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November 1999

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Summertime - and the living is (not so) easy
Tuesday, 30 November 1999

How did it get to the end of Novermber so soon? Here I am in the middle of the last week of classes - only one more week of assessment marking after that, and its all over for another year!

It's been hot this past few weeks - summer is virtually here. But its a different kind of summer - very muggy and humid. We have been treated to some spectacular thunderstorms lately. Of course, one was a bit *too* spectacular - the building I work in was struck by lightning! Fortunately I was at home at the time and no one was hurt, but it fried part of the network here as well as a couple of the servers - so things were a bit touch and go for a while. Seems all is repaired and I can conduct 'net "business" as usual 8^D.

And this last weekend, I went out bush with the cadets on our end-of-year camp. A very pleasant weekend I must say - even with the thunderstorms Friday night. We went for a walk after dinner - a short 4km jaunt down to a bore field and back. Due to a slight detour it ended up being a 10km round trip - all in the dark being guided by our "night vision" and a ruts in the track we were walking on. Its a good night navigation exercise as well.

We could see the lightning all around in the distance - then in the last kilometer or so, the storm passed right over head. After such a long walk - crawling into sleeping bags in the tents was a welcome relief!

Back home on Sunday afternoon its been quite hot - I ended up with a sunburn after the weekend and don't feel to good for it, but I'm not complaining - I'll be over it in a day or so. Its been hard sleeping at night - even with the air conditioning on. And you know the odd thing? - this isn't really as hot as it gets yet! Summer doesn't really start until December - but thats only tomorrow. ....

Ravinous
Sunday, 14 November 1999

Its Sunday, and another week slips by into history. I have begun to really enjoy my weekend time - time with the kids (although Leonie is still very busy with the aftermath of the Referendum and still spends much time in the office), time to sit and listen to favourite music and play with my computer - like now *grin*. It makes such a change from the hectic week at work and other commitments.

Thats not to say I don't enjoy the weektime I have with Thomas and Kathryn - there isn't much of it - and I do so dislike the term "quality time" - as if just being *with* your children is not a good thing! This week, particularly, was an interesting one for Thomas. It seems he is just *exploding* into his life. It never ceases to amaze me how so full-on kids can be. Everything they do is at full speed, total concentration (even if only for a brief moment). From go to whoa, its all action and total absorbtion of lifes experiences.

This week he must have started a new growth stage - he was suddenly ravinously hunger (hence this journals entry) - hungry for *anything*. We fed him heaps of steamed and mashed vegetables, he ate bowls full of porridge in the mornings, and managed to guzzle his way through a whole tin of baby formula. And thats not to mention all the nibbling on whatever we were having at the time as well! By weeks end, he seemed to have slowed a bit - but it was just so amazing to see that sudden spurt of eating.

The other thing he discovered this week now that he is crawling really well (at full speed he takes a brisk pace to keep up with!), was the toilet! And the flushing water - good fun to play with! Not! So now we have to keep that room shut off, and try even harder to distract him with his toys! And for some reason the flashing lights on the computer and CD player are like a magnet to him - he's certainly not a technophobe!

But the thing he likes most is just being held and cuddled by me. It so cute when he want comform. He clambers up on my lap and lays his head down on my shoulder - even if only for a moment - then he's up and off again.

His whirlwind of activity is nicely broken by the regular sleeps he has - like now. It lets me get somethings done! Like enjoy the freshly baked fruit loaf that Leonie did this morning. Talk about ravinous!

Jacaranda's and Disappointments
Sunday, 7 November 1999

The Jacaranda's are out again. Its that time of year again. The weather is getting warmer, the day just that bit longer, the thunderstorms come through regularly to clear the stiffling atmosphere and bring both terror and delight. Kathryn hides in her room. I have read of the dangers (there are many stories from the old prospectors caught out in the open scrub whne a storm comes through). But still they fascinate me, and I will often stand out under the front verandah and watch the flashes, feel the power of the rumbling thunder and the cool waves from the rain. Ah, the rain... When it rains here it often pours. I've mentioned the gutters before - the ground is so hard that it cant cope with the downpours, and flash floods in the streets often occur, leaving brief torrents to cascade down the wide gutters. At most times these are bone dry and a curiousity to the un-initiated. Why so big?, they ask. Then it rains and they *know* why.

But I started with the Jacaranda's. I love this time of year. The bright purple flowers are everywhere in this town now. And the sweet, almost sickly, aroma of the nectar in the flowers has to be experienced to be believed. I often walk home late at night after my evening classes - and especially after a downpour, the warm wet ground oozes with the scent of the Jacaranda. The paths are littered with the fallen bell-shaped flowers. During the day, bees buzz around the flowers - it can be dangerous for the bare-footed or unsuspecting. But it makes me feel happy, that the world is right and a beautiful place to be.

That, and the fact that it means there is only a few weeks to the end of another year.

I mentioned in my last journal entry (was it over two weeks ago?), my anticipated disappointment with the expected Referendum result. Well, it came to pass - the "No Case" prevailed in nearly all the States. So, no Republic for the forseeable future.

The thing that disappoints me the most was that it *could* have been so different. Ignorance is a terrible thing, and I can't help but think that many cast their vote in ignorance and fear fed by lies, half-truths and false whispers. It is interesting to reflect on the fact that a random sample of citizens attended an education and discussion forum in Old Parliament House in Canberra a few weeks ago. They went in evenly divided on the question - and came away 70/30 % in favour of the proposed republican model. Its amazing what a little education and quiet reflection on the facts does. And yet, many had no idea what they were voting on yesterday, or why!

As a general rule, Australians are quite unfamiliar with our Constitution and the political processes in this country. We just aren't informed about it, or taught anything about it. And the amount of mis-information and mis-understandings amazes me. The end result, of course, is that it is so easy in Australian politics to run scare campaigns - and they always work.

But thats politics... The other thing that disappints me so, is that the "Yes Campaign" never really dealt with the scare campaign - they should have been answering the lies and half-truths directly, but for what ever reason chose not to. It was not a very good campaign from that view point.

So, the staus quo remains - Liz is still the "Queen of Australia", and we are back to "square one". I dispair at the whole process.