Australian Story

 

This was going to be another one of my frivolous and a-waste-of-good-time blog entries, but that was before I watched last night's ABC TV Australian Story about Dr Howard Ralph who operates Southern Cross Wildlife Care in nearby Braidwood.

The story really blew me away and I was immensely touched by this man's selfless devotion to treating and rehabilitating injured wildlife and my immediate thought was, "How can I help?"

My first reaction was to check their volunteer page, only to find that there's no need for a retired bean-counter, and with ten not-even-green thumbs I can't help with the building of enclosures and fences either.

Which left me with the donate page and the old adage, "Money can't buy ..." but it can buy some of the much-needed surgical, pathology & other equipment plus medical supplies to keep Dr Ralph going.

As his website says, "Our wildlife can’t say thank you – But we can", and so can I because I'm sure you'll have a few - and maybe even more than just a few - spare dollars to donate to this very good cause. Here's my big "Thank you" for clicking on the image below:

Having made a donation and having spread the word have made me feel good. So, come on and make yourself feel good as well. You deserve it!

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You decide!

At 2:18 in the bottom right-hand corner the very edge of "Riverbend" comes into view
Want to see more? Click here and here

 

While the toponymists' saying that "the more important a place, the more difficult the explanation of the name" shouldn't be taken more than half-seriously, it leaves us in a dilemma when it comes to the naming of Nelligen.

On the one hand - as one-handed economists are wont to say - no one really knows the origin of the name Nelligen which may be a corruption of an aboriginal term relating to its locality description, its function, a person, or perhaps of a dreamtime event. In the early years the town and its fresh water creek were also spelt Nellican and Nellikeng.

On the other hand - as the rest of the economists keep saying - it may go back to a certain Nelligen butcher who had a wife by the name of Nell. Apparently, he did away with her and threw the body in the river. From time to time it would float to the surface again, prompting locals to exclaim, “Here comes Nell again” (hence the hard 'g' in Nelligen).

You decide!

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My favourite shop

 

 

It's amazing what you can find in an op-shop! Although I normally don't look for 'multi-purpose gadgets' but head straight for the book and DVD section where I've just now found a copy of Sophia Loren's first English-language movie, "The Boy on a Dolphin".

I'm not so much a fan of Sophia Loren (although, who isn't?) as I am of the Greek Island of Hydra where the movie was made, and of Charmian Clift's writing who, with her husband George Johnston, lived on Hydra and described the movie-making in her book "Peel me a Lotus" thus:

"Incredibly, it is happening. Like an invading army they are coming, with great weird landing-barges that nose grimly into the tiny scoop of harbour and bear down on the moorings where the wine boats were blessed a week ago.

The dense, still clots of people on the quay sigh on a long exhaling note, and slowly, inexorably, the monstrous maws open and down the ramps roll the first wheels these cobbles have ever known - jeeps, trucks, trailers, tractors, half-tracks, strange, shrouded instruments, wheeled lamps. The ordnance of the conquering army.

From the lovely marble spire of the Monastery of the Virgin the great bronze bell crashes out the first stroke of noon, invoking a shattering roar of turning motors as the jeeps and vehicles move off in procession, a triumphal procession that is not the less impressively awful for being hampered by the inadequate length of the waterfront and the clutter of market stalls and café tables."

Charmian devoted a whole chapter in her much neglected masterpiece "Peel me a Lotus" to the making of "The Boy on a Dolphin" but if you want to read more, you'll just have to buy the book yourself as I'm not about to break copyright laws for your literary edification.

However, as a special treat, I'm happy to share with you the full-length version of "The Boy on a Dolphin" which has it all: glimpses of Rhodes, the Acropolis, Delphi, Poros, the Meteora Monasteries, but best of all beautiful Hydra which used to be my escape from smog-filled Athens.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

The odd genderless shot

Spot the genderless army cadet here

 

I was going to write about Hugh Hefner who at the age of 91 had died, no doubt of myxomatosis, when a far better story broke, kept under wraps by the Australian Defence Force Academy for almost two years: we now have our first 'genderless' army cadet!

The ‘genderless’ officer cadet is biologically female but wishes to be recognised as neither a man nor a woman. Instructional staff have been ordered to use neither the pronoun ‘she’ nor 'he' when referring to the officer cadet. Instead, instructors are to address the officer cadet as ‘Officer Cadet [Last Name]’. What ‘new’ pronoun the physical training instructors will use when yelling at 'it' is not mentioned.

Speaking of which, there are different fitness standards for males and females, with males still required to meet higher physical requirements. How many push-ups is a ‘genderless’ soldier required to do?

The (c)old country's 'Balkenkreuz' used to strike terror into the enemy's heart. I don't think my adopted country's rainbow-coloured guns manned - if that's the right word - by today's army cadets will do quite the same.

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Daylight Saving Time started this morning!

Daylight Saving Time started at 2 o'clock this morning! I trust you were up that early to reset your clocks.

Daylight Saving Time has been a veritable Australian institution as far back as 1916, except for Queensland which only chose to join the rest of the country in 1971 and for a short spell from 1989 until 1991.

They've got different balls up there!


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P.S. Of course, if you can't afford a gold Rolex and have to get the time from your smartphone, Bill Gates will have done the reset for you.