4 posts tagged “world”
Hey World,
It’s been 51 odd years and so I think it is finally time to have a word with you. A summary of your efforts and effects as it were.
First, right out of the chute you loaded me with a couple of physical problems that have shaped my life and me. Oh, and then there was the bit about telling 1950s Mothers that bottle was better than breast, and that we had to be on a schedule. Thanks for introducing us to the world of anxiety and rules, World, good idea that. Not. And before we move out of the hospital nursery, thanks for loading me up with the time bomb eye tumour – eye and I just made it to 18 years.
Ok World, out of the nursery and onto the catholic primary education with the Sisters of No Mercy. I enjoyed the terror and fear for those seven important formative years of my life. It was probably a good thing that I didn’t figure out until my adult years that a lot of the treatment that was dealt out was according to whether you were Irish catholic [Australian] and therefore favoured or German catholic [Australian] and therefore bullied by racist nuns. [Australian Irish catholic]. Not sure World, if that was a lesson I needed right then, but it probably fuelled the strong desire for social justice that drives me now. The big plus was the friend that I found in the kindergarten sand pit that still has an important role in my life to this day.
Thankfully I discovered books and reading, thanks in part to a neighbour that you placed next door. And my big sister. Thanks for that one World. It helped me escape the cultural wasteland of a happy home. I bless you for the happy home and the parents who obviously loved me. Of course World, you had to balance it out with a mother who passed her anxiety about EVERYTHING on to me, so that her voice questioning my ability to accomplish anything new or unusual in still in my head. Maybe that is why I have become so stubborn and will launch myself into the new challenges just to achieve. I won’t let you get me down you know, World, even though you try over and over again.
I did think the alcoholic father, a melancholy self medicator, might have been a step too far, but hey, everyone in my world had an alcoholic father after WWII. Despite that I never doubted he loved me and was proud of me. He was a gentle man, and he thought I could do anything. He shaped me stoic and persistent.
Ah the teenage years. At least there was release into the state school system. Sadly it was a country high school in the early 1970s and so the male teachers just taught to the male students. However, thanks to a couple of female English and History teachers the rest of my life had a shape. And of course I found those lifelong friends that I have to this day, as precarious as some of their lives now are. That was a good one, World, I’ll congratulate you on that one.
The eye was probably the defining moment for the teenage years, but you did balance it with the arrival of Mr FD in the middle of the drama. Not many men think a young woman with a hole in her head and a huge bandage is sexy but he managed it somehow, so big tick on that one. Big tick on that one all round – except he could have been a little taller. I think even he would agree on that one.
The twenties – marriage, babies, domestic life. The good life. I never wanted it to end. If I could have stopped time that is where I would be now. They grew up though and so did I. I just tried to make them confident, and happy, and encouraged them to follow their passions. I will let it up to them to score me on that one, but I enjoyed it all. It kind of pissed me off when you made it all progress away from me.
My 30s. Well, World, you gave me a mixed bag there. University education as a mature age student – 36 when I began the first degree. Back into the work force full time to educate those children. Emergencies that meant sleeping beside hospital beds at night and trying to juggle employment, but we all survived. Maybe even thrived.
The big 40. It was ok, you know. Frustrations at the lack of a career where I wasn’t used and abused and bored. Family life – you gradually took Dad away from us, first his mind and then his spirit. Can’t forgive you for that one, World. You gave Daughter2 too many physical burdens too, and we watched her fade until we snatched her back. Mr FD unemployed, and me the bread winner for awhile. We came back stronger, and learnt the life lesson not to let others – parents, employers or your own fears – set your life agenda. Even you World – I can’t always choose the people and events that you send me, but I can choose the way I deal with them. And I do.
The end of my 40s brought a change of city that I tried to ignore, but maybe in the long run was the best thing, World, for me in a long time. Maybe not for Mr FD, but that is his story to tell. Ups and Downs all around, but opportunities to be what we really wanted to be, all of us. New lives crafted, new friends made, old ones rediscovered.
Ah, now you have me in my 50s, World. Not bad. Not what I imagined – back at university, and a new career. A new me. New experiences, new friends. The Boy added to our family. Big tick there, World. Some financial security would be good, hopefully in the new year, World – no, definitely in the new year, thanks. Don’t worry, I will sort it out for myself.
Not sure, World, if you loaded up the early years with hard stuff for a purpose or not. Was it just luck of my draw? Could have done without most of it , well in a perfect world, all of it, but then again maybe I wouldn’t like me as much as I do now if I hadn’t lived through what I did. Do. Others had much worse, and others much better. One of the things about you World that puzzles me – our human need to rise above despite the cost to others. Man’s inhumanity to man. Ditto women.
Not ready to rate you yet, World. The race is not yet run. I expect there are going to be some more hardships, and hopefully some happy times. I like the happy dances. I hope that at the end I can shake my fist at you and declare that I took you on and did my best. Go on, move along, I am here.
Almost one hundred thousand homes and businesses have been blacked out by severe thunderstorms and destructive winds in south east Queensland.
60 thousand homes in Brisbane's north have been affected by a slow moving storm cell which hit the region late this afternoon.
Another 20 thousand customers are without power in other parts of Brisbane and there is seven and a half thousand in the dark on the Gold Coast.
Some customers may have to wait until tomorrow before their power is restored.
Energex, the main power provider in the region, has recorded three and a half thousand direct lightning strikes on its facilities.
The weather bureau has also received reports of golf-ball sized hail in the Gold Coast hinterland, with roofs being torn off houses at Canungra and Brisbane residents have reported heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
It was even hotter today and the humidity hit 94% when the storms came up. It was dark as night late afternoon as the rain started. We were lucky and only got heavy rain but as you can see from the news item above, many areas of south east Queensland got a quite destructive storm. We got 42mls of rain in about half and hour. We heard one report on the news that the hail stones ran from the size of a golf ball to the size of a tennis ball! We did not get hail, thank heavens, just a lovely drink for the garden and the rain water tanks refllled!
My sister and her husband came for afternoon tea and stayed for dinner due to the weather. Our mother was suppose to come but she heard the forcast of rain and refused to leave home. We had a lovely afternoon gossiping and due to mother's absence could roll our eyes and gossip about her too! She is getting a bit difficult these days - she apparently is thinking of going into a retirement home! I think she is playing with my sister's mind as I cannot see her voluntarily going into a home, though I think it would be much better for her...we will see which way the wind blows on that one!
We saw the news reports of the storm on the evening news and I turned to my sister and said "Mum is about to phone" and I no sooner finished the sentence and the phone rang. Mum! She was near hysterical as she had seen the same news report of what happened but in her mind she was recreating it as about to happen all over again. Sister and I played tag on the phone calming her down and I had to promise not to let sister drive home that night! We said "oh no" and then after checking the weather radar online and seeing the storms were well away from the area, sister and brother in law drove home. We will let mother think they are here until tomorrow. Mum has always had a dreadful fear of storms, and I once read that it is a fear held by many people of German descent, but as she has aged Mum's fear has become worse. Actually in a lot of ways she is no coping well and developing all sorts of anxieties and fears. I think this modern world is a bit confusing to her.
Well, when she was born in 1927 the Great Depression has not yet happened. She rode a horse to school and helped milk the dairy cows by hand. She finished school at the end of the 7th grade like most children did in those days and went home to help on the family farm until she married my father at the age of 21. She never worked outside the home in paid employment and has lived in our family home for 52 years. No wonder the world causes her anxiety. It must indeed be frightening to her. I think it is terrible how old age catches up and skills are lost and the daily things become so hard.
It doesn't seem fair after a life time of caring and doing and striving and living, to have your world diminish as you age. It is great to say "Oh I wont be like that I will make sure I keep current" but it isn't so easy. Physically you change, body and mind. and try as you might you can't stop that. You can slow it a little, but the aging process over rides so much.
I don't mean to sound depressing or discouraging, but it is just so sad to see someone you love watch turn into a shadow of themselves through no fault of their own.
Old Time, that greatest and longest established spinner of all!.... his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes. ~Charles Dickens
and on a happier note
While I was on the phone talking to Mum I walked outside to check the rain guage and found a very bedraggled curlew standing in our drive way! It was so wet and looked so sad. It didn't look at all concerned that I was standing some 20 feet away nattering on the phone. It eventually walked calmly across the road and towards the bushland just over from our house. It was then that I saw its mate standing next to the trees on a neighbours allotment. I was able to go back inside and drag Mr FD away from the television to identify the bird for me. I never have any idea but he seems to know all types of birds and animals. So we both stood there watching for some time and then he went back inside and then BIL and Sister came out, one by one, to look. The both of our daughters. It was a family affair, everyone taking a peek at the curlew pair, who still ignored us and seemed to be concentrating deeply on picking off the worms and grubs that were popping up out of the sodden lawns. Magical. We are so lucky to have the bushland so close to our ourselves and to have the gift of all the birds. I am gald that we all got together and fought the Catholis Church and stopped them from selling off the land for high density apartments. We got the council to buy the land and keep it as a nature reserve,.. never to be developed. Our little but for the planet. And watching the culews was our reward.
Eventually I remembered I still had Mum on the phone and went back to our conversation!
Martha's Thursday hint:
| Baking-Pan Organizer |
| Retrieving a jar or bottle from the back of a crowded cabinet can be awkward. For a simple fix, gather the pantry staples onto a spare baking pan. |
WHAT IF YOU EVER NEED TO USE THE BAKING PAN, FOR LIKE BAKING?
In Flamingo Dancer World that would mean that all the stuff in the pan would have to come out of the cupboard and onto the kitchen bench, along with the all the baking ingredients, and then they would have to sit there until the pan was free again, and in Flamingo Dancer World that could mean they may all sit there for at least 5 weeks, maybe a month or three longer.
Surely you can do better than this, Martha? Can't we fold our own box out of origami paper and then stencil kitchen motifs on the side as well create a stamped name label that says "Pantry Staples" in our favourite font, from a rubber stamp we chiselled ourselves while riding the bus to work? I think Martha's standards have dropped, don't you?
Two-thirds of Aussies want President Obama: poll
If the rest of the world could take part in the US presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama would win four times more votes than his Republican rival John McCain, a poll shows.
In surveys conducted by the Gallup organisation in 70 countries representing nearly half the world's population, 30 per cent of people said they would choose Senator Obama as president of the United States against 8 per cent who said they preferred Senator McCain.
In four close US partners in Asia, including Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, residents came out clearly in favour of Senator Obama.
Two-thirds of Japanese and Australian respondents said they preferred Senator Obama to Senator McCain, who only scored about 15 per cent in the two countries.
In Singapore and South Korea, meanwhile, the pro-Obama vote outpaced the pro-McCain vote by around two to one.
"McCain and Obama have each pledged to reinvigorate and strengthen partnerships with the four developed Asian countries and take a more active role in Asian regional organisations," Gallup wrote.
Nine out of 10 people polled in India and Pakistan and seven in 10 in Bangladesh said they had no opinion about whom they would prefer to see in the White House in Washington come next January.
Gallup said the disinterest among South Asians revealed "a great disconnect between many of the world's poorest inhabitants and the politics of the United States."
Latin Americans showed a similar disconnect, with 68 per cent of those polled in central America and Mexico and 58 per cent in South America voicing no opinion about the US election.
Middle Easterners in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories chose Senator Obama over Senator McCain by a margin of at least two to one, although three-quarters of Palestinians said they did not think the result of the US election would change much in their country.
A majority of Europeans in 14 countries said they wanted an Obama victory, with the Dutch and Norwegians the strongest Obama supporters in Europe. Nearly three-quarters in both countries said they preferred him to Senator McCain.
In France, 64 per cent chose Senator Obama against 4 per cent for Senator McCain, and in Germany, where an Obama rally in Berlin gathered some 200,000 people in July, the Democratic presidential contender was supported by 62 per cent of those polled compared with 10 per cent for Senator McCain.
In Africa, a median of 56 per cent of poll respondents chose Senator Obama, meaning the percentage who chose the African American presidential contender was higher than 56 per cent in half the 22 countries polled and lower than 56 per cent in the other half.
A median of 9 per cent chose Senator McCain, who did not beat Senator Obama anywhere in Africa, even though the current US administration of Republican President George W Bush has a high approval rating on the continent.
Mr Bush in July signed legislation tripling funds to fight the killer diseases of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa under an initiative launched under his administration in 2003.
In Kenya, where Senator Obama's father hailed from, the Democrat was supported by nearly nine in 10 poll respondents while Senator McCain had the support of 3 percent of Kenyans.
Around 1,000 people were interviewed face-to-face earlier this year in most of the countries that took part in the surveys.
AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/22/2398181.htm?section=justin
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