Tuesday 30 June 2015

History Tuesday.................Australia


On this history Tuesday I thought I would tell you a bit about the history of Australia, we are going far far back in history.

The first settlers are thought to have arrived around 50,000 years ago. This would have most likely been at a time when the sea levels were low, the land was more humid and animals larger.
Although much of Australia became populated, the central dry areas didn't attract settlers until around 25,000 years ago. The population grew proportionately quicker around 10,000 years ago as the climate improved.

At the time of British settlement at Sydney Cove it is estimated that 300,000 aboriginal people, speaking around 250 languages inhabited Australia.

On arrival, finding no obvious political structure, the Europeans took the land as their own. The Indigenous people were driven out of their homes and many killed. Various new European diseases spread rapidly amongst the indigenous people, killing many. The introduction of feral and domestic animals contributed to the destruction of natural habitats.

During the early part of the 20th century legislation's were passed to segregate and protect Aboriginals. This involved restrictions on where they could live and work and families being broken up.
After World War II, assimilation became the governments aim. All rights were taken away from the Aboriginals and attempts made to 'Europeanise' them.

During the 1960's the legislation was reviewed and the Federal Government passed legislation for all Aboriginals to be given citizen status. However, it wasn't until 1972 that the indigenous people were given back limited rights to their own land. The situation has been steadily improving for Australia's Indigenous people, although many feel more needs to be done.

I will speak more about our history in the weeks and months to come.


Monday 29 June 2015

Monday = Flag information

I am pretty sure many people know what the Australian flag looks like but since there are many different flags used here in Australia and yes I know in the past I have done a post about our flags but because on a certificate of participation that Blain got last Friday there was a flag we couldn't post I have decided to do a couple of more posts about flags.

So I will start this off with the flag we didn't recognised.


It was this one, anyone know what flag this is, no didn't think so.............

It is the Torres Strait Islander Flag

It was back in May 1992 that a flag was adopted to represent the Torres Strait Islanders, it was designed by Bernard Namok and the copyright is owned by the Torres Strait Island Coordinating Council.


The green stripes represent the land, the blue stripe represents the sea and the black symbolises the people. The thing in the centre is a Dhari, a dancer's headress with a 5 point star to symbolise the five island groups in Torres Strait.

Saturday 27 June 2015

How to waste a dozen eggs


Ok all I have to offer this Saturday afternoon, is how to waste a dozen eggs..............

You break a dozen eggs into a large bowl add some double cream and some sour cream and take a stick blender and proceed to beat eggs and then remember you forgot the Parmesan cheese so turn to get it from the fridge and leave stick blender in bowl.

Blender falls over tipping the whole thing over the bench and kitchen floor......................

Yell to someone to get towels, proceed to clean up and send husband to the shops for another dozen eggs while you clean up the bench and the floor, included having to move the microwave to clean under and behind it where the egg has run to.


Throw all the towels in the washing machine and wash them 

Friday 26 June 2015

Five things Friday


Five things Friday, yes don't faint I am doing it this week why because I woke up and realised I could draft a few posts and have them ready to post when the time arises. So here are this weeks five things.

Colouring pencils

Pens

Letter opener

Tweezers

Mail



Can you guess this weeks theme? 

Thursday 25 June 2015

Dawson's Presentation and Leo's eyes


Ok I have time to do a quick post before I have to leave and go get the boys from school, I have been out most of the morning. It was Dawson's presentation day at his school Wakefield and I of course went to it with mum and dad and Dawson's mother and her father also went, for the first time in ages Dawson didn't get an award.

There was a man and a woman talking about aboriginal things he was had to understand and she was hard to hear but I did take a short video of each of them and they had some boys from another school there playing the didgeridoo.


Also I have posted the photos of Leo's school again but this time if you look on the right side in front of the principal you will see Leo's eyes I have written his name next to his eyes, yes his eyes are all you can see of him

Tuesday 23 June 2015

History Tuesday...........Billy Young


Ok it is History Tuesday and this week I am going to write about another unheard of fella his name is Keith William Young aka Billy Young at the tender age of 15 Billy decided to join the army it was July of 1941.

Now it wasn't any real sense of patriotism or adventure that made him decide to join up it, it was because he was hungry and broke and homeless, Billy was an orphan and the army offered him a food and blanket and five shillings a day.

Billy was a member of the 2/29th Battalion that went to Singapore with the 8th Division, he saw a lot of action as the Allies attempted to stop the advancing Japanese Army and was wounded in the thigh.

Two years later Billy found himself in the back of a canvas-covered truck on his was to the Sandakan POW camp as a prisoner of the dreaded Kenpeitai, Nippon's version of the Gestapo and he was still only a kid at the age of around 17. He still owned nothing except the rags he wore, a soiled and bloody pyjama top, a pair of filthy shorts cut from a canvas kit-bag and his greatest treasure a pencil stub.

During his time at Sandakan he often considered attempting to escape, it was after his mate Jimmy Brown wandered off from the airfield construction site with no intentions of escape, however, when they crept back they realised they had been missed and decided to escape to avoid the punishment that would be dealt out to them.

However, they were soon caught and received severe bashings before being taken to Kuching for a trial where they received a four year sentence at the infamous Outram Road Gaol back in Singapore.

Many died at this terrible gaol but both Billy and Jimmy managed to survive although they suffered two years of starvation, malnutrition, tropical diseases, along with bashings and the most inhumane conditions imaginable.

When Bill returned home he was determined to tell the story of what happened to all the servicemen in Sandakan and Ranau, this he did by numerous drawings, paintings, writing stories, poems and speaking at functions.

In 2003 Bill drove alone across from Sydney to Perth, across the Nullabor, to visit our Sandakan Exhibition in August 2003. He took with him six of his original paintings that are part of his "Bamboo Collection", for display at the exhibition. Bill has also completed numerous other paintings, sketches and drawings depicting his time as a POW at Sandakan and later at Outram Road Gaol in Singapore.

He tells of his experiences as a young man at war who was only 19 years old when he returned from 4 years of hell. He tells his story to the memory, and to commemorate, the 2,500 Australian and British servicemen who died at Sandakan, on the Ranau Death Marches or at Ranau. And he tells of his experiences so as this shameful episode of World War Two will never again be repeated.

He has also written three books,
Long Ago in Borneo,Return to a Dark Age and Once Upon a Time in Kuching, about his years as a POW of the Japanese.

In the October 1st 2003 edition of the Borneo Bugle tribute is paid by way of a photographic display of Bill's visit to the West. The editorial in the newsletter sums up our feelings..

The visit by Bill Young from Sydney was a special event indeed! He added such substance to both our exhibition and the Sandakan Day Service. Someone said to me, “When we talked to Bill it is as though we have known him and he has been our friend for so many years”. Yes indeed, what a wonderful man he is! Such is the character of Bill that he enthralls both children and adults alike. And the wonderful stories he can tell of his life experiences! As you stand listening to his stories and watch his beaming smile your mind drifts to thoughts of those other great Australians and their British mates who never did return from Sandakan. There are another 2,500 special characters like Bill who lie at Labuan.”
In 2004 Bill was recognised for his services towards the "Sandakan Story" by the Commonwealth of Australia when he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).


Monday 22 June 2015

Yes it's Monday already and yes I know I have not been here in nearly a weeks time what is with that


Ok here we are at Monday and I have been missing from blogland for the last few days ok closer to a week, this is because I have been busy of a morning and in the afternoon Blain has been here and he hogs the computer.

If I am going to do a post I really need to do it in the first half of the day before he gets a chance to hog the computer. He prefers to use my computer over Tim's which makes Tim happy but not me.

Anyway what news do I have well my washing machine stopped working of Thursday, it was ok on Wednesday when I did a load of washing but Thursday it wouldn't spin dry the clothes. Now Thursday I was in and out of the house as Leo had to go to the doctors due to him being sick all week and of course when we final take him to the doctor he is fine. Back to the washing machine I threw a load in before going out to shop, when I get home I check it and it is out of balance so I reshuffle the load and we went to take Leo to the doctors when we got home I check the washing machine and it is out of balance again and I do a reshuffle and stand and watch it and it was out of balance again in only a couple of minutes. So I rang the company and someone will be here today to look at it.

I have to go out at 11am to get my new hearing aids so if the washing machine guy hasn't been here by then I will have to get either Natasha or Jessica to come over and wait here for him to turn up.

Oh yeah on Friday I bought Jessica two new heaters for her house one was a small fan heater the other was a convector heater, well the fan heater she loves the other one she said was useless and returned it to me so I will have to get her another fan heater or she could go and buy one for herself.

So she brings the heater back here and you know what Tim says what are you going to do with it, I said use it and he didn't saying anything but I could tell he thought we don't need a heater, the man usually says he doesn't think it is cold when in fact it is bloody cold.

So that is all for this post, I have already managed to read about 40 odd blog posts this morning, but I was up at 6am to pack Leo's school lunch and to take his school clothes and school bag over to Natasha's house so she could get him ready and take him to school.


Being Monday I usually have Leo for the night but Natasha told me this morning that Jono can't have Blain tonight so instead of Leo I will be having Blain unless I turn into the big old softie and let them both stay the night, we will see how things pan out this afternoon.  

Tuesday 16 June 2015

History Tuesday, it's 800 years old but what was it




This week I thought I would talk a little about the Magna Carta do you know what it is.............I am sure you have heard of it though.

Well if you don't know I will tell you because it was on the news tonight and it made me think why are they talking about this old thing. Well it is because it was signed or some say had the seal of King John on the 15 June 1215 which was 800 years ago.

Anyway it is a charter agreed by King John of England, it was first drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised to protect the rights of the church, as well as protecting the barons from illegal imprisonment and gave them access to swift justice and limitations on feudal payments to the crown to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.

However, neither side stood by their commitments and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent 111 leading to the first barons war. It was after the death of King John that Henry 111 reissued the document in 1216, be it stripped of some of its more radical content, in an unsuccessful attempt to build political support.

At the end of the war in 1217 it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth where the document acquired the name Magna Carta, to distinguish it from the smaller Charter of the Forest which was issued at the same time. It was in 1297 that it became part of England's statute law.

The charter became part of English political life and was typically renewed by each monarch in turn, although as time went by and the fledgling English Parliament passed new laws, it lost some of its practical significance. However, at the end of the 16th century there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta. Lawyers and historians at the time believed that there was an ancient English constitution, going back to the days of the Anglo-Saxons, that protected individual English freedoms.


It is a bloody long document being just under 4000 words long,quite long even by the standards of the time, it would have taken clerks at least four hours to write out each copy. Of course there was more then one copy and no photocopiers around.

The original versions would have been written in Latin, the first known English version was made in 1534, three hundred years after it was first written. Although the first translated version was into French, this was because French was the international language of chivalry, of the nobility and gentry aka the ruling classes. The first surviving text copy is a print copy from 1534.

Now you maybe wondering what the Magna Carta's greatest achievement was well it placed the king under the law, as the kings view was that the king was above the law, he believed he was only answerable to God, the Magna Carta changed that.

Now you most like think it did nothing for women being it was written in a time when women had few if any rights, however, it did do something significant for well-born aristocratic women.

Clause 7: A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage portion and inheritance.

Clause 8: No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to remain without a husband.

The Magna Carta contained 63 clauses when it was first written but only 3 of those clauses remain part of English law today One defends the liberties and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns, but the third is the most famous:
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.
To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
So now you know a little about the damn thing, I knew none of this myself.


Monday 15 June 2015

Cold and wet afternoon


Here we are on a cold and wet Monday afternoon, I just got back from picking up the boys from school and we have Leo here tonight and Blain is at Jessica's place with his dad and his brother. His father finds it easier to stay at either Jessica or Natasha's place as he lives a good 45-60 minutes away now.

Kathy has just rang me to tell me she is changing her clothing style she wants to move into long tops, this I think maybe because she wants to hide her tummy this of course I get as I have a tummy as does many woman.

Kathy is also concerned about how high her power bill will be when it comes as she has the heaters going and using the dryer all the time well more them she would like to and of course the cost of power is high generally she thinks her next bill will be around a $1000 but she is doing the right thing and paying $150 a month off it.

I think we all worry about how high our power bill will be, although Tim has a habit of thinking our bill is always so high when in fact it isn't most people I know have bills around $1000. As I have said in the past I disconnect things like the washing machine, microwave and some other appliances to say money. There was a time I didn't think that would be something I would do ever but now I do so go figure.

I am not feeling very well again today just achy and tired but nothing serious, I hope I am not coming down with something but it is that time of year I just realised that I have not had my flu shot this year just forgot about it.


Yeah I have no news this afternoon, I am just checking in. 

Sunday 14 June 2015

Sunday at Jo-Anne's place


Ok it is now Sunday afternoon at Jo-Anne's house, if is a nice quiet afternoon after what was a pretty good day. I was up at 8am and the first thing I did after getting dressed was to peel the veggies for lunch, yeah we had a baked lunch with roast beef, although the roast beef we too fatty for me and wasn't as nice as my mum makes, I think I will stick to buying a bbq chook when I do a baked lunch.

After lunch Tim and the girls (Tasha & Jess) sat out the front talking for a long time, I ended up going out and joining them it was nice. Then I got Jess to vacuum out for me before they all left. Kathy wasn't at lunch today as they went over to Michaels brother place for brunch. So since Kathy wasn't here I sent the left over with Natasha for her to give to Jono, she said that he was going to pick up Blain and it meant that I was able to get rid of them without tossing them in the bin.

This afternoon I even went and had a nap as around 2ish I was feeling so very tired and felt myself falling asleep while watching tv so a nap was needed. Tim woke me when Kathy rang to have a bitch about life.

I then had to do the weekly medications I do them every Sunday afternoon, in fact I think my mum should do theirs of a Sunday but no she does them each morning I just find it easier to do them once a week,like my nanna use to.

Then Tim asked me if I would go to Macca's and get him a burger with beetroot which is the McOz but for some reason when I got there I forgot what I went for and got him a McFeast instead, oh well he ate it anyway and I had a Quarter Pounder so that is tea over and done with.


So now I am writing this then mum will ring and I will spend half an hour talking to her before putting my feet up and watching telly for a while before I go to bed. 

Saturday 13 June 2015

Just letting you all know what my last few days have been like


Here it is Saturday afternoon and I am only just getting around to doing a post, yesterday I was flat out like a lizard drinking from the time my feet hit the floor in the morning till the time my body hit the hot water of my bath in the late afternoon.

I wanted to do five things Friday, but I just felt too exhausted to bother yesterday afternoon so instead I will tell you what my last few days have been like. Thursday was spent at home doing nothing much I did of course picked up the boys from school, Friday was busy shopping and picking up grandson's from school.

I don't have either boy sleeping over on Thursday's they stay with Jessica but we have Blain Fridays, however, yesterday when we dropped Leo off Blain ran into the house with him and Jessica proceeded to ask me to go and get food for her & Leo for dinner. The next thing I know Blain comes out and asks if he can stay, I said he could if Jessica was prepared to bring him back later as once I got home I wasn't going out again, he says no I want to stay all night, so I said it was up to Jessica and she said yes.

I still had to go and get food for them, although I told Jessica I wouldn't come home and wait an hour and half and go and get food for her but if she wanted me to do it I would do it before I came home. So in the end I went and got Henny Penny for the boys and Chinese for Jessica. Oh for all those who have no idea what Henny Penny is it is like KFC but it is an Australian version.

This morning I went out again to do some more shopping I needed school socks for Leo and yes it should be his mother's job to get these but I will die of old age waiting for her to get them. However, when I was at Kmart at Westfield they didn't have what I wanted to I went to Kmart at Glendale instead and thankfully they had socks and some reduced as well so I ended up getting socks for Leo, Blain and me and a dress for Kathy that I will put aside in my gift box.

Now Tim has gone to work and I am home alone waiting for the washing machine to finish so I can peg that out on the line although it does feel like it is going to rain but I will still put it on the line and hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day.





Tuesday 9 June 2015

History Tuesday....................Maud Butler


Well here we are at History Tuesday and today I am asking if anyone has heard of Maud Butler, I expect most of you have not, I also had not heard of her till I was watching Tony Robinson's Tour of Duty have to say that show has given me a lot of ideas for history posts.

Anyway let's move on to Maud she was a 16 year old girl from Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley, in New South Wales, Australia.

During the First World War Maud wanted to serve and go and fight the war so she cut her hair dressed as a soldier and stowed away on a troopship however her boots gave her away and she was returned to Melbourne and had to go in front of a magistrate.

Maud was a 16 year old waitress with a sense of adventure she had attempted to register with the Red Cross as a nurse but was turned away so she decided to try something else as she wanted to go and join her brother in Egypt.

So on the 23rd of December 1915 dressed as a soldier she climbed aboard a troopship waiting at the Woolloomooloo docks, she hid in a lifeboat.

She is described as a clear-skinned rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed type of country girl who really wanted to help in some way like her brother was. She managed to get hold of an Australian Imperial Force uniform in bits and pieces and had her photo taken in it. The day before she stowed away she went to Woolloomooloo Bay to see a transport there and met an office telling him she had friends on the ship. While talking to him she made up her mind to see him again as a soldier and went straight to a barber and had her hair cut short. The next evening she climbed aboard the Suevic, she said she didn't realise ships were so tall and it was a struggle to climb up the rope but she managed it and hid in a lifeboat.

It seems this was not an incident that Maud wanted to share with her children and grandchildren and after another failed attempt to go to war as a soldier she settled down and lived for many years in Campsie, Sydney where she ran a private hospital until she retired, she died in 1987 at the age of 88.
Miss Maud Butler on the deck in AIF uniform, who tried to embark on the troop transport ship Star of England, and also on the ship Suevic. Maud had stowed away on the Suevic which sailed from Sydney on 23 December 1915, hoping to get to Egypt where her brother was serving. She arrived in Melbourne on 25 December 1915



Monday 8 June 2015

Just another Monday


It is 10.30am on Monday morning, it is a public holiday here (Queens Birthday) and I woke up tired this morning first time I have done that in a long time but still I was up at 7.30am because I was worried if I stayed in bed I would be the one that Sunrise would ring to win the money but of course they DIDN'T ring me.

We will be having Leo here tonight, and since Tim is on night work this week it will be just me and Leo and for the rest of the week it will be me and Blain.

Yesterday the girls came over for breakfast and Tim was here as well and have to say he liked that I did breakfast he said he really enjoyed it but would have liked it if I had some little sausages can't remember what they are called but I couldn't find them when I was doing the shopping as per usual when I want them they are not around when I don't want them I see them all the time in the supermarket.

Mum was telling me that my dad is so frustrating at times, he has been complaining about the mould on the kitchen ceiling and yes mum knows it isn't good and should be removed but she can't do it and truthfully dad can't either. Dad has a habit of saying that Dave (my brother) should go over and do it but truth is that Dave is busy he works and has his own home and family to take care of. Anyway yesterday dad said he was going to get up and clean the ceiling himself, mum told him if he did that he would be in hospital by nightfall as he is in no condition to get up and clean the ceiling with Exit Mould. Dad has many health problems and even if he didn't fall off the ladder he would still end up having trouble breathing and very well might end up in hospital. If they had the money mum would pay someone to come and clean the ceiling but the can't afford it so they just have to wait till someone has the time to go and do it.


I don't have much news today, mostly because I am so tired and my brain isn't working very well so I am just going to leave it here for this post.  

Saturday 6 June 2015

It's Saturday..............and my youngest is now 26


Well it is now Saturday afternoon and what a day it's been all the girls and grandchildren except Sydney-May who is at her fathers came over for lunch, Tim did fish for himself and the girls because Jessica asked him too and I had steak and we bought $8 worth of hot chips to go with.

Now this morning Blain was looking for his red handball which was behind the lounge so his mum pulled everything out and that set her off on a cleaning frenzy she has vacuum the whole house and cleaned up the bathroom and Tim's office and then she swept out the front of the house. To stop the leaves being trampled into the house every time someone walks inside.

It was 26 years ago today that my youngest daughter aka my special girl was born at 4.15am, it was a Tuesday. Tim went and bought her a dashcam for her car for those who do not know what that is it is video camera that is attached to the windscreen of the car to record as she drives. He bought one for Kathy last year for her birthday and we have one in our car as well.

Jessica had wanted us to have Leo tonight while she goes out to her friends place and we said we would but in the end Natasha decided to have him instead to give me and Tim a break as we have had at least one grandchild every night this last week.

The girls will be back tomorrow around 9am for breakfast, I will be doing bacon, eggs and hash browns.

I have also managed to do 3 loads of washing and get it all on the line as it has been a nice warmish day although I am not sure if it all will dry but we will see.


Well that is all from me for today....................see you tomorrow 

Thursday 4 June 2015

Motivation Thursday...................Do what's right


How hard is it to do what's right?
How hard is it to know what's right?

For far too many these things are not known or too hard to find and near impossible to do, however, if more people took the time to think about what's the right thing to do and followed through doing what's right then they may find they are happier people.


I try myself to do what's right, yes there are times when I fail but at least I try.  

Tuesday 2 June 2015

History Tuesday.......Sophie Scholl

Die Geschwister Hans und Sophie Scholl und Christoph Probst (von links) von der studentischen Widerstandsgruppe "Weiße Rose" in München. Alle Mitglieder wurden am 22. February1943 hingerichtet..; Foto: George J. Wittenstein, 1942;


It is history Tuesday and today I am going to tell you a little about a German girl named Sophie Scholl, have you heard of her? I can tell you I had not till I saw something on Facebook about her that interested me enough to do a Goggle search and find out a bit more about her.



She was born in 1921 and was one of Germany’s most famous anti-Nazi heroes, as a university student in Munich, Scholl, along with her brother, Hans, and several friends, formed a non-violent, anti-Nazi resistance group called the White Rose. The group ran a leaflet and graffiti campaign calling on their fellow Germans to resist Hitler’s regime.


At the age of 12 she was required to join the Bund Deutscher Madel ( League of German Girls) but her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to strong criticism. She became aware of the dissenting political views of her father and friends and even some teachers. Political attitude started to play a big part in her choice of friends. In 1937 her brothers and some friends were arrested for participating in the German Youth Movement and this left a strong impression on her. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Youth_Movement

After she left school in 1940 Sophie became a kindergarten teacher, she chose this career hoping it would be recognised as an alternate to the National Labour Service which was a prerequisite to be admitted to the university. However, she was wrong as policy dictated that she had to serve six months of auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg. The military-like regimen of the Labour Service was what caused her to change her views of the National Socialism and eventually practice passive resistance.

The graves of Hans Scholl,Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst in Perlach Cemetery. The cemetery is adjacent to Stadelheim prison where the White Rose members were executed.  

Scholl first became involved in resistance organising after learning of the mass killings of Jews and reading an anti-Nazi sermon by Clemens August Graf von Galen, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Münster. She was deeply moved by the "theology of conscience" and declared, "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

In 1943, Scholl and the other members of the White Rose were arrested by the Gestapo for distributing leaflets at the University of Munich and taken to Stadelheim Prison. After a short trial on February 22, 1943, Scholl, her brother Hans and their friend Christop Probst, all pictured here, were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.

At her execution only a few hours later, Scholl made this final statement: "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"
                White Rose pamphlets and biographical sketches of members. 

Following the deaths of the White Rose's leaders, their final leaflet was smuggled to England. In mid-1943, Allied Forces dropped millions of copies of the "Manifesto of the Students of Munich" over Germany. Scholl is now honoured as one of the great German heroes who actively opposed the Nazi regime.

In 20015 the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days was made it stared Julia Jentsch as Sophie, there has also been a couple of books about her written. Many schools as well as countless streets and squares in Germany have been named after Sophie and her brother.


Copies of White Rose pamphlets have been embedded in the pavement of Geschwister-Scholl-Platz outside the central hall of Ludwig-Maximilian University. 

Monday 1 June 2015

Turning 94


Good morning friends welcome to my Monday, this morning I am going to share a little about my nanna who turned 94 yesterday. She was born in Wauchope and was one of 13 children, she was married twice and has outlive both her husbands, nan had 4 children, 3 of which are still alive and 2 of which still visit her weekly more or less there are weeks we may give it a miss but that isn't often.

My nan has Alzheimer's she started to show the first signs of dementia way back in 1998 but wasn't diagnosed with Alzheimer's till around 2000 I think, when she started to repeat herself and ask the same question over and over some family members and so called friends stopped seeing and visiting her because they found her an embarrassment. This I can tell you really pisses me off, and I get annoyed when I hears people say they want to remember her how she was not how she is, I do remember her how she was and yes I see how she is but when she has thought flickers of memory which you can see in her eyes it really makes me feel good.

Like yesterday she had a few of those moments, when I went to say hi to her and give her a kiss, I say “hi nan it's Jo-Anne, happy birthday” as clear as anything she replies with “where’s Tim” I wasn't the only one to hear her say that so did my sister Sandra, I called Tim over to see her it was a wonderful moment. Later when my daughter Natasha turned up she went to give nan a kiss and said it's Natasha nan made no sign she knew who Natasha was so I said it again with more Russian sound and nan's eyes lit up she knew who I meant, as nanna always said Natasha in the Russian way. Not only did her eyes light up but she said I know and love you, Tasha spoke to nan for a bit with me there to listen and translate what she said you have to listen carefully as nan only speaks in a whisper and will only say a couple of words at a time.

This is a photo of all who turned up to see nanna for her birthday, my daughters Kathy-Lee and Jessica didn't go, Kathy-Lee is one of those who can't see the point as nanna isn't “there” and she was going to see Michael's parents, Jessica didn't go because nursing homes smell like “death and old people” which this one does not I might add.

Tim didn't want to go but I said I wanted him to go it was important to me and I have gone to a number of things over the years that I would have preferred not to have gone to but because I love him I went, so he could go for me, however, once we got there he seemed to have a good time.

He did complain that no one talked to him well except for my dad and brother, I told him we are a loud and boisterous family and he has become pretty withdrawn and he should know what we are like now so speak up and if you have something to say, say it.

Most people with Alzheimer's only live around 8-10 after being diagnosed so nan is doing well as it is about 15 years since she was diagnosed and 17 years since the first signs of dementia appeared.

I would like to thank those who sent cards for nanna, didn't get many but that is because my family are useless at times.


North American Porcupines

  It is Tuesday all day long and half the night and Tuesday as we all know is creature day this week we have the North American Porcupine. ...