Friday is here and it is the last day of term 3 for New South Wales schools, we have two weeks of no school, so during the holidays we will have our granddaughters here on each Wednesday. We don’t have the girls very often because Kathy feels we don’t interact with them enough, instead letting them entertain themselves on the tablet or phone, that is just the way we are.
Being Friday this is a post about my thoughts and as usual I have no bloody idea what my thoughts are.
Ok I have been thinking why is the weather all over the place two days ago I had the air con going now it is nearly cold enough for the heater again. We also have some light rain this morning making me wonder if I should go up with Sam or not. I had to wake Tim to take Sam up as Tasha said she had diarrhoea and couldn’t do it, I hate having to ask someone else to do it. After Tim took Sam up the sun started to come out and it stopped raining, naturally…
Yesterday morning while I was waiting for Sam to show up, I go up and wait before Sam who is usually brushing his teeth and I park in the drive way but out of the way of cars, anyway the damn garbage truck arrive and the driver decided to reverse it down the driveway. I had to move damn fast or I would have been hit and that would not be good, getting run over by a garbage truck is never good. Naturally I did get out of the way, I like to park the scooter in a position so I can see when Sam’s driver turns into our street, this allows me to have time to ring Sam if he isn’t already up waiting with me.
Kathy has had me looking for her childhood immunisation records which I do not believe I have she needs them for work and records older then 2007 are not online or held by Medicare. I have Jessica’s records but I am pretty sure I don’t have either Kathy’s or Natasha’s.
It was Skylar’s 3rd birthday yesterday, Sandy told me Doc’s which is Department of Community Services now use to be Department of Children and before that was called something Welfare. Anyway they dropped of a heap of presents for Skylar as well as a cake so Sandy didn’t have to buy anything. At this stage Sandy doesn’t know how long she will have them she has said she will take them till they are 18 if needed but nothing has been settled yet.
Ok today’s post is just a bit of this and a bit of that
Hello everyone, here is a bit more about working life in the 1890’s.
By around the 1830’s there were those in England who had started to question the harsh working conditions in 1824 the right to form a trade unions but of course the government and employers resisted the concept. In 1834 six Dorsetshire farm labourers known as the “Tolpuddle Martyrs” were transported to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land for “swearing illegal oaths”. They formed a Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to guard against reduce wages. The Martyrs never returned to England.
Another group called the Chartists who were active during the 1830-1840’s called for a workers charter so that conditions such as pay, number of working hours and workplaces would be improved. The also wanted Parliamentary representation, demanding payment of members of parliament to enable working people to stand for election. Payment for members was finally introduced in between the 1880-1890’s.
It was during the 1840’s the Australian colonies experienced their first economic depression and work was scarce. As is usual in such times workers are less likely to demand better conditions or pay just wanting to have some kind of work on almost any terms.
The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria during the 1850’s changed the balance of employee-employer relations. This time saw many town workers downing their tools and heading for the goldfields. This meant workers were in better bargaining position to demand shorter working hours.
It was around this time that the push for an eight hour working day had begun. Dr Thomas Embling a Victorian medical practitioner and parliamentarian is credited with the saying “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation and eight hours rest”. In the British working class folklore the concept was credited to King Alfred the Great and was widely accepted goal by British Unionist in the early 19th century. In societies where most workers toiled from dawn to dusk, from Monday to Saturday night talk about a Utopian concept.
More next week.
Hello everyone, here is a bit more about working life in the 1890’s.
By around the 1830’s there were those in England who had started to question the harsh working conditions in 1824 the right to form a trade unions but of course the government and employers resisted the concept. In 1834 six Dorsetshire farm labourers known as the “Tolpuddle Martyrs” were transported to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land for “swearing illegal oaths”. They formed a Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to guard against reduce wages. The Martyrs never returned to England.
Another group called the Chartists who were active during the 1830-1840’s called for a workers charter so that conditions such as pay, number of working hours and workplaces would be improved. The also wanted Parliamentary representation, demanding payment of members of parliament to enable working people to stand for election. Payment for members was finally introduced in between the 1880-1890’s.
It was during the 1840’s the Australian colonies experienced their first economic depression and work was scarce. As is usual in such times workers are less likely to demand better conditions or pay just wanting to have some kind of work on almost any terms.
The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria during the 1850’s changed the balance of employee-employer relations. This time saw many town workers downing their tools and heading for the goldfields. This meant workers were in better bargaining position to demand shorter working hours.
It was around this time that the push for an eight hour working day had begun. Dr Thomas Embling a Victorian medical practitioner and parliamentarian is credited with the saying “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation and eight hours rest”. In the British working class folklore the concept was credited to King Alfred the Great and was widely accepted goal by British Unionist in the early 19th century. In societies where most workers toiled from dawn to dusk, from Monday to Saturday night talk about a Utopian concept.
Hello everyone, you may have noticed that there was no post yesterday due to my computer having a hissy fit from 8.15am till 10am when it started working again as it should but by then I couldn’t be bothered doing anything.
A while back someone asked about our constitution, so I have looked it up and now I will tell you a little about it.
This will be a two part post, don’t want to bore you with a post that is a bit long.
So what is the Australian Constitution?
The Australian Constitution is the founding document of our nation and pre-eminent source of law in the country. The Constitution sets down the powers of each of our three branches of governance – the Parliament, the Executive and the Courts.
A national constitution is a set of rules for governing a country. Such rules may be based on tradition or may be written down in the form of a law or a number of laws. In some countries laws forming the constitution are ordinary laws which can be changed just like any other law, but in most countries the laws forming the constitution have a special status.
The constitution of Australia has a special status-it cannot be changed in the same way as other laws can be changed and it is a supreme law, that is, it overrides other laws.
So how was the Australian Constitution created?
Before 1901 the present Australian States were separate colonies of the then British Empire. When the colonies decided to join together in a federation, representatives from each colony were elected to attend meetings (called constitutional conventions) to draw up a constitution for the new nation. The draft constitution was later approved by a vote of the people in referendums held in each colony.
The new Australian nation was established on 1 January 1901 following the passing of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act by the United Kingdom Parliament. The purpose of the Act was to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia.
So what does the constitution do?
Australia is a federation of states which each have their own constitution, government and laws. The Australian Constitution originated as an agreement under which the former colonies came together as states in a federation. In brief, the Constitution establishes the form of the federal government (that is, the Commonwealth, national or central government) and sets out the basis for relations between the Commonwealth and the states.
What does the constitution cover?
Well it covers the following but I am not going into detail that would bore everyone.
The legislative or law-making power of the Commonwealth
The composition of the Senate
Frequency of elections
The composition of the House of Representatives.
Frequency of elections.
The matters on which the Commonwealth can make laws.
At around 6.50am the computer started giving me a headache with it taking ages for this to load but after 10 minutes it started working again.
Kathy, Michael and the girls came over so we could see Kathy for her birthday, she was happy with her gifts a bottle of Baileys and $50.
Cold this morning I had to change my mind when it came to what pants I am wearing as the ones I had out wouldn’t be warm enough.
Kathy suggested that I wear a beanie to keep my head warm instead of turning the heater on I will try that tomorrow.
When I went to sit in my armchair which is a lift chair, it wouldn’t recline and Tim has gone to see how much a new controller would cost because the way it is I can’t use it. They didn’t have one in stock and have ordered one cost $149 and should be here this week sometime.
I am so over sitting in the computer chair, as I have to be busy doing something while sitting here. I just can’t sit and watch telly in this chair.
When I tried to put the armchair down it went down so I will be able to sit in it but may not be able to put my feet up, I will use one of the footstools to put my feet on while sitting in the armchair.
This morning I had to ring Sam over and over and over again lost count of how many times I called him, Tasha came down looking for chocolate awhile I was ringing Sam and she went over and woke him up. Not very cold this morning which is nice.
Kelli & Jono arrived so Jono could see Tasha about something and Kelli came and gave me a hug as well as Tim and we had a quick chat. It was great to see and get an awesome hug from Kelli.
The new controller arrived this morning but thankfully the one on my chair has been working this morning.
Tim isn’t happy he hasn’t been paid this week, he made a phone call to Youi about it, he hopes it goes in soon.
I have had a lot of pain in my left knee and took an anti-inflammatory for it and it helped a lot.
Sandy dropped in she had Temika and Skylar with her, Skylar was scared of both me and Tim clinging to either Sandy or Temika, I was not surprise she doesn’t know us. Sandy took all my letters with stamps on them to post for me.
I applied for a postal vote saying I was infirm and unable to walk or stand for very long. If it gets declined then so be it.
Woke to find a note from Tim he still hasn’t been paid so don’t know what we are going to do, he will be ringing Youi and he will be in a right mood when he does.
The computer is running slow this morning, it has improved over time thankfully.
Sam didn’t want to go to school this morning he couldn’t find his belt or pants he can wear without a belt and said he felt self-conscious about what he was wearing this is a new thing as in the past he couldn’t care less about what he wore to school.
Tim has an appointment with his counselor.
The chronic diarrhoea is really getting to Tim, he is going to make an appointment to see our GP tomorrow.
DENNI’S BIRTHDAY SHE IS 11
Found a note on the laptop Tim made an appointment to see the GP at 1pm this afternoon. He also has an 8.45am appointment for rehab.
Spoke to Kathy she won’t be over this weekend, she has too much going on.
Tim still hasn’t been paid, he spoke to Youi yesterday arvo and was told the money should be in by 3pm this arvo.
I turned in to watch the live stream of Daffy’s funeral if you are wondering who the hell is Daffy she was a 95yr old lady I followed on Facebook she was funny outspoken and reminded me of my mum. Yes I cried, I also cried when I read of her death and I doubt I would be her only follower who cried she did have over 200,000 followers from around the world.
Woke to find a message from Tim telling me had transferred the housekeeping money into my account. So I have been able to pay the bills.
It has turned out quite hot today temp of 30 degrees.
Tim wanted pizza so we got pizza as they were quite cheap today. Sam was here so I asked if they wanted anything, they did not.
Jess is at work, some overtime for her. She is liking this new job.
Well it is Friday and time for some of Jo-Anne’s thoughts, today sitting here I have been thinking a few things like should I just disregard the book I started because I couldn’t get interested in it, I did I just deleted it and will find something else to listen to later. I find listening to an audiobook if it has a slow start but I stick with it for a bit it comes good and more interesting but this book I was listening to this morning it wasn’t happening so I packed it in.
I have also been thinking why doesn’t Sam answer the damn phone or at least reject the call which tells me that they are awake and acknowledged my call. Sam just walked in and admitted they fell back to sleep and only just drag themselves out of bed.
I have also been working on sorting photos into different folders ready for when I do the family calendars, which has had me searching for the best price for the calendars I usually pay around $5-10 and I have been thinking about which company I prefer I will have to check the calendar to see what company I used last time.
While waiting with Sam this morning the plumber turned up again and went to their house as they are still having problems with their toilet. In fact I said to the plumber there is hardly a week that he isn’t in the complex dealing with someone’s plumbing issues. All the problems Jess has been having with the plumbing made me think about when my girls were children and we had a lot of plumbing issues like every 2 or 3 months we would have a blocked toilet and the problem was never with our pipes but down the road at some junction which was the water boards issue to fix not the plumber.
I have also been thinking a lot about Christmas presents for the family and yesterday I went online and using a gift card I had bought a few small items to use as gifts for the family. All bought from the sites clearance section.
Speaking of Christmas I have to sort out address making sure they are all current and correct.
That’s all for now, stay safe and be happy and remember you are special, you are the only you there is………..
Welcome to my first post about working life in the 1890’s, I found a book I have on the topic and have decided to use it to write a bit about the topic.
Back in the 1890’s working life was hard and insecure, it was a decade of political change and economic uncertainty. Any gains made prior to then disappeared as depression hit and jobs became scarce. Many employers found themselves on the edge of bankruptcy so they cut employee numbers and lowered wages.
It is now believed by historians that about 29% of workers suffered unemployment during the worst years, between 1892 till 1894 before things started to slowly improve in the late 1890’s.
Before European settlement, work for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders was just part of their daily life. Their effective and appropriate use of the land determined their survival and spiritual well being.
Of course the impact of the white mans ways of working had a negative effect on their way of life causing brave but futile resistance. They had their land taken and were forced to work in the white man’s way on pastoral and other properties.
From the start of white settlement in Australia working life for convicts, Aborigines and the majority of free settlers was extremely hard.
The first Governor Arthur Phillip, decreed that convicts should work an eleven-and-a half hours a day from sunrise to sunset in the summer.
As well as working for the Government on public works such as the construction of buildings and road-making, convicts were assigned to free settlers and at first there was little regulation of their working conditions.
Many of the free white settlers also had it hard with their working conditions while working for squatters and well to do employers.
The Master and Servant Act of 1828 attempted to regulate conditions but mainly in favour of the Masters.
Well here I am at another creature day and this weeks creature is the Armadillo Lizard something many would have heard of.
It measures just 21cm’s in length and covered in spiny scales, it can roll itself into a ball, tail in mouth and underbelly protected when threatened.
Native to the west coast of South Africa, this fierce looking lizard has such a powerful bite that its been known to break its own jaw while eating.
It live in large family groups and eats bugs and spiders, they have a lifespan of around 20 years.
It’s head, body and tail can all be flattened allowing it to squeeze into rock crevices for protection from predators such as eagles, snakes and mongooses.
Well here we are at another cold Monday, I have just seen Sam off to school while we are waiting for his transport to arrive I am shown some weird and funny clips on his phone from YouTube or Tic Tok and it does feel good to have a laugh but now it is time for another well know/famous Aussie that you may have or more likely never heard off till now. This week have Harold Holt.
Harold Edward Holt CH was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia, from 1966 until his disappearance and presumed death in 1967, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
He was born on the 5 August 1908, seven months after his parents marriage in January 1908, he had a younger brother Clifford born in 1910.
Born in a suburb of Sydney in 1914 his parents moved to Adelaide while him and his brother remained in NSW with an uncle but it 1916 he went to live with his grandparents in country for about a year before returning to Sydney. Around that time his parents split up and he went to a boarding school.
He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1932 and set up his own legal practice in 1933, however, due to the depression things were hard and he relied on the hospitality of friends to get by. 1933 was the year he joined the Young Nationalist the youth wing of the United Australia Party.
Drawing on his family connections in show business, he eventually accepted an offer to become secretary of the Victorian Cinematograph Exhibitors’ Association, a film industry lobby group. In this capacity he appeared several times before the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation of Arbitration. This had a positive effect on his own practice, and he eventually took on two partners, first Jack Graham and later James Newman. The firm of Holt, Graham, & Newman was dissolved in 1963, following a financial dispute and subsequently reconstituted as Holt, Newman, & Holt, with Holt’s son Sam as the new addition. Holt’s involvement in the practice declined once he entered politics and ceased altogether in 1949, although he did not formally retire until assuming the prime ministership.
Holt was twenty-seven years old when he entered parliament, making him its youngest member. He kept a relatively low profile in his first few years, but spoke on a wide range of topics. When Robert Menzies became prime minister in April 1939, he made Holt one of four ministers without a portfolio. His inclusion was made possible by the collapse of the coalition with the Country Party previously a certain number of positions had been reserved for Country MPs, but the new ministry was composed solely of UAP members. Although Holt officially had no portfolio, he effectively was an assistant minister to Richard Casey, who headed the Department of Supply and Development. He was given responsibility for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR),and also acted for periods as Minister for Trade and Customs and Minister for Civil Aviation and Air, while the incumbents were overseas. Holt’s first stint as a government minister came to an end in March 1940, when the coalition with the Country Party was reinstituted. His replacement was Arthur Fadden, another future prime minister.
He enlisted in the Militia in February 1939, joining a part-time artillery unit for businessmen and professionals. He was given indefinite leave during his ministerial service. In May 1940, without resigning his seat, Holt enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force with the intent of becoming a full-time soldier.
Several of his parliamentary colleagues did likewise at various points in the war. In a press statement, Holt said “as the youngest member of the House, I could not feel happy in my position if I were not prepared to make some sacrifice and take an active part”. He was sent to Puckapunval for training, and expected to be posted to North Africa or Palestine.
More could be said about his early political career but I don’t want to bore you too much so let’s move on to his role as Prime Minister.
He was sworn in as prime minister on 26 January 1966, following the retirement of Robert Menzies six days earlier. He won the leadership election unopposed, with William McMahon elected as his deputy. He was the first Australian prime minister born in the 20th century and the first born after federation. He was almost fourteen years younger than his predecessor, but, at the age of 57, was still the fourth-oldest man to assume the office.
He had been an MP for over 30 years before becoming prime minister, still the longest wait for any non-caretaker Prime Minister. Stylistically, he was more informal and contemporary than Menzies, and his wife accompanied him into the political spotlight. He gave the media an unprecedented level of access, and was the first prime minister to conduct regular press conferences and grant regular television interviews. His press secretary, Tony Eggleton, accompanied him virtually every time he travelled.
He loved the ocean, particularly spearishing, and had holiday homes in Victoria and Queensland. On 17 December 1967, while he was spending the weekend with four companions decided to stop at remote Cheviot Beach for a swim before lunch– he had spearfished there on many previous occasions, and claimed to “know this beach like the back of my hand”. Because of the rough conditions, only one other person, Alan Stewart, joined Holt in the water. Stewart kept close to shore, but he swam out into deeper water and was seemingly caught up in a rip eventually disappearing from view. One of the witnesses, Marjorie Gillespie, described it as “like a leaf being taken out […] so quick and final”.
Holt’s disappearance sparked “one of the largest search operations in Australian history”, but no trace of his body was ever found. At 10 p.m. on 18 December, Governor-General Lord Casey announced he had terminated Holt’s commission as prime minister upon his presumed death.
A police report released in early 1968 made no definitive findings about Holt’s death, while a colonial inquest in 2005 returned a verdict of accidental drowning. It is generally accepted that Holt overestimated his swimming ability. Some have alleged that he committed suicide, but those close to him rejected this as uncharacteristic of his personality. Conspiracy theories have included suggestions that he faked his own death, was assassinated by the CIA or was collected by a submarine so that he could defect to China.
A memorial service for Holt was held at St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne on 22 December, and attended by numerous world leaders. Aged 59 at the time of his death, Holt became the third Australian prime minister to die in office.
Jo-AnneRamplings 