da Scriffles

My grandfather loved films. 

This is his imdb of the silent era.

Mary Pickford (America's original sweetheart), Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks - founders of United Artists.

Jackie Coogan - as a boy.

Rudi Valentino from The Son of the Sheik (1921).

 

And I collected a scrapbook of collectable cartoons when I was a kid and found old Walt Disney characterizations of Goofy, Mickey and Donald.

But who would ever have dreamt that the Australian Women's Weekly would ever run a lift-out feature on the Australian Constitution - something my grandmother kept from 1975.

My niece invented Pig Parooney and then plays the part.

So I've finally edited a little piece for her.

Don't make fun of Pig's name ... or ... or ... beware the curse ...

 

Water authorities reduced the water pressure to stop us from using too much water in drought.

But have they restored the water pressure to normal now that the floods have broken the drought?

This was a question raised in the dog park this morning by another dog owner who lives in Wishart.

She says the trickle out of her taps has turned into a gush in the past week or so. I haven't noticed a difference.

This is an ugly specter given the outrageous cost of water these days - cost her $1000 last year.

The cost of water is what brought up this question: is the water authority forcing us to use more water now by playing with the water pressure? Revenue raising?

Everyone knows the Government is broke - it's announced water board amalgamations & mothballing of now unneeded new infrastructure like desalinations plants.

Interesting question arises here: Do we trust a water authority or is this a case for Grommit?

The Case of Little & Big Water Mongers. Da-Da-Ra-Da!

 

 

Seeing Colin Firth and Helena Bonham-Carter hold court in The King's Speech made me think that the UK is producing a fearsome crop of actors who are dominating scripted production - hold the Oscars in London this year.

Admittedly, I haven't seen many recently released movies in the past six months - really don't have the inclination to waste my time. I've been watching old movies: Rocky, Raging Bull, Ghandi, Cinema Paradiso...

Felt so refreshing to see Bonham-Carter don period garb and do beautiful once more - instead of fanciful and fantastic and ugly as in Alice in Wonderland or Harry Potter.

But Colin Firth! How I did swoon watching him play Darcy in the 1995 TV series of Pride and Prejudice - his acting was superb! ;)  

Amazing to see him on the silver screen now playing the not-so-attractive Bertie, Duke of York, who became King George when his brother Edward abdictated.

He's so clever you forget he's a star and just think of him as the character because he wills it so. He stammers so well. 

I think my favourite combination of casting would be Colin Firth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gemma Arterton and Leonardo DiCaprio (in Blood Diamond mode) - possibly Gerard Butler (in comedy mode).

And Geoffrey Rush is actually ok too - quelle surprise! Much fun! Who would have known that an Australian would save the British Monarchy hey?

Love that history is on the big screen. Waiting for the sequel.

 

Guess a lot of people watch Rocky trying to find the Eye of the Tiger because when the DVD gets to the part where the trumpet fanfare explodes with Rocky at the foot of those steps the DVD stops dead.

Reckon people play it over and over and over and over.... Luckily it started again. 

 

All of a sudden ... the text was not important ...

You'll hate me for saying this but those little stick figure stickers of happy families that usually appear on the tanks that pervade the roads get to me sometimes.

The stick figures are the next milestone parents graduate to from that "Baby on Board" sticker.

It's like they are warning everyone else on the road of their precious cargo like it's someone else's responsibility to take care of their kids.

What about the people they might maim or murder while they're reaching round to hold the crying child's hand with one hand on the wheel and their mind only half focused on the road?

What about they stick to the road rules instead of pretending that sticker (and their 4WD or SUV if you prefer) gives them right of way?

Recently I had a conversation with a pregnant woman about the gnarly issue bundling babies into childcare at three months so mothers - who don't want to be at home with the baby because they would go "out of their minds" - can return to "work".  Of course there are some mothers who really do have to bring in a second income to pay the bills.

I was quite frank because she seemed like an intelligent person capable of accepting a different point of view. But this was a mistake on my part.

This is not a conversation to have with any pregnant woman. The right conversation is one in support of paid parental leave - ra! RA! ra!

I'm afraid all I did was make a bad impression by expressing my true point of view. Really stupid thing to do.

Afterall, she was one of the women who was going to return to work three months after having the baby.

But her husband has six months parental leave so it's not the same thing as sticking the infant in child care.

I expressed another belief that we don't hear about the detrimental effects - basically it's a coverup - because women in the media (quite a powerful group when you think about it) don't want to hear about it.

You all may disagree but I think it's akin to taking your eyes off the road.

Rearing a family is important work - I don't think you can do your best if your attention is divided between the road and the family or work and the family.

Yes many families need two incomes but then I've noticed also that many parents seem to equate their needs with their children's needs.

Computations are variable depending on variables:

Does the child's makeup predispose it to a greater need for security?

How much stress or anxiety can children endure before it affects their development pattern? 

Will a chain mail fence do instead of a white picket fence? (There's a cost differential.)

What do you think?

Listen to Radio National's All In The Mind podcast about stress.

 Amy Chua's new book on parenting Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

 Chinese ownership versus Western coddling

Here's interesting research I found on Chris Brogan's blog about the role of parenting in the development of a child's personality and creativity: 

 

This was Moreton Bay, off Brisbane,  just a week ago. 

This picture sums up all we believe about the Sunshine State, but this was an aberration in Queensland's holiday weather this year. 

I've been curious to see the totals for rainfall, so I've gone and collected them and put them up here.

The rain started falling in March, even before the 2009/2010 El Nino event was declared dead in May (and La Nina took hold in winter) .

The Bureau of Meteorology climate report for 2010 says last year was our wettest year in 20 years - by the end of December 1109.7mm of rain had filled empty catchments.

But it continues to fall ... so before Christmas brimming water tables, rivers, creeks and dams spilled into provincial towns leaving thousands of people homeless.

Now, finally the waters have inundated the Brisbane River pushing it into the heart of Queensland's capital city.

Unbelievably, flash floods gushed through the mountain town of Toowoomba which sits high on the Great Dividing Range.

This amateur footage came through just after 5pm on the ABC yesterday. 

Today,  media outlets buzzed with crowd-sourced details, video and photos, as well as stuff off Twitter and Facebook.

ABC News was the only broadcaster to pick up the Queensland Police Service's Facebook stream of Premier Anna Bligh's first disaster update of the day this morning - it was strange to see a Facebook page on the television - viva la revolution! 

By the afternoon, they had dubbed the Toowoomba event (123mm rain today) an inland Tsunami - 59 people missing, nine people dead, so far.

Luckily, BOMA predicts sunshine by Saturday for Toowoomba.

Moreton recorded 614mm this week at Peachester -  the state's highest rainfall this week. 

Last year's Brisbane's total rainfall was a 20-year high.

(BOMA) ( Updated: First post had the wrong table for Brisbane's total )

So let's hope that this week marks the end of this cycle. Here's the year 2010 figures:

As for those of us who are still safe, it feels petty to complain about the soggy yards and patios and unruly gardens and muddy dogs and slippery roads and potholes. 

I did go to Bunnings to get sand to sandbag the back patio to stop the invasion of gathering puddles and streaming rivulets. Bunnings sold out of hessian bags ($15 a pack) and was moving 20kg bags of sand by the half dozen - likewise with bags of pool salt. People had trolley-fulls of pool salt. Lucky that's all they were worried about - hey?

I bought a hessian bag a week ago - just in case - cut it in half and sewed it up with an antique rusty needle my grandma brought with her from China. Never really had need to use a 13cm industrial needle before - I don't think they sewed sandbags with it, they sewed eiderdowns stuffed with camel hair to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures. Bought my digital radio which runs on batteries a few months back - along with candles and matches. They're turning electricity off in flood affected areas. And then there's the lightning during the storms. Looking forward to the dry season.