Posts Tagged ‘history’

Bribie Island aka 'Bribery' Island

Maddy is going to Bribie Island with her uncle Dave this weekend, and is all excited. She said to Ben “Ben! I need a suitcase to take to Bribery Island!”

So he gave her a knapsack to take to ‘Bribery’ Island, and she began to look through her drawers in her bedroom for clothes to take.

“Hmmm…” she said to herself, “Some of these clothes I got years ago but they still fit because I’m so small… I’ll take that as a compliment to myself!”

Tonight I watched a National Geographic documentary about Armageddon.  It pitted the diehard Bible believers against theologian’s theories about the meaning of the book of Revelation – whether it needs to be taken literally and the end of the world is nigh, or whether it should be taken as a then contemporary text alluding to the Roman/Jewish discord which raged at the time John was committing his wildly psychedelic hallucinations to papyrus, or parchment, or whatever it was he wrote it on.

I tend to lean towards the theologian’s view.  I’ve never taken the Bible literally, and there’s a whole host of reasons why, but I won’t go into them.  I will however, make what should be an obvious observation which to me is a no-brainer, as to why the book of Revelation couldn’t be an actual prediction of the end of the world.  Let me just say that I haven’t read much of it at all – just snippets, because it bores me to tears and sounds ridiculously naive and stupid (why couldn’t Bible writers think of another conjunction other than ‘and’!)…  Anyway, the no-brainer is thus:
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As parents, it’s our job to teach our children how to be good, moral, honest and caring people – a huge responsibility for which our longer life experience hopefully kits us out for the task, but occasionally the tables are turned and despite their tender years, kids end up teaching us something profound instead. That recently happened to me.

I used to be amazed at my friend Bella’s incredible selflessness when it came to dealing with her ex and what she told her children about him. Although she had plenty to gripe about her life with him to me, she never ever said a bad word to her children about him. He stopped seeing them when they were small, but she never told them about any of the bad times she’d endured with him. I asked her why she never told them the truth, and she said that they didn’t need to know any of that – that that bad period had been between her and her ex, and she didn’t want any of that vindictiveness in her children’s lives now. As I said, I was amazed, because I’d been doing exactly the opposite.

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I have very few photos of myself, mainly because I’m not particularly photogenic and I try to stay out of them, and also because I’m usually the one on the other side of the camera taking the pic. Tonight I was trying to tidy up the box we keep the photos in, and came across a few of me, so I thought I’d post some here.

First one, me as a baby. I had colic and used to scream non-stop apparently. Well, not quite true – I’d stop squawking while I was being fed, so I was fed ALOT! lol. Kind of a viscious circle really cos my dinner was what was making my tummy hurt. Poor me.

This is me and my sister Katrina. I’m digging our matching crotcheted dresses. They look to be exactly the same, which is surprising because Mum used to dress me in red (cos I had dark hair), and Katrina in blue (cos she had blue eyes). We hated it because we’d always get the same Christmas present, and as soon as Katrina opened hers up and we saw she had a blue whatever, I’d know instantly that I’d be getting the same thing, only red!

I still remember those dogs. They were battery operated, and you pulled on the leash and they’d walk along and bark.

I am probably one of THE squarest people you’ll ever come across. I’ve always been incredibly square and daggy. This pic says 1979, which means I was ELEVEN years old and still sitting on Santa’s lap. Now that’s daggy. Note the daggy hairstyle – a kind of ‘bushy thing on top of head’ look. As you’ll see in the photo after this, it only got worse…

Good grief that is BAD hair! This is a scan of a very blurry polaroid on my first day of high school. That’s my friend Jenny Key who lived next door in Blacktown. If you ever spot this photo Jenny and think the photo has come back to haunt you, don’t worry – you’re the one with the normal hairdo. (And drop me a line will you?) I was an incredibly daggy teenager – my favourite outfit was a red terry towelling tracksuite with white stripes, and occasionally, I even wore those ‘boob tube’ dresses – remember those monstrosities?!

As you can see, my taste in fashion was so sophisticated, I went from red tracky dacks to this pink and black polkadot number. This is me with Lauren, my first child. I look like I’m about 13 there but I’m actually 21.

This is me after I’d given birth to Alex, my second baby. I was about 25 I think. I look knackered!

From polkadot tshirts, we go to full medieval garb. Those are fake braids. This was at a university feast thingy. I spotted a UFO that night. (And I hadn’t been drinking).

This is one of my two blonde phases. Tons and tons of streaks which totally ruined my hair, but I liked it. It was great to have something to blame my stupidity on, other than myself.

Believe it or not, real people who weren’t drunk used to go out with these hairstyles in public.  They thought they looked cool and hot.  I beg to differ…

	1968 – the year that I was born, A la Mary Tyler Moore. This one isn’t too bad compared to the others.  I would think it would have involved sleeping with giant rollers digging into your neck and waking up with a crick, which explains why the head is tilted to one side.  Women have always suffered for their beauty.
	1958, one year before my hubby was born.  ‘Children! Children!  Be quiet!  Your father has had a hard day at work.  Here dear, here’s your slippers, your pipe, your newspaper.  Now I’m just going to tidy myself up before I cook dinner, do the laundry and clean the toilet.  Lipstick, check, hairspray, check…’
	1980. While us naturally curly headed people were struggling with the bane of our lives, people with straight hair opted for this very natural perm.  Unfortunately, they didn’t realise that they naturally looked like a poodle, not a human.
	1960. You too could have become a stunning sex symbol just like in this photo, with the latest designer spectacles, a thrice weekly visit to the salon and three litres of hair spray.
	1982. When I look at this photo I curse the fact that fashion always seems to come around again in cycles.  I dread this style.  I hope I’m bald by the time this one makes it around again.

1373 Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Alliance (world’s oldest) signed
1611 John Fabricius dedicates earliest sunspot publication
1774 Rhode Island becomes 1st colony to prohibit importation of slaves
1777 Marquis de Lafayette lands in US
1789 Mrs Alexander Hamilton serves ice cream for dessert to Washington
1798 Mission San Luis Rey de Francia founded in California
1837 1st Mormon missionaries to the British Isles leave Kirtland, Ohio
1855 The opera “Les Vˆpres Sicilenne” is produced (Paris)
1863 Samuel Butler publishes 1st part of “Erewhon,” Christchurch, NZ
1866 House passes 14th Amendment
1871 Hurricane kills 300 in Labrador
1873 J C Watson discovers asteroid #132 Aethra
1879 A Borrelly discovers asteroid #198 Ampella
1886 Fire destroys nearly 1,000 buildings in Vancouver, BC
1888 Congress creates the Department of Labor
1889 2′ of snow accumulates in Rawlins Wyoming
1890 Eagle Ave in the Bronx is cut out & named
1895 mile Levassor wins 1st Paris-Bordeaux-Paris auto race (24 kph)
1898 Yukon Territory of Canada organized, Dawson chosen as capital
1900 China’s Boxer Rebellion against foreigners & Christians
1905 NY Giant Christy Mathewson 2nd no-hitter, beats Chic Cubs, 1-0
1907 Lowest temp ever in 48 US states for June, 2øF in Tamarack Calif
1910 Pilot Charles Hamilton makes 1st 1-day round-trip from NY to Phila
1910 William D Crum, a SC physician, appointed minister to Liberia
1913 Yanks win 13th game of year after losing 36 games
1918 Philles & Cards tie 8-8 in 19 innings
1921 Yanks’ pitcher Babe Ruth hits 2 HRs beating Tigers 11-8
1924 Yanks win by forfeit over Tigers, their 3rd forfeit win
1927 Ticker-tape parade welcomed Charles A Lindbergh to NYC
1930 22 people killed by hailstones in Siatista Greece
1933 1st sodium vapor lamps installed (Schenectady NY)
1933 Federal Home Owners Loan Corporation authorized
1934 C Jackson discovers asteroid #1349 Bechuana
1935 James T Braddocks beats Max Baer for HW boxing champ
1937 Joe DiMaggio hits 3 consecutive HRs against St Louis Browns
1940 Paris evacuated before the German advance
1942 1st V-2 rocket launch, Peenem nde, Germany; reached 1.3 km
1944 Nazi Germany begins V-1 (Fieseler Fi-103) buzz-bomb attacks
1946 1st transcontinental round-trip flight in 1-day, California-Maryland
1947 1st night game at Fenway Park (Red Sox 5, White Sox 3)
1948 Babe Ruth’s final farewell at Yankee Stadium, he dies Aug 16th
1955 Mercedes racing car kills 77 at Le Mans France
1957 Ted Williams becomes 1st ALer to have 2, 3-HR games in a season
1966 Supreme Court’s Miranda decision; suspect must be informed of rights
1967 Thurgood Marshall nominated as 1st black Supreme Court justice
1969 Mick Taylor leaves John Mayall Band & joins the Rolling Stones
1969 T Smirnova discovers asteroid #2111 Tselina
1970 Beatles’ “Let It Be,” album goes #1 & stays #1 for 4 weeks
1970 Beatles’ “Long & Winding Road,” single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
1971 NY Times began publishing “The Pentagon Papers”
1971 Perth Observatory discovers asteroids #1806 Derice & #1978 Patrice
1972 T Smirnova discovers asteroid #2604
1973 Garvey, Lopes, Cey & Russell play together for 1st time, set record of staying together as an infield for 8+ years (LA Dodgers)
1975 Felix Aguilar Observatory discovers asteroid #2219 Mannucci
1977 Convicted assassin James Earl Ray recaptured [?]
1980 Paul McCartney releases “Waterfall”
1980 Rep John Jenrette Jr (D-SC) indicted in “Abscam” investigation
1980 UN Security Council calls for South Africa to free Nelson Mandela
1981 39 Unification church couples wed in Germany
1981 Teenager fires 6 blanks at Queen Elizabeth II
1981 Tom Snyder interviews Charles Manson on “Tomorrow”
1982 Fahd becomes king of Saudi Arabia when King Khalid dies at 69
1983 Pioneer 10 becomes 1st man-made object to leave Solar System
1986 Pres Reagan criticizes South African state of emergency
1986 Steve Garvey 1st ejection from a game, after Atlanta’s triple-play
1987 Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel & Anne Knabe complete
cycling journey of 15,266 mi from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Argentina
1988 Boston Red Sox are 10 games back in AL, & go on to win the AL East
1988 George Harrison releases “This is Love”
1988 US Supreme Court refuses to hear Yonkers argument they aren’t racist
1989 Detroit sweeps Los Angeles, for the NBA championship
1990 Boeing 767 sets nonstop commercial flight, Seattle to Narobi Kenya
1990 Wash DC mayor Marion Barry announces he will not seek a 4th term,
1991 NHL owners present contract to players (leads to Apr 1, 1992 strike)

A few pics from Loch Lomond and the little village of Luss.

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Pics from our trip through the Lake District, UK.

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More pics from our short trip to Wales.

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Some pics from our short trip to Wales.

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