History of Australia and the Aboriginal People

Here I am doing another post about the history of Aboriginals,like many cultures the Aboriginal people would pass down stories, myths, legends and dances from one generation to the next, they are not alone many other cultures have done the same.

The Aboriginal people have what is called The Dreaming, The Dreaming is history, it tells of how the world was formed, how the world which was featureless was transformed into mountains, hill, valleys and waterways, it tells how the stars were formed and how the sun came to be.

In the Sydney metropolitan area there are close to 5,000 Aboriginal sites, yes 5,000 that is a bloody lot. These sites are under threat every day from development, vandalism and natural erosion, these sites naturally cannot be replaced so once destroyed they are gone forever. Some sites are still in reasonable condition such as the sites located in Land Cove, North Sydney, Willoughby and Ku-ring-gai areas, these sites hold an important part of our history.

Naturally the Aboriginal people, who once occupied these areas, left important evidence of their past and way of life before colonisation. All Aboriginal sites are significant to Aboriginal people because they are evidence of the past Aboriginal occupation of Australia and are valued as a link with their traditional culture. Clues to what these sites were used for can also be surmised by talking with Elders from other parts of Australia where traditional knowledge has not been lost to the same degree.

The Sydney Basin is one of the richest provinces in Australia in terms of Aboriginal archaeological sites. There are thousands of Aboriginal sites, more than half of which contain rock art, and in Sydney’s sandstone belt at least 1500 rock shelters have been discovered to contain cultural deposit.

All Aboriginal sites have legal protection under both state and federal law and it is an offence to damage or destroy them without agreement from the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC).

Happy Birthday Mum

On this day 77 years ago in the town of Parkes in the state of New South Wales, a wonderful woman was born, my mother Mavis Jean. She is the eldest of four children but now only herself and her baby brother Francis are left.

When she was about 4 years old her mother and father separated and later divorced, mum, her brother Ronald and sister Dianne went with there mother and lived in the Wauchope New South Wales district. In fact mum lived with her grandmother till she was 14 and her grandmother died, it was traumatic for mum losing her nan as they were very close.

Her father stayed in the Parkes district and later remarried. She had not seen him since she was aged 7 and lost all contact with her father from about age 14. On Saturday 24^th May 1997 mum met her father again after 50 years. She found him living in Blayney NSW, also at this reunion she met, for the first time, her cousin Patricia Ann Crane. Mervyn died 5 months later on the 24^th October 1997.

When mum was 10 years old her mother married Ronald James and pretty much from that time on he was in mums eyes her dad, this is one of the reasons she had no desire to find and met her natural father. She is glad she tracked Mervyn down but he wasn't her dad. Her dad died on the 4^th November 2010.

Sometime in the late 1950's she met Denis and they married on the 19^th November 1960 and had 5 children together of which I am the eldest, she now has 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with two more great-grandchildren due this year.

As many know on the 19^th November 2016 her mother passed away aged 95, this affected her a lot and since her mother's passing she has had many health issuers, she is in pain 24/7 and has been for many years and also has had a couple of incidents of delirium and being off with the pixies but things are improving and she takes life one day at a time.

Family is very important to mum and she loves having her family around her, her children are blessed to have such a wonderful, loving and caring mother who we all know is there for us whenever we need her.

In 1978 she suffered a stroke when her youngest child was only 6 weeks old, she was told at the time she may not walk again or have much use of her arm but she made a complete recover from her stroke because she had a new born baby and a toddler and not recovering wasn't an option in her eyes.

Mum has been known as Mae for most of her life, and the name Mae is common in our family now, my sister is Sandra Mae, her daughter is Temika Mae, my daughter is Jessica Mae, and my granddaughter is Sydney-May.

A Trip To A Pop Up Waterpark

Ok have wanted to write a post since Friday and here it is Sunday morning and I am at last doing one this is because Friday afternoon I felt drained of energy and pretty much the same feeling yesterday afternoon. This morning when my alarm went off I couldn't wake up I was that tired that I didn't get up till 7.30am, two hours after the alarm went off but it is Sunday so that is ok.

Yesterday Jessica, Kelli and myself took the boys Blain, Leo & Daemon to what is called a pop up water park which they loved, I saw the tickets on Groupon and bought them but the girls paid for them they were $12.50 a saving of $7.50 we bought 4 tickets on each for the boys and one for Kelli Jessica and I didn't go on the rides or slides or get in the pool so we didn't need tickets. For those who don't know a pop up park is a temporary amusement park set up in vacant lots for usually only a month or so often during school holidays, the aim is to get children out of the house and away form electronics and doing stuff. The park we took the boys to was about a 45 minute drive from us in Salt Ash.

Friday saw Tim having the day off he had an appointment to have an ultrasound done of his stomach because his last blood test showed a problem with his liver, I have a problem with my liver it is a fatty liver and I expect that is what the ultrasound will show is the problem with Tim's liver.

Jessica was telling me that she also has a fatty liver and she has small kidneys for a woman her age but at this stage they are functioning ok so not a problem.

Now that reminds me of mum, when she saw the specialist last Wednesday she was told that since she didn't have an type of stroke the specialist didn't know why she was referred to him, he did, however, tell her that he believes one of the reasons for her delirium was the fact that her kidney function was done the lever should be around 60, when she went to the hospital suffering from delirium it was 20 and her last blood test had it at 40. He told her that with the level being so low it meant that her body wasn't flushing the medication out of her body completely thus meant she was getting a build up and that was causing an overdose affect. So he said that her GP needs to investigate that and try and discover the reason for it and do something to fix it or counter it or whatever they do. I reminded mum that she has those tumors on her adrenal gland and she should check that, that isn't causing her problems now what she has is a benign tumour.

Tim wants to go over to my parents place and I asked him if he needed me to go with him or not as I want to vacuum out and wash the kitchen floor and I have laundry to do and well as over stuff, he said no he doesn't need me but what about Jessica's car. We have to take her car back to her, I said I don't think she is doing anything today so we should be ale to take it back to her after lunch and if she wants it she will ring me and I will take it over earlier.

We have her car as yesterday we took my car to the pop up park as I have more fuel and when we were going home after we dropped Blain off at his mums, Leo was unwell we had to pull over so he could throw up and she felt like she just wanted to go home so that is what she did so we will return her car to her today.

Happy Birthday Tim and Australia

Hello everyone today is Australia Day it was a bloody long time ago when the first Europeans arrived to take possession of the country by a bloody long time I mean 228 years.

It is a pleasant day here not hot nor cold, not wet but have had some drizzle. I for some reason wasn't feeling the best this morning and ended up going back to bed for an hour before doing lunch.

Mostly for us it is the birthday of the love of my life, Tim, he is 56 today we are having lunch here but Natasha says I didn't tell her but I thought I did send a group message to all the girls via Facebook but she didn't see it so she isn't coming and it is my fault.

Also today was my brother in-laws birthday so today his family are scattering his ashes at his favourite fishing spot, he passed away last February. So yesterday my sister was telling her daughter that they were going to scatter his ashes she wanted to know what his ashes are so she explained how some people are buried when they died and some people are burnt up. So today they are going to scatter his ashes at his favourite fishing spot. My niece said you burnt Uncle Mick now you want to feed him to the fishes, she then outright refused to go to scatter the ashes. I will find out tonight if she went or not.

So I will end this with a dozen facts about Australia because it is Australia Day.

1. Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.
2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.
3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.
4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.
5. Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.
6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called ‘New Australia’.
7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.
8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).
9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.
10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.
11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.
12. The world’s oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

Photo Wednesday

As some of you may have noticed I wasn't around much yesterday I was feeling pretty sick and spent most of the day in bed, also had Leo for most of the day and he was here last night as well, because his mum said the night before he cried and had a tantrum because he wasn't able to stay at nanna's house that night.

Anyway this week I am sharing a collage of Sue's family.

Monday's News

Good morning world, it is Monday here and suppose to be another pretty hot day but as I start this it is only around 20°c anyway I am going to share some of the things I heard while I am watching Sunrise (morning news show)

First up they were talking about how young children in kindergarten are being given medication for ADHD, well as the grandmother of a child with ADHD I can tell you that it wasn't that easy to get Leo medicated. He went through a lot of being observed by professionals and talking to specialists and we tried a number of things to alter his behaviour before he was prescribed medication. Leo off medication is a little boy who is bouncing off the walls and can't control his temper and our bursts at all.

Also on Sunrise was a lot of talk about people chucking a sickie on Friday so they can have a long weekend, Thursday is Australia Day so a public holiday and they reckon people will be calling in sick on Friday. Now Tim isn't working Friday but he has put in for either a RDO or an annual day off so not chucking a sickie at all.

Also saw that some people want to change from calling people overweight to overfat, what the hell No that is just wrong, as my grandsons would tell you fat isn't a nice word to call people. Yes I often call myself a short fat middle aged woman and that is fine I am the one saying it.

Yet again in the news there was a story about someone crashing a car into a house, this seems to be happening at least once a month and it is amazing that not more people are hurt when this happens, how fast must people be going to end up in a house.

Of course Trump is in the news again, because he tweets without thinking and then had to re-tweet to clarify his first tweet, now the second tweet was only done in my opinion because one of his advisers told him to do so, although strangely enough I agree with the first tweet, if all these people now protesting had in fact voted maybe he wouldn't have been elected.

However, how on earth he could thing there was a record breaking turn out for his inauguration, maybe he had a moment when he confused the protesters with the inauguration turn out, or he is just living in a fantasy land of denial.

Madonna really should think before she speaks also, saying you have thought about blowing up the White House is just stupid and there are disturbed people out there who could think hey Madonna wants to blow up the White House so I will do it for her.

Just heard that there is going to be some changers to the bail hearings in Victoria after that guy who went berserk and ran people down the other day because he was out on bail and his bail hearing wasn't heard by a magistrate but by someone who wasn't a magistrate, but a bail justice, these people have no formal training so why on earth they would be able to hear a bail hearing and decided if the person could be released on bail. I don't know much but I know that, that doesn't sound right. Seems if a person was arrested on a weekend or at night their hearing would be heard by a bail justice as the magistrates wouldn't be working now that is going to change.

Yesterday I did go to Speers Point Park for Sydney-May's birthday party it was a nice afternoon Leo had a good time and I think Sydney-May liked her presents not only was her mum's family there also her dad and his mum came and Michael's parents and sister in-law and her children came as well as a friend of Sydney-May's and the girls mum so a good turn out.

Sunday Stuff

Good morning everyone, just looked at the clock and it is still morning, in fact it is only just after 10am but feels later, I had a sleep in this morning didn't get up till 6.30am although I was awake mostly from 5.30am when the alarm went off.

Tim is at work and I am home alone, just had Natasha and Steve call in to borrow money and pick up her coffee table and she took my vacuum to do her house with. She used to use her work vacuum but has lost her job, her boss was going off his brain at her about something and she decided she didn't need that stress and to be spoken to in such a manner so she quit, she will find another job but is under such stress with things at the moment and being under paid and treated like shit is something she can do without at this stage.

It is starting to get hot here again today it is around 28°c at the moment and I have the front and back sliding doors open and the ceiling fan going as well so at the moment don't need the air con on.

Mum is doing much better, and even went to Charlestown Square on Friday for breakfast, although that pissed my sister off and she was so mad with me she was hitting me because she felt it was my fault that mum went out. She felt I was encouraging mum to go shopping, I wasn't but I understand that mum feels like she is losing her independence and is always stuck at home, I told mum when I spoke to her on Thursday night if she went to Charlie she should use a motorised scooter which can be hired free of charged from the customer service desk in the square and I wanted dad to get it and take it to mum at the car and have her only move from the car to the scooter so she wasn't trying to walk. Of course mum did walk from the car to Donut King were we have breakfast, which I wasn't happy about.

Sandra was so mad at me she said I didn't understand how hard it is and all the physically and emotional stress she is under looking after mum and dad, she is right I don't understand it as I am not the one dealing with them day in and day out. However, because she is young and able she (Sandra) doesn't understand what it feels like to feel you are losing your independence.

Today is my granddaughter Sydney-May's 7^th birthday, her mum is having a small party for her this afternoon at Speers Point Park, which is a large park about 10 minutes from me, Tim has taken the car to work so I have asked Jessica if she would pick me up and drive me out there, she said she would. 

A Little More About The History Of Australia

Hello everyone here I am doing another post about the history of my country and the Aboriginal people.

After the arrival of the white people the Aboriginal people were struck with new and unknown diseases these diseases were often fatal and struck and extensive blow to the Aboriginal people. This is because up until then they had been isolated from the diseases that had raged throughout Europe and Asia, so they had no resistance to these new deadly viruses carried here by the sailors and convicts, diseases like smallpox, syphilis and influenza. So in less that a year over half the Aboriginal population living in the Sydney area had died from smallpox and the region that once was alive with a vibrant mix of Aboriginal clans was now silent.

Every boat that went down the harbour found them lying dead on the beaches and in the caverns of the rocks… They were generally found with the remains of a small fire on each side of them and some water left within their reach.
Lieutenant Fowell, 1789

In a space of only six months the new arrivals had destroyed a way of life that had existed for thousands of years, the Aboriginals soon realised that these invaders were committed to nothing less than total occupation of the land.

To most of the settlers the Aboriginal people were considered akin to kangaroos, dingoes and emus, to be eradicated to make way for the development of farming and grazing, this I find disgusting and I am ashamed of this part of our history as I am other parts of our history.

I have myself heard a man, educated, and a large proprietor of sheep and cattle, maintain that there was no more harm in shooting a native, than in shooting a wild dog. I have heard it maintained by others that it is the course of Providence, that blacks should disappear before the white, and the sooner the process was carried out the better, for all parties. I fear such opinions prevail to a great extent. Very recently in the presence of two clergymen, a man of education narrated, as a good thing, that he had been one of a party who had pursued the blacks, in consequence of cattle being rushed by them, and that he was sure that they shot upwards of a hundred. When expostulated with, he maintained that there was nothing wrong in it, that it was preposterous to suppose they had souls. In this opinion he was joined by another educated person present.
Bishop Polding, 1845

Now a guerrilla war had been mounted against the British during the early years of the colony, this is to be expected the natives were fighting to save their way of life and protect their own, however, for the most part the eradication of the Aboriginal people had been easy. Those who had not been killed off by disease were displaced when land was cleared for settlements and farms, this caused the Aboriginal people to become dependent on white food and clothing.

Then there is the problems that came with alcohol, since alcohol was used as a means of trade by the British and the Aboriginal people were not used to alcohol and what it does to the human body it served to further shatter traditional social and family structures.

So in the blink of an eye European civilisation had devastated and destroyed and incomparable and ancient people, this is terrible. Because the vast majority of the clans living in the Sydney area had been killed off the stories of the land have been lost forever, so much of what we know about those clans have been learnt from their archaeological remains. Thankfully shelters, engravings and art remnants of the indigenous life are prolific throughout the area but no one remains to reveal their particular meanings or significance so much is guess work.

Photo Wednesday

Hi all over the next few Wednesdays I am going to be sharing collages of my extended family starting with my sister Jeannie's family.

Jeannie is my oldest younger sister, she has four children, Samantha, Tina, Tyler and Tom and at this stage one grandchild Hayley.

She has been in an relationship with a man named Peter for decades and considers his children and grandchildren as her own, he has three children and I think three or four grandchildren as well, they are not included in the collage though as I don't have photos of them.

It's Tuesday & I Went Shopping For School Clothes For Leo and Other Dribble

Hello everyone, another stinking hot day here, but thankfully it has gotten too hot too early as I start this at 7.45am it is nice, I have the front and back doors open again and soon I will be going in to change my clothes so I can go shopping. It is time to go shopping for school pants for Leo and school shoes, yes we have a couple of pairs of school shoes but he goes though 4 or 5 pairs of shoes a year. Now I know many of you are wondering why his mother isn't going shopping for his school stuff, well she would if I told her to do so but I am going to Kmart today anyway and don't mind doing it for her and she will be the one paying for the stuff.

Ok here I am again it is now 10.15am, I am home and the air conditioners are going so the house should soon cool down. I have gone and done my shopping that I wanted to do, I bought Leo 2 new pairs of long school pants and another pair of school shoes so he now has 3 pairs of school shoes, hopefully they will see us through the first half of the year.

Now as you all know it gets stinking bloody hot here, today is going to be around 41°c at the moment in is about 30°c anyway not the point. As hot as it gets Leo has decided that he will not wear shorts, a number of times last month I would tell him to change into school shorts and he would sometimes change but when it came time to leave I would tell him to get in the car while I went to the toilet and when he was getting out of the car at the school I noticed he had changed back into long pants................grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So I have told Jessica if he will not wear shorts what am I to do other then make sure he has long school pants to wear that will not make him over heat too much. She said make him wear the shorts easy for her to say she isn't the one dealing with him and let's be honest here I cannot be bothered having that fight with him before school. I do not like him to go to school in a bad mood.

Back to me I like it when I can get out do some shopping and be home again all by 10 or 11am, I am not one to be doing stuff all day, many times in the past people have said what's your rush you have all day, yeah but I don't want to be all day doing stuff.

Last Friday when I was shopping I bought a bottle of Port and mentioned to Tim if he wanted to have some he could, he says I don't like Port much, since when Tim, since when, many times you have drunk my Port but if you don't like it all the more for me. That said you all know I am not a big drinker yes I drink and yes from time to time I may even get drunk but getting drunk isn't the norm for me two, three or four drinks are usually enough for me and I don't have strong drinks, I drown the Port or whatever liqueur I am drinking in Coke so four drinks for me may be equal to two drinks for someone else and I never drink anything neat.

Tim just walked in he is on split shifts all week well I think he said he is on them all week I could ask him but he gets annoyed when I ask at times so not doing that, he is home for about 3 hours before he goes back to work for another 3 hours.

Some of you may wonder if I buy stuff for my other grandchildren, well not really did buy Blain a new school hat on Friday but his parents usually buy his school stuff and of course Kathy buys for Sydney-May so no I don't need to, Jessica can do these things she just often doesn't want to.

How often do you think as you are putting on an item of clothing or taking it off that you really should bin the item, you think that but you still put it on or toss it in the wash, I am sure I am not the only person who does that. I have been meaning to toss this bra I am wearing for the last month or two and still I am wearing it. I can be just as bad with knickers and other bloody clothes or to be honest if the clothes were in fact bloody I might indeed toss them in the bin, just saying.

I just found and put in my bag Leo's stationary list for the stuff he will need this year at school, I meant to shove it in my bag before I went out but didn't oh well it is in my bag now and I will have a look for the stuff on Friday.

At the moment Tim is watching the Benny Hill show, I could never stand Benny Hill he got on my nerves but since I wasn't watching anything I have said nothing.

Mum's Health

Hello Monday, hello world, hello bloggers and hello family, how is life treating everyone on this lovely Monday morning the 16^th January 2017.

I am well, I have been up and dressed since 5.30am and what have I done, well I have read around 35 blogs and now I am writing a post for the day, I have also had breakfast but not much to do in way of housework today, just need to put the clean washing away and unpack the dishwasher I turned it on to wash at 6am.

Now to some news about my mum, yesterday she wasn't good again like she was last week when Sandy rang the ambos but this time they didn't bother with the ambos they just put her to bed and was keeping a close eye on her during the day.

Both mum and dad have a doctors appointment this morning at 8.30am with Andrew the doctor they have seen for many years and have to say he is a pretty damn good doctor, I think Sandra will be going with them to the doctors.

I felt like crying yesterday when I saw mum, I also felt useless as with my bad knees and bad back and shaking hands there is little I can do. I sent messages to all my girls as well as Kelli and Kirsty to let them know how their nanna was and I received this message from Kelli that made me feel a bit better.

 “I'm sure if you were as young as Sandra is and not going through

your own pain and suffering you'd be there too. I know you would

want to be there for nan and do more, but your tremors and bad

knees won't help. And Nana knows that loves you, you are not

useless, just cause someone else can do more doesn't make you

chop liver”

I am praying for mum every day, along with praying for Natasha who is going through her own stuff now, stuff I cannot talk about because she doesn't want me to, stuff I would love to be able to talk to mum about but have not been able to do so.

Mum hasn't been right since Nanna died and all the family are worried about her, I know my sister will ring me later and tell me what Andrew had to say about mum. It was suggested when she was in hospital last week that she goes into Belmont hospital for 7 to 14 days for assessment and for a plan to be drawn up and put in place to help her recover but mum didn't want that and I understand that but since less then a week after returning home she was not with it again shows it wasn't a once of and she has to do something more. We are going on a cruise in May and mum needs her health to improve before then.

Also yesterday we were talking about how us siblings thing mum and dad need to have an Enduring Guardianship with Sandra and Dave appointed as their guardians. Want to know more about an Enduring Guardianship go here: http://www.tag.nsw.gov.au/enduring-guardian-faqs.html

So this is something we will have to talk to mum and dad about sometime soon, I also want to contact the Dept of Housing to find out how they go about getting the house altered to make it easier for mum to get in and out of the house as she can't manage the stairs any more and needs hand rails in the toilet and bathroom as well.

I do wonder how Dawson is really coping with all this he is very much a nanny's boy and he doesn't say much but I am sure he is worried about his nanna and wouldn't like to see her the way she is at the moment. 

History of Aus Pt 2

Here we are doing another post on the history of Australian and Aboriginals, today I am going to talk about land ownership and the Aboriginals relationship with the land.

The first act of land ownership by Europeans came within four days of arrival when a group of men from the HMS Sirius went ashore to clear land to gain access to fresh water.

By 26 January, the First Fleet had found its way to Sydney Cove and landed there on the harbour. Those first Europeans had a dim view of the Aboriginal way of life, properly because it wasn't a way of life they were used to but that is just my thought.

This excerpt is taken from the diary of Watkin Tench, an officer in the First Fleet:

It does not appear that these poor creatures have any fixed Habitation; sometimes sleeping in a Cavern of Rock, which they make as warm as a Oven by lighting a Fire in the middle of it, they will take up their abode here, for one Night perhaps, then in another the next Night. At other times (and we believe mostly in Summer) they take up their lodgings for a Day or two in a Miserable Wigwam, which they made from Bark of a Tree. There are dispersed about the woods near the water, 2, 3, 4 together; some Oyster, Cockle and Muscle (sic) Shells lie about the Entrance of them, but not in any Quantity to indicate they make these huts their constant Habitation. We met with some that seemed entirely deserted indeed it seems pretty evident that their Habitation, whether Caverns or Wigwams, are common to all, and Alternatively inhabited by different Tribes.

However, for the aboriginal people and those clans living on the northern shoes of Sydney nothing could have been further from the truth and what the colonists never understood and still many Australians now still have trouble getting is that the Aboriginal lifestyle was based on a total kinship with nature and the natural environment.

Of course wisdom and skills were obtained over time that enabled them to get the most out of their environment. For the aboriginal people killing animals for food and building shelter were steeped in ritual and spirituality and was carried out in perfect balance with their surroundings.

… from time immemorial, we believe as Aboriginal people, Australia has been here from the first sunrise, our people have been here along with the continent, with the first sunrise. We know our land was given to us by Baiami, we have a sacred duty to protect that land, we have a sacred duty to protect all the animals that we have an affiliation with through our totem system …1
Jenny Munro, Wiradjuri nation

For the Aboriginal food was in abundant, as was fresh water and shelter, they found everything needed for a healthy life was readily available. However, with the arrival of Europeans that would not remain the case.

With the new arrivals came armed conflict and a huge lack of understanding and some narrow minded people who thought they knew best. This heralded the demised of the northern Sydney clans as well as other Aboriginals from the Sydney basin such as the Dharawal to the south and Dharug to the west.

It didn't take long for food shortages to become a problem as the large white population depleted the fish by using nets to catch large amounts of fish. The also reduced the kangaroo population with unsustainable hunting, they cleared the land and polluted the water, this caused the Aboriginal people to be close to starvation.

That will do it for this post, more to come later.

New Beaut Products? Or Not

We all see these infommerscials were this new great product is being flogged to us products like the Paint Runner Pro, don't know what it is then go here and see: http://buypaintrunner.com.au/ now if you are like me you wonder if these products we see on the telly really work. I am always sceptical of these new beaut products and unlike some I usually do some research before I buy the product but many don't they see it they buy it then they complain it isn't as good as it is shown to be on the telly.

Another product I have seen and thought might be good is Five Second-fix this product you can go here and see what it is: https://www.globalshop.com.au/products/5-second-fix, so say it is a waste of money so I was sceptical about buying it but Tim said when he saw the adds he wouldn't mind trying it so when I saw it at the local shopping centre I bought it for him it was only $20 so if it doesn't work it isn't a big waste of money we will see what happens when he uses it.

Many years ago I bought a miracle-thaw go here to learn more http://www.kitchencookery.co.uk/miracle-thaw/4551586854, anyway it was one product I still use to this day, I love it, it works as it says it should so sometimes you do get lucky and the new beaut product works.

So here is my question to all of you have you ever bought any of these new beaut products or any product advertised on any infommerscials and if so did you find the product to work as it was advertised.

Five things Friday

Here it is Friday again, so here is this weeks five things

Falling out of bed

Hospital stay

Returning home

Not going shopping

Taking it easy 

In the news today

In the news this morning is a story about a ride at Movieworld breaking down and people needing to be rescued, not good but no one was hurt which is the most important thing.

Of course Donald Trump was in the news yet again, after his first speech since winning the election and anyone hearing him people were saying he sounded like the idiot he is others were shocked that he didn't say and sound more like a president should, what the hell if the man came out and said and acted like a president should people would be saying what happened to Trump who is the imposter so shut up he is who he is the American people voted him in. What type of president he will be is something we will see in time if he really sucks and does a horrible job he may be a one term president as I said only time will tell.

Ok it seems Kim Kardashian's chauffeur is off the hook guess what I don't care..........................

ANZAC day celebrations in the Blue Mountains may need to be cancelled due to lack of money for anti-terror security measures. NSW police are meeting with the RSL and council to try to work it out, it would be terrible if ANZAC day was spoilt this is the type of thing that makes many of us thing the terrorists are winning when we have to cancel events.

Another toddler has died from drowning which is terrible, he drowned in a knee deep fish pond in his front yard just another reminded that drownings can happen anywhere in only a little amount of water.

I wouldn't want to be one of the pass angers flying to Bali with Tigerair since the airline cannot fly into Indonesia, Virgin are bringing people stranded in Bali home to Australian and Tigerair say they are working to sort out the problem with Indonesia.

Also Jack Russell-cross had a close encounter with a snake, after it became stuck on her collar.

His owner had no idea how the snake became entangled in the dogs collar on the weekend.

It was stuck, it would not budge, so a trip to the vet was in order and the snake was eventually removed but not before Stella (the dog)was bitten but after a night in doggy hospital she made a full recovery.

Oh yeah scientist have discovered why women gain weight and unable to lose it, now this is shocking news, we.............eat too much of the wrong foods and we don't exercise enough, would would have thought that too much food high in sugar and fat would lead to weight gain and sitting on ones bum most of the day would lead to a big bum, but scientists have discovered it to be true........now you know.

Also on Sunrise this morning that more people are outsourcing tasks like buying school supplies and treating nits in their child's hair why because they are too busy to do things for their child, damn that sounds like I am a meanie which I am not, I understand that some parents are super busy working and some like a daughter of mine just reckon they don't know what to buy and such so I end up doing it for her.

Ok that is enough dribble for today but before I go one last thing mum is well enough to return home much to her happiness but she is going to have to make some changes she needs to use her walker more often as in all the bloody time mum and my brother and sister want her to get a Webster pack for her and dads medications but she doesn't want to do that so instead she is thinking of doing what I do and make them up once a week herself.

That's me done and dusted, not that I dust, I should but rarely do

Photo's of Leo's 9th

Reading Emails, My Mum & Jessica's Air Conditioner

Do you read your emails?

At times I wonder about Tim and if he ever reads his emails, last night he noticed a charge on his visa card and got into a tiss over it, he didn't know what it was and didn't authorised it and rang the Newcastle Permanent Building Society to complain, they cancelled the card and will issue a new card and all that is going to cause problems with money transfers and such.

Now here is the thing, this morning when I got up I remembered him saying something about it last night but I was in bed asleep or more asleep then awake and didn't really register with me what he was going on about. This morning it did so I went and checked his emails and yeah there was an email from the company that took the money it was for our contents insurance. So I told him that this morning and he said they shouldn't just take the money they should have contacted me, I said they did contact you they emailed you to tell you that they would be taking the premium on such and such a date, he has been going on how it was wrong and they should have rang him, I said businesses doing ring you about such things they email and if you don't want them to take a premium you have to ring them and talk to them. He is going on about wanting his money back but the more I have talked to him the more I think it is slowly sinking in, well I hope it is.

All this would have been avoided if he only read his emails.

In other news my mum is in hospital yesterday she wasn't feeling well and was in bed till around midday as she wasn't feeling good, she had fallen out of bed at 2am and was in pain but when my sister went to check on her she was confused and not with it so she rang the ambos who took her to hospital.

My sister Sandra and brother Dave stayed with her at the hospital for a long time, she had ct scans done as they thought she may have had a mini stroke, thankfully she didn't the ct scan of the brain showed no bleed or anything nasty. While at the hospital she was unable to have anything to drink and what they ended up saying was that they thought she was a bit dry as in dehydrated and gave her a drip and after a while she started to improve.

They also gave her a ct scan of her hip as they thought she had possibly broken her hip but that was clear but did show a lot of arthritis in her hip the orthopedic surgeon was shocked at how much arthritis there was.

We don't know how long she will be in hospital for we are taking it one day at a time, I spoke to her this morning and she sounded ok but she was in a lot of pain. Mum said yesterday when Dave and Sandy woke her she was wondering why it was midday she kept thinking I went to bed at night why is it midday. Also when the doctors and hospital staff asked her what year it was she couldn't remember and couldn't count back from 20, she would get to 11 and go forward again but as I said when I spoke to her earlier she was sounding more with it.

This morning Tim and Michael have gone to install Jessica's new air conditioning unit it is a large window unit and I told Tim I wanted it installed today as tomorrow it is suppose to be in the 40's and it is not doing any good sitting in her boot. 

Leo is now 9

Good morning all, as you may have noticed I wasn't around much yesterday I read a few blogs in the morning but since I had a sleep in and didn't get up till 6.30am I didn't have time to do much before it was time for us to leave. Leave you say, well yesterday was Little Leo's birthday he turned 9, yes my Little Leo is now 9 and to celebrate we as in me & papa along with Jessica & Leo went to Hunter Valley Gardens here is the link: http://www.huntervalleygardens.com.au/

We arrived around 9.20am and left at 1.20pm so was a nice day out, more photos will be added here on Wednesday but of course here are some taken yesterday.

We had a small family party for him here yesterday afternoon with BBQ chicken and hot chips for tea followed by ice cream cake. The only one who wasn't here was Blain as he was with his father at his father's mothers place and didn't get dropped off in time.

You will notice in the photos I was using a walking stick and have to say it made a big difference, I managed to get around pretty ok but after lunch which was a bacon & egg roll with a side of chips I started to feel a bit unwell it was really hot by then temp around 37°c. Jessica, Leo and I went for a ride on the little train that took us around the gardens that was nice and Leo saw some things he wanted to show papa so after the ride Tim and Leo went off to see other stuff Jessica and I sat in the shade and waited for them.

All in all it was a good day and Leo said he had an awesome time and it showed. 

My Saturday

Good afternoon world, how is everyone, I am ok it has been a somewhat warm to hot day I have not been able to think of what to bore you all with today and since I have not been able to come up with anything I am just going to do a check list of things I have done today.

Get out of bed at 5.30am        checked

Blogs read                      checked

Leo returned to his mum         checked

Massage had                     checked

Laundry done & on the line  checked

Dishwasher run & unpacked   checked

Floors vacuumed                 checked

Bread bought                    checked

Garbage bins emptied            checked

Recycled bins emptied           checked
Medication sortedfor the week   checked
Birthday presents wrapped       checked

Washing off the line            checked

Pick Blain up                   still to do

So as you can see my day has been so so, and I will be glad when the day is over and I can go to bed, I might add that last night at 3am I woke up to go to the toilet and found Leo in bed with us, not sure what time he got into my bed he hasn't done that in a long time.

I asked him about it this morning he said he had a bad dream something about the neighbours fighting and gunshots being fired, so he came into my bed for a hug and that is why he was in bed with me and papa. 

Five things Friday

Here is this weeks five things Friday

Boy's in trouble
Not being able to use electronics
No playing out the front
No  treats
Hiding chocolate

History of Australia and Aboriginal People

Good morning all here I am this somewhat wet morning thinking about what to write about and after some thought decided I would tell you a little bit about the history of this country and the Aboriginal people who have lived here since way back when.

Europeans arrived in and yes I know some would say invaded this country way back in 1788, back then the locals known as Aboriginals lived here for some say thousands of years, wandering around this great country and living off the land.

“… they were so ignorant they thought there was only one race on the earth and that was the white race. So when Captain Cook first came, when Lieutenant James Cook first set foot on Wangal land over at Kundul which is now called Kurnell, he said oh lets put a flag up somewhere, because these people are illiterate, they’ve got no fences. They didn’t understand that we didn’t need fences … that we stayed here for six to eight weeks, then moved somewhere else where there was plenty of tucker and bush medicine and we kept moving and then come back in twelve months’ time when the food was all refreshed …”1
the late Aunty Beryl Timbery Beller

I will not pretend to understand how the Aboriginal people feel about other Australians because I don't know, what I do know is that the way they were treated was disgusting we can't undo what was done we can only do better in the future.

What I do know that it must have been scary having all these strangers arrive in their country, strangers who brought with them new unknown diseases that the locals had no idea how to treat. These diseases would have caused so much suffering and death for the locals.

It is estimated that over 750,000 Aboriginal people inhabited the island in 1788. It should be noted that the colonists were led to believe that the island was “terra nullius” (no ones land) which is what James Cook declared the country to be in 1771 during his voyage around the coast of the country.

We found the natives tolerably numerous as we advanced up the river, and even at the harbour’s mouth we had reason to conclude the country more populous than Mr Cook thought it. For on the Supply’s arrival in the [Botany] bay on the 18th of the month they assembled on the beach of the south shore to the number of not less than forty persons, shouting and making many uncouth signs and gestures. This appearance whetted curiosity to its utmost, but as prudence forbade a few people to venture wantonly among so great a number, and a party of only six men was observed on the north shore, the governor immediately proceeded to land on that side in order to take possession of this new territory and bring about an intercourse between its new and old masters.
Watkin Tench, January 1788

It is now believed that the Island continent was in fact owned by over 400 different nations at the time of Cook's claim that the island was no ones land. In fact Captain Philip was astounded with Cook's theory saying “Sailing up into Sydney cove we could see natives on the shore shaking spears and yelling” so how could Cook say the land was no ones.

For thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, northern Sydney was occupied by different Aboriginal clans, living mostly on the foreshores of the harbour were they fished and hunted in the area and harvested food from the bush. They were self-sufficient and mostly harmonious, they traded with other tribes. They would move throughout their country in accordance with the seasons, they would spend around 5 hours per day working to ensure their survival.

Because they had such large amounts of what we call leisure time they developed a rich and complex life with customs and laws the heart of which was the connection to the land.

The arrival of Lt James Cook in 1770 was the beginning of the end for this ancient way of life, his voyage of exploration had sailed under instructions to take possession of the Southern Continent if it was uninhabited, or with the consent of the natives if it was not uninhabited, either way it was to be taken. So really whether those who inhabited the land gave their consent or not didn't matter.

Upon his arrival Lt Cook declared the land which he called New South Wales to be the property of Britain's King George 111, and ignored the inconvenient fact that the land was already well populated. Of course his failure to even attempt to gain the consent of the Aboriginal people began the legal fiction that the country was waste and unoccupied.

Of course Cook was soon followed by the arrival of the First Fleet in January 1788, under the command of Captain Arthur Philip who mission was to establish a penal colony and take control of Terra Australia for settlement. More about that in a later post.