Yodelling milkmen; bane of the urban lifestyle

Seriously, who'd have thunk that whistling or yodelling milkmen (or the odd few who split the early morning air with choice names for their not-so-steady nags) would have rated so much type face in furious debate?!
Yes, they were classed as "yodellers", although ours never attempted to do cover songs of Frank Ifield, we were lucky to hear the occassional "Hup, boy, hup now" and 'boy' would leave a pile of Gardeners' Delight steaming in the middle of the road or, once, a massive horse shoe which I snaffled and have still.
Go to the newspapers archive and search for "yodelling milkman" and be amazed at the vitriol spluttered at these poor, hard-working blokes by Councillors in Kew.

"Members of the Kew City Council have no respect for antiquity in statute law when its provisions threaten their early Sunday slumbers"

 These scoundrels supported the Milk Bill when it was up before Parliament and pushed for an addition to prevent milkmen yodelling on Sunday mornings.

"They are appalled at the prospect of milkmen being permitted to yodel unchecked in the small hours of the morning."

How utterly dare those milkmen yodel...!
Seriously, boys and girls, is that Dame Nellie Melba I hear whining about the church bells in Ballarat/Bendigo (insert favourite regional town for urban myth status) and having them silenced for decades...?
One is over-whelmed with the urge to grab the nearest Kew Councillor and shake some shyte commonsense into them.
Except they're now an extinct animal in their own right (Karma may work slowly but, boy, does she work!).
Poor James McLachlan, who apparently

"made a violent outcry in calling his wares"

was up before the beak in Brighton Court where the local health inspector claimed him to be one of the best yodellers he'd ever heard.
Mr Brown, P.M (drily) noted that

"Residents do not appreciate even good yodelling on Sundays"

then fined James McLachland of Balaclava 1 pound and 2/6 in costs.

I feel Mr Brown may have owned a sense of humour about his person.

Mr Rose, who called Highett Rd Sandringham home, was a dairyman with a quirk of humour also; he wrote a letter to Sandringham Council requesting permission to sell milk after 9am and until midday on a Sunday without a whisper of a yodel involved.
Councillor Sillitoe was greatly a'feared as he asked

"But what can we do about it? It is against the law to sell milk after 9am on Sundays" (insert outraged face and panting breath here).

Thankfully, sanity made an unexpected appearance in council chambers and no action was taken on the matter of The Milkman Who Will Not Yodel (insertAlfred Hitchcock theme music here).


In 1906 the Special Reporter was bitterly complaining thus

"I hate all milkmen particularily the purveyor who has the honour of supplying my household. He is so exasperatingly punctual. At precisely 6 o'clock every morning, whether it is daylight or not, just when one is turning over for one's beauty sleep, his discordant yodel splits the atmosphere, and inclines one to lament the poverty of the English language in respect to cuss words."

I fear the relationship with the local dairy was on rocky ground and bound to end in tears...!

There you have it, boys and gils, not only did every man look sideways at the milkman for fear he was cast in the mould of Benny Hill's Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West but the yodelling was just not climbing the ARIA charts and those dairymen were never going to make it on Australian Idol.

When Oakleigh was awash with Queens!

Queens, tiaras, gloves at the ready, silk stockings and starched lace hankies daintily tucked into a glove or sleeve.
Yes, Oakleigh was flooded with Precious Princesses who were Queens-in-waiting aspiring to the title of Queen of Oakleigh back in 1932 during the Back To Oakleigh Reunion ra ra celebrations.
Oakleigh even boasted a town hall in those days - imagine!
How very forward thinking of them as Oakleigh can now only point to it's Art Nouveau Mechanics Institute (which suffered several fires resulting in the loss of umpteen valuable records) and former council offices (which suffered a fire resulting in the loss of umpteen valuable records)...can you see a pattern here, boys and girls?
But I digress.
At the Reunion Ball the Mayor J. Marriot - one of THE Marriots who settled Bentleigh and Gardenvale, naming many streets after their many children - crowned Miss Grace Medbury, of the uber-gorgeous (still-intact)Edwardian-style 'Merry Glen' in Atkinson Street, Oakleigh (built by architect and builder Walter Ambrose Medbury, the Queen of Oakleigh's father) as Queen of Oakleigh.

 Merry Glen

Walter A. Medbury also designed and built the Oakleigh Courthouse, the Camberwell Courthouse, numerous churches, houses and civic buildings far and wide throughout the Fair Land of Victoria.

But getting back to the pomp and circumstance of the Queen of Oakleigh...!
In total £812 was raised by the gals who hoped to hold sway over many minions in Oakleigh, not a shabby sum when you remember the Great Depression still held a tighter control over more than just the immediate suburb.
The Back to Oakleigh festivities also consisted of cycling, foot races and a carnival at the recreation reserve, kiddies going nuts around a Maypole (in November?!), musical and spoken amusements, fireworks on the oval, Scout troops led the way marching from the railway station to the reserve and special church services were rife with all monies gathered hither and yon by the hopeful Princesses to go towards erasing the debt of establishing the aforementioned recreation reserve.

This was not the first time Oakleigh had been graced with a Royal flush...but that is another story for another post!

Architect or Archy-teck, that is the question!

blah blah blah blah...
Have been playing with routers and wireless thingies and laptops so have not done much beyond beginning my research on the next post on a particular Melbourne architect who I've fallen in love with.
The fact he's more than dead is beside the point.
Many of his creations are still amongst us yet most are overlooked and not known about (oh, spooky).
So, go start peddling to get the TARDIS engine warmed up cos I insist we trot back to 1900 to scoop up this little gem.

More bits on Toorak Grammar School

Tootling about the net - oh, now there's a dangerous past time for a gal with time on her hands! - and found some more details on the inhabitants and the house before it shrugged off its mantle of urban residence and acquired the sheen of academia.

The house had a name before it was known as Toorak Grammar School - it was Carrea.
I have no idea what this name meant to the Goldstraws or whence it came.

Frank Goldstraw's missus, Matilda Goldstraw, formerly Dixie, nee Broadbent, was no shy and retiring wall flower; this was an impassioned educator, too.
Matilda Broadbent's bio can be read HERE, I see no point in repeating someone else's excellent work.
Matilda had founded the Alexandra College in Hamilton, the Queen's College in Ballarat as well as teaching in various tents and schools.
Then, in 1893 she published her novel Milliara; An Australian Romance albeit under the name of Noel Hope and, although it did not recieve a favourable review in the Star newspaper of 1894 in New Zealand there were some pleasant words passed to describe the book, advertised in its 'cheap edition' for 2s 6d, in The Argus of April 20, 1894.

I have found a reference to a house in Toorak known as Milliara at the time Matilda would have been penning her romance - is there a connection? No idea but she must have been aware of the house and those who lived in it as it was owned by John Whiting a commercial traveller who founded the Commercial Travellers Club and who's house, Milliara, had been designed and decorated by architect Beverley Ussher.

Milliara sounds like another house to explore in the future, most probably via newspapers and written accounts as it's most likely gone the way of the Dodo like so many others.
Ah, well, just make certain to appreciate the ones that are left!

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink...so let's push up the prices to bail out Victoria's regional water boards!

Yes, you can see by the title it's going to end in tears, best cover the kiddies eyes now and pray for a miracle from on high - like a big cloud burst over all the catchment areas and a biblical flood to scour the water board committees from the land.

Let's run this rabbit down into it's burrow, boys and girls...
We're in a drought.
We've got feck all and nothing in the way of water, regional areas are doing it even tougher with even less water, harsher restrictions (in some areas) and reduced/non-existent irrigation for food production.
Along comes this BS North-South Pipeline that's supposed to take the "saved" water (water supposedly saved from covering the irrigation channels and renewed 'accurate' wheels) from a stressed river system and pump it down to Melb so we can have a slash, splash the shoes and flush the loo.

By the way, you can only "save" what you've got in your hot little hand not what you might not spend in the future or in this case, stop evaporating.

It's the same as saying,

"I'm not going to spend next weeks' wage, then I'll have a bajillion dollars in the bank to pay the builders for the swimming pool"

Reality is you lose you job or your wage is slashed so you don't save nearly as much as you planned to save but you've got to keep paying the builder because the infrastructure was built and you promised them money.

So there won't be much water saved but the Govt will have to open the BS North-South Pipeline and pump water from the stressed system because the infrastructure was built and they promised us water.
*Link to today's news article on false water savings on north-south pipeline*

 NOW, the water boards are up shyte creek in a barbed wire canoe without the proverbial paddle and what's their idea to solve this mess?
Yes, squeeze Joe Blow general household water consumer for more money cos no one can do without access to basic water.
These multiple water boards have everything fallen into the shyte with nary a sewerage farm in sight!
What's Coliban Water's solution?
Jack up the prices for households to bail their arses out of the crap.


Coliban has been trading in water (yep, we can buy temporary water on the market if our business is impacted by the drought...doesn't that sum up all irrigators?)  buying water from irrigators to 'top up urban use' (yeah, we won't have a damn thing to eat cos the food producers can't grow anything but we flush the loo!), upping the price of water (water will soon be considered the new cavier while the peasants gargle soft drink),....yet, there's bugger all water being delivered to those who need it.

Supply and demand works like this-

We want water, water boards deliver water, we pay for the water.

In this case it's become-

We want water, water boards can't deliver very much water, we pay a lot more for the not very much water.

No water and bugger all food.
Food producers are getting the rough end of the pineapple, many are going to the wall through drought, lack of irrigation water rights, increased export levies and cheap govt-subsidised over-seas imports flooding the Aussie market.
Put simply...
We're rooted.

Toorak Grammar "You don't know what you've got til it's gone..."

If, by happenstance, you glance up as your tram rattles past 652 High Street, Prahran try to look beyond the immediate garishness of the used car yard to the neglected and tumbling down beauty behind.
This is the original Toorak Grammar, a private boarding school started in the home owners private home when finances got a tad tight back in the depression.
The 1880s depression, that is.
(Frederick) Frank Goldstraw was a noted teacher and artist, painting not a few decent portraits of renown fellow teachers and people of standing in the academic community whilst he was employed at Wesley College.
He executed a magnificent portrait of infamous Sir Redmond Barry which, forgotten then rediscovered, was lost all too quickly in a fire.
Several of his paintings still hang with pride in Wesley College, apparently, but poor old Frank has been forgotten thoroughly.
The old house/school is falling to bits; a past fire and general weather has gutted its innards, pigeons are procreating with wild abandon in what was once Victorian splendour and the beautiful ornate plaster ceiling roses have crumbled to a chalky dust stirred only by the breezes that work their fingers through the yawning gaps or, perhaps, by the forlorn and equally forgotten ghost who is reputed to wander the former school.
The gorgeous bricks, which were laid before Canberra even existed, are in perfect order and could be salvaged; many aspects of this building could be saved and recycled but for the march of time which has not been kind to the old girl and, having forgotten her original owner and school master Frank Goldstraw, it seems that Stonnington Council have forgotten about the building as they have no record of its existence on their files in any shape or form.

If, by happenstance, you glance up as your tram rattles past 652 High Street, Prahran try to look beyond the immediate glaring newness of the flats that will be erected at some time in the near future to replace the neglected and tumbling down beauty....

Thunderbolts and lightning, not-really-very frightening to me! Galileo...dum dum dum dee

Ahh, yes, muggy humid weather followed by thunderstorms and bucketing rain.
We must have moved to Queensland!
No, we're still in Melbourne?
Then it must be politician-hot-air-blather-induced-climate-change.
Gag every pollie and the world might be saved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1854 The Angel of Long Point, Abigail Becker, single handedly rescued the captain and crew members of the schooner Conductor which foundered off Long Point in Lake Erie.
She later went on for an encore to rescue more sailors in the same fashion.
You can download and read her life story HERE.

1910 James Simpkins, cartoonist and creator of Jasper the Bear, was born on this day in Winnipeg.
*Apologies to all Canucks, would have included a link to the entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia but it's not connecting today and I'm trying to post this before the next thunderstorm hits.

1919 The Victorian State Eclectricity Commission (hands up those who remember the halcyon days of the SEC? Blackouts/brownouts and blaming possums for power issues were unheard of! See what progress and privatisation has brought us...?!) took a gander at the brown coal field in Morwell and said,
"That's the place for a settlement powerhouse!".

1959 Memorial Avenue, a memorial to the fallen airmen of WW2, was officially opened in Burnside.
Further details and photo HERE.

1960 Kiwi Keith Holyoake began his 12 year reign as NZ PM.
For more of his bio click HERE.

1979 For 1 week NZ/Oz band Mi Sex was at the top of the charts with Computer Games.

2005 Narrabeen Man, the remains of a 1,500 year old Aboriginal man, was found near a bus stop in Narrabeen.
For further details click HERE.

*Edit Thanks to Canadian historian Cheryl MacDonald for the correct year of Abigail Becker's first courageous rescue. 

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.  

November 25 hurtling us towards Christmess and the unending cleaning that awaits us all....

1803 William James Hobart Thorne, first billy lid of European settlers, was pupped at Sullivan Bay, the Collins Settlement near current-day Sorrento.
Please note the kid was lumbered with the middle name of 'Hobart' after Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for the colonies....before Hobart the town was established in Tassie. Ergo, we could say there was a Hobart in Victoria before Tassies capital was established!

1903 Bob Fitzsimmons won his 3rd World Boxing title, becoming one of NZ's earliest sporting heroes.
For further details on this magnificent sportsman click HERE.

1968 Jacqueline and Jillian Hennessy, twin sister actors, were born in Edmonton, Alberta.

1980 The Totem Pole was shifted from Little Hagley Park and plonked at Christchurch Airport.
Further details HERE.

1989 An earthquake hit Quebec, measuring 6 on the ol' Richter Scale.

2000 The Indigenous Sports and Culture Festival was held at Coorparoo in Brisvegas.
It's on again this Fri, Sat and Sun so if you're up that way pop along for a great time!

Kiwi of the week is Te Rauparaha.

Aussie grrl of the week is Beryl Guertner.

Canuck of the week is Thomas Phillips Thompson.

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.  

Ned Kelly Unearthed panel discussion

Well!
Thoroughly enjoyed it, Feral Beast thought it was fantastic - plus he got to meet and shake hands with Adam Ford the archaeologist (who has since completed a dig with Time Team in the UK) - there were a few pleasant surprises and new items since the archaeology dig.
Liz Marsden, Collections Manager at the Vic Police Museum, had a spot and spoke of the new discoveries in the police museum collection of items like an unpublished manuscript of the policeman who survived the Stringbark Creek murders, piles of letters from people offering to help the police in their search for the bushrangers and suggestions of what should be done.
*From Jan 4th, 2010 til June 25th 2010 the Police Museum will be holding an exhibition of the 'new' material and evidence called "Ambush".

Ian Jones, renown author and biographer of Kelly (and former scriptwriter for Crawfords), spoke as did Dr Claire Wright author of Beyond The Ladies Lounge; Australia's female publicans who chaired the discussion, and Alex McDermott historical researcher.
I really hope they put a podcast up of the discussion as it was a great evening, could have gone on for much longer - they actually went 20 mins over - as the collection of people were comfortable with each other, chatted back and forth easily, new perspectives were offered, new ways of presenting the evidence, the fact that Glenrowan is still a raw wound to many people and how delicate the dig had to be.
Fabulous discussion by well-researched people who knew their subjects inside and out - look forward to listening to any of them present another panel in the future.

Drought , environment, coal, blood, sweat and tears Fatigue

Yep, we all hear these new phrases like 'charity fatigue' where people have given til they aint got no more to give and now I've personally arrived at Drought Fatigue.
Oh, I'm certain there's many a struggling farmer, irrigator, food producer who have reached this state long ago, having to deal with the constant ineptitude of state and federal govts pissing about with reviews and committees and think tanks to see what the problem might be.
The problem might be a lack of foresight in planning for the lack of frigging rain which was more than abundantly clear when our particular brand of shiftless sheep gained power here in Victoria far too frigging long ago to have made a feck worth of difference.
Our herd of woolly backs still trot out the whiney little bitachy excuse "Awww, but it was all screwed up from the previous Liberal Govt"
Riiiiiiiiiight.
10 years in power and pissing our money up against the constant sports stadiums, sports competitions, Commonwealth Games, the who-flucking-wants-a-waste-of-bloody-time-and-money-Grand-Prix oh, only the dipshyte govt, and the never ending boringly monotonous black asphalted roads to here, there, nowhere and back again with ever-growing tolls.
There's no investment in solar, nothing to encourage Joe Blow to go get his house kitted out in something approaching nice for the environment, sweet FA invested in rail infrastructure, not a bloody dicky bird of enforcing everyone to have rainwater tanks, not a sniff of recycling the storm water back into daily usage for dunny flushing or inert item production use instead of wasting potable water.
Nope, nada, zip, zilch....about as much action happening for our drought as what's happening inside the average Victorian pollie's head.
Which equates to not much and what is on the boil is the just the sound byte for the media to explain screwing over some granny out of her savings.
Again.
We're told to "Target 155" which means we're not allowed to use more then 155 litres of water per person, per day.
I've got the tribe down to, on average, 50 litres each per day (that includes showers and washing!) but when my recent bill came in and *HORROR OF HORRORS* we'd dared increase our usage up to a whopping 54 litres each per day I got juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a little more than pissed off.
I'm tired of running around securing Every.Blinking.Drip of water that comes out of the taps.
I'm so fecking over showering with a bucket, without a bucket but then a temporary hose then a more permanent pipe attached to the waste water pipe, moving the pipe around the garden to water everything that stands still, frantically repairing any holes in the water tanks or water butts, praying for rain, more rain, cleaning the spouting Every.Other.Blinking.Week to have it clear to capture that last bloody drop.
I'm fecking OVER it, Brumby, Holding, Kosky, whoever and whatever.
One moment there's going to be water tanks on the new Spencer St station capturing bajillions of litres of water - the next we're told, by water minister (and He Who Gets Lost In Mountains) Timmeh Holding that there will not be any tanks, then the next someone dared complain in the newspaper only to be corrected by some bloke in charge of the Think Tank on Water tanks that there will be rain water harvesting at Spencer Street station....
When?
Stop fecking promising and Do.It.Bloody.Now.
We were promised train lines would reopen - our woolly backed sheepies lied.
We were promised a solution for the very obvious drought - they lied.
We were promised increased alternative power options - their noses are growing at an alarming rate, now.
Seriously, it's not rocket science you fat cat weasles with our money lining your love-handle smothered hip pockets.
DO SOMETHING, FFS.
Or I may be forced to do something I have not resorted to in more than 10 years....have a loooooooooooong, relaxing bath!

November 24 all day til midnight...or the next round of rum....

 Sorry, been rather distracted of late, been doing stuffs 'n' fings for Chrissy.
Am off to a lecture with Feral Beast tonight on the archaeology dig they beavered away at in Glenrowan last year to see what they might find relating to Ned Kelly's stand in the pub at Glenrowan before his capture.
This lecture is followed by a tour of the glorious finds they will shortly have on display.
Don't wait up for us, ok?

See, the oldies knew how to have a wow of a time and get into the Festive spirit by starting Brumalia in the Byzantine Empire, a wine festival to honour the Greek God of Wine, Dionysis.
*hic*
An' thosh pish-potsh would kee' on gurglin' the gut rot *hic* grog til th' Winter Solstice.
Think I might lie down for a few minutes....

1792 The very first play about the Fair Isle knitting pattern of Oz was performed in Paris under its title of Les Emigres aux Terres Australes.

1807 Joseph Brant, the Six Nations Mohawk Chief  who settled his people in Ontario, Canada, after supporting the British in the American Revolution, passed away on this day.
For more of Joseph Brant's bio click HERE.

1959 The sad and unexplained loss of all hands on board the Holmglen which foundered off Timaru on this day.
More info HERE.

1971 Aboriginal and church groups met for a service in Brisbane then peacefully marched to the Dept of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs in a anti-racism protest. A 'wall of police, backed up by another busload of police' were there to prevent the protestors gaining access to the building.
Of course it was reported in the media as 'a riot'.
Pfft.

1973 40,000 Aboriginals across the Isle of Oz voted representatives onto a National Aboriginal Consultive Committee to advise the Govt of Aboriginal needs.
"........................"
............hello?
Is there anyone listening...?

1981 The Metric Commission in Ontario proclaimed the order that all scales in 35,000 stores jump the fence from Imperial to Metric by December 1983 and that all advertising of goodies and yummy stuffs must be in metric after December 31, 1983.
Happy New Year to you, too!

Enjoy this great tune Oh My Stars from Paul McDermott and crew from the finale of Good News Week 2009.

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.  

Stuff and....stuff

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 !

November 21 says we can eat til we burst and then start all over again...

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. 

November 20 and the food stores are getting hit up big time, baby!

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.

Holy concrete shoes, Batman! Let's get out of Gotham before November 19 makes old bones...

 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?

....he's a happy chappy, is Larry.

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.

Yeah!

What he said...

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.

The real reason Anne Boleyn parted company with her noggin; Henry had a fetish for unblemished concrete.

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.

I missed him playing this particular footpath when he was last in Oz....

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?

The magic of inscribing this obviously worked....about 15 years later.

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

This is what happens when Big Ears is out of town....

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. 

November 17 landed with the UFO, Little People and a wee dram of black tea

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. 

November is sixteen going on seventeen but Jane Austen says grab Pakenham's gorgeous Bridge!

Well, Hell didn't freeze over as I managed to immerse The Spouse and Feral Beast in a little culture (other than their daily yoghurt rations) when they sat and watched Miss Austen Regrets on the idiot box.
Ahh, bliss.
Now to get both of them to sit through Pride and Prejudice without their usual howls of pain....!

Solar fairy lights.

1838 Republican rebels clashed in battle with militiamen in Pakenham.
That's Pakenham, Ontario not Pakenham, up the road from Dandy and Berwick in Victoria.
And I'll happily take the Ontario Pakenham's gorgeous stone bridge if they don't need it any more...?

1840  NZ officially became a separate British colony all on its lonesome when it slashed, tore and ripped its ties to NSW.
For more info on New Ulster, New Munster and New Leinster click HERE.

1855 Mr Thomson won the privilege of fencing in those scallywags in Spring Street, the Victorian Parliament.
For his trouble of erecting a corrugated iron fence Mr Thomson was given 1,320 pounds....these days I'm sure there'd be plenty who'd pay to have the privilege of stopping those trouble-makers pollies indoors!

1901 After the third time of an earthquake doing a nasty mischief to the spire on Christchurch Cathedral The Powers That Be wisely decided to repair it in timber and metal instead of the heavy and ouchy stone.

1928 The first French Ambassador in Canada, Georges-Jean Knight, flashed his credentials to the Gov-Gen.

1949 Aboriginal singer Harold Blair criticised the whole Australian nation for its piss-poor treatment of Australia's Indigenous People.
The more things change....

Something...something...tree

November 15 according to Lady Chatterly's party memo!

Being the generous wee soul that I'm not I'll give you a couple of recipes that suit meals in this disgusting heatwave.

Steam peeled pieces of pumpkin and whole spuds with green beans until cooked.

Let cool, then chop roughly, tossing all into a bowl with bean shoots, chopped salad onion, shredded cabbage, halved hard boiled eggs, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.

Pretty.

1769 Captain Jimmy Cook whipped his mother's drawers British flag up the flagpole at Mercury Bay to claim the land in the name of the next Melbourne Cup Winner King George III.

1841 Completely unexciting - unless you compare it to batshyte and even then the batshyte will win - the market commissioners of Melbourne had their first knees up meeting.
What they discussed I couldn't begin to tell you....nor should you care.
You have the batshyte to keep you amused, remember?

1855 Grand Funk Trunk Railway finally pulled into Brockville from Montreal.

1861 The Otago Daily Times began doing duty as a fish wrapper.

1960 A panel who were appointed by Canada's Attorney-General studied D.H Lawrence's work long and hard but came to the conclusion that Lady Chattery's Lover was not obscene.
Huzzah!!

2005 Port Augusta, just like my minor mansion here, became a dry zone.
For my overseas visitors this means no grog aka alcohol is allowed in a designated area.
You may leave your tipple at the door, the Bats need something to inspire them.

Now, for a light Summer pizza -

Grab a wrap (as in sandwich wrap bread) smear with garlic, top with grated cheese and warm in a frying pan (with lid on) on top of the stove until cheese is melted, then serve with green tossed salad on top.

Steam engine.

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. 

Fairy lights are for a lifetime, not just for Christmas....

I haz coloured sparkly ballz dangling from my front verandah.
Swinging and dangling in the stiff breeze.
Yes.....insidiously the Christmas season has started oh so early here...although some feel that imbibing of eggnog this early will hold back the floodgates of festive frivolity  (finger in a dyke, Kel, you're just sticking a finger in a dyke).
I have given in and declared that today will be the day of the erection of the Toilet Tree upon the cistern. 

I have also indulged myself in solar LED fairy lights.
If you like the odd twinkler or go all over the top at Christmas go solar. Even if you don't subscribe to the Climate Change thingie (but do belong to the Flat Earth Society) these suckers are cheap to buy, cost $0.00 to run (apart from the odd battery change every other year), look pretty and do pretty much everything the mains powered flashers do....except cook a roast but we're working on that.
From all I have priced, bought and set up I have to give the award to KMart this year for having the widest range and realistically priced solar lights available.
Starting at $9 and increasing only gradually you can choose some pretty lights to suit even the tightest budget.

1828 Meanwhile, back in the Old Dart Tommy Peel suggested the colonisation of Westralia.
It's utter madness, I tell you, that Westcoast Eagle bird will never fly...!

1835 Speaking of utter madness Canada's first insane asylum opened on this day in Saint John in New Brunswick.

1845 Sir George Grey rocked up in NZ, liked the place so much he stuck around for 2 turns around the dance-floor as Governor then fitted in a quick Foxtrot as Premier.
Here's a statue of him we prepared earlier...HERE.

1849 After a firey mob flamed the Montreal Parliament Buildings so much they burnt down Toronto became the capital on this day.
Coz Torontonians used stone, I assume?
And a mighty fine seat of governance it is, too, HERE.

1973 The Kiwi's enjoyed their first live international broadcast on the idiot box with Princess Anne marrying her fine steed Captain Mark Phillips.
Watching paint dry would have been so much better....

2001 In Perth the Spectacles Wetlands became part of the Aboriginal Heritage Walking Trail.

Flower solar lights.

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. 

Friday the 13th NOvember flee to the hills, the hills have eyes, The eyes of Laura Mars,Mars 1998

 Oh, yes, we could play this direct-link-movie-title nonsense all day long but!
To the Bat Poles, Wonder Woman!

Arrgh!
Tis Friday da Furr-teenth...brought to you by the Casino Count, Sociopathic Big Bird and Hallucinogenic Mr Snuffelupagus.....Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaa *wheeze* hahahahahaahhahahahahaa...
Yes, Sesame Street turned 40.
Strangely it meant the death of several excellent homegrown educational shows for kiddies and several generations growing up with an ingrained American accent.
*sigh*
And for the love of all that's Holy in the vegie patch; for the last time the f*@king letter Z is pronounced ZED not zee.
Mummy's happy pills are brought to you by Thank God, Pass The Water and Start Baking The Pavlova, Beryl!


For those who liked the Whittlesea Show pics tune into Channel 7 tomorrow night at 7.30pm to watch Better Homes and Gardens as the show was out there filming over the weekend, taking part and judging some of the entries (and Dr Harry managed to get into some of my shots...).

 Can I take this moment to tell pollie Kevin Thompson, who wants to cap the number of Kiwi's walking through the front door of Oz, - please  there's a village somewhere being deprived of it's very own Sooky La La, I feel this position would suit you down to the tips of your sad little ingrown toes.

1673 The beaver was first mooted as a symbol for Canada.

1954 Hastings in NZ became the first town to flurodate its town water supply.

1973 NZ passed the Domestic Purposes Benefit which allowed single Mums to stay at home with their kids rather than rely on paid work outside of the home.

1979 CJCD, the first private radio station in Canada's North West Territories, went on air in Yellowknife.

1996 Up Qld way the Stradbroke Island Action Coilition presented the Inaugural Premier Awards for Mining Ineptitude.

1998 Judy Spence, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, put the record straight when she denounced the claim in the Guiness Record Books that Palm Island was the most violent place on earth outside of a combat zone, having based their information on a UK newspaper article that used fictious data.

Not a Fergie but a crank started Fordson tractor.

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.

Grand Parade at Whittlesea Show

Now, if I was clever like BB I'd work out how to upload the mini-film Feral Beast made of the grand parade...but my brain is still in fartage currently being consumed by Weather Customs Control and there's no telling when that's gonna be let loose on the unsuspecting Flat Earth Worshippers.
So, you get the photos.

 

 

 

 

Light Horse.

 

 

 

 

 

This was the chap who transported the bullock teams down for the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this mind melt we will resume normal programming...

Major brain fartage taking place due to over-enthused thermostat tampering on the big burning ball in the sky of late.
Once we find the student responsible for this prank we'll give them 100 lines of "I must not play with burny-ouchy-things" followed by polishing and waxing several red dwarf planets in the vicinity.
That's all, you may assume your positions of not giving a fat rat's clacker.

Today (Tuesday) was 37 C (98.6 F in the old money) which is Really Quite Inconsiderate, thank YOU Mother Bloody Nature.

Pfft, Mother Nature, my Aunt Fanny Adams.

If you were a human you'd be a single mum, possibly under the age of 15, throwing a tanty cos your first born won't go to sleep at night so you can go out on the town for this your final pub crawl before you spit out the triplets you conceived on the backseat of Zeus' chariot while Hera was chairing the local Country Women's Association meeting.

Whittlesea Show part deaux...with a double half pike split

Again with the real food...anyone would think these people grew the damn stuff or something...

The black sheep of our family...

The blacksmith checking his mobile....

That sentence just sounds sooooo wrong lol.

Many of these here wee engines; some flattened aluminium drink cans, others pumped water while even more burbled away on kero/petrol/diesel/and oily rag and did...something.

 

 

An apron without a pocket is like a dyke without a bike...

The TARDIS blends into any setting...

Jasper, the 27 yr old Shetland pony.

Food stall.

Something....

Wee baby Shetland only 10 days old.

Sawing demo on old steam-driven machinary.

Again steam-driven wood sawing demo, different machine.

Yes, much droolage was taking place.

Goodness, where did he come from...Newcastle with the woolly backs?

*As the term originated from those working in woollen factories who'd carry the fleeces on their back*

 

 

 

 

Not sure if you'll be able to read it but this was a hut pulled behind the working teams and they'd sleep in it of a night.

 

 

 

 

 

2 working bullock teams, from Nowra, showing what a good bullock driver can do with the right commands, a handful of dust and some chaff...

Tomorrow - the Grand Parade.