Whinge, Whinge, Whinge

This is turning out to be a lovely place to have a whinge.  I'll be able to look back later on and perhaps laugh at the silly things that concerned me.

The last couple of weeks haven't been my best.  First I put my mobile phone through the washing machine.  New phone needed. On the bright side I was able to shift to a different carrier and get out of Telstra's clutches.  Then the refrigerator turned up it's toes and died.  So I am back to fridge-less basics until the new one arrives.  Naturally it had to happen at the beginning of a long weekend.

And all around the world.  The troubles caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland.  As the time went on it made you think about free trade and how dependent we have become on goods from other countries,  and of all the skills lost from Australia.  If that volcano in Indonesia were to blow and send out clouds of ash could we  get cut off from the rest of the world ?  We don't know what's ahead.  Has the Government ever considered how we would cope if we were suddenly isolated.  I'd like a bit more modification to this free trade idea.

Governments from both sides of the fence usually have some redeeming features but with the Rudd Government I can find no redeeming features at all.

Insulating Ceilings - absolute disaster
More Child Care places -  Do they know what the word promise means ?
Global Warming -  They don't have a clue.  Let's just shuffle some money around. Now they announce they're doing nothing till 2012 !
Health and Hospitals - Bully boy's at it again
School Buildings - I wonder how many schools are actually satisfied with what was forced on them or had other preferences.
Quality Control - Let's toss the money into the air and see where it falls.  It doesn't matter if the Government is being rorted right and left, just see what a big, generous man I am
The list just goes on and on.

Something good has to happen.  Perhaps the podiatrist this week will make me feel like I'm walking on air !  Hope so !

Potholes and Shopping

This year I changed some of my shopping habits.  I'm tired of the bigger shopping centres and having to drive round in circles looking for somewhere to park the car. Quite by accident I found a couple of small shopping strips with oodles of parking, but not just that, though the shop fronts are not pretty to look at the goods on sale are first rate.  Quite worth having to drive an extra couple of kilometres.

One group of shops has a butcher, newsagent and a cafe that makes an excellent latte, and a couple of blocks away there is a fantastic greengrocer.  It has a deceptive small shop front  but once inside it opens up into a large food hall which runs along behind the other shops. Besides the fruit and vegies it has a large assortment of local products - sourdough bread, biscuits, jams, eggs, yoghurt, olive oil.  I do enjoy buying food that has been grown or produced in our local area.

The only fly in the ointment was this pothole, right outside the greengrocer's shop.  Surely an accident waiting to happen.  It's been there at least three months.  I'm happy to record that at long last this week it has been repaired.  They did nothing about it until I started to complain. Turned out it was not a Council problem but a private owner's problem. I've never heard so many reasons for not filling in a pothole. Quite pathetic.  They say look after the little things and the big things will look after themselves.  I'm not sure about that.  I helped fix a small problem but I don't think that's going to have any effect on the bigger problem of what a mess the Government is making of things.

Jane Austen's Bonnet

And so that was Easter ..... I had a feeling it was going to be a rather bleak time this year so I armed myself with a new embroidery. Starting something new is always exciting, in fact I wouldn't mind being a professional starter. Wouldn't it be wonderful ? Something new to start each week then just hand it over to someone else to finish instead of having a cupboard full of UFOs (unfinished objects).

This time I have chosen a quilt called Jane Austen's bonnet. It contains twenty embroideries related to Jane Austen and the Regency period. Plenty of Regency ladies and bonnets, fans, reticules, shawls, posies. I've always been a Jane Austen fan. I have called this project my Easter anti-depressant pill, but it's going to last for much longer than the Easter period. One down, nineteen to go.

Anyway it's back to normal tonight - Book Club. This month the book is Gilgamesh by Joan London, an Australian novel. Not too bad. Looking forward to the discussion (once we've got the important gossip out of the way)