Fyrewitch's Knitting Adventures

Happy Birthday Brisbane!

I was lucky enough today to attend a special shindig in City Hall celebrating the 150th anniversary of Brisbane's birth. The Lord Mayor invited descendants of those who signed the original petition to make Brisbane a municipality to come and celebrate. 

I realised when I stepped inside City Hall that, in spite having walked past it many times over the years, I had never actually ventured inside.

 

The ceremony itself was wonderful, with a reenactment of the election of Lord Mayor Petrie and speeches from Queendland's Govenor, current Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, and Ms Grace Grace, speaking on behalf of the Premier. This was followed by a lovely morning tea of traditional Aussie fair - lamingtons, tiny pavlovas, and Anzac biscuits.

It was interesting to hear the issues that those first city aldermen put forth. As Ms Grace observed, "the more things change, the more things stay the same".  Water, sanitation, roads and preserving the wilderness were all issues then, just as they are now.

Happy Birthday Brisbane. Here's to 150 more.

Armageddon cometh

Well, that's what it looked like a couple of days ago anyway. South Eastern Qld and a good portion of NSW experienced the worst dust storm for 70 years.

The sun disappeared and the sky took on an eye burning orange glow as the air became saturated with 2 tonnes of topsoil from the outback, whipped up by strong winds.

There was nothing for it but to batten down the hatches and spend the day inside - crafting of course.

Apparently there is more to come - I might have to spend the weekend crafting. What a shame.

Dear Ricky

Dear Mr Ponting,

I would like to express my condolences for you being the first Australian Captain in 119 years to lose the Ashes. Given how long Australia has been kicking the English in the pants with this particular tournament, it was only a matter of time until the roles would be reversed. Please don't feel bad that it was on your watch. You're breaking in lots of new kids and you can't expect them to be up to the level of those who have been in the game for years and years. The English were the better teamon the days in question, and that's it.

I would also like to apologise unreservedly for the unsportsmanlike behaviour of many of my fellow countrymen. I'm sure you, of all people, know how much Aussies like to kick their heroes when they are down. Australia has dominated cricket for so long now, it is our turn to take a back seat. Or at least not win everything. And not winning everything is good - it stops both the players and the fans from becoming complacent, and matches become more interesting, because it's not guarenteed that Australia will win. Without mistakes, there is no learning. Without learning, there is no improvement.

I still think you are a top bloke. Maybe just make sure the boys are all taking the correct dose of that vitamen you're plugging.

Love and Hugs,

Sue.

Ready Steady Vote part 2

And the fun continues. It appears that Warwick Capper's election campaign was actually a publicity stunt, making him more of a dickhead than even I thought he was. The poor people of Beaudesert must be ultimately insulted that the manicured man thinks he can stuff people around like that.

I have two jokes wrestling for top billing - one about hair bleach being bad for you after all and the reason that blondes have a bad reputation, and one about those really tight pants cutting off all the oxygen to his brain back in the 80s, which kind of explains everything since.

And good old Pauline Hanson, bless her cotton socks, stormed out of a radio interview about 5 minutes after my last post (not sure why, possibly someone asked her what xenophobic meant), and Today Tonight has had their tapes of an interview with her seized by the fraud squad, who are obviously still intent on finding out what she did with all that moolah.

Stay tuned, it's not over yet!

Ready, steady, vote!

Well I'm back from holidays and, of course, something huge, worthy of much comment happened while I was computerless.

Not only has Anna Bligh called the State election (making the unwise move of announcing it on her flash new web site before telling her colleagues about it). Not only is she up against Lawrence Springborg (who at least one media outlet is referring to as "The Borg" - nice work chaps). But I'm sure that comedians the country over are getting out their pens and sitting by their media device of choice at the news that Pauline Hanson is contesting the seat of Beaudesert, AND Warwick Capper is running in the same seat as an independent.

I'm surprised that the people living in the seat of Beaudesert aren't running away and screaming in dismay.

For those who aren't familiar with Ms Hanson's exploits, she founded the One Nation party back in the 90s, which largely consisted of English immigrants telling coloured immigrants to get back on their respective boats and bugger off. I was living in Ipswich at the time of the rise of One Nation and ended up going "under cover" to a One Nation party meeting for the local paper. I did stick out like a sore thumb though as, in my early twenties at the time, I was the youngest person in the room. Everyone else was in their 60s, apart from one guy who was attending with his parents, who had to be in his forties, and looked as though he lived in a basement with his computer and porn collection. Scary stuff.

Warwick Capper was apparently a good footballer in the 80s, but to my mind he is most well known for using more hair and make up products than his wife.

To my mind, Labor has been in power in Queensland for too long for it to be healthy, but when the only other choice is The Borg - currently getting more publicity for dancing and slagging off Labor than actually managing to give any straight answers - it makes me shudder. I have a bad feeling that if The Borg gets in, we'll be back to the Sir Joh days where the only response the media got to any questions was "don't you worry about that".

And one negative for the LNP already - one of their tv ads has a great whopping grammatical error. If you're going to slag off the other party, at least use correct English to do it.

I'm kinda hoping it goes to a 50 50 split and a nice Greens senator gets the balance of power.

Only 18 days of trashy ads to go.