Went south to Melbourne to help my forward scout from Vietnam celebrate his 60th. On the way I dropped into Belmont Hospital in the Hunter region to pay my respects to an old mate from RAAF Lang School class of ’66 and Vietnam class of ’70 who was on hist last legs. Had a couple of hours reminiscing about the good old days when we were corporals together.
He died two days later. Sad and so very, very final.
Left Melbourne with the temperature on 41 dec C all the way to Griffith and then locked myself in air-conditioning. Left the next morning for Brisbane with the temperature at 41deg C – damn thats hot!
Arrived home and walked into the pool – a lot better.
Switched on the computer this morning only to hear the dulcet tones off “Beep-Beep I have a RAM problem”. Took it apart, removed RAM chip..placed back in..computer happy now…hurry as I’ve got three funeral and two VSI Sick list notices to get up on my Battalion Association website before the funerals are over and the VSI’s become funeral notices.
Another day, another dollar but I’m still vertical so no complaints.
GREENS leader
Bob Brown is facing mounting condemnation after calling on coal companies to foot the bill for the Queensland flood recovery.
Pig ignorant bastard! Should be locked up in
stocks in the biggest coal mining town in Australia so people can throw all their rotting vegetation at him.
I must admit Anna Bligh did a good job over the week of the crisis in Brisbane – she definitely
“talked the Talk”.
People with the attention span and memory of a lighting bolt are obviously easily taken in by “the Talk”.
How about this for over the top adulation…
“It’s hard to find enough superlatives to describe Anna Bligh right now. I want her to be my mum and my prime minister and my best friend. I want to sit in front of my TV and just watch her talk because with every sentence, she manages to strike an extraordinary balance of compassion and calm and heartbreak and resolve.”
Years of mismanagement all cancelled out by a couple of hours on TV according to writer Jessica Rudd (yes – that Rudd family) on
mamamia
I don’t think so – she needs to ‘walk the walk’ as well but watch her polls rise 10 or more points.
Here is a link to the best
before and after shots of the floods – just slide the bar over.
Courtesy daughter Liz
Sunny weather in Brisbane invokes a surreal atmosphere as I know that the city will be flooded, albeit in sunshine. Two of my children, one near Ipswich and the other at West End are safe but isolated without power. It would appear that I will be totally safe where I live just 11 kms north of the CBD. An old soldier is always going to go for the high ground to set up his house. Of course I can’t travel far and we are stocked with batteries, ice etc to withstand power outages but that’s nothing compared with what my fellow Queenslanders are enduring.
My wife has just come back from Woolworths, Taigum and reports no bread or milk! As an old soldier I can endure most deprivations but not having milk for my coffee is not one of them so I did a quick run to the local deli and got one of the last 2 lire milks he had.
I can’t help everyone but I can help those of my regimental tribe who are in peril or have lost their house and contents. To this end I have emailed all 7RAR guys in Queensland looking for people in trouble. Altogether, 7RAR Asscn, both National and local, have donated a $1,000 to a Flood Appeal established by the RAR Qld Asscn.
If you are ex-military or have an interest, you may consider donating to the following bank acct in the full knowledge that 100% of the donations will be spent on helping those in trouble.
Bank: Commonwealth at Stafford
Name of Account; Royal Australian Regiment Corporation
BSB: 064 127
Account Number: 1030 4915
Reference: Qld Flood Appeal 2011
Tonight and tomorrow still seem to be the problem time-frame as overflows from the Wivenhoe Dam and a high tide meet in the CBD. At least with the rain having ceased for the time being it will help Police and SES in the onerous task ahead of them.
Here’s hoping for a safer outcome.
I last posted
“It’s Raining in October and was mildly upbeat about the 150 ml we had got overnight. Four months and almost 2,500 ml (100 inches) later I’m less upbeat. When I got up this morning the shock of the Toowoomba disaster with 8 dead and 72 missing has left me in shock. Two daughters have just been sent home to prepare for flooding and they are currently on a train that might or might not get past Bowen Hills station.
Waiting for an SMS update.
The Brisbane River is breaking it’s banks in areas around the city and my wife, glued to the TV keeps dropping in with snippets of doom. It’s going to be worse that the 74 floods being the one that grabbed my attention.
I was here in Brisbane in 74 with young wife and son. My wife’s father had died on Christmas Day and when I had to report back to duty in Sydney we decided she would stay to help her Mother. I dove over the Centenary bridge sometime in January just before Brisbane went under and will always remember the huge barge forced against the bridge and threatening it’s integrity.
The Centenary bridge with attendant barge
I just got out but a few days later in Sydney I couldn’t contact my wife. No telegrams, no telephones and definitely no SMS then. My wife was seven months pregnant with our second child and I eventually found her helping friends clean out their flooded house.
Tough bird!
SMS back – daughters OK – Grandaughter collected from Creche and will all be here soon.
My family is OK but thousands aren’t and some complete families have disappeared and are listed in the 72 missing.
Queensland, perfect one day – recoiling in terror the next.
God help them!
THE man who brought Australia the phrase “
but wait, there’s more“, Demtel promoter Michael Milne, was jailed today for eight and a half years on tax charges dating back to 2004.
Eight years six months more to be precise.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has warned that Australians face a decade of rising electricity prices and the risk of blackouts unless a carbon price is introduced next year.
“What we can really do is be really honest with people about the causes of sharply rising prices – and people have experienced sharply rising prices,” she said. “One of the causes is under-investment in new electricity generation and a reason for that is lack of certainty about carbon pricing.
Well, yes, that could be one of the reasons for under investment but if Julia wanted to be really honest about the cause she could also mention that infrastructure has taken second place to the ALP buying Green votes.
And when she talks about lack of certainty about carbon pricing she is going to have to talk a lot more to sell the theory that offering financial sacrifices to the weather/climate gods will actually give a return.
Never seemed to work for the Incas.
THE
HUMILIATION of winning only one vote from FIFA’s 22-strong executive committee this morning caught Australia’s 2022 World Cup bidding team off balance.
Bid leader Frank Lowy and his team were confident of at least making a strong showing but seemed stunned to find that some FIFA executives reneged on their promises of support.
The embarrassing harvest of just one vote meant Australia was the first bidder eliminated from the five-way race in Zurich after a campaign which cost $46 million of Federal Government funding and could have brought Australia billions of dollars in economic activity.
Other than the fact that the ALP spent $46m to get one vote the story is a great yawn to me, being a follower of the game they play in heaven.
I wonder how much Qatar paid?
Disappointed Aussies demand an
explanation
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