So Tired

Last night or should i say this morning i didnt get to go to bed till 6am

What started as a normal night of playing World of Warcraft and raiding in Black Temple, my nephew came home and asked if it was cool for him to have some friends come in, so i said yeah sure no problems. One of the people i knew and have known his since he was 9 (now 18) another guy didnt know who he was.

The guy who i didnt know fell asleep on the couch, then my nephew was making food for them and asking me what i had so he didnt need to look to much.

About an hour later i went to have a smoke and noticed that my nephew is now asleep and the other 2 are sitting there playing Playstation (now 3am).

As im having my smoke the guy who i dont know asks me for a smoke which i give him, he then wont stop talking telling me all this stuff (i had to quickly get back to playing World of Warcraft).
He then follows me in and sits to watch what im doing, asking me questions and trying to get my attention.

Finally around 5am and seeing they are not moving, i say to the guy who i know that i want to go to bed so they have to go. The guy who i dont know goes to my couch to fall asleep again.
After 40 mins of them stuffing around and the guy i know telling the other guy he has to go, they finally leave.

I woke around 3.30pm and i feel wrecked, would be different if i felt this way cause of something i did, but when its someone else grrrrr

Jetsetters & Globetrotters Blog

Through Social Spark, V asked "Does My Blog Suck"? Jetsetters and Globetrotters

If you are thinking of travelling its a pretty good site to go to, you get an idea of what things you can buy at different price ranges, you can plan things on a budget to spending whatever you want on your trip.

I found some a few of the notes V wrote interesting.

My two favourite ones are:
Travel Buyables: Travel Toothbrushes - i like this one as i remember when
travelling to pack your toothbrush, this way you can leave your normal one
at home and take this one.
Tech Travel: Polaroid PoGo - when i was younger i wanted a Polaroid Camera
and not getting one, and now having a digital i never seem to print them out,
and with this you can have both.

About the only thing i would add to the Blog would be a link to places you can book trips through, eg Plane companies, or things can do in the area you live in something like that

Go have a look for yourself and see if there is information on this blog that can help you Jetsetters and Globetrotters
.

Sydney Australia

I live in Sydney Australia which was formed after convicts where put ashore here in 1788, they put tents to live in around the harbour, which is now called The Rocks, it is a historical turned shopping area,

On the opposite side Captain Arthur Philip put his tent up which is close to where The Sydney Opera House is now,

Sydney is an area filled with great history:

• The Cadmans Cottage which was built in 1816 as barracks for the crew of the governor's boats.
• Fort Denison built around 1855, built to protect Sydney during the Crimean War.
• The Queen Victoria Building (known as the Q.V.B) which was built in 1898 as an area to buy food supplies, in the building is a Wishing Well with a statue of Queen Victoria that was given to Sydney from The people of Ireland when the Queen Victoria Building was re-furbished in 1985. Q.V.B is now a shopping area with office's on the top floors
• Hyde Park Barracks built in 1819 which in the early days held convict workers.
• Sydney Observatory built in 1858
• The Sydney Harbour Bridge completed in 1932
• Sydney Opera House, based on the competition winning entry by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, The project was built in three stages. Stage I (1959–1963). Stage II (1963–1967) Stage III (1967–73).

Also in Sydney you can find Star City Casino, Chinatown, Darling Harbour with The Chinese Garden of Friendship, a Shopping and International Food Court also The IMAX Theatre which shows films on a giant screen more than eight stories high.

We also have two areas one famed for the street life and thriving cafe culture called Kings Cross also Darlinghurst, which holds The Gay and Lesbian Mardi-Gras Parade held every year along Oxford Street during February or March.

Follow the Link to know more about Sydney

Been Busy

Been busy this week, had to get a Newsletter together,

I get given submissions and have to slot them together into no more than 10 pages, which can be quite fun when things i am given are over 2 pages, have to resize and re-design what it looks like.
Everything is basic so i need to make it look all nice and pretty, add pictures and change the headings.
Others who do them probably dont think much of this, but i had no training of this, and i like the newsletter to look very nice when i finish with it.

Yes another of my poems

My fingers feeling

tapping along my skull

looking for some bumps

to read and tell this tale

one bump for my memory

which disappears like hell

another for the time

i danced along the sill

this one over here

its growing as i write

the one above the first one

its holds a fun filled night

i have some many bumps you see

each tells a different story

like that time i jumped the highest building

and fell upon my tail

i have one bump though

that hasn't grown just right

it still has time to go

and maybe it will feel its might

Federation of Australia

To make Australia a Federation, instead of 6 different colonies, the Australian Constitution was written up and first seen when a proposal was presented in 1891 to a Convention.

A Convention was then held between 1897 - 1898 in three sessions (Adelaide 22 March - 23 April 1897; Sydney 2 - 24 September 1897; Melbourne 20 January - 17 March 1898).

The draft Constitution Bill was revised by Griffith, Kingston, Barton and Inglis Clark, afloat on the Queensland Government yacht Lucinda, during the Easter break of the 1891 Convention in Sydney.

This draft was revived and debated at the 1897 - 1898 Convention, and final changes where made at the Secret Premiers Conference early in 1899 in order to gain the agreement of all the colonies.

The Constitution set out the basis for the establishment of the institutions of the government of the new nation.

The chief institutions are firstly the Parliament, consisting of 'the Queen, a senate, and a House of Representatives' (section 1) provided for in the first 60 sections of the Constitution.

Secondly, (section 2) provides for the appointment of a Govenor-General as the representative of the Crown, and the ten sections of (chapter 2) set out the powers of the Govenor-General and the Executive Council and the functions of the public service departments.

The ten sections of (chapter 3) provide for the judicial institutions with the High Court as the superior court of the Commonwealth.

The Governor-General, the 'First Officer' in the Commonwealth, formally appoints the Ministers of the Crown.

Queen Victoria issued (Letters Patient) establishing the office of the Govenor-General, Lord Hopetoun, a former Governor of Victoria. The Governor-General appointed Edmund Barton as the first Prime Minister, and formally appointed the Ministers selected by Barton so that the first cabinet would represent all the States. Four Premiers became Commonwealth Ministers - Sir George Turner (Vic), Sir William Lyne (NSW), Sir John Forrest (WA) and Sir Neil Lewis (Tas)

It was not really certain that all six Australian colonies would join the Federation even when this Act passed both Houses of the British Parliament. As each was 'Sovereign' colony with a Governor appointed by the crown on the advice of the British Government, each colonial Parliament had to pass legislation agreeing to become part of the Commonwealth, and the hold referendums where all the electors could have direct vote on the issue.

In the referendums on the Constitution, women were able to vote in only two of the colonies, South Australia and Western Australia, and few Indigenous people seem to have had the opportunity to be counted.

Among the strongest arguments advanced for Federation were the need for a united approach to defence and for a common policy to restrict the numbers of Chinese people entering the colonies. As the labour movement gathered strength in the 1890's, so did the opposition to the Chinese Immigrants, seen as a threat to achieving a fair standard of wages and conditions.

Queen Victoria signed her assent to the document creating the Commonwealth of Australia on 9 July 1900.

On 1 January 1901 in Centennial Park that the first Governor-General took his oath of office.

To know more about the Federation of Australia go to Doumenting Democracy

The desk and pavilion where the documents where signed

Exquisite Corpse, Poem

Through Social Spark i did Exquisite Corpse , the idea is that J Scott every fortnight will come up with a theme and the rule to follow. Such as the theme could be flowers and the rule is write a line in this format noun, adjective,verb.

Its great fun, makes me have to think and use parts of my brain i haven't used for awhile, i had forgotten what an adjective was lol

This fortnights one ending August 14, 2008 the theme was Night --the line rule was
5 Word line including 2 adjectives.

This is the poem that J Scott came up with from people who submitted a line

Midnight Shadows

Stars apparent shining dark skies

cloaked secrets in midnight blue

mysterious shadows like venomous illusions

thick shadows folding lucid dreams

million cricket chirps, stillborn stars
the serenely silent sanctuary beckons

Succulent kisses, mysterious smudged eyes.

tangled hair entwines enfolding arms

sleepy abyss of confounding dreams
silent, unwieldy, deep shadows night
distraught nightmares child snuggly daddy

dark world disappears peaceful rest

.....

If you follow the links in the poem you can see who submitted each line

Nushu, Chinese womens writing

Reading a book they where talking about a language called Nushu, a syllabic script created and used exclusively by women in Jiangyong Prefecture, Hunan Province, China, i thought i would find out some more about it add it to my Blog. I love learning new things

Women where not taught how to read and write for many centuries, they developed the Nushu script in order to communicate with one another, they would embroider the script into cloth and wrote it in books and on paper fans.

Nushu was mainly used in the creation of San Chao Shu or "Third Day Missives", a cloth-bound booklet created by mothers to give to their daughters upon their marriage, or by woman to give to their close female friends. The San Chao Shu contained songs written in the Nushu script expressing hopes and sorrow, and was delivered on the third day after a woman's marriage.

Today Nushu is being taught from grandmother to grandaughter, men even to today are never taught how to read or write Nushu as it is womens writing only

• The Nushu script consists of between 1000 and 1500 characters.


• Nushu is written in vertical columns running from top to bottom and from right to left.


• Many Nushu characters are based on Chinese characters, while some are modelled on embroidery stitches and designs.


• Nushu characters represent pronunciation, unlike Chinese characters, which represent pronunciation and meaning.

The following is an example of Nushu. The text on the left is Nushu, while on the right is the exact Chinese transliteration. The columns for both texts in the original right-to-left order.
The passage roughly translates as "They taught her to apply makeup and comb her hair; on her head she was wearing pearls that are shining magnificently; she is sitting like Guanyin (a Buddhist goddess) out of a Buddhist shrine".

Some great websites i found about Nushu are -Omniglot and Ancient Scripts

Aussie Slang

As most people would know in Australia we have our own saying's and ways to explain things we are doing, some of the words are Cockney English like "frog and toad" "The Road", so we could say to someone if we are going to go somewhere "we are going to hit the frog and toad, going for a drive and will be using the road.

Our language you could say is a lazy way of saying something to people, but what it shows is the laid back and friendly type of people you are likely to find in Australia.

Here are some examples of Aussie Slang

Arvo.................Afternoon

Barbie.............. Barbecue

Bikkie.............. Biscuit Cookie

Chook..............Chicken

Dag................. Nerd

Dunny/Loo......Toilet

G'day...............Hello

Grog............... Alcohol

Jarmies........... Pajamas

Kip................. a short sleep
Macca's.......... McDonalds

Mozzie........... Mosquito

Oldies.............Parents

Peckish.......... Hungry
Roo................ Kangaroo

Snag.............. Sausage

Tellie............ TV

Ute................ Pickup

Yonks........... a long time ago

Also Australian’s at times put a load of words together to say one thing like
howyagoinmate how are you going friend

A great site to see more aussie slang Australian Slang - What does it all mean

Homer Simpson on a Coin

I found this the other day and thought it was funny and thought that others might find it funny as well...

A one euro coin has turned up in Spain bearing the face of cartoon couch potato Homer Simpson instead of that of the country's king

The shop owner Jose Martinez was counting the cash when he came across the coin where Homer's bald head, big eyes and big nose had replaced the serious features of King Juan Carlos.

The work on it is pretty good i think, maybe a person was bored and decided to do something different to a coin.

Homer Simpon seems to be popular everywhere

Pumpkin Soup

I love eating pumpkin soup especially when it is winter, so for dinner tonight i am making pumpkin soup.

For years i had been looking for a recipe that made sense and the soup taste nice. My sister makes one where she cuts the pumpkin up and then bakes it in the oven till it is well cooked, then she adds the pumpkin to a pot with some other stuff and cooks it... To me that seems like a fair bit of work for something that should be easy to make.

About a year ago i finally found a recipe that works well and tastes great...the only difference is that i don't add cream to my soup (I'm diabetic)...what i do is add a can of cream of chicken soup, it adds the creaminess without as much fat as you would have in the cream.

This is the soup i make

3 times pumpkin

1 times potato

water to fill to the top of the pot

3 chicken cubes (or chicken stock)

1 can cream of chicken soup

Add the pumpkin and potato to pot

Add enough water to cover the vegetables

Add the chicken cubes

Simmer until vegetables are tender

Blend the vegetables

Add the can of soup

Blend till mixed in

Serve

Australia Coat of Arms

The present coat of arms was granted by King George V in 1912.

It consists of a shield depicting the badges of the six Australian states, enclosed by an ermine border. The shield is a symbol for the federation of the states, which took place in 1901.

The flowers showing are of sprays of golden wattle a national plant of Australia.

The wattle and scroll, however, are not part of the armorial design and are not mentioned in the Royal Warrant.

On the left is a Kangaroo and the right an Emu. It is thought the kangaroo and emu were chosen to symbolise a nation moving forward, reflecting a common belief that neither animal can move backwards easily.

The Australian coat of arms consists of the badges of the six states of the Commonwealth arranged on a shield in two rows of three columns:

New South Wales—Golden lion passant (right to left) on a red St George’s Cross on a silver background (usually depicted white), with an eight-pointed star on each extremity of the cross.
Victoria—White Southern Cross (one star of eight points, two of seven points, one of six points and one of five points), beneath an Imperial Crown, on a blue background.
Queensland—light blue Maltese cross with an Imperial Crown at its centre, on a white background.
South Australia—the white-backed magpie, erect, wings outstretched, on a yellow background.
Western Australia—Black swan swimming, left to right, on a yellow background.
Tasmania—Red lion passant (right to left) on a white background.

Follow this link if you would like to know more about the Australian Coat of Arms

More Poems

Poems are words

that are just written down

each line and sentance

makes distinct sounds

words express feelings

like sorrow and joy

or make a person scream

from pain or from noise

everyone knows words

some hard to say

they all have meanings

to express the day

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Trying to sleep

but my eyes wont meet

i write down a few words

try to relax my feet

think of the sheep

jumping over the moon

dont they look sweet

in their own wooly suits

that dosent work

what to do next

slow down my breathing

try not to think

yawning my head off

i just close my eyes

to wake up hours later

to much my surprise

Vegemite

Living in Australia i eat vegemite a fair bit, it is something that only Australians seem to love.

Watching YouTube the other day it made me laugh, some American girls trying Vegemite for the first time.....Sure in Australia we like to trick Americans, but im not to sure where they got the idea that you had to put so much vegemite on the bread.

The proper way to eat vegemite is to add some butter to bread then on top of that you add some vegemite, the amount of vegemite per piece of bread is about 1/2 teaspoon

Vegemite is a dark brown savoury food paste made from yeast extract, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast and cracker biscuits....Vegemite is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives.

The taste may be described as salty, slightly bitter, and malty - somewhat similar to the taste of beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky (source Wikipedia)

Thoughts

Not to sure what to write about today, usually i have something to write about but i cant think of anything.

Im not feeling to well today, feel a bit ill in the stomach, so maybe that has taken my thoughts away.

Luckily today i didnt have to cook dinner as i have my 21 year old nephew who lives here and he likes to be feed, last night i cooked some chicken legs luckily it was 2 kilos of them.

How i did them was i coated them in seasoned flour and just put them in the oven to bake, then i made some mashed potato and when the chicken was cooked made gravy in the pan i baked the chicken in, it all worked out pretty well. Today i bought some lebanese bread to make the food go further. Chicken, lebanese bread and garlic paste go really well together.

Picking up on what my neighbours eat, (they are Lebanese) they often suggest i come over to eat with them. About the only thing i would never make is the Wrapped Vine Leaves, they sit there with a mixture of mince and uncooked rice and wrap it up in vines leaves about the size of a cigarette, then she gets some lamb type bones with a bit of meat on them put the lamb in the bottom of a pot and adds the vines leaves on top to cook overnight.

I do make their Stuffed Zuchini though, you hollow out the Zuchini, and fill them 3/4 the way up with a mixture of uncooked rice and mince, you then add the Zuchini to a big cooking pot with some Goat Yoghurt place the lid on top and cook for a few hours. You need to use the Goat Yoghurt as you can cook with it. You serve the Zuchini with some of the yoghurt it has been cooking in, with Goat Yoghurt you need to thicken it (to thicken the yoghurt you add cornflour)

Aboriginal History

It is thought that Aborigines have been living in the continent for the last 50,000 years, originally migrating from Indonesia. The oldest skeleton found in Australia was at Lake Mungo in south-west New South Wales, believed to be 38,000 years old and bears traces of ceremonial ochre.

Unlike most races, Aborigines relied on a form of controlled burning of vegetation known as "fire stick farming".

They did not develop the sense of land ownership, though children where taught that they belonged to the land and must respect tribal boundaries. There were some sites that were designated sacred sites in association of Dream time, the time when earth was formed and cycles of life and nature where initiated.

Aborigine's sing and dance to tell of the legends of powerful spirits who created the land and people during the Dream time. There is no known written Aboriginal language and most of the 600 tribes spoke different dialects, the rarely met except on ceremonial occasions.

To tell stories Aboriginal people painted and carved into rock, they can be seen to these days. They have been preserved and can be viewed at rock galleries in Kakadu National Park and other parts of Northern Australia. There are Aboriginal artists that sell there work to the world. Aboriginal tribal art has many forms of expression, the principal ones are paintings, carvings, statuary, and basketry. The northern tribes traditionally paint on bark, although archival paper is becoming popular. The desert tribes customarily paint on canvas even though older are done on art board. Carvings and Statuary are produced by The Northern and Island tribes, basketry is done in both desert and Northern settlements.

Many bad things have happened to the Aborigine's and Torres Strait Islanders since white people came to Australia and make it it's own. In 1951 an official assimilation policy to eliminate any sense of a separate Aboriginal identity was implemented by the government. All the Aboriginal peoples territory was occupied, their rights of self-determination and their human rights were violated. It was not till 1972 that it was recognised that there was previous ownership. Like most people of dark skin the were prejudice against and are still to this day.
These days aboriginal people live either in cities and towns or in isolated settlements near tribal lands. Few continue their nomadic ways.

In recent years, white Australians have become more sensitive to the plight of the aborigines, resulting in increased health and educational services, greater recognition of Aboriginal land rights.

There are more than 200 Australian Indigenous languages, most of which have been destroyed; all the others are endangered. To find about the languages that were spoken go to this site

Aboriginal Languages of Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages.

Some pictures of Aboriginal Paintings

Bush Bananas by Rosie Daniels .......................................Grandmothers & Grandaughters
...............................................................................................by Rachel Bray

WoW, Tauren Chieftans

In World of Warcraft there is a band called The Tauren Chieftans, and last night i was able to see the show for myself, when i got there the drum was set up so i stood behind it with one of my characters Boras and took a photo.

I then got to listen to them sing a song called Power of the Horde

Being Alliance i rarely get to see them play so it was fun to see how the work and all the work that has been put into them.

The players in the band are Samuro, Sig Nicious, Mai'Kyl, Bergrisst, and Chief Thunder-Skins

The actual band are Samwise Didier · Dave Berggren · Chris Sigaty · Mike Morhaime · Allan Dabiri

Exquisite Corpse

Through Social Spark i got the chance to play a game called Exquisite Corpse, the idea is that J Scott every week will come up with a theme and the rule to follow. Such as the theme could be flowers and the rule is write a line in this format noun, adjective,verb.

This weeks theme was BEACH and the line rule is: 6 WORD LINE CONTAINING THE WORD “TO”.

This is the poem called "The Desperate Need to Be Gone" that was written by J Scott from the contributions received:

Today and Tomorrow it is to the beach I go.

to walk along amongst sea creatures

On the beach to dance around

Cling to the past sandy trails.
Below in to you the sun fall.

Ever brisk as a breeze to my face.

Always there to sea and shore.
Halcyon days to clam the ocean.
Torrid asphalt no gas to beach

To stare at futility across water, Tokyo-3

.

This is the next theme if interested in playing

For the week ending August 15, 2008 the theme is NIGHT and the line rule is: 5 WORD LINE INCLUDING 2 ADJECTIVES. The poem will be published on August 16, 2008

About Australia

After reading the blog about people not knowing about where you come from when looking at peoples blogs i thought i would write about Australia

In Australia, there are 6 States and 2 Territories,

The States being
New South Wales,
Queensland,
South Australia,
Tasmania,
Victoria.

The Territories being
Canberra,
The Northern Territory

I am from New South Wales, the capital city Sydney. Sydney has The Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge. Away from Sydney you have The Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, South Coast and North Coast

Canberra (Australian Capital Territory)is a separate state, it holds our Parliament House, it sits just inside New South Wales

The area Canberra was chosen when both New South Wales and Victoria thought they should both be the Capital of Australia,
What was decided was that a new state would be made in between New South Wales and Victoria being the same distance apart from the capital cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

The Northern Territory, the capital is Darwin, it is located up the top part of Australia, Australia’s real Outback and home to the iconic natural wonders of Kakadu National Park and Uluru/Ayers Rock, the weather there is mostly humid and hot.

Queensland, the capital is Brisbane, advertises it is the most sunny place of Australia. Queensland has Warner Bros Movie World an amusement park, it is family oriented and popular place for Australians to go to for a holiday. Other things that is wonderful is The Great Barrier Reef, which has interesting coral growth which can be seen from a glass bottom boat.

South Australia, the capital being Adelaide, known in Australia as the city of churches, for finding rare gems in the earth and wine produced in the area.

Tasmania, the capital being Hobart, was used as a penal colony when Australia had mainly convicts living here, these days you can still see some of the areas the convicts built and lived in Tasmania. Tasmania is a quiet relaxed area perfect to get away from the hustle and bustle of main city living, it is one of the coldest states in Australia.

Victoria, the capital being Melbourne the 2nd settlement in Australia, it is know as the garden state of Australia, there are many multi cultural areas like Lygon st ( Italian) and Dixon st (Chinese). Victoria is the clothes capital of Australia having many boutiques and factory shops at easy reach which you can get to by riding on a tram. Away from Melbourne you would find Bendigo known for a gold rush in Victoria

Western Australia, capital being Perth has many different climates one side being green and lush the other dry and arid. Western Australia is almost the hottest place in Australia to live, and has a 2 hour difference in time from the eastern part of Australia.

As you can see Australia has much to see and do, in such a small land,

we have all that the world can offer and more.