Month: February 2012

Filip please?


Let’s see.

Israel may send a few planes up Iran’s way and release a few bombs and then start a war. If it doesn’t, Iran may get their nuclear toy and point it at Israel, amongst others.

Meanwhile Russia is giving Hilary Clinton (who is looking aged) some stick back for suggesting it and China are not playing ball to the detriment of Syrians. While Russia and China play spoilers to Hilary and company, the Syrian town of Homs gets bombed.

The Greeks are having a go at lenders while meeting with IMF and ECB big wigs. The Eurozone looks like it will fester for a while yet. America cant help because it’s in pretty deep too – about 15 trillion dollars, and Mitt Romney is suggesting he can fix it better than Obama. China wont help because it is smart with money. Europe looks like a bottomless pit as its people demand high wages and Grade A lifestyle despite not being able to afford it.

Closer to home, the PM is drowning and her foreign minister is pouring in more water and hard-to-like individuals like Rob Oakeshott has his day in the sun again, much to the chagrin of many. Bob Brown meanwhile continues to look stupid on finance matters.

As all these merry news make their way around the globe, Kiddo is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s for her new life in Canberra. Last night she had some friends over. They were playing cards and Tress and I came home and fixed them dinner. I got a variety of snags and some fish to throw on the barbie and Tress made a salad. They played till about 10.30pm. It’s great she’s able to spend time with close friends before leaving, and doing stuff at home tops it off.

Some folks in church asked me how I felt with Kiddo’s impending new adventure. I honestly don’t know. I just feel tired. Physically, emotionally and mentally I feel tired. Not in the exhausted sense but in the flat, low energy and almost lethargic sense. I don’t know if it is because I haven’t had a decent break since our trip to Shanghai and Suzhou in September 2010. We have had a few mini getaways – to Echuca and Canberra amongst others but those trips were fillers. They should count as breaks nevertheless I guess, but for one reason or another I just feel like some refreshing in one form or another is badly needed. I need a fillip of sorts.

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One chapter closes…


Kiddo, Tress and I spent the whole of Saturday doing stuff together. We went to the Dandenongs in the morning and did the Kokoda Memorial Track (“1,000 steps”). Kiddo has been really fit and was the first one up. I was next and a surprisingly fresh looking Tress was in tow, a few minutes later. We took a longer but more gradual route down and when it was all done, we felt good and had a good brunch at Olinda. We did the unpardonable and had pies at Pies in the Sky. A bit of warning – the pies appear to have lost some of their attraction. They don’t taste as yummy as they used to and the “floater” (in pea and ham soup and a scoop of mash on top) certainly wasn’t the extra $9 or so – it was very dry and bland.

After leaving the Dandenongs we went to get some dried foods for Kiddo to survive on in the next few weeks when crouching in the trenches that are the tiny rooms in the halls of residence in the ANU, as well as some storage containers and packing boxes from Bunnings in Vermont. We got back just after 1.30pm, I took a short snooze before cleaning the house for the dinner party in our home on Sunday night.

Tress did some cooking, as well as the usual rounds of laundry and Kiddo went about packing and placing all her stuff in the spare bedroom to help us all gauge how much space she needed in the car. Kiddo did as much of the packing as possible and we all have a much better idea now, of the stuff we would be carting up this weekend.

That night Kiddo went for an 18th birthday party in Bulleen – that of Sammy her best mate. We took her to the dinner and went to Box Hill ourselves.

Church yesterday was in really hot and windy conditions and the cell leaders meeting in the arvo was a bit testing for that reason. I got home around 3 and got ready for the dinner party at home for Kiddo’s church friends. We had a Sri Lankan lady do the catering and we picked up the food (from church). It was a longish night but I think Kiddo enjoyed the time with her friends from church, that she has made in the last 8 years here in Melbourne.

It was the last weekend of this chapter in Kiddo’s life. Next weekend a new chapter begins.

I smacked my child


I remember smacking kiddo. I regretted some of the incidents of smacking – those which resulted from angry reactions to her behaviour. I am very grateful I didn’t have to do it too often and I think I didn’t have to do it after she was past the age of 3 or 4.

If I were a parent again, I would smack my child again. I would try my hardest to ensure I didn’t do it as an angry and reactive response, but I would do it.

It is different to using force against an adult. This is where I think I cannot agree with Professor Frank Oberklaid of the Royal Children Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health.  With an adult, I would not (probably never) use force because I expect the adult to understand where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour lies and that adult is responsible for his own actions. The parent (or guardian) bears that responsibility in relation to that child. The parent is responsible for ensuring that child grows up to be an adult who understands acceptable and responsible behaviour and that there are consequences for breaching those boundaries. As a child I don’t think reasoning and discussing always works. A smack says it all and the child never forgets or need to figure anything out. He understands straight away, clearly and indelibly, that the prohibited behaviour is a no go zone.

So I think Professor Frank Oberklaid and Dr Gervase Chaney a president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatric and Child Health Division, are both wrong to suggest we should ban smacking. That is the purview of the parent, subject only to existing laws.

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Warped Aussies


Something is badly wrong when a community forces organisations to sweat bricks to protect details like addresses and phone numbers on account of privacy considerations when a school teacher is permitted to engage in production of pornographic material with impunity.

The schoolteacher in Oberon High School in Geelong ought to be stood down with a view of eventual outright dismissal. How he is not just permitted to remain but also considered to be “well regarded” after what’s happened, shows how warped this community has become.  I’m almost ashamed.

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Rockbank Woes


I was sleeping in this morning and caught the 6.30am news on the bedside radio. The news which caught my attention was that somewhere in Melbourne someone has been charged for butchering and selling meat illegally, notably dog meat.

It turned out it was in Rockbank, a suburb on the north west of Melbourne, near Deer Park.

I have to confess I feared the offender being Chinese, but thankfully (hopefully) this seems unlikely. Admittedly the data I looked up was from the 2006 census but there appears to be no Chinese population in this town. Maltese, Italians, English, Kiwis and Cypriots were the major groups.

I hope the offenders get dealt with properly and this sort of thing ceases to be a problem here.

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Craig Thomson and Altantuya Shaaribu


Craig Thomson is to Julia Gillard what Altantuya Shaaribu is to Najib Razak

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Level on points now


After the disappointment of exiting the FA Cup to the arch rivals, a bit of good news. Darren Gibson an erstwhile Man United hopeful of a Keano wannabe, was recently sold to the Toffees and what do you know – he scored against Man City in a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.

With Man United’s victory over Stoke at home, we’re now level on points. Always good to see we’re in the mix.

What a yo yo week. Like Ferguson said, “Football, bloody hell!”

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