Back to my own very special Advent Soundtrack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Day One

Here begins my 2013 season of quite kitsch Christmas Music!

Week One - Groups of Men!!

Today, listening to Straight No Chaser, their Christmas Cheer album from 2009.

I do love the sound of men singing in harmony. I am also enjoying the tongue in cheek approach to Christmas and to a cappella performance. If only these boys could have joined me back in my days singing for beer at The Nott! Or perhaps their peers were there, and I married one!!

The first song - Christmas Can-Can is very much hurried, busy, definitely of the season in my experience.

The harmonies are lovely, the male voices simply lovely.

They sing about spiking the Egg Nog. Do ANY Australians get the whole Egg Nog thing? I'm more likely to be Jonesing for a jug or two of Sangria, personally!

I preferred their more traditional carols, rather than the more secular Christmas songs, but have had fun listening today!

One last note though --- you just HAVE to listen to their Twelve Days of Christmas. Sure, it is derivative, and it seems it was done by someone before them, but it is super cute AND super 80s!!!


http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Cheers-Straight-No-Chaser/dp/B001TRDPB4/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_3

The evening after the day before

So, i've slept on it. I've slept on the result of last night's election results, and on the impact that the change of government (or not, neither option really ticked many of the boxes on my list) will have on those I hold dear. The approach of many parties towards me as a woman is bad enough. The approach of so many parties towards my gay, lesbian and queer (I'm using this to encompass as many people as I can, but I don't want to disrespect anyone who doesn't like this term) friends is incredibly frustrating, aggravating and concerning. 

The approach towards refugees, asylum seekers and those with adverse ASIO findings is terrible. The approach towards those who need financial support via Youth Allowance, Newstart or Parenting Payments/allowance is so diametrically opposite the approach towards working women needing maternity leave that I want to scream.

Instead, I am preparing to take many slow deep breaths, to contemplate how I can ensure that my voice is heard. I am preparing to start writing more letters, to start knocking on doors, to bending the ears of local political representatives and to joining protest marches and events which align with my concerns. I am also considering joining a political party to try and influence the machine from inside. I may not, but I am prepared to do so if it feels right. I haven't ever felt such a strong pull to make change politically.

Whatever I do, maybe this is the time for people like me, people with strong social justice principals, to stand up and try to influence policy and politicians. Oh, and again, time to pray for guidance and direction. 

Election 2013 frustration

Today, as I prepared to vote, I read information about all of the parties on the Senate ticket in Victoria.  I have looked online, I have read The Age and I have used the research done by my amazing husband.
I was preparing to vote below the line, to enter a figure in all 97 boxes and I realized something.

There aren't enough numbers.  I can't give enough people my last preference!  I worked up to the number 65 with some degree of certainty and then I felt I was left with the nutters! 

I particularly struggled with allocating numbers to Family First, Australian Christian Party and Rise Up Australia.  All say they are guided by Christian Principles, that Jesus is their guide. However,  based on their policies and their own preference allocations, I wonder whether they know another Jesus? Whether they have a different Bible?

I'd love to support a party which truly followed Jesus, one which eats with the poor, the meek, the outcast and the lost. One which seeks to serve as Jesus did, rather than being self serving and judgemental.  One which left judgement of others to God and sought to instead give of itself. 

At times like today, crowded in the booth, trying to ensure that refugees and children aren't last, trying to care for our world and the less fortunate, I stumbled in my faith for a moment.  I felt overwhelmed with the enormity of the task and my heart skipped a beat.

I voted.  I numbered every box below the line on the Senate ballot.  I numbed every box on the House of Representative ballot.  I drew on my faith and some of the Wesleyan teaching which encourages me to question how my vote will protect those whom Jesus would ask us to protect. 

I wondered today where Jesus would go if he returned to Earth tomorrow.  I don't believe he would walk into many churches.  I suspect he might go to a mental health facility or a Mandatory detention Centre if he came to Australia. 

So with that in mind, my vote is cast.  I suspect that, in the end, my vote might not influence the result, but today my vote confirmed my faith.  I will hold on to this memory as I prepare for the travesties which I suspect will result if the Liberal National Coalition win as resoundingly as the early counts suggest. Oh, and I will pray.  I think it might be needed.

Fundraising for the Australian Breastfeeding Association in Bendigo by eating???

Okay Bendigonians, I need your help.

The Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo Group have been chosen as one of the charities of the month for Local Matters by Grill'd in Bendigo. As a long term member of the group, I know how much amazing work are done by the volunteers and members, and have experienced personally the amazing support mums receive with both breastfeeding help, but also that peer-to-peer support around other parenting issues.

HOW IT WORKS (from Grill'd website)
It’s a pretty high-tech system involving bottle tops, jars & counting… The $500 will be split amongst 3 local groups. Each group will be represented on a different jar. Every time a customer buys a burger we’ll give them a token (ok, it’s a bottle top from our friends at Little Creatures). Our customers decide who they’d like us to support by choosing which jar to put their token in. At the end of the month, we’ll count up the tokens to figure out who gets what. We’ll split the money $300 / $100 / $100, so everyone gets something. Pretty simple really.

WHAT I'D LIKE YOU TO DO
Obviously, I'd like you to place your cap in the jar for the Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo Group! I'd also like you to spread the word, so that the group can get as many bottle caps as possible. This promotion is running for ALL of May. The winning group gets $300, and the others get $100, so either way, we should get something, but the $300 would really help  with the costs of training the lovely trainee Breastfeeding Counsellors and Community Educators so that the Australian Breastfeeding Association Bendigo group can keep providing support to families in and around Bendigo!

Celebrating history

Today, our beautiful children had the opportunity to try a class room experience from the late 1800s.
Their school, Strathfieldsaye Primary, celebrates 140 years of operation this year.
I spotted the deputy principal in appropriate garb, and the kids had a photo taken in front of "an olden days" car, apparently from 1908.
It was lovely, seeing all the different costumes that families had cobbled together, and the pride children had in attending the "olden days classroom".
More celebrations will occur this year, for which I am glad.  Definitely looking forward to seeing the Bush Dancing later this week! Miss 7 has been practising the Heel and Toe Polka, and was surprised that Mummy was old enough to remember it!

Fighting the Cherry slugs!

It all seemed so simple.
The lovely people at Diggers (http://www.diggers.com.au/) suggested that for Cherry & Pear slug dousing the cherry tree with flour was a great organic alternative.
So tonight, I grabbed the big container of plain flour (apparently any type will do) and headed outside. I pulled my hair up into a clip so it wouldn't be in my face. I ducked under the netting, which protects the fruit trees from marauding birds, and got to work.
 I tossed a handful of flour over a branch. Right! So, a couple of handfuls wasn't going to do it! I couldn't see any difference. I grabbed another handful,  and tried again. Now I could see where I'd been. A couple of handfuls per branch was going to take a while.

I became more vigorous. I tossed handfuls and handfuls over the tree. Up high, down low, left and right. There was flour dust all around the tree, but suddenly, I was trapped.
My hair clip had become snagged in the netting. I was under the cloud of flour, encased in white dust. I couldn't free my hair, one arm holding the flour barrel, the other covered in flour, holding another handful. I tossed it anyway, and tugged at the netting. I eventually freed my hair, and finished the job, only wrestling with the netting a few more times!!
The tree looks, at best, a "bit" floury, though every branch and leaf was showered. I, on the other hand, had apparently aged 30 years! (You can always count on loved ones to tell it like it is!) I was simply covered in fine white flour. My clothes, under my clothes, my shoes, my glasses, my legs and arms. And my hair! Completely covered. It created a clag like effect on my scalp!
I was able to dust or shake off much of the flour, but definitely needed to wash my hair.  

So, my tips to other gardeners considering flour for Cherry & Pear Slug.
Wear old clothes.
Plan your dust off before you start.
Wear a mask!
And a shower cap!

Oh, and as an alternative, don't show you partner this post, and kindly ask them to do it. Apparently it is a very funny sight!