Freedom of Speech.

We are on the very verge of losing it. This current government are hard at work to curb free speech. If it isn't in their favor they don't like it. Of course nobody likes adverse comments on their achievements or lack of them. And political bias has always existed. But as they say, "I don't agree but I will defend your right to say it".

At the moment there are steps underway by the Greens Party to hold an enquiry into what their leader considers to be adverse commentary on his party's policies. The Greens have formed an alliance with another party and gained power far beyond the mandate or lack of it by Australia's citizens.

I shudder when I think of the precedent set during WWII by Hitler. We saw the results of that.

We need to be vigilant. Drop your political beliefs. The right to say what you think, right or wrong is much more important.

What will they think of next...

Shopped supermarket on the internet. Registration is terrible. Eg. on the address they asked if it's business or residence... a little dot let's them know.

Then later they ask me what the House Nickname is... huh? Zara's little house on the prairie? Lady Penney's Palace?

I had to ring. It kept on getting rejected.

Oh that's simple ma'am. You just say if it's house or residence.

But you already asked me that...

Who am I to question some nerd designer with a ponytail and drives a porche...

So guess what... the bleedin' bloomin' unobvious worked and...

next morning I unpacked my goodies in the luxury of my kitchen without having to bust a gut hawking the stuff up the front steps...

a writer could get used to this.

Go the F***k to Sleep...

The book arrived yesterday. Author Adam Mansbach. It's clever and looks like a children's picture book. Nicely illustratored by Ricardo Cortes. Dangerous in a household of kids reading picture books. I hate censorship, but...

As a writer and illustrator of children's book I object to this book looking like what it isn't. Here's an example of some text:

The wind whispers soft through the grass, hon.
The field mice, they make not a peep.
It's been thirty-eight minutes already.
Jesus Christ, what the fu*k? Go to sleep.

I'm not a prude. It's a great book. Just a little bit dangerous for kid control in a household with real kids in it.

That's all folks. Nuf said.

BBC and Jane Austen.

I'm a fan of Jane Austen. But the marriage of the BBC and Austen is a miracle made in Heaven. I just cannot tire of anything they render in the historical genre. They do it so well and with such dignity.

I watched a new video just purchased. A new (for me) version of
Sense and Sensability.

Women had such a uphill battle for property rights. We get a sense of it in Pride and Prejudice with the cousin due to inherit the property with the lack of sons, and in Sense and Sensability, we see three young women and their mother relegated to the charity of a relative, while their half brother inherits the property and is persuaded by his evil wife there is no merit in over generosity in the upkeep of a promise to make sure the women are all secure in his care.

This seems an exaggeration, but I have seen that this happens in reality as late as the 1850's. The daughter of one of Australia's earliest free settlers, Mr. Mitchell the Surveyor General of the new settlement of New South Wales, and the name behind the NSW main Library (Mitchell Library). He had a vast library of books, and his offspring were all very well educated, even the girls, but once he was dead, his son soon let down the wife and daughters, despite a large portion of dowry brought to the marriage by Mrs. Mitchell. The brother was a drunk and a gambler and had other places to waste his money.

If anyone is interested the young lady's name is Blanche Mitchell. She is one of the last graves in the Newtown Cemetery buried next to her father. She died at an early age of consumption, but kept some significant diaries which are available in print. An insight into the life of a girl in the 1850's and the life she led in NSW during that time.

The most surprising thing is that a fifteen year old in 1850 is no different to a fifteen year old in 2011.

A bit of a jolt.

I collapsed on Thursday. Had a seizure and got transferred to a major hospital by ambulance. My daughter insisted I go to the ER, and while there the seizure happened. The collapse cost me five stitches to my scalp. Apparently the excessive bleed is typical of a head wound according to the doctor.

The whole incident was a wakeup call. Change your life style or perish.

I still have so many things to do. Too much to write. Too many stories in my head. This wakeup call was a Godsend.


I recommend anyone who is delaying a few little self reforms to do a large rethink.

And scaring the one person who has been my brick, my beautiful daughter, was about the lowest I could ever sink without being in Atlantis just before it sank below the ocean.

A friend's father died this week...

When I got the new it was hard to just say "sorry". What can one say? I didn't know him, and he was high demand in those final years. Blind, sick, but still lived in his own house. He needed high care and he was a cranky old man when he wanted to be. But she was a good daughter and when he should have been in a nursing home, he didn't want to be there and she catered to his wish.

But he wasn't a happy soul.

Lately I've been wondering if there isn't quality of life, why hang on. Seems to be a natural urge in humanity to do so. And makes suicide look quite ominous.

Old age is depressing. And the closer I get to it, the more I feel about it.