150221-13kb0v.html
    SA and Victoria have joined forces to go after Abbott over submarines.
    http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sa-to-team-up-with-victoria-to-take-submarines-fight-to-abbott/story-fni6uo1m-1227233884886
    Annabel Crabbe analyses Abbott’s character.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbotts-hug-or-shrug-game-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-20150221-13kftv.html
    A detached review of the death penalty from Charles Waterstreet.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/no-ambiguity-in-indonesias-law-20150221-13ky21.html
    Cathy Wilcox with one of her good ones.

    Many would agree with Ron Tandberg.

  40. Hope things get back to normal for you soon Scorps.
    2Gravel, there have been streets around me flooded and closed and a lot of water through my yard but no damage or power loss. Though my outside fridge has given up its life to the water gods, it was over 30 years old and still going strong.

  43. BK,
    Could you talk me through the links to the Australian and how to get past the paywall?
    I remember you said before something about the spaces and/or hyphens. Any tips most welcome.
    Thanks in advance.

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