Hello everyone, we are in for a truly stinking hot day with a top temp of 40 degree at the moment it is around 29 degrees and it is 6.30am as I start to write this.
Today is Australia Day an important and much celebrated day for this great country, it is also my darling husband’s 63rd birthday. We have no plans for today but the girls may arrive tomorrow to have lunch with their dad Jess can’t do today as she has been working all night.
Since it is Aussie Day I thought I would just share a few facts about the day.
Records of celebrations on 26 January date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It was not until 1935 that all Australian states and territories adopted use of the term “Australia Day” to mark the date of the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove.
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove in New South Wales.
It was not until the thirtieth anniversary of European settlement, in 1818, that Governor Lachlan Macquarie officially created a public holiday in New South Wales. During this time other newly founded colonies were also celebrating their own beginnings, through sporting events, picnics and anniversary dinners.
Ok let’s move on from being a servant and move on to occupations outside of the home, which were many and varied, if one was lucky to have one.
Looking through old year books and statistical registers of the time one will notice many occupations that no longer exist and those that do still exist may have transformed into something completely different.
Know what a gripman was? No, well I will tell you it was the person who controlled the cable trams in the 1890’s but is now an obsolete with the arrival of the electric tram.
Because the horse was the made mode of transport the blacksmith was very important in the city and country alike. Same can be said for saddle and harness-markers, and farriers, were widespread and vital to society that depended on the horse.
Now these professions are considered specialised occupations for the leisure industry.
Jobs in the building industry such as a stonemason became less important with the invention of pre-cast concrete, it was such changes that contributed to the unemployment problems of the late nineteenth century.
Wages varied a bloody lot back then depending on your level of skill and the state of the labour market. In New South Wales in 1899 a skilled brewery worker such as a barrel maker could earn as much as three pounds ten shillings per week. A bottle washer working for the same company would be lucky to make one pound two shillings a week. A blacksmith would make between ten and twelve shillings per day in 1890 and the same in 1898. Victorian year books show that sailors earned seven pounds in 1890 and only six pounds in 1898 that’s per month.
Time for another creature and this week it is the Cuttlefish which despite it’s name is not a fish but a mollusc.
This oceanic master of disguise changes colour depending on its surroundings, it has eight arms, two tentacles, three hearts and one of the largest brains compared to its body size of all invertebrates. It has a sharp beak-like mouth that it uses like scissors to open flesh, it then uses its tentacles to tear out the meat.
People have at times found pieces of white feather-shaped cuttle bone washed up on a beach, it’s unique to cuttlefish and what keeps it afloat. Jewellers use it to make moulds for small objects, it’s often given to pet birds as a source of calcium.
“Fresh, raw cuttlefish has a texture and taste superior to squid,” Susman continues. With a light eggwhite and green-melon aroma, a texture that’s tender, and a flavour that boasts mild milky notes and a fresh cream finish, they are stunning raw, but can hold their own in a deep-fried salt-and-pepper play, too
Hello everyone here are some more facts about Earth.
The Earth’s inner core is so hot it could melt metal, it remains solid because it is surrounded by such immense pressure.
The Earth is made up of different layers, which formed when the planet was young and extremely hot. These layers are all held in place by the enormous force of gravity, acting upon the planets inner core and incredibly hot ball of iron and nickel.
Some of the layers are partly molten which means that they contain extremely hot liquid and are covered by an outer layer of solid rock and called the crust.
The rock that makes up the surface of the Earth is constantly changing as more and more layers are added. Its composition can be divided into three different types of rock.
Estimates of the temperature of the Earth’s inner core vary but scientists believe it is most likely between 5,000 – 7,000 degrees Celsius or 9,000-13,000’s degrees Fahrenheit.
Up earlier then I would have liked as I woke at 4am and after 40 minutes of tossing and turning I decided to get up.
I have done bugger all today answered one letter and did some blogging.
Slept in till 5.50am which was a surprise but not a big deal. Another cooler day.
Kathy rang she said that Summer now has Covid.
Tim had an appointment with the new physio a nice young woman, she wants him to do some exercises and will be back in 2 weeks.
Sue came over to see me and just have a vent about her body aches and such, I get it and it helps to be able to vent to someone who knows what you are going through.
Had a good night up at 4.50am and thankfully it isn’t hot just nice. Doesn’t stop me sweating but what does other then bloody cold weather and then that can be hit and miss.
Stuck the diary entries into the new diary only to find that some weeks have been stuffed up with Wednesday & Thursday being on the same page like Saturday & Sunday’s are very annoying but it is what it is.
Jessica’s Christmas present finally arrived I sent her a text to come over and get it but she hasn’t replied or come over.
Tasha came down with Freya to help me get ready for bed.
Slept pretty much straight through the night I did get up to pee at some point. We are in for another hot day.
Sue came over to get help filling out some paperwork to get assistance with the cost of moving to Qld. After finishing the paperwork and emailing it off she is told she needs to include her invoices but she hasn’t moved yet, seems she has to move first and then lodge a claim for reimbursement. This had her is tears as she has no idea what she is going to do.
Just as Sue was leaving the cleaners turned up.
As the cleaners left Tasha came down to ask if she could borrow our car this afternoon. Tim started to record the conversation which pissed her off not the recording bit but the fact that he just started doing something else while she was talking to him. This is something he has done his whole life.
Gave Jessica her belated Christmas present which she loved a photo block of her favourite dog “Dot Dot”
Had another good night, woke just before 5am got up but my body has been in a go slow mood. It is going to be another hot sticky day.
Tasha has at last got another job as a domestic cleaner she is happy about it and starts on Monday. She didn’t really want to work as a cleaner again but a paying job is a paying job and she will give it her best.
Tasha and Freya came and helped me get ready for bed.
A much cooler start to the day I had to close the front sliding door as the breeze was making my legs cold.
Kathy and Summer arrived around 8.30am, Summer is here till her dad picks her up after lunch. Summer went up to Tasha’s to see the kitten.
Freya came and said goodbye as she was going home but she told me she would be back in five days.
Slept in as I was tired, I got up to pee at what I thought was 3.40am but now I think it was in fact 4.40am and it was 5.40am when I got up, I am not worried.
Tasha rang at 6.30 to get me to go and wake Blain up as he has work and has to leave in 10-15 minutes and he wasn’t answering his phone. I went and I woke him up.
Hot but I haven’t turned the air con on as Tim doesn’t think it is that hot.
Tim went to Coles to get a few things as he was returning to the car he fell over, took the skin off his knee and elbow but managed to pick himself up and come home without issue.
Tasha told me that Blain went back to sleep after I left him this morning.
Ok here is the question what the hell is Parkinson’s Disease, well from what I know it is neurodegenerative disorder in such diseases neurons which are brain cells die sooner than normal both inside and outside the brain, although most damage occurs in the brain.
We are born with hundreds of billions of neurons and yes many die off naturally and most people have plenty of “spare” neurons. Now unlike most cells neurons don’t reproduce to generate new nerve cells for when something goes wrong.
With a neurodegenerative condition certain types of neurons die at a much faster rate then normal wear and tear and are not replaced.
When too many neurons die a persons everyday motions such as walking, talking, swallowing and writing are effected. Our brains need something called dopamine to assist the neurons to function like fine tuning our brain actions. However, with Parkinson’s this fine tuning action is lost when the dopamine neurons die.
So a persons movements become less smooth and more stiffer, slower and they appear to hesitate when trying to move or do stuff.
Now here we are at another working life in the 1890’s last week I wrote about being a servant and this week I am also writing about being a servant.
The mistress of the household would normally have been taught to cook so she can instruct her cook on such manners. Knowledge of what a mistress should expect from her servants was part of the education of a “young lady”.
There were mistresses of the household who had themselves been a servant and these women were often feared by their servants as they would often impose harsher conditioners. One would have thought they would be more compassionate and understanding but no they were not.
There were of course many households that didn’t have servants and by 1901 only one in ten Australian households had them.
Women who did unpaid domestic work for their husbands and families ranged from lower middle-class women who did not work outside the home, to those who also worked in factories or were servants themselves.
Society of course expected every home to be spic and span regardless of how many servants they had or even if they had none. Housework is still considered “women’s work” by many even in the 21 century.
There were males servants and they earnt more then the women and like the work done by women the men also had very demanding jobs such as coachmen, grooms, gardeners and general handyman type work.
The family’s coachman was expected to always be ready to take the family on outings when required. Many coachmen found themselves chauffeurs by the end of the 19 century, when more well to do families acquired a motor-car.
There were many servants who did not “live-in” but worked part time at the homes of the well to do, also many took in washing and sewing. During the depression of the 1890’s these women would often be the only breadwinner in the home. Some considered themselves lucky if the made one pound a week, to support a family of more then 5 people.
Good morning all unless it’s not morning then good afternoon or good evening depending on where in the world you are. It is time for this weeks creature and it is then wraparound spider.
This spider is found on the western side of Australia and is only small females are 9mm in length and males only 5mm, they have venom but are not particularly dangerous to humans.
Their colour makes it easy for them to conceal themselves in trees as they are built for tree hugging its body is shaped like a shield with the underside concaved to fit snugly around a branch and its abdomen slightly raised to complete a line.
It builds large orb shaped webs between trees in order to catch its prey.
