The totally off-topic thread

[RooFlyer]

Collection of amenity kits being taken today to Women’s Shelter in Hobart ( plus lots of PJs).

 

[Denali]

Awwwhhh, I like the idea of a goanna having a snack. Not something they get all the time.

Noticed our mango tree looked good for fruit this year, lots of baby mangoes so far.

 

[Denali]

Collection of amenity kits being taken today to Women’s Shelter in Hobart ( plus lots of PJs).

Fantastic!

 

[AisleSeat]

I dislike mince pies - I make 7 doz every year and don’t eat even 1/2 one . Many people tell me that mine are the only ones they like, but even that isn’t enough to tempt me..,.

I've had two already this morning....

 

[Flying mermaid]

I've had two already this morning....

I used to take mince pies in for my staff (in those far off days before we retired). I watched in horror once as one of them ate 3 for morning tea! Mr FM could probably eat two as well, but he has to watch his weight these days - he has climbed to an appalling 62kg

 

[love_the_life]

I’m such a failure at home grown. I lavished care and attention on 3 different types of tomatoes last year. Cost so much more than if I’d bought at a quality fruit & veg. They were ripening nicely and was checking to pick but all of them had bite marks. I though it was possums so put out a possum cage. And caught our large goanna in the trap! Naughty. Last night, same time as last year it is roaming in the same area but it’s outta luck. I’ve given up.

Our previous neighbour on our floor used to provide plants for the area as you came out of the lift. When they moved I sort of took over and had several pots of herbs which I though would be nice for people on our floor to use. Well....the plants all died! Daughter was incredulous. "You killed mint?". I gave up and now the planter box is empty. Told another neighbour she could be in charge of plants.

 

[VPS]

Airbus A380 draws giant Christmas tree

 

[Flying mermaid]

Our previous neighbour on our floor used to provide plants for the area as you came out of the lift. When they moved I sort of took over and had several pots of herbs which I though would be nice for people on our floor to use. Well....the plants all died! Daughter was incredulous. "You killed mint?". I gave up and now the planter box is empty. Told another neighbour she could be in charge of plants.

I am a bit that way, but after I bought my Thermomix I was using so many herbs I got my gardener (now son in law) to build me a herb box and I sort of keep them alive .

 

[Denali]

Office floor neighbours have made their usual pitiful attempt to decorate for Christmas, which I can see has fallen onto the floor and is just lying there after a few days.

With their redundancies and restructures, Im guessing morale is a bit low.

 

[Pushka]

I used to take mince pies in for my staff (in those far off days before we retired). I watched in horror once as one of them ate 3 for morning tea! Mr FM could probably eat two as well, but he has to watch his weight these days - he has climbed to an appalling 62kg

I managed half in my experiment the other day and that was 1/4 too much. Younger son loves them and scored the other 5. My SIL is a cook, a great cook and always has them on Christmas Day. She had her puddings cooked months ago along with the cakes. She cooks multiple puddings. A normal one. An apricot one. A gluten free one (her DIL is diagnosed coeliac).

Cherries Cherries Cherries. @JessicaTam - do you have a relative - sister - at Marble Hill Cherry farm?

I almost goofed up. The news report last night where I heard about PYO cherries made no mention of having to book. I'd checked the website and Sunday was marked as booked out so up I trundled up the rather dangerous Old Norton Summit Road. Renowned in Adelaide for narrow double lines on a windy road and kamikaze riders. Made it there fine and thought the "bookings only' sign was up ready for Sunday. Umm, Nup. You needed a booking. I didnt cry but maybe my bottom lip quivered. But but but I promised AFF I would post pictures. (not really but I think the lip did quiver a bit). But she let me in nice lady but said I could only pick 2 kilos. Yep, All good. Off we went. She took us to a lane that hadnt been touched yet - cherries were priced at $13 a kilo - the most expensive trees there. Other trees were pickable at $9 a kilo. A pretaste and we all went for the expensive ones.

Under the nets and shown how to pick them and leave the knobby bits as that was next years crop. Oh, My, The cherries were rich succulent plummy thinggies. The ones with the most taste are the darker ones. Then she left us to it with a bucket in hand. The others drifted ahead but I found one tree had huge bunches of rich red cherries so I stayed put. We can also eat as many as we liked.

Pictures:
My tree




This is what hail does to them



Shelter from pesky critters



I was done after about an hour and took the cherries to be weighed and came in at 2.015 kilos. Impressive. They will keep for 4 weeks in the fridge and only washed when you are about to eat them. The stalks keep them fresher.

They have bookings for 700 people on Saturday and Sunday and they need to make sure they have cherries for them all. Another couple came as I left and she sadly refused them. The media should have mentioned that bookings were needed. And they book out in October!

 

[Denali]

Should he have attended the royal commission or gone to the cricket?

Christian Porter cops it for choosing cricket over commission

SOCIAL Services Minister Christian Porter has come under fire for skipping the final hearings of the long-running institutional child-abuse royal commission for a day at the cricket.

 

[Pushka]

Should he have attended the royal commission or gone to the cricket?

Christian Porter cops it for choosing cricket over commission

SOCIAL Services Minister Christian Porter has come under fire for skipping the final hearings of the long-running institutional child-abuse royal commission for a day at the cricket.

Should have skipped the cricket methinks......poor decision.

 

[Flashback]

Im not into cricket but was the Ashes match rigged?

It's kind of nice to finally have the Aussies beating the Brits again, shame I'm not in the UK right now! I'll rub it in when I get back

All up to date - note to self - read this thread daily, not every two weeks!

Not sure what it is with this thread, but yet again email notifications had stopped working (I rely on them as don't have time to sift through on a regular basis). Had a month's worth of posts to catch up on - joy! Back up to date now though......

 

[juddles]

Hey there all,

You poor buggers that suffer reading me….

This so way off topic I feel I can download here

Another day in fun Colombia.

I was coming back out of the bush. Involves car travel, ferries over rivers, etc etc. Am almost too tired to write.

But as I wind down, finally in my apartment in Medellin, I keep thinking about just a few moments today.

Was in the middle of the day here. Hot. Blindingly light. I got to the first ferry point but they were not there, so went a few km downstream to the next tiny village, as there is sometimes a ferry there also. Arrived and it was in, confirmed it would leave “soon”, which means anything from 5 minutes to three hours. In resignation parked the car to give me shade. And waited….

This is a very ugly area. The town is called Regidor. It is basically a town that exists for no real reason other than that the people have nowhere else to go. It is flat, floods, and smells as the inevitable product of human civilization has nowhere to go.

Dust and evil damp drainages.

As I sat in my car I heard a tap on the window. I saw there was a small girl outside in the heat.

She looked to me to be three years old, but was probably 7. Without good nutrition people develop slowly….

She was wearing a tiny and filthy dress. Her hair was dirty, messed up. Her teeth were a shambles. Maybe she was actually 7 – takes a few years for that to happen.

I looked around – no one else near. My first thought was how can such a tiny, young person be alone?

I dropped the window and she asked for coins. I told her I had nothing.

Please understand this reaction. I am used to beggars, people asking for something. And my usual reaction, as in this case, is to tell them to piss off. I hate begging. Again, please understand the difference – I hate begging, not beggars.

If she was a man, and older, I would have got quite agro very quickly. But confronted by such a child I was a tad softer. But resolute. Bugger off!

But she hung around the car.

As I sat there with the engine running, in aircon, I started to cave. But I did not want to encourage her on a life of asking strangers for mercy.

She came around to the passenger door and looked inside. She asked me what was the bottle near me – it was about a quarter of a bottle of iced tea I had started two days before but could no longer face. I told her it was “tea”. This was clearly a thing she had never heard before. In a moment I gave it to her. A few mils of old, half drunk, warm tea. A horrible gift. But she accepted it gleefully. She grasped the bottle and tasted a tiny bit, then stopped. I desperately, all control lost, looked for something else. So I found a few lollies that remained in their wrapper – things I use to get rid of the taste of burnt tobacco. I had not finished them as in this climate they had festered and were now hard to separate from their paper wrapper. But I gave them to her.

She scurried away with the sweets and sat in the shade of a truck that also arrived for the ferry. I watched her as she sat in the dirt and meticulously removed each sweet and devoured them. I could tell she didn’t really fancy the warm “iced tea”. But she kept it. And soon she wandered off, still clutching the bottle.

I desperately wanted to give her some money, a cold drink, whatever. But I have learned that only makes oneself feel good, and just is a blip on their dismal horizon.

I did not feel like crying, as I could of, because I was also in survival mode, and you get tough.

But now I think of her. A tiny young girl in a filthy dress, wandering in coughsville. It makes me think of my daughters. I exist to give them a good chance. To me that is the fundamental part of parenting. I must remain focused. On mine.

That vision of her huddled in the shade, greatfully prying those sweets off the sticky paper, haunts me :’(

To me all kids are beautiful. This young lass was triply so, despite her filth. I gave her almost nothing. But more than she gets.

I hope she is snug tonite as I write this. I hope she grows up empowered as all western thought goes. I did not help her much, if at all. But there are trillions in her situation.

I now sleep, crying for them all…….

 

[cgichard]

juddles, you describe both her and your situation so well. Do keep these jottings. I'm hoping it is helpeful for your to record them, and then (perhaps) be able to sleep as well as weep. One day you will be able to share them with your children and they will learn how fortunate they are - both in their western civilization and in having a dad such as you.

 

[love_the_life]

Hey there all,

You poor buggers that suffer reading me….

This so way off topic I feel I can download here

Another day in fun Colombia.

I was coming back out of the bush. Involves car travel, ferries over rivers, etc etc. Am almost too tired to write.

But as I wind down, finally in my apartment in Medellin, I keep thinking about just a few moments today.

Was in the middle of the day here. Hot. Blindingly light. I got to the first ferry point but they were not there, so went a few km downstream to the next tiny village, as there is sometimes a ferry there also. Arrived and it was in, confirmed it would leave “soon”, which means anything from 5 minutes to three hours. In resignation parked the car to give me shade. And waited….

This is a very ugly area. The town is called Regidor. It is basically a town that exists for no real reason other than that the people have nowhere else to go. It is flat, floods, and smells as the inevitable product of human civilization has nowhere to go.

Dust and evil damp drainages.

As I sat in my car I heard a tap on the window. I saw there was a small girl outside in the heat.

She looked to me to be three years old, but was probably 7. Without good nutrition people develop slowly….

She was wearing a tiny and filthy dress. Her hair was dirty, messed up. Her teeth were a shambles. Maybe she was actually 7 – takes a few years for that to happen.

I looked around – no one else near. My first thought was how can such a tiny, young person be alone?

I dropped the window and she asked for coins. I told her I had nothing.

Please understand this reaction. I am used to beggars, people asking for something. And my usual reaction, as in this case, is to tell them to piss off. I hate begging. Again, please understand the difference – I hate begging, not beggars.

If she was a man, and older, I would have got quite agro very quickly. But confronted by such a child I was a tad softer. But resolute. Bugger off!

But she hung around the car.

As I sat there with the engine running, in aircon, I started to cave. But I did not want to encourage her on a life of asking strangers for mercy.

She came around to the passenger door and looked inside. She asked me what was the bottle near me – it was about a quarter of a bottle of iced tea I had started two days before but could no longer face. I told her it was “tea”. This was clearly a thing she had never heard before. In a moment I gave it to her. A few mils of old, half drunk, warm tea. A horrible gift. But she accepted it gleefully. She grasped the bottle and tasted a tiny bit, then stopped. I desperately, all control lost, looked for something else. So I found a few lollies that remained in their wrapper – things I use to get rid of the taste of burnt tobacco. I had not finished them as in this climate they had festered and were now hard to separate from their paper wrapper. But I gave them to her.

She scurried away with the sweets and sat in the shade of a truck that also arrived for the ferry. I watched her as she sat in the dirt and meticulously removed each sweet and devoured them. I could tell she didn’t really fancy the warm “iced tea”. But she kept it. And soon she wandered off, still clutching the bottle.

I desperately wanted to give her some money, a cold drink, whatever. But I have learned that only makes oneself feel good, and just is a blip on their dismal horizon.

I did not feel like crying, as I could of, because I was also in survival mode, and you get tough.

But now I think of her. A tiny young girl in a filthy dress, wandering in coughsville. It makes me think of my daughters. I exist to give them a good chance. To me that is the fundamental part of parenting. I must remain focused. On mine.

That vision of her huddled in the shade, greatfully prying those sweets off the sticky paper, haunts me :’(

To me all kids are beautiful. This young lass was triply so, despite her filth. I gave her almost nothing. But more than she gets.

I hope she is snug tonite as I write this. I hope she grows up empowered as all western thought goes. I did not help her much, if at all. But there are trillions in her situation.

I now sleep, crying for them all…….

@juddles I can't 'like' your post as to do so would feel like I was trivialising your experience but I respect others who do so. It is sobering and moving and reminds me of the 'blessings' (if I was religious) that I and my family have. Sleep well knowing that you have brightened a little girl's day. Keep your own family close in your thoughts.

 

[JohnK]

Same here. Spent megabucks 2 years ago on raised beds etc for strawberries, plus tomatoes of course. B-all! That’s it. Now buying from local pensioner who is s wizard in the garden.

Gardens are not for everyone. My parents are geniuses at growing vegetables and flowers. The 2 sons have learned nothing.

 

[Milboo]

@juddles - what an overwhelming experience. It goes against every fibre of our being to see children suffer but sometimes helping can be hindering.

No doubt she will remember that encounter for many years ahead - the time the foreign man showed her a gesture of kindness, in an otherwise very harsh world.

 

[tgh]

It is easy to be insular living in paradise.
Kids are truly the innocents in this game; they have no choices and just play the cards they are dealt.
Juddles does us all a service by reminding us of a world most Australians will never see...
Bravo Juddles… may the force continue to be with you...

 

[TheRealTMA]

It is easy to be insular living in paradise.
Kids are truly the innocents in this game; they have no choices and just play the cards they are dealt.
Juddles does us all a service by reminding us of a world most Australians will never see...
Bravo Juddles… may the force continue to be with you...

Why don’t we focus on things in our neighbourhood and control such as why Australians don’t care about the horrors we are perpetuating on Manus Island then?