Photo Wednesday

History Tuesday/Marriage

So it's Tuesday and it is Tuesday afternoon and I have been thinking on and off all morning about what to write in way of a post for today, I didn't do a post yesterday as I was in and out of the house all day and just didn't have the time.

Anyway since Tuesday is usually History Tuesday I am going to write a little about the history of marriage, why marriage well because Tim and I celebrated our 31^st wedding anniversary on the 22^nd that would be last Tuesday if you are wondering.

So marriage is also known as matrimony or wedlock, it has been around pretty much from the beginning of time some would say it predates recorded history may it does who really knows. There was a time when marriage was seen as a way to form an alliance between families, with the parties getting married having little or no say in the matter. In some cultures parents even married one child to the spirit of a deceased child in order to strengthen familial bonds what the hell is with that talk about weird of what.

Generally marriage is recognised as a union or legal contract between two people that establishes rights and obligations between them, their children and their in-laws. However, the definition of marriage varies according to different cultures but it is mainly seen as an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual are acknowledged.

In the Bible there are mentioned marriages between cousins and Abraham married his half-sister, cousin marriages are still common throughout the world, particularly in the middle east. In fact anthropologist Robin Fox has estimated that the majority of all marriages throughout history were between first and second cousins. I don't know if this is true or not but interesting none the less.

Most of us associate marriage with monogamy but in fact polygamy was common throughout history, in the Bible many of the men had more then one wife. It was rare thou for a woman to have more then one husband.

Still, monogamous marriage was very different from the modern conception of mutual fidelity, it was common place for the man to have many extramarital affair right up till the late 19^th century and it was excepted that children from those affairs would have no claim to the man's inheritance. In fact a men's promiscuity was often protected by the dual laws of legal monogamy. However, if a woman was caught having an affair she would be treated much differently and not is a good way.

By around the ninth century it was considered the norm for a man to only have one wife. Marriages in the west were originally contracts between the families of the two partners with the Catholic Church and the state staying our of it. In 1215 the Catholic Church decreed that partners had to publicly post notices of an impending marriage in a local parish to cut down on the frequency of invalid marriages. This was in place until the 1980s, still in the 1500s the church accepted a couples word that they had in fact married with no need for witnesses or corroborating evidence.

In the last several hundred years the state started to play a greater role in marriage and in fact as early as 1639 the state of Massachusetts began requiring marriage licences and my the 19^th century marriage licences became the norm in America

Marrying for love only started to become common around 250 years ago and then it was slow until only about 100 years ago more or less, now days most of us can't imagine not marrying for love. As for equality in marriage that is a new thing and by new I am talking only about 50 years ago in fact did you know that marital rape was legal in many states of the U S until the 1970s. However, some countries criminalised martial rape much earlier countries like some in the Soviet Union as early as 1922 and as late as 1960. In Australia my state of New South Wales made it a crime in 1981 and the other states from 1985.

The notion that both men and women had identical obligations within a marriage began being accepted as the norm around 50 years ago as well, it was around the time that many women started going out to work outside the home when they were married.

Hello blogland it's Sunday and a wet Sunday at that

Hello how is everyone? I am up before anyone else and by anyone else I mean Tim and Leo why is this you wonder, or maybe you don't wonder but I will tell you anyway, I had to get the casserole on for lunch. I was going to go for a walk but alas it is raining again. I could go back to bed but let's be honest here I rarely go back to bed once I am up it's just not me, usually I would be fully dressed too but this morning I still have my nightie on with the pants I will wear for the day so only half dressed.

Last night while talking to mum we were discussing how dad often thinks mum is picking on him and we were wondering if this is one of the first signs of dementia, dad's memory is really bad it was only a few weeks back that much had to drive him into town for an appointment at the diabetic clinic and yesterday mum mentioned something about it and dad had no memory of it at all. In fact he usually has trouble remembering stuff and has on occasion seriously got the name of one of his children wrong, and has often forgotten who people are like he has asked who is that girl referring to Tina, we have said it's Tina and he has replied but who is Tina, she is your granddaughter and he will say oh yeah that's right.

Mum and Sandra have suggested that he speak to the doctor about his memory but he will not he is worried that he will lose his licence, not that he drives much anyone in fact 99% of the time mum is the one who drives. We have told him it may not happen as his friend Wilf has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's is still driving but is on medication to help slow the progress of the disease, still will not mention it to the doctor. Mum will often hear her dad saying you will have to have a lot of patience Mavis.

On another topic what is with a couple of my siblings they are so much younger then mum like 30 years younger and have said to mum could she do such and such as they don't want to do so much raining around as they are exhausted, what the hell, Sandra will complain about Dave taking advantage of mum and Dave complains about Sandra doing the same thing. On Friday Dave had mum pick Landon up from day care because he didn't want to bugga rise around getting him, really bro do you thing mum wanted to go out in the rain to get him. Please note mum did go and get him and she did it without complaint because that is mum.

Mum is 75 years old she still gets up anywhere between 5.45-6.30 of a morning, she makes breakfast for young children and she will often watch Denni who is 3 while my sister takes her older daughter to school, unless of course mum has to drive Dave's two girls to school also note that Dave's girls naturally go to school near their home so that means mum has to drive them back to Wallsend which is a 20-25 minute drive. She also often takes Landon to day care and picks him up. Once or twice a week she has to drive Dawson to work experience often dropping him off then dropping the girls off at school but first dropping Landon off. Mum does all this without complaint.

Dad will often wonder why mum is to tired and worn out by 7pm and wanting to go to bed by 8pm some nights. She also takes care of dad which often involves getting up and down to fetch him stuff like his puffer, his fruit a glass of wine and so on, why because dad will say can you get me such and such and mum will do it she may thing what are your legs broken but she rarely says anything she just does it because to say anything will only piss dad off and it is not worth it.

Then there is all the money that mum “loans” Dave and Sandra I say “loans” because she rarely gets any of it back it is like when I “loan” Natasha money I do not expect to get it back and mum is the same she doesn't expect to get it back. Why you may wonder well because we are realists and know that they don't have to money to pay us back most of the time. If you were to add up all the money we give our children in a year we would be able to go on a nice holiday with the money.

Dad will say to mum can you speak to Dave about paying back some money dad has leant him and mum just things why, if he had to pay back he would have done so already, and he is likely to say to mum do you have the money to pay dad back and I will pay you later, later as in never and of course if she can find the money she will do just that, dad things the money is coming from Dave but in fact it is coming from mum.

Ok I am sure Dave may not know that I know all this but honestly me and mum tell each other pretty much everything, so there is little I don't know and the same can be said for mum and what she knows about my family.

Moving on yesterday I did bugga all during the day, and even had to have a nap around 1.30pm as I was having trouble staying awake I did of course read some blog posts not many only about 24 or so then I moved from the computer to my arm chair to watch some telly.

Yeah I just went and finished getting dressed as I could hear Leo in the bedroom and Tim had gotten up to go to the toilet so felt it is fine for me to go and find a bra and top to wear, now I will post this as I have rambled on about my family and life long enough for this post. 

It's Thursday? What happened to Wednesday

Well it is now Thursday and I didn't do a post yesterday because I forgot, I did, however, go to the nursing home and see my nan and we took with us two little five year olds, Liarna and Temika and they had a ball running amuck up and down the hallways and in and out of nan's room but unlike some people neither mum or myself resorted to screaming at them, we just took hold of them and told them to stop in a very firm voice. Did it work kind-of they settled down a bit.

While we were there mum and I went through nan's clothes she has a lot of clothes and she doesn't wear any of them much now days as she is now bedridden and it is only on some days that the staff get her out of bed, so mostly she is in her nightgown, of which she has a bloody lot.

Mum and I decided to take a few items of clothing that she had that looked near new and not something she would wear even when they get her dressed as it is near impossible for nan to have tops that go over her head, when they put a top on her the staff prefer ones that button up as they are easier to get on. I found a couple of tops that looked new that would fit my daughter Kathy-Lee as they were a size 8 and I can tell you nan is not a size 8 she has never been a size 8 the smallest she has been is a size 10-12 so what was with the size 8 tops I don't know.

This morning while on my walk and it was a later walk then normal I didn't leave here till around 8.30am because when the alarm went off at 6.30am I could hear rain so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. What is with us rolling over to go back to sleep why do we not just turn the alarm of and go back to sleep without rolling over and changing our position in bed, I know that I always roll over before going back to sleep, what about others if you turn of your alarm and decide to stay in bed do you have to change positions before you can go back to sleep.

Anyway I was talking about my walk and not about going back to sleep, while I was walking I noticed a number of sparrows diving at people like you see magpies do but these were little sparrows, never seen the do that before, one of my girls noticed them doing it yesterday not sure which daughter it was but I do remember one of them mentioning it.

I cut my walk short this morning as it started to rain again while I was out and I didn't want to get wet I have been as you know not feeling the best and I really didn't want to get wet and have to walk in wet clothes and end up well and truly sick so I cut the walk short and came home.

Oh yeah yesterday afternoon Blain was here for about an hour when he asked if he could ring his Aunty Jessica and see if it would be ok for him to go over to her place for the night, this was a surprise. She of course said he could and she was here within 10 minutes to get him, she did, however, say she didn't have much in the way of food and needed to go to the shops and asked me if I would go down with her and run in so she didn't have to get the boys out of the car and of course I said I would. All she wanted was ham, bacon, cocktail frankfuts and eggs and she forgot to mention the eggs and I didn't have my phone with me so she couldn't ring and tell me and then they didn't have cheap shortcut bacon so I ended up giving her my bacon an unopened 1kg packet and the rest of my eggs.

Blain should be back tonight though, which as you all know is fine with me we are used to having him here now.  

It's Tuesday

Good afternoon everyone, I wasn't sure if I would get around to writing a post today but here I am as you may have been able to tell the last few days I have not been up to doing anything special so all I am doing is writing about my daily life,not that my daily life is all that interesting but what the hell, it is what it is.

It has been raining a lot the last few days, I would have liked to have gone for a walk this morning but when I woke at 6.30am it was pissing down rain and there was thunder along with it so I went back to bed for an hour. However, after I got up it was still raining so no walk today and before I knew it Blain was being dropped off by his mum and thus the chance to go for a walk has now passed.

Due to the wet weather Tim has been taking the car to work in the morning and he was going to take the motor-bike in the afternoon like he did yesterday but instead today he took the car again this afternoon.

Tomorrow Blain is suppose to go to his aunty Jessica's house while his mum goes to a doctors appointment, but he doesn't want to go and is complaining but I feel that he will be find once he gets there so Natasha should drop him off as it is only for an hour or so.

Tomorrow I will be going to the nursing home to see my nan with mum and we are taking both Liarna and Temika with us, in fact Temika is super excited to be going to see great-nan. Sandra said she has been asking for the last couple of weeks when can she go and see great-nan at the nursing home.

For some reason I have been feeling so tired, worn out without any energy which is why I went back to bed after my alarm went off and I got up and went to the toilet and realised it was pissing down rain. Since getting up I have really not felt like doing much of anything, although I did go and do some shopping for Jessica and took it to her, why well because she said she didn't have fuel to do and do it but I think it may have more to do with the fact that she doesn't like to take Leo shopping with her.

I wonder if I am getting sick with something maybe just a bug of some sort, I guess I will find out in the next couple of days. 

Monday's dribble

Hello Monday, I woke at 6.30am and went to the toilet and wanted to go back to bed but even though I tried I was unable to go back to sleep so I got up and went for a walk. During the walk I developed a cramp in my right calf and all I could do was push on and keep walking, it has now been going 4 hours later and I still have a cramp in my right calf.

I am not sure if Blain is coming here for the night I will find out later in the day, I don't mind one way or another if he wants to come here that is ok but if he wants to go and stay at Jessica's that is also good with me.

Yesterday it rained all day and I was unable to go and do anything, I did, however, do three loads of washing which made me think about the days when people didn't have clothes driers. I think many of us take clothes driers for granted, I don't use mine very often I prefer to hang my clothes on the line and have them dried in the sunshine. My daughter Jessica, however, always uses her clothes drier I don't think she ever hangs her clothes on the line.

I spent the day home alone for the most part Jessica picked Leo up around 9.45am and Tim was at work so I was home alone and it was great I had a wonderful time doing nothing much caught up on some programmes I had recorded.

Oh yeah I mentioned on Saturday that Tim and I went out for lunch at the Eastern Tiger all you can eat restaurant and I will tell you we had a bloody great time, Tim who often doesn't eat much does when we go to the Eastern Tiger he like me has many small amounts of food. It is the only time I have pavlova and I do like pavlova but no one in the family makes it so the only time I have it is when we go out to eat.

It isn't even midday and I feel like going back to bed I am tired and I ache all over and have been coughing on and off and yes I have a headache as well which sucks, I hope I am not getting sick or anything like that.

It's the weekend

Hello Saturday, this morning I was up at 6.30am dressed and ready to go for my walk only to find it raining when I opened the back door, so I thought about going back to bed but decided against it and instead sat here are the computer and started reading blog post, only read about 40 different posts this morning, Kathy rang to see if it was ok for her and the girls to come over for a visit and of course I said it was.

So Kathy is here at the moment with Sydney-May and Summer who are busy playing with Leo, yes Leo was here last night as Blain was picked up from school by Kelli and is spending the weekend with his dad . He will, however, be back here Monday night and I may have him each night for the next 5 nights unless his other grandmother decides she wants to have him or if he decides he wants to go and stay at Jessica's one night. Leo is staying again tonight as Jessica said she has plans.

It was the last day of the school term yesterday, children are off for two weeks then back for the last term of the year. Sometimes the school term seems to go past in a flash and other times it seems to drag on.

Tim said last night he would like us to go out for lunch today as it is our wedding anniversary on Tuesday we will have been married 31 years, so I had to ask Jessica if she would come and stay with Leo while we go out as we are not taking him, he is not a big eater and it would be a waste of money as Tim wants to go to the all you can eat place in Cardiff......aka.....the Eastern Tiger.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped at the day care to give my sister something and Leo wanted to go in and say hi to the staff, this is the day care he attended my niece Denni goes there along with Landon and my great niece Hayley, it is the same day care that Temika went to as well and Sydney-May went there for a year also. All the staff remembered him and thought it was amazing how much he has grown and how well he is talking now when he was at day care he didn't say a lot and was not only shorter but a bit more chubbier, well the staff there thought he was I am not so sure about that.

At least Leo isn't as much of a computer hog as Blain is he likes to watch telly, and play with toys more then Blain does, although when Blain has his Xbox here he will have times when he is in the bedroom playing his Xbox but there are other days when he doesn't go near it.

Well I better post this and go and get changed to go to lunch, not going to wear what I have on as I am wearing house clothes.

Seeing a doctor

Hello everyone it is now Thursday afternoon and it has been a cold wet day a real change from the last few day which have been very warm to bloody hot.

Kathy-Lee told me that little Summer is sick at the moment she has conjunctivitis in both eyes, a chesty cough, runny nose with a fever and is quite lethargic so a trip the doctors was in order, she has been prescribed antibiotics and will be home from day care tomorrow. Kathy said she just wants to either sleep or lay on the lounge and watch telly.

Anyway this morning I was reading a post by Diane who can be found here: http://ouiinfrance.com/

about doctors in France and this along with Kathy telling me about Summer being sick and the fact that I had to go to the doctors this morning myself I decided to write a post about seeing a doctor in Australia.

When one wants to see a doctor here, one would ring the doctors surgery speak to the receptionist and as long as you are not a new patient it is somewhat easy to find a time and day that suits, when mum rings the doctors she can usually get in to see someone either the same day or sometime in the week. I find it the same with the practice at Mount Hutton that I go to, the Charlestown practice I usually make my appointment online which means I can search for a time I like with a doctor I like without having to say no that doesn't work I can't do Wednesdays or Fridays.

I know of no doctor who runs on time all the time it is pretty common to have to wait between 10-45 minutes after your appointment time.

Of course seeing a specialist is different, first you have to see your GP to get a referral to the specialist, if you are seeing a someone through the public system the GP will fax the referral off to the hospital and you will get a letter through the mail telling you when the appointment is. If you are seeing someone privately you have to ring the specialist and make an appointment yourself. I do not see someone privately I always go through the hospital as I can't afford to see someone privately.

Now you may have noticed that I said I go to two different doctor surgeries this is because the one at Mount Hutton is a bulk billing practice, this means that I don't have to pay at all the cost is covered by the government, the Charlestown practice doesn't bulk bill everyone and unless you have a pension card or the doctor decides to bulk bill you, you are expected to pay the cost is $75 for a 10 minute appointment and you get $37 from Medicare (the government) so that leaves you $33 out of pocket and I don't always have the money so at times I will go and see the bulk billing doctor.

Once you have checked in with the receptionist you take a seat in the waiting room and the doctor will call you in when they are ready for you, the doctor doesn't wear a white coat or anything they are just dressed in normal clothes. There is no paper work to fill in unless you are first time patient many doctors surgeries may have closed their books meaning they are not taking on new patients. I however, have been going to the Charlestown practice for 48 years and yes I am only 52.

My mum has to pay when she takes Dawson to see his specialist and it costs her $600 a visit and she gets about half of that back from Medicare, so seeing a specialist can be bloody expensive.

Most surgery here is either carried out through the public system costing the patient nothing but there can be a long wait for that to happen, if you have private health insurance you can have your surgery done in a private hospital but even though you have health insurance you still usually have some out of pocket expenses.

Private health insurance isn't cheap either, fees can start at $15 per week for a single person and increases the older you get the more cover you have and if you have a family it is more for me and Tim it would cost more then we can afford I don't exactly how much as I have not checked in a long time.  

Wordless Wednesday

History Tuesday?Australian Politics

Ok here we are at Tuesday and of course that means it's History Tuesday and today I am just going to talk a little about the history of politics in Australia why you wonder well because we now have our 5^th Prime Minister in only 5 years what the hell is with that.

The head of state in Australia is split between two people, the Queen and the Governor-General of Australia. The Queen of course really has nothing to do with the running of the country and her representative aka the Governor-General is responsible for appointing ambassadors, ministers and judges and giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and of course bestowing honours on people.

The Governor-General is also the President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Now I have no idea what the Federal Executive Council is just so you know, so don't ask me. I have learnt that these posts are held under the authority of the Australian Constitution, generally speaking barring exceptional circumstances the Governor-General exercises these powers only on the advice of the Prime-Minister, so really the role of Governor-General is often thought of as a largely ceremonial position.

The Prime Minister is the highest government minister, leader of the cabinet and head of the government they hold office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of the Prime Minister is the most powerful political office in the country. Although the office is not mentioned in the constitution and exists through an unwritten political convention.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances the Prime Minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives.

National elections are held at least once every three years the last one was is 2013, at this time we elected Tony Abbott when I say we I mean the country in general although no one you ask will admit to voting for him.

Last night there was yet another leadership challenge and Malcolm Turnbull is now our Prime Minister the which means we have had five Prime Ministers in the last five years. These are as follows, Kevin Rudd who was challenged and kicked out by Julia Gillard, who was then kicked out and Kevin Rudd was back in but was voted out at the election by Tony Abbott who was challenged and outed by Malcolm Turnbull. This is a joke if you ask me why do we bother having elections if the party can just vote out the leader and over night we can have a new leader of the party and new Prime Minister

The has been one case where a senator was appointed Prime Minister that was when John Gorton was appointed this happened after Harold Holt disappeared, he had to resign his senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.

Senator George Pearce was acting prime-minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas as well.

Malcolm Turnbull is our 29^th Prime Minister...................

Kathy-Lee's 30 what the hell

                                     

Last Thursday my eldest daughter.......aka..........our precious daughter..........aka...........Kathy-Lee turned 30, what the hell how did that happen, how did I become the mother of a 30 year old.

Anyway I had a party for Kathy-Lee yesterday, there was about 16 people here from both sides of her family, as in her side and her partner Michael's side, as I invited his parents and brother and sister in-law, his brother couldn't attend as he is away working.

Michael had gone away camping but it was only 45 minutes away and after Natasha told him off and his parents said something to him he decided he would come back from camping to attend and the whole thing was a surprise for Kathy.

Although she did say at one point she had wondered why I had made so much food and why dad (Tim) had cleaned the lounge room, and by clean I mean he took everything and dumped it in either the spare room or his room/office.

Everyone seemed to have a good time and of course there was plenty of food, as I was up at 6.30am I went for a walk and bought bread and shredded ham they didn't have diced bacon and after returning home I made a potato bake and a chicken and bacon pasta bake along with home made fried rice, snags and of course bacon.

There of course was cake this cake in fact and it tasted pretty good I bought it from a local supermarket that does cakes so it was both nice and affordable.

I also managed to do 3 loads of washing and change the sheets on the bed, vacuum the house twice, watched 2 children and go for my morning walk. After everyone had left and I was getting sheets to remake the bed, time says you look as bugga as I feel, I look at him and asked him what have you done all day, he said he cleaned the lounge-room and I asked him what have I done all day, he smiles and said everything else.

By then end of the day I was exhausted and I did manage to drink ¾ of a bottle of wine.

Are you a morning person? I am I just didn't realise it

Good morning, are you a morning person?

Do you need an alarm to wake up?

If so when it goes off do you hit snooze a few times before getting up or do you turn it off and get straight out of bed?

I am although I didn't always realise that I was but this morning while on my walk I was thinking about it and composing this post in my head.

This is what I came up with, I have always been a morning person, as a teenager I would get up before anyone else and unpack the dishwasher and have breakfast so when everyone else got up I could retreat to my room to get ready for school, ok that isn't right I have always been a get up and get dressed type of person so when I say get ready for school I mean pack my bag with the days books. Please note that at my school only the seniors got lockers the rest of us had to carry all our books around with us, although thinking about it there was a few months that I had a locker but it didn't last long as the school decided we didn't need lockers.

Anyway back to being a morning person, after I left school I would often and by often I mean 2 or 3 times a week walk to the local shopping centre just because I could and while there mum would have a list of things for me to get and if the list ended up being heavy items or a lot I would get a cab home but other wise I would walk home again.

When my girls were little I would get up get us all ready and go to the shops nice and early, this was how I was able to practice reversing my car into parking spots, there were very few people around and I could do it without worry of holding up other cars, now I can reverse park anywhere I do it better then if I try to drive into a parking spot but that isn't what this post is about.

When my girls started school I would get up before them and pack lunches and get myself ready before getting the girls out of bed, I would also often walk them to school because I either didn't have a car or I just felt like walking often it was I just felt like walking it was my daily exercise walking the girls to school.

I am not one of those people who needs an alarm unless I am getting up at a different time then normal, like in winter I don't get up till between 7-7.30am but in the summer months I like to get up around 6.30am and that at the moment is the time my alarm is set for, but most days I don't need it I wake up just before the alarm goes off.

My mum gets up between 5.45-6am Monday to Friday and on the weekend she likes to sleep in till 9am I rarely sleep in and now that I am back to going for a morning walk I prefer not to sleep in unless it is raining then sleeping in is a good thing.

If I have appointments I prefer them to be morning appointments can't always get a morning appointment but I do try, I don't like having to go out and do stuff in the afternoon.

So yes I am a morning person

Five things Friday

Well today is Friday so that means five things Friday.

A day off school not because he was sick but because he was missing his mummy and wanted to spend time with her

A school show resulting in a late night for me

Staying with great-grandparents because you think the show will be boring

Thinking nanna forgot about you because she was so late picking you up after the show

Being able to stay home alone while nanna went shopping, and having her ring you to make sure you were ok and still in the house

Good Afternoon, nothing much today just some thoughts and other stuff

Good afternoon, I am going to share with you some of my thoughts that I have had today, thoughts like why do we say corner of the world when the world is round and has no corners.

I am also wondering why is it after we vacuum the floor it looks like it hasn't been done in less then half an hour or is that just my floor, the same thing happens when we wash the floor someone will walk on it and it will look like it hasn't been done in not time.

I had to go and get Blain from school as he is feeling sick and of course tonight it is Leo's school show and I am expected to go because Jessica can't go alone, but she did only buy 2 tickets as she forgot that I would have Blain so don't know what is going to happen with that, and if he is unwell should I take him out oh well we will see how he is later on.

On Monday I went to a funeral, an old family friend passed away on the 31^st in fact Tim and I were still at the airport when my eldest daughter rang to tell me the news. We knew it was coming but it was still a shock to hear that she had passed away. It was a big funeral in fact it was the biggest funeral I have ever attended, they had to go and find more seats as there was so many there they ran out of room.

In other news yesterday a man was shot outside the local post office this is only a 2 minute drive from my place, the man was waving a machete or large knife around was threatening the police they told him to drop the knife or they would shoot but of course he didn't and they shot and killed him. The man was a staff member, in fact he was well known to me as he served me often while I was in the store and I am shocked to hear that he lost it and was killed.

Ok that is all from me for this post as I don't what else to say. 

Wordless Wednesday

Not a good photo of me but is there ever

History Tuesday/Christchurch

This Tuesday I have decided to write a bit about the history of Christchurch, why well because Christchurch is the town we flew into and out of on our recent holiday to New Zealand.

Maori history suggests that people first inhabited the area about a thousand years ago, those first people were moa-hunters who most likely arrived there as early as AD 1000, by around 1450 the Moa had been killed off. These hunters cleared large areas of the Matai and Totara forest by fire.

After the moa-hunters came the Waitaha people who are thought to have migrated from the east coast of the North Island in the 16^th century.

The first European settlements

The first Europeans came around 1815 when Governor Bligh landed on what was called Banks Peninsula, the name I think came from Captain James Cook when his ship the Endeavour first sighted the area in 1770 and he named the are Banks Island after the ship's botanist, Joseph Banks.

In 1827 Captain William Wiseman, a flax trader, named the harbour (now known as (Lyttlelton Harbour) Port Cooper, after one of the owners of the Sydney trading firm, Cooper & Levy.

During the 1820s and 1830s the local Māori population fell. The reasons included fighting between different groups of Ngāi Tahu, raids by the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha from 1830 to 1832, and the impact of European diseases, especially measles and influenza, from which hundreds of Māori died.

More and more whaling and sealing ships visited the peninsula and harbour, and in 1837 Captain George Hempelman set up a whaling station on-shore at Peraki on Banks Peninsula.

Captain William Rhodes first visited in 1836. He came back in 1839 and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa.

The first attempt at settling on the plains was made by James Herriot of Sydney. He arrived with two small groups of farmers in April 1840. Their first crop was successful, but a plague of rats made them decide to leave.

In August 1840 Captain Owen Stanley of the Britomart raised the British flag at Akaroa, just before the arrival of sixty-three French colonists on the Comte de Paris

In May 1840 Major Thomas Bunbury arrived on the HMS Herald to collect the signatures of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty had been signed by many North Island chiefs in the Bay of Islands earlier in the year on 6 February. During Bunbury’s visit only two of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed it.

During 1850-1851 the first organised groups of English settlers, the founders of Christchurch, arrived on the ‘first four ships’ into Lyttelton Harbour.

Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on July 31, 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.

Canterbury’s economy was built on primary products and Canterbury has long been recognised as living “off the sheep’s back”. Although its economic beginnings were in refrigerated sheep and dairy meats and in other dairy products, Canterbury now has a diversified regional economy with growth across a range of “new economy” sectors.

In 1893 New Zealand women achieved a first in the world when they won the right to vote. This significant event was honoured in 1993 when the Kate Sheppard memorial, a commemoration to Women’s Suffrage was unveiled on 19th September 1993.

Flag Monday/NZ Flag

Well it's Monday and that means flag Monday so today I am going to tell you a little about New Zealand's flag why, well because I was just in New Zealand and thought why not.

Their flag is a defaced blue ensign with the Union Jack (flag) in the corner with four red stars with white borders to the right. The pattern of the stars is to represent the asterism within the constellation of the crux, the Southern Cross, whatever all that means.

Now New Zealand’s first flag was the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand and this was adopted way back in 1834, six years before New Zealand became a British colony. It was chosen by an assembly of Maori chiefs at a place called Waitangi in 1834, the flag had the St George Cross with another cross in the corner containing four stars on a blue field.

However, after New Zealand became a British colony in 1840 the British ensigns came into use, the current flag was designed and adopted for use on Colonial ships in 1869 following an Imperial statute and became New Zealand's national flag in 1902.

There has, however, been a debate about changing the flag for several decades with a two-stage binding referendum on changing the flag planned to take place in 2016. There are four designs up for the vote they are these four.

I know many people often confuse the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag which may have something to do with New Zealanders wanting to change their flag, for those who have forgotten what the good ole Aussie flag looks like this is it.

I'm Back/So let the holiday news begin

Well hello blogland, I am back and we should be resuming normal transmission as from today. I am giving advanced warning that there will be a week or two of holiday related posts so hope that doesn't bore anyone silly and if it does please feel free to yell at the computer that you have had enough already, not that I will hear you but it might help you feel better..............just saying.

So Tim and I flew into Sydney on the 31^st August, we arrived around 5pm and headed out towards customs but of course before we got there we had to pick up our bags and before that we had to pass through the duty free store.

So as we are passing through duty free Tim has to stop and buy grog that was ok I was going to get a few small bottles of stuff too that I would mostly use as gifts but Tim found this............

So I could only get 4 small bottles when I wanted 5 as his big ass bottle took up a lot of our allowed amount to bring in. Even though he says it will take him a bloody long time to drink it we will see I don't think it will take that long at all, oh yeah it is a 3lt bottle if you were wondering.

We spent that night at the hotel across from the airport and have to say I am so glad we did because by the time we got to the hotel it was about 6pm and I was exhausted so exhausted I didn't feel like going anywhere to get food to eat. So in the end I just ordered some hot chips from room service cost $8 for a small serve of chips. Here is a photo of said chips.

Let us move on to the following day, Tuesday when after getting up we headed to the airport again to catch the airport train to central station were we caught another train home to Newie, Natasha picked us up from the train station and I picked up both boys from school. Then of course Blain was staying here for the night and Leo also wanted to stay because he had missed his nanna and pappa and of course we said yes he could stay.

Wednesday saw me make a start on the mountain of washing that needed to be done took me two days to get it all washed, dried and put away, which brings me to over packing, everyone always go on about women over packing but in this family it is Tim who over packs and still ends up buying clothes he says he has run out of when in fact if he only looked he would find the clothing item in his suitcase. This trip it was a T-shirt he swore he had run out of T-shirts but when I was putting away the clothes he hadn't worn I found 2 T-shirts, 4 singlets, 4 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of jeans and 2 pairs of track pants and 2 other pairs of long pants and of course there was 8 pairs of socks and 3 pairs of undies yes that is all the unworn clothes he took..............

I had 1 top, some stockings and 3 extra pairs of knickers that I had to buy as I did in fact run out of knickers and had to buy extras but that was all.

Well that will do for this post until next time all be happy and be safe