Our Great Southern Land

There's a few things that have grabbed my attention today ...Ohh, shiney!....like the Scottish Govt making businesses recyle.
YES!
A govt that is making people rethink their piles of crap.
Will the Govt be doing the same? Who knows but it's a first step and might I point out it's a damn sight more than Ruddles, Wong & Co have managed to cobble together in Canberra.

Scottish classrooms seem to be circling the plughole alongside their Oz counterparts...let's all hold hands, sing Kumbya and toast marshmallows before the world ends.

All you button fetish freaks can get your fix at Buttonmania's sale that starts Monday.
Yeah, yeah, those multiplying tins didn't all belong to "granny"...we've seen your sort before, loitering around dusty op shops, poking through those jumbled goods at garage sales and the odd white elephant stall, looking to get your next button hit...

On the same link is news of Christmas Event to be attended come hell or mother-in-law visits, consisting of gifts, cards, hand made glorious goodies and vintage haberdashery - MarchRouge, check link for dates and times.

Black Bird Summer Market is about to launch itself upon Fitzroy and the world so click the link and check out the huge array on offer and pick up some Chrissy gifts for your nearest and dearest...and after you've filled your wardrobe maybe a little something for the family?

No, not a dicky bird of trivial history tonight.
Cos I'm draggin' this sad and sorry carcass to bed to catch up on sleep after so many nights in the heat....and I can listen to the rain on the roof as I drift off...
OH!
Heard a fantastic albeit far too short interview with the Topp Twins last Sat'dee night on the wireless.
If you are not au fait with the Topp Twins you may find crib notes HERE (there will be an exam at the end of this post).
Congrats to them on their successful flick (which bested Michael Moore's effort), the awards they've won, the tour they're embarking on and the cancer fight Jools recently won.
Top chicks are the Topp Twins.


Now for the exam....if you can lick your elbow you're a better gal than me, Gunga Din !

Shepparton survived my good self yet again...I must commend the good folks of Shepp in their stoic tolerance of my foooood collection activities...nom nom nom...
Baked Beans, Baby!
And....stuff....and....shortbreads....and...behemoth jars of gherkins and stuffed olives (not together cos they biatch and moan about having to share their space)...and Aniseed Rings....and...and...fruit galore for my Dear Papa.....and beetroot for The Spouse (yes, I've heard the joke about you can't beet a...)
Then we were sorely tempted by the Peanut Satay and Thai Green Curry sauces but we were Strong and Resisted! but later gave in when confronted with the tins of gourmet pink salmon in both lemon pepper and chili flavours nom nom nom and salad dressing and plum marinade and chutneys and fooood.
Oh, and I managed to snaffle several plum pudds for Chirssy day.

1863 The Maori surrendered at Rangiriri.
Further details HERE.

1871 Vic Pollies passed the Railways Extension Act which saw the massive explosion in the expansion - all over dis joint - of railway tracks, (infrastructure, employment, services to previously isolated towns, new transport for farm produce)...oops, sorry, got carried away.
Kind of like Brumby and Kosky...

1921 King George V who got up on his soap box and Declared! Canada's Coat of Arms to be Official! and the colours, of white and red, to be the Official Hues.

1956 Celebrations for the first 100 years of First Parliament.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd moving right along.....

1976 Gordon Lightfoot hit the #1 spot on the Billboard Chart with The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.
More info on the actual wreck HERE.
Or you could listen to Gordon warble If You Could Read My Mind....or Sundown...or go listen to Dr Hook and The Medicine Show singing about gettin' theirselves on Cover of The Rolling Stone.
Start clapping!
Join in..."on the cover of the rolling stooooooooooooooooooooooooone"

1988 Chinese Premier Li Peng was passing Christchurch, saw their light on and thought he'd pop in for a visit.
Ok, that was a joke.
He wasn't passing, Christchurch had broken away from the mainland and was sailing to take over the West Island (better known to you as Oz).
Ok, ok, that was a joke.
The West Island had already upped sticks and shifted to the North Pole.
Cos Rudolph said we could.
And Christchurch was actually heading forRussia.
Is my tiredness showing much...?

Yellow = New Zealand
Orange = Canada
Green = Australia
Red = usually British or other nationality
Anything in bold, italics and coloured blue is a link to another site with more info.
Anything outrageous is usually humour and/or sarcasm. 

While you are reading this I shall be leaving home at 6.30am and being let loose on the town of Shepparton.
Yes, the SPC Factory sales are being descended upon for goodies galore nom nom nom nom nom like cranberry sauce, stuffed olives, gherkins, bbq marinades, prunes, apple sauce, gravies, pears in cranberry juice, sun-dried tomatoes, salmon both pink and red, bikkies, cakes, baked beans, 4 bean mix, Ruby Red Grapefruit juice, pasta, cheeses, snack packs, jellies, spices and all things nices.....
nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom
*slurp*
Oh, and I may remember to grab some food for Christmas, too.

1915 The cornerstone of the Montreal Free Public Library was ceremoniously laid in place.

1937 Santa decided to exchange his sleigh for a parachute but without Rudolph Santa ended up crash landing in Auckland.
Read further details HERE.

1989 The fabric roof of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal tore during a strong wind storm.

2005 The last NZ resident who served in WW1 passed away on the West Coast; Bob Rudd was 104, he fibbed about his age to join the British Army then immigrated to The Shaky Isles after the war.

 Am not looking forward to stinking oppressive heat for Thursday...for you Northern Hemisphere folks it seems we're stealing your Winter warmth.
Please feel free to just snatch it back from us, ok?

1902 A 6 foot tidal wave hit Glenelg, flinging seaweed willy-nilly, scaring the bathers and causing the creek to run a banker.
Click HERE to see that I'm not hallucinating again.

1902 The magisterial findings into the inquest of the sinking of the steam ship Ventnor was handed down which you can read HERE.
You can read more on the wreck of the Ventnor HERE.

1948 On Prince Edward Island there was the official opening of the world's first commercial  microwave telecommunications system, linking PEI with the mainland.
More info HERE.

1969 The ship 'Hudson' sailed from Nova Scotia to study ocean currents in the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic.
C'mon, they were really on a boys fishing trip, weren't they?

2008 Newly elected PM of NZ John Key was officially sworn into office.

Yellow = New Zealand
Orange = Canada
Green = Australia
Red = usually British or other nationality
Anything in bold, italics and coloured blue is a link to another site with more info.
Anything outrageous is usually humour and/or sarcasm. 

Bizarre happenings, people!
Hidden messages from the Universe, perhaps.
Wandered down into the wilds of Windsor way yesterday (that's the non-Royal type of Windsor, Brian) when I needed to check the time, so I pulled out the little-used mobile phone.
Yes, the mobile is not used as a form of communication by moi but more of a time piece...no, I don't do watches although I have the odd pocket watch on a chain that is decorating my bookcase quite nicely.
Anyway, the phone (previously spot on for time keeping) tried telling me that not only was I now running on London time but that this particular London time was 10.07am on 5th January 2005.
Now.....I knew most of England had seen the big hand sweep past 10am a fair while back so that was off, for a start.
As for suddenly being on London time...almost 5 years in the past...? Doctor Who was telling me to "turn left" maybe?
Anyway I was early for my appointment so I checked out a street where my great grandparents once lived with their horde of offspring...turned left (!?) down the street shuddering at some of the "new" buildings hoping and praying the house was still in one piece.
And it was.
Standing there I looked at the front step that had seen multitudes of feet, my great grandparents and grandfather's feet...maybe my grandmother's feet when she visited....my father, uncle and aunt's feet when they did the "family Sunday" visits...
I wondered if their ghosts were jostling past this hoyden of a girl rudely crowding and staring at their front door...what if there was some metaphysical law about sending letters to the dead if their houses that held their memories still stood....
Then I remembered we were talking about Australia Post here and started crossing my fingers for this seasons Christmas cards to arrive in this century!

1876 The Melbourne Cup was won by Briseis who was ridden by 12 (or 13) year old Aboriginal (or non-Aboriginal) jockey Peter St Albans (or Michael Bowden).

1895 Mark Twain popped into Christchurch for the touristy turn around the town.
He was impressed with the dedication to the new-fangled craze the cycle, declaring half the population was parked on one while the other half must leap out of the way.

1921 Professor Robert Jack, perched in the Physics Dept of the University of Otago, gave the first radio broadcast in NZ.

1937 Professor Wood Jones vented his spleen in a speech at the Anthropological Society when he declared the story that the Aboriginal Peoples were a dying race when white settlers arrived was "humbug" and it was white man's way of whitewashing the extermination of native races.
"The Aborigines were never a dying race until we started to make them die."


Yellow = New Zealand
Orange = Canada
Green = Australia
Red = usually British or other nationality
Anything in bold, italics and coloured blue is a link to another site with more info.
Anything outrageous is usually humour and/or sarcasm.