Mr FD is giving me a GPS for my car as my Christmas present. He knows that I have no sense of direction and I am quite convinced that he hopes that should I ever decide to run away, that I can run, far, far, away.

'k, these aren't affecting me over Christmas, but it's not half pissing me off that it's filling the news.

So far, all I have seen is stroppy people who are being paid 2 x the wage of cabin crew on a certain...pure...untouched...intact airline - you know who I mean, right?  The founder likes hot air balloons - moaning that they are facing pay freezes, possible pay cuts and cutbacks of 1 person per flight.

Fine, there's changes to your contract, but let me put it to you this way.  You STILL have a job.  It's difficult to find employment these days so be happy that you still have it.

I personally would be willing to offer up my services to this specific airline.  I'll take holidays at work, or even time unpaid for 2 weeks, if I could have these people's wages to do their job for the 12 days of strikes.  I'm pretty sure there would be others willing to give up their holidays for 2 weeks paid flights around the world.  Let me at it. 

Years ago, on previous picketlines people like me would've been called scabs.  Yeh, ok, call me a scab but at least I will have a nice tan for Christmas.

Anyone willing to walk out of a job on strike deserves to be brought up on misconduct charges (I know, unlikely what with union backing etc) and sacked.  I'm pretty sure there are people out there who would desperately love a job and be willing to go through the security checks and avail themselves over this 12 day period, if not permanently.

Logistically speaking, it'd be impossible to have the checks done in time which is a shame.  I'd have been right up for that sort of extra cash over Christmas.

So, Mr Walsh, if you're listening you can contact me via my blog.  I'm ready and waiting.  Christmas ruined for 1 million people?  I feel sorry for those family and friends going through this stressful time.

I was a regular donor at one point. 

My dad had an accident 17 or 18 years ago now, one which he will never fully recover from.  The damage to his leg and nervous system was too severe, and everything combined has led to various other illnesses and system failures within his body.  When the accident happened there was a large amount of blood loss - basically his leg was severed half way down his shin - blood which of course had to be replaced.  If it weren't for blood donors he would've been gone there and then.

Because of this, and the fact I was only 12 or 13 at the time, I couldn't give blood then so I waited until I had left school and tried to donate.  However for one reason or another I wasn't old enough - a fact which annoyed me no end as I went through the finger prick stage and everything; that's the worst bit! - and so I waited until I was legally able to give and returned.  For the first few years I was regular, then I moved house and finding a new place to donate slipped my mind, but I eventually did. 

Anyway, all this rambling is culminating in the fact I was turned away from a session in 2007; essentially my last session.  I had a low haemoglobin level, and my iron levels were shot.  I couldn't donate because they wouldn't let me.  They told me to give it a year which I did.  However I didn't go back because of things that were going on in my life.  I was going through a divorce and moving house, trying to pay for 2 properties (there are reasons, none of them pleasant) and all of this resulted in my counts still being low so I couldn't return.

A few days ago I got a SMS message from the NBS telling me there was a session in Eccles on Wednesday 16th December and asking would I please try and attend.  I kicked my own ass and attended the session yesterday, had to almost re-enroll as I am now classed as a new/returning donor and eventually got to the finger-prick stage.  That done, blood tested (it sank like a stone - a good sign!) and before I knew it I was back on those wonderful stretcher/table things with my arm over the edge and my vital fluid leaking from my veins into a new design (looks and feels cheap, and the technicians taking the blood apparently don't like them too much) baggy.  I have a good bleed rate and I was done before I knew it.

I feel better for giving it.  Felt a bit woozy yesterday afterwards as it's been so long since my last session but still the fact remains I am back in the saddle again. 

I blame the unhappiness of my marriage on the fact I was turned away from my 2007 session.  I wasn't eating or drinking like I should be, nor was I looking after myself properly.  I'm happily divorced, engaged to a lovely new girl - the mother of my son - for those who don't already know, and it seems like I am finally getting things together.

Now all that remains is to leave this crappy country and settle somewhere I know we will all be happier.

Long time no see - Missed you lot :)

1.   Overheard;
     "Happiness is somewhere on the scale between boredom and
      fear"

      I personally do not think it is possible to define happiness in a
      nutshell.  Maybe the closest is Martin Seligman's assessment
      of what is required;

     "Something to do.
      Someone to love, and
      Something to look forward to."

2.   Mrs GOF has three watches. (don't ask me why....it's secret
      womens business)   She doesn't wear them all at the same
      time which is a comforting indicator of her sanity.
      None of them cost more than $20.
      The $14 one, which she likes the best, recently required a
       new watchband which cost $22 and a replacement battery
       ($18).

      Then she lamented;
      
      "Why, when I own three watches, do I keep running out of
       time".

3.  "Odors released by stressed rats produce opoid analgesia
       in unstressed rats"
       (M.S. Fanselow "Behavioural Neuroscience" 1985)

       I just thought your life would be more complete with this
       knowledge.

4.   A caller on talkback radio;
      " Why do we destroy high-grade Earth, in exchange for low-
         grade ore."

     
5.  "Ugliness has more going for it than beauty......it endures."
       (Charlotte Gainsbourg)

6.   My unenviable mathematical credentials have already been
      established here in The Bucket.
      However, some simple arithmetic, after recent events
      around the world, make it clear that probably at least one
      person out of my Vox neighbourhood has had sex with Tiger
      Woods.
      GOF is immune from making any declaration, either because
      he didn't, or the fine print in his $5 million settlement prevent
      him from speaking out.

     Anyone else care to make any admissions?
 

The Seventh Day of Christmas – Seven Swans a Swimming

 December 31.

 

Officially it is the last day of the calendar year. However, New Year’s Day was not always celebrated on January 1^st. In ancient Rome, the year began on March 1st.  Later, in many countries of Europe, the year began on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation.  The change to January 1st was gradual.  Scotland changed in 1600, and England changed when the Gregorian calendar was adopted there in 1752. So basically, to my way of thinking, New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be made on the New Year, they can be made any time – and we shouldn’t feel like we need to make them if we don’t want too! Philosophy according to Flamingo Dancer!

 

The Egyptians believed swans represented immortality. The Greeks priests , who worshipped the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, were believed to have been descended from swans. The Greeks also associated the swan with wisdom and creativity as they considered that bird related to the nine Muses.  It is said that when Apollo was born at Delos, the event was marked with flights of circling swans. It is in the form of a swan that Zeus assaults Leda and in so doing, engenders the twins,  the Gemini, Castor and Pollux, who hatched from eggs and also their sisters, the tormented Clytemnestra and the fatefully beautiful Helen, whose elopement with Paris caused the Trojan War.

 

The myth of a swan who turns into a young woman is known as the motif of the Swan-Maiden, and it appears in both eastern and western cultures.  Women who turn into birds and vice versa are popular themes in folklore and literature, too.

 

 Many celtic beliefs centred on the belief that loved ones became enchanted and turned into swans with gold or silver chains around their necks. The transformation took place during the Samhain festival when the gates of other worlds open up and souls are free to pass through.

 

Therefore, in Indian mythology, the swan (Skt. hamsa) embodies the union of Garuda and Naga, and since those two are enemies, it also stands for the highest wisdom teachings concerning the union of opposites.

 

 

Tales of the Thousand and One Nights includes the story of Hasan of Basra, who visits the  place of the bird-maidens.  When they take off their feather garments, they become  beautiful women.  Hassan hides the clothes of one of them in order to keep her as his wife, but she manages to regain her feathers and flies away.  Hassan sets out on a quest to regain her, and after many adventures finally succeeds.

 

Sweet Mikhail Ivanovich the Rover is a Slav tale that begins as Mikhail is about to shoot a swan that warns him "Shoot not, else ill-fortune will doom thee for evermore!"  When the swan lands, she turns into a beautiful maiden but when Mikhail tries to kiss her she warns him that she is an infidel.  However, if he takes her to the holy city of Kiev so that she might be received into the Church, he will then be able to marry her.

 

In a similar South German folk tale, a swan again speaks to a forester who is about to kill her.  In this instance, she says that if he can keep the secret of her existence for one whole year, she will be his but of course, he fails.

 

 

In the religious tradition, seven swans a-swimming represents the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:

 

1. Prophecy,

2. Ministry,

3. Teaching,

4. Exhortation,

5. Giving,

6. Leading, and

7. Compassion

Romans 12:6-8

 

Baby swans (an ugly duckling) grow to become a beautiful swan and Christian growth is when the gifts of Holy Spirit are practiced.

 

Leonardo da Vinci painting of Leda with The Swan and their children:

http://www.leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com/images/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-leda-and-the-swan.jpg

 

 

 

Tim Minchin says it all for me. Listen to the end ... I cried. I mean, I might have cried if Flamingo Dancers cried, and we don't. So don't even think I did...

 

I miss my Dad.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26497660-952,00.html

Cruise control driver runs down his critics

Dear Ms Hairdresser,

        A little numerical work on the fingers has confirmed that you have been styling my hair for almost 7 years. I think that 7 years is entirely enough time to mutual agreement that, Yes, my hair does grow quickly and Yes, my hair is  very thick. So do we really have to go through the routine every time I am in your salon? I am really tired of being made to feel as though I am a freak from a sideshow with a social disease because my hair is thick and full of body and bounce.

       I also object to your inference that you are doing me some gigantic favour by taming my wayward locks. I am not going to thank you for performing some sort of miracle in the name of communty spirit. It is a hair cut, and I pay you.  I pay you very well.

      I am a grown woman. I am intelligent. I don't think that I should be expected to gush and squeal when you flourish a mirror at the end to show me the back of my own head.  It is not brain surgery. I think that you do a fine job - otherwise I would not have been your client for  7 years, though once or twice I have thought that perhaps you could snip a little more off the length, or flourish the blades to thin my hair just a little more and assist me in actually making it 6 weeks to my next cut, without looking like an English Sheepdog. I understand though, as I know most women fear a bad hair cut - for me it only takes a week for it to grow over!

       So, unless you want me to get a severe case of the 7 year itch and move onto new scissors, may I suggest that you SHUT UP about my hair's rate of growth and density, or run the risk of me tearing that pair of scissors from your hands and thrusting them into your heart before I leave your pretentious hair salon in search of hair understanding.

 

Yours most earnestly

FD.

 

[yes, I did get my hair cut today. I am exhausted from pretending to be nice and holding my true nature in behind a facade of politness. I am glad that I don't have to go out more.] 

I have 67 kg (148lbs) of photos to get back to DC which somewhat exceeds my United baggage allowance even if I leave all my clothes behind.   I've had these stored in my son's garage but now that he has a wife she will be moving in with her own "stuff".  It's time for me to get these so that I can scan/preserve them.

So ...  research was required.  First I tried Australia Post which is how I got my worldly possessions to America nearly 10 years ago. The lady told me in 3 minutes that it would cost an exorbitant.1,228.30.$$$$   - though she didn't actually use the word "exorbitant" - she had a tone that suggested I was getting such a bargain that I should race home pack them up and get back in time to catch the last post of the day.

I had actually saved up and budgeted an amount of $1,000 for this exercise but I was not really expecting to have to use it all.

I had seen an advertisement for Fed Ex International Economy so I rang Lawrence in India and had a nice conversation where he used my name a lot as well as "that's a good question Emjay, I can tell you the answer"... After 10 or 15 minutes Lawrence decided that Economy service was not going to work for me and that actually the 25kg flat rate boxes sent at Priority service would be cheaper (apparently the economy service just means it takes longer to get there!). 
 

So ...  today they will start their journey to the manservant's office and the cost of getting them there in about 3 days will be less than $800..    (FYI: Oz Post could send them by sea for about $650 but I've seen those statistics on how many containers go overboard every year...).   

****
The landscape got a little greener as we headed towards the Hunter Valley...

This little church was in the middle of nowhere ( I love the "outhouse"):

A few of the very small towns have these fancy big signs:

This place thinks it is in the Mediterranean - these are all olive trees:

And, now, we interrupt our pleasant country drive to bring some ugly open cut mining....
I remember a couple of years ago you could not see this from the road...

 

The Sixth Day of Christmas - December 30th

 

Geese are migratory birds and so in the past have been regarded as symbols of the solar year, and also as symbols of fertility. Ancient Egyptians held the belief that the souls of the dead rose up in the form of a goose with a human head. Juno, the Roman Goddess of heaven and marriage, held the goose as sacred. The geese in the temple of Juno on the Capitoline were said by Livy to have saved Rome from the Gauls around 390 BC when they were disturbed in a night attack. The story may be an attempt to explain the origin of the sacred flock of geese at Rome.

 

Geese were amongst the first fowl to be domesticated. Hey, wouldn’t you rather go to the pen and gather eggs or a goose rather than hunt predator animals far and wide? No brainer! Geese became a common barnyard fowl in England, and  as your true loves appears to have a fowl fetish,  it is natural that geese were included in the Twelve Days gift list.. Geese also mate for life so your true love is really sending home his message of unending love. Your true love is however giving you six female geese, laying eggs, so make your own meaning there!

 

 

Following religious tradition six geese a-laying refers to the six days of creation.

 

Day 1: Light and Darkness

Day 2: Heaven

Day 3: Earth, Seas, Vegetation

Day 4: Sun, Moon, Stars

Day 5: Fish, Birds

Day 6: Animals and Humankind to rule over them

Genesis 1:1-30

 

Cooked goose? See Australian Maggie Beer’s recipe http://www.cuisine.com.au/recipe/roast-goose-with-apple-onion-and-sage-stuffing