Our Great Southern Land

Dragged Feral Beast out to the Whittlesea Show yesterday...well, it was more I dragged him out of bed then had to run all day to keep up with him!
Now, housekeeping...let's get the nasty stuff out of the way first off.
Transport to the show was not the best; caught the 7.33am train from Oakleigh to Parliament then caught another train to Greensborough where...we...sat...and...waited...for...the...first...bus...to...arrive...at...9.48am.
Yes, the ONLY bus route that travelled to the Whittlesea showgrounds was sticking to it's rigid Sunday time table that runs every 90 mins and does not begin until 9.48am from Greensborough station.
Madness!
I rang Dyson's only to find that to increase the route services is the territory of the Govt (Hello, Kosky, my old friend...I've come to talk to you again...check yer inbox, love, there's a good pet...).
10 kms out of Whittlesea and we were slowed to a crawl with bumper to bumper traffic.
All going to the show.
Single lane each way, Melbourne-bound side totally empty.
Many new housing estates being built.

 

 

 

 

 

*waves to Kelley*

 

 

 

I blame Andrew.
He started the 6 degrees of separation by mentioning I Wear A Hat who in turn then mentioned Circa Vintage Clothing ; from there it was all downhill as far as my resistance went and I've spent the past 30 mins drooling over the Art Deco in Goulburn brought to you by the glorious gal of Circa Vintage Clothing, Nicole Jenkins.

Who has a vintage clothing store in Fitzroy.
*nudges Brian of Fitzroyalty*

Who also has a book out.
Love Vintage.
Good girl, she's even listed where to get her Love Vintage book in Oz and NZ.

And who has helped organise a fashion parade to launch another book Our Girls; Aussie Pin Ups of the 40s & 50s.
What: “Our Girls” book launch with Circa ’50s fashion parade and other stars.
Where: The Order of Melbourne, 401 Swanston Street, Melbourne
When: Wednesday November 11th at 6pm
Cost: Free entry.

Remember boys and girls - Xmas is just around the corner!!!

Mercifully I culled a lot for you today (cropped out the crap) so you can skim read the events and be so enthused as to repeat the tripe around the water cooler at work.....
*crickets chirping*
Pass the chocolate teddy bear bikkies, it's Hug A Bear Day and I'm determined to do my duty!

1886 What later prompted the Calgary council to recommend building civic and religious buildings out of sandstone instead of wood was due to a fire that razed 4 hotels, 3 warehouses and 4 business stores after initially beginning in a feed store on 9th Avenue.

1943 Singer Joni Mitchell was born as Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort McLeod, Alberta on this day.
For further details click HERE.

1970 Aoraki/Mt Cook was conquered by "long haired hippies" John Glasgow and Peter Gough.
Read more about the mountain HERE.
Because they could.
Because it was there.

1976 Robert Muldoon accused Minister for Agriculture Colin Moyle of having been picked up by police for "homosexual practices" the previous year which sparked off the Moyle Affair.
More details HERE.
*I have both 4th and 7th November, 1976 for this.

1982 The beautiful Cloudland Ballroom in Brisvegas was illegally demolished.
For pictures and full history click HERE.

2008 Today the military's assistance in the Govt intervention in the NT came to an end after beginning in June to help stamp out child sexual abuse.

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.

Just an explanation of the north-south pipeline to those urban bodies and interstate persons who have no flipping idea of what I mean when I mention it.
Quick facts -
Long pipeline taking water from rural food growing area suffering from drought to transport water to Melbourne so we can flush our dunnies.
More salient facts HERE.

Plug The Pipe Campaign HERE.

And, surprise, surprise, the damn thing is threatening several protected species as reported HERE.

*waves to the Premier's office and Parliamentary Library in Spring St*
Hi!!!!

Woke up to hear the radio presenter chatting to a gal from New York ( that's 20 mins of my life I'm never getting back again). During the conversation someone emailed in asking if the meat baloney was the same as the saying "that's a load of baloney" to which she replied yes.
A little later on someone else emailed in asking if the word baloney was a corruption of the word Blarney (as in the Irish Blarney Stone).
Well!
The gal from NY got up on her high horse and spat the dummy big time, becoming a sarcastic smartarse saying "Well why don't you go back to your Google search engine and look up Balogna in Italy as that's more likely where the word comes from and I know what I'm talking about because I've eaten baloney and it's a mystery meat, nothing to do with the Blarney Stone. We haven't used that saying for nearly 20 yrs over here you're more likely to hear "that's a load of horse*** ..."
She was so incensed and spitting nails she accidentally hung up her phone on-air!
When she rang back she was still going on about the origins of the word baloney (despite the presenter's efforts to change the subject) and being rude toward the poor person who'd asked a simple question!
Memo to self - don't bother waking up to listen to that segment again.

1810 Never let it be said that Gov Lachlan Macquarie was just a pretty face hosting the first Survivor series in the colonies...
Macquarie let Riley, Blaxcell and Wentworth become the sole importers of rum - rum, that which greased the wheels of the settlement and made everything seem almost civilised (and convict blokes looked almost like eligble bachelors through a rum haze) - on the proviso that they build a proper hospital.
See, Rudd? That's how it's done.

1830 Te Rauparaha's war party popped in for a nasty mischief to the homebodies at Akaroa then they went on their way to Kapiti Island with some captives and a pile of human flesh.
Sorry, gone vegetarian this week...

1879 Thanksgiving was first officially observed in Canada on this date before it was shifted to share the week with Armistice Day post-WW1 then in 1957 it was moved, again, to the second Monday in October.

1906 The first long distance telephone line snaked its way up hill and down dale to reach Regina from Winnipeg.
But was there any gossip worth lifting the handset for...?

1908 PM Joseph Ward hammered home the final spike in the North Island Main Trunk Line.
For more info click HERE.
If you pop over to The New Zealand Journal you'll find some recent news of a former station stop being re-introduced and some great old photos.

1968 Surgeons in Toronto performed the first transplant into a human eye using a plastic cornea implant.
Ahh, yes, it's all clear to me now...

1984 The Christchurch Gay Taskforce was born on this day.

1991 Canadians put out the last of the 751 oil well fires started by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops at the end of the Gulf War.
Obviously none of you guys were around to fix this mess up off the coast of Oz recently...

1992 Indigenous Archaeological sites in Tasmania, at Rocky Cape, were reclaimed by Aboriginal People.
Goodness! You'd think they owned them or something...!

1997 Indigenous People were offered an apology from the various religious orders for their past treatment of Aboriginal People.

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.