Yes, I know I have been AWOL for quite a while - and I can't really guarantee that I will be back to posting regularly anytime soon.  In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of some close encounters of the bushwalking kind (from last weekend when my son and I went for an early morning walk before the rest of the bushwalking hordes started scaring everything into hiding). 

As well as these creatures, we also saw a swamp wallaby but it was too far away to photograph. I had to get the lizards identified later - they are lace monitors (also known as tree goannas).  The education officer from the park also said we were very lucky to see the echidna as they are notoriously shy.  I have only ever seen echidnas in the wild three times in my life and twice have been while walking with my son.

A Child's Book of True Crime: A Novel

Chloe Hooper

Very interesting book!  I like the Australian cover better though, ie, features some of the bushland creatures who narrate some of the story.  Quite a bizarre touch but strangely effective.  Apparently it was nominated for the Orange Prize when it was published. 

My husband wasn't able to take any leave this school holidays so I again took the kids away on my own.  This time we went to a little beach place a few hours south of Sydney.  The kids chose the accommodation.  The main appeal of the place they chose (a beachside holiday park) was that they could stay in something called a 'safari tent' which was like a big old tent raised up on a wooden platform.  The platform was longer than the tent itself so was able to accommodate a covered porch at the front and a bathroom/kitchenette area at the rear.  The tent itself was very cosy but big enough for a queen sized bed, some bunks and a little table and chairs.  It had a small oil heater which kept it quite warm at night. 

Safari tent

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The weather was actually pretty amazing for winter, ie, quite warm and sunny during the day and only a bit chilly at night.     We only had one full day there as we were quite late setting off on the Thursday we left and had to rush back for a children's birthday party on Saturday.  On our full day, we met up with an old schoolfriend of mine and her children who had moved to the area earlier in the year.  We had a great day with them and the children became firm friends.  Here are a few photos I took on my mobile phone. 

Beach kids 2

Jumping pillow

Vegemite scroll

It is a kind of bread roll with cheese on top and vegemite baked into the inside.  Very handy as it saves having to put the vegemite on, yourself.  Design Shark, I dare you to try one when you visit Brisbane. 

I don't usually do anything special for ANZAC Day but happened to be in the city with the kids on Saturday and saw lots of old diggers out and about.  Seeing them always makes me feel sad.  After we got home, I got out my grandfather's medals to show the kids.  He was stationed in Balikpapan in Indonesia during World War II and, despite a general reluctance to talk much about his war time experiences (except to me), seems to have kept a lot of things from that time, including letters home, ration books, leave passes, tickets, photos etc etc.  Here are a few photos of some of the items. 

War letters home

War is over and tickets home

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War medals etc

I have been meaning to scan them for the family and then maybe see if the War Memorial in Canberra would like any of the items as they would have better means of preserving them than we would.  I am thinking with the letters that I will probably have to re-type them as they are so faded now that they wouldn't scan well.  Some might even be written in pencil so it is amazing that they are still legible at all.

After the war, grandad returned to his former profession of painting but had to give this up eventually as he had sustained damage to his hearing which also affected his balance (an issue when you are climbing ladders for a living).  He had always been interested in electronics and got a job in the physics department at the University of Melbourne (constructing circuits and things for the students).  He also ran his own television and radio repair business in his garage at home.  My brother still has the old sign.

Grandad sign

This is him on the right at my university graduation in 1989.  I was surprised that he was so keen to come along as his hearing was so bad at that stage and he preferred to stay away from noisy functions.  I remember when I did invite him, he said "I thought you'd never ask". 

Dad Grandad and me

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He lived to the ripe old age of 97 (pre-deceased by his wife and eldest son - my dad - by several years) and managed to remain at home for almost all of that time.  It is interesting reading his wartime letters (which were mostly written during his training in Sydney and Townsville, before being sent to Indonesia) as he seemed like quite a different person back then.  He was always rather cantankerous when I knew him (although not to me so much) but he seems quite sentimental in his letters and talks about missing his wife and children back home.  I'm not sure if it was the war that changed him or subsequent his loss of hearing (which isolated him from a lot of the people around him).  It makes me think that you never really know anyone completely. 

Model row as Australia's Miss Universe contestant branded 'too thin' | World news | The Guardi

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/...

Naumoska was one of 32 contestants who made the final at an event aimed at promoting "healthy, proportioned, bodies". She is 1.8m (5ft 11in) tall and weighs 49 kg (7st 8lb), with a body mass index of 15.1, beneath the benchmark for malnutrition.

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I particularly like this quote:

Pageant director Deborah Miller said Naumoska had Macedonian heritage, which accounted for her extreme thinness. "They have long, lithe bodies and small bones. It is their body type, just like Asian girls tend to be small," she said.

Surely she can come up with a better line of defence than that.  I know plenty of Macedonian women and don't think they have a 'body type' that is any different to any other Europeans.   

I am so glad my daughter is too short to ever contemplate a career in modelling. 

Facebook discipline may be illegal: expert

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/200...

The Age: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Melbourne's leading newspaper.The Age: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Melbourne's leading newspaper.

An update on yesterday's facebook story.  Oh and by why of explanation, the photo is of two KFC employees taking a bath in the KFC basins (which of course they then posted on the Internet)!  They subsequently lost their jobs. 

Your Facebook secrets: jobs under threat

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/0...

Making seemingly private comments on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is now a sackable offence for some professions. The NSW Department of Corrective Services is threatening to sack prison officers over posts they made to a Facebook group criticising the cash-strapped State Government's plans to privatise Parklea and Cessnock prisons. The public sector union accused the department of using strong-arm tactics to stifle dissent and invade officers' private lives. The matter is a test of how relevant employment laws are in an internet age where people are becoming accustomed to having conversations using web tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

I really think there is a contradiction in terms here, ie, 'facebook' and 'privacy'.  I would never disparage my employer on the internet (even anonymously).  It would be the same as going to the media with your views or, as one commenter put it, 'writing your opinions in graffiti all over your own house'. 

Should Anna Bligh be grateful for compulsory voting?

http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/commen...

Apolitical voters plump for the devil they know, argues GRAEME ORR THE QUEENSLAND Labor government was returned with a comfortable majority, albeit with a small majority of votes. But a huge swing and a hung Parliament was expected, so there will be months of reflection and soul-searching amongst practitioners and students of politics. A couple of bogeymen have already been summonsed. Did opinion polls lull the LNP into a false sense of security? Did opposition Leader Springborg conjure memories of the old Nationals, and deter the supposedly sophisticated suburbs of Brisbane? Or did Premier Bligh morph from potential villain to historic heroine in her frenetic final days of campaigning? We have been here before. The 2004 Howard–Latham election springs to mind. An ageing government appears on the ropes, but a resurgent opposition falls short at the final hurdle. Commentators search for answers in entrails of the final days of the campaign, or in some (previously unnoticed) superiority in the incumbent leadership. We routinely ignore one obvious factor: compulsory voting. Compulsion gets-out-the-vote. This is typically understood in the limited sense of sparing parties the expense and innovation of inspiring their likely supporters. But compulsion works in a more fundamental way. It favours governments because it usually reinforces incumbency. Invariably, the electorate reports it is as motivated by positives (liking one party) as negatives (disliking the alternatives). But that bald statistic masks a subtle truth. Most who feel positively about a party do so because they identify with it. They are the rusted-on. But staunches do not decide elections. Elections are decided by the lukewarm – voters who, at best, have a weak identification with a party or leader. They tend to be apolitical rather than policy-oriented. They drift, stick temporarily and eventually shift, for negative reasons. Their disillusionment, when strong enough, enacts the truism that o...

I don't think I realised until recently quite how unusual the Australian system of compulsory voting is.  According to the Wikipedia entry on compulsory voting, Australia is only one of 32 countries in the world to have compulsory voting and one of only 19 to enforce it.    A full list of these 19 countries is as follows:

• Argentina (compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old, non-compulsory for those older than 70)
• Australia (compulsory enrollment and voting for local, state^*, and national elections for all adults over 18).
• Belgium
• Brazil (non-compulsory for citizens between 16 and 18 years old and those older than 70; military conscripts cannot vote)
• Chile (enrollment voluntary)
• Cyprus
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Ecuador (compulsory for citizens between 18 and 64 years old, non-compulsory for those older than 65)
• Fiji
• Liechtenstein
• Nauru
• Peru (compulsory for citizens between 18 and 70 years old, non-compulsory for those older than 70)
• Singapore
• Switzerland (compulsory in the Canton of Schaffhausen only)
• Turkey
• Uruguay

The Wikipedia entry also has a good summary of what are generally considered the pros and cons of compulsory voting, one of which is explored in the article by Graeme Orr, ie, that it tends to result in the apathetic masses being the ones who decide upon the outcome of any election and that it also tends to favour incumbent governments (although there are plenty of other factors influencing this).  I wonder what the world would be like if other nations, such as the US, had an enforced system of compulsory voting like Australia does.  It would probably mean a greater proportion of women voting as well as those from traditionally marginalised, disadvantaged backgrounds (including many of those who cast their first vote in the Obama-McCain election).   

As an aside to this, I remember voting almost flat on my back after having a caesarean operation only a day or so before a NSW State election.  Two polling officials came and stood by my bedside to assist me to vote after I had let one of them know (during a 'door knocking' round of the hospital wards) that I would be unable to make it to the portable polling booth they had set up in the hospital foyer.  The Upper House voting was particularly challenging as the paper for that was about the size of a small table cloth.  I think this story really highlights how serious Australians are about compulsory voting. 

Today my kids' school is celebrating Harmony Day (two days early).  I had never heard of this day before my kids started school so here is a little blurb about it:

Harmony Day

Saturday, 21 March 2009

Harmony Day is celebrated on 21 March each year.

It is managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and celebrates the cohesive and inclusive nature of Australia and promotes the benefits of cultural diversity.

DIAC supports a range of community events and activities held to celebrate Harmony Day by providing free promotional products.

The key message of Harmony Day is Everyone Belongs. It's about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Harmony Day coincides with the United Nations International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

At their old school, they celebrated the day with a concert for parents followed by a multicultural lunch.  My son sang that Schnappi song in the German choir, I remember (was very cute).

At the new school, they ask students to bring in an item from another culture to use in a display at the library and at various other locations around the school.  I really wanted the kids to take in something they had some kind of personal association with rather than something that my husband or I had picked up on our travels overseas.  The kids both studied German at their old school but I couldn't think of anything German.  Anyway, when I was going through the dolls clothes yesterday (another story), I found some pieces of batik that the kids made during our holiday to Malaysia two years ago (using pre-stamped pieces of cloth).

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They were really happy to take these in and talk about them.  My son also took in a copy of the The Kampung Boy by LAT, a political cartoonist in Malaysia.  He had never shown much interest in this book until a few weeks ago when we managed to find The Kampung Boy cartoon on youtube. 

Now he thinks it is hilarious, especially the fact that LAT has a bare bottom on the cover.  We also enjoyed having a look through our photos from our trip on the computer last night.   

I would love to take the kids back to Malaysia sometime.  We have so many happy memories of our two weeks there.  I am sure they would enjoy it even more now that they are just that little bit older.