Tony Abbott, Twitter, Women of Calibre and Click Bait

May 8, 2013 in Current Affairs, Human Rights, News, Politics

So yesterday I was noodling about the house, exhausted and exhilarated after surviving Satan’s own three ring circus of a weekend, when Twitter whooped out the Code Pink Alert. The Twisterhood (Twitter Sisterhood. You like it? I just made it up!) were Outraged! Again! World-Renowned Misogynist, Tony Abbott, announced a Paid Parental Leave scheme that would entitle new mothers earning $150,000 pa or less to six months maternity leave at full pay, plus super entitlements. He said, and I quote: “We do not educate women to higher degree level to deny them a career. If we want women of that [...]

Video: The Child Abuse Message Aimed at Children

May 7, 2013 in Children, Current Affairs, Health, Human Rights, News, Parenting

This video demonstrates a new anti-child abuse advertisement which contains a hidden message for children. When viewed from an adult’s height the image shows a sad child and the message “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it” but when viewed from a child’s height, or anyone under 4 foot 5 inches tall, the image shows a bruised child and the additional message “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” with the phone number. A really powerful message, a great idea and a wonderful way to reach children while they’re standing with the person [...]

Forget the Digital Divide, The Digital Bulldozer is coming

May 6, 2013 in Celebrity, Current Affairs, Entertainment, Music, News, Politics, Technology

I am worried about radio in the country. Not the WHOLE country, mind you, just the parts of it politicians don’t visit unless something is wet, burnt or wind blown, i.e. “the country”. What worries me is digital radio. In cities digital radio may be a wonderful thing, more choices, better quality, I hear you may even be able to pause a live broadcast. Wonderful things. What I am worried about is the thing that radio was meant to be for – getting across information. A few years ago, a lot of “regional” stations were bought up by radio networks. [...]

This Week: My Birthday

May 4, 2013 in Lifestyle, Self, Work

We haven’t caught up for two weeks so I’ve got a few photos to share with you today. The last two weeks have been fairly eventful and today is my birthday just in case my constant updates left you in any doubt. So be warned that next week will be all about my birthday, even though it’s actually today. The first big thing in the past two weeks has been JJ stepping back from blogging, which has had a huge impact on the site but as always I’m behind him 100% in what he wants to do and I can’t wait [...]

NDIS: It Could Happen To You

May 3, 2013 in Current Affairs, Health, Human Rights, News, Politics

The NDIS has come front and centre this week. And so it should. God know it’s hard enough on disabled people and their families, without the additional worry of how they will manage financially. When you see comments like this (responding to this article by Stella Young): Ashley of Darwin Posted at 5:51 PM April 30, 2013 $22,000 for a wheelchair? Really? a basic wheelchair? A brand new car can be bought for less… If you want all the bells and whistles you can stump the cost of it yourself. The government should only assist you getting the minimum you require to be mobile. Or The department store [...]

Australia: The Lucky Country

May 1, 2013 in Current Affairs, Health, News, Politics, Self

The past week or so my wisdom teeth have started growing again. I say again because mine tend to grow for a few days and then stop for months. I mean, growing is a tiring business for your poor teeth isn’t it? The problem is that this time, the wisdom tooth on my bottom right-hand side is being a bit of a tool. It’s hurting and aching and I want to pull it out stat. I decided that after not attending the dentist for a few years (in my defense, I had been to the dentist every fortnight over a [...]

Real Beauty Sketches by Dove: My Take

April 19, 2013 in Body, Body Image, Current Affairs, Face, Gender, Health, Mental Health, News, People, Self, Society

This week, Dove released a video called Real Beauty Sketches. I had been holding off watching this, purely because of the people’s reaction to this video. There were those who thought, while the message was lovely, “ERMAGHERD Dove is owned by the same company that make Lynx body spray! How can we listen to anything they say?” Apparently both brands being owned by Unilever is enough for people to miss the point Dove were trying to get across. Then there were those who were almost euphoric with how awesome it is, and how awesome the message was, and awesome Dove is, and [...]

My Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Me

April 11, 2013 in Celebrity, Current Affairs, Human Rights, News, Politics

My mother has this irritating habit of always seeing the good in people. I suppose it’s an admirable quality too – but sometimes I want to have a rant about some in-justice without having to see it from a different (and empathetic) perspective. There are a two exceptions to this… the ex-boyfriend who cheated on me and Margaret Thatcher. I won’t pretend to understand all the politics of the time. My family enjoyed a relatively comfortable lifestyle; we had overseas holidays, two cars. We didn’t experience financial suffering the way thousands of others in our country did. Perhaps it was my mother’s [...]

Want The Best and Brightest to be Teachers? Pay Them More!

March 11, 2013 in Children, Current Affairs, Lifestyle, Money, News, Politics, Work

The NSW Government are intending to introduce tough new tests to ensure only the best and the brightest get in to university to study teaching. Many issues have been raised around this including the fact that the skills required to get a high score on a test aren’t necessarily the skills needed to be the best teacher in the classroom. There we agree. But when it comes to tests being the way to get the best and the brightest, I completely disagree. To me, the easiest way to get the best and the brightest in the teaching profession is to [...]

My Body, My Choice. Our Community, Our Choice.

March 11, 2013 in Celebrity, Current Affairs, Health, Lifestyle

Since the onset of social media, and especially from the advent of blogging, I have learnt many new things. My outlook on life has been changed in many ways, some subtle, some not so.  I’ve discovered new ways of seeing the world and have been exposed to new ideas. One of those ideas being My Body, My Choice. I totally get it now. Eat what you want, smoke what you want, drink what you want, dress how you want, man-scape how you want, tattoo what you want, pierce what you want, botox what you want. There would have been a time when I [...]