It was many, many years ago, we went horseback riding. In true style, Redhead ( Mum, now aged 92 ) approached this task with true grit. She had never ridden a horse since her childhood. Like most of us in the " club. "
A friend of mine went horseback riding . Up a beach on a sunny Queensland day. She trotted, galloped and felt the wind in her hair as she and her friends celebrated a birthday of a man now in his 78th year. '
It must have been glorious. A group of friends celebrating the joy of life on an open beach in the sunshine and leaving the cares of the world behind.
And it took me back to a day, about 50 years ago, when Redhead rode a horse and her bra strap broke. I republish this today for those who never read it last time. Enjoy my tale about the day my 92 year old mother was Bodicea.
Read more: A Story about Big Bright Bouncing Beautiful Boobs... and a Horse Ride
Here we are on the doorstep of the 2024 Olympics. Personally, I find them to be lacking in joy, expectation, or anticipation. For some reason I am more concerned about seeing someone keel over from a stroke or myocarditis - or worse, being attacked by rampaging thugs in the streets of Paris. Or worse......
I wonder if the games will be more opening a Pandora's Box or a very large and unpleasant can of worms.
It was 2016 when I fronted up to watch a film called " Eddie the Eagle. "
It was a story inspired by the British Olympic Ski jumper, Eddie Edwards who represented Britain in the 1988 winter Olympics in Canada.
This remarkable young man dared to do something that he knew would not end in a medal. He dared to take a Leap of Faith and give it a go.
There is only one major social media platform that is relatively free of censorship. That is X, once known as Twitter, and owned by Elon Musk, who has preached free speech for years and sacrificed billions in advertising dollars in order to protect it. If we don’t have that, he says, we lose freedom itself. He also maintains that it is the best path to finding the truth.
The crisis that broke out after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life put the principle in motion. I was posting regular updates and never censored. I’m not aware of anyone who was. We were getting second-by-second updates in real time. The videos were flying along with every conceivable rumor, many false and then corrected, alongside free speech “spaces” in which everyone was sharing their views.
During this time, Facebook and its suite of services fell silent, consistent with the new ethos of all these platforms. The idea is to censor all speech until it is absolutely confirmed by officials and then permit only that which is consistent with the press releases.
This is the habit born of the Covid years, and it stuck. Now all the platforms avoid any news that is fast in motion, except to broadcast precisely what they are supposed to broadcast. Maybe that works in most times when people are not paying attention. Readers do not know what they are missing. The trouble was that during these post-shooting hours when nearly everyone on the planet wanted updates, there were no press releases forthcoming.
Read more: During the Recent Crisis, Free Speech Worked Brilliantly
Both solar and wind energy have fatal flaws – solar stops when the sun goes down or if a cloud blocks the sun; wind fails if the wind is too strong or too weak. But every day we hear of some fantastic and expensive plan to keep the lights on when these unreliable energy twins stop work.
The latest thought bubble from Mr Bowen (the Australian Minister for Generating Blackouts) is for him to be able to drain the energy from electric car batteries to back up a failing grid. He suggests that batteries could also power the house or sell energy into the grid. (They are already scheming on how to use smart technology to prevent homeowners from charging their own batteries when flicker power is fading.)
Bowen’s sole sensible comment was “electric cars are batteries on wheels”.
It was many years ago that I first heard Kris Kristofferson's lament about Sunday Morning Coming Down. It was back in the days when I woke up with optimism and delight in my heart. Whilst I enjoyed hearing his sad song about loneliness and misery, I could not really identify with it on a mental or physical level. I was too full of the joy of life and the pleasure of what the new day would bring.
In fact, I almost enjoyed listening to his pain and being reassured that I, as a young 15 year old girl in the far off land of New Zealand had no idea what that song was about all those years ago. I truly did not.
The music of Bob Dylan and the likes were almost foreign to me, yet I enjoyed the songs and their laments about freedom and breaking chains. The worst chains I had experienced were the chains of parental dialogue: which involved me asking questions about my ability to do something and them saying " NO. "
While I was taught at school, I was taught to always question " Who? What? Where? When and Why "
Mum and Dad put food on the table and if I wanted to eat, I would sit down, shut up and eat what was put in front of me.
It never struck me until recently that this is what our governments are doing today.
Read more: It's Sunday Downunder and Normal is a Long Long Way Away..........
" I must go down to the sea again to the lonely sea and sky. All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by "
So said poet John Masefield By far the most tantalising problem confronting mariners for centuries was how to calculate Longitude. Today we take latitude and longitude for granted.
We all know what they are but by far, of all the problems that have confronted mankind waiting to be solved by men of science, Longitude was the most insoluble ever.
It took over 2,000 years for a workable solution to be developed and in the intervening years it was the cause of huge and consistent loss of life at sea.
Read more: The Discovery of Longitude and the 2000 years it took to Solve the Puzzle
Solar generators won’t run on moon-beams – they fade out as the sun goes down and stop whenever clouds block the sun. This happens at least once every day. But then at mid-day on most days, millions of solar panels pour so much electricity into the grid that the price plummets and no one makes any money. And after a good hailstorm they never work again.
Turbine generators are also intermittent - they stop whenever there is too little, or too much wind. In a wide flat land like Australia, wind droughts may affect huge areas for days at a time. This often happens when a mass of cold air moves over Australia, winds drop and power demand rises in the cold weather. All of this makes our power grid more variable, more fragile and more volatile. What do we do if we have a cloudy windless week?
Read more: First Aid for Flicker Power - Wind and solar energy have a fatal flaw – intermittency.
We all witnessed what many are calling a Divine Intervention that saved a life because of a split second decision to look at a graph. As Trump's head turned to look at something on his screen, a bullet grazed his ear and we saw a man so close to death be spared by an act of God. It was a miracle.
It has made me reflect on quite how it happened, why it happened and whether or not is was just a simple " coincidence. "
Divine intervention is the concept that a deity or higher power actively engages in and influences the human world and events. This intervention can manifest in various ways, often considered miraculous or supernatural, that alter the natural course of events in ways that would not be possible through ordinary means. They can be life changing. they can be small insignificant things that happen every day in our lives.
But how many times have we said " Hell, that was lucky! "
The music of the Appalachians is a living tradition that tells the story of a people and their journey. From the rolling hills of Ireland and the rugged highlands of Scotland to the misty mountains of Appalachia, this music has traveled across time and space, evolving and enriching the cultural tapestry of America.
The Appalachian region of the United States, stretching from the southern tier of New York to northern Alabama and Georgia, is renowned for its rich musical traditions. This distinctive sound, often associated with bluegrass, folk, and old-time music, owes much of its origin to the Irish and Scottish settlers who immigrated to America in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their musical heritage, combined with the diverse influences encountered in the New World, gave birth to what we now recognise as Appalachian music.
After learning of JD Vance's roots in the Hillybilly hills of Kentucky, I was fascinated by people who grew up in these isolated but close-knit communities.
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