Here we are at another Thursday here in Aussie land so it is time for a little more about life in the 1890’s here in Australia. This week we are looking at the clothing trade during the 1800’s the clothing industry consisted of three major sectors those being tailoring, dressmaking and millinery.
Tailoring was divided into coat, vest and trouser making, males were taught to make all garments while females made only one or two items. This led to the deskilling of tailoressess and the setting of low wages. Of course this saw men’s wages increase over time, with much of the sewing involved being done on steam powered machines.
The making of shirts, dresses and underclothing was left to the lower paid women to do.
An inquiry into the sweating system in Victoria in 1890 revealed the terrible conditions faced by some workers. It was reported that some women worked between 60 and 84 hours a week making clothes as diverse as dungarees, silk shirts and tweed trousers. One woman who worked 84 hours a week making tweed trousers at eight or ten shillings per dozen earning a total of only 31 shillings for all her work. She was the only one earning a wage as her husband was blind.
Some improvements were made in the late 1890’s when the wages board was set up to determine fair wages for factories and rates a piece of work for factories and outwork.
From this time the use of outwork began to drop off as it was less economical and at least on the surface the so called sweated labour less common. However, it was more likely driven further underground as desperate women fought to earn even a few shillings.
Good morning all, we are in for another stinking bloody hot day here in Newie anyway while I can still function more or less and if you could see how many mistakes I am making you would go with less functioning not more, just saying, what was I saying, oh yeah it is time for some Aussie Slang.
Turps: Turpentine or pure alcohol, if you go on the turps it means you are on a drinking binge
Two Up: A gambling game played by tossing tow coins simultaneously, that’s all I know never played the game
Tafe: Stands for Technical and further education common here in Australia, I went to Tafe after I left high school
Uni: University you know like college in some countries
Ute: A utility vehicle like a pick up part car part small truck like rear in which to store shit, it was designed to travel over rough ground like on a cattle station but is seen everywhere now days
Good morning all you may have noticed there was no Monday post this is because I was pretty unwell throwing up, extremely tired and felt like shit.
Ok time for this weeks creature and it is the Axolotl know what this is, how about if I say it is the Mexican Walking Fish.
However, it isn’t really la fish but an amphibian and like the frog and the toad they breath through their gills having three on each side of its head, just above the legs and skin.
However, unlike other amphibians they don’t develop past the larval stage which is the tadpole phase in frogs, if they did they would become salamanders.
They are native to Mexico and considered critically endangered, in the will they live for between 5 & 6 yrs but in captivity they can live up to 15yrs.
They are able to heal almost any injured body part, regenerating arms ,legs, tails, skin and even major organs such as the heart, liver and kidney.
I slept pretty much straight through the night waking once to pee at 11.40pm. Then the next thing I knew it was 5.11am and I needed to pee again.
Another stinking hot day turn the air con on at 11am.
Tim drove Sam over to his girlfriends.
Woke to heat it is going to be another stinking hot day, I have the doors opened but no cool breeze this morning. I turned the air con on at 8.30am due to dripping in sweat.
Tim has had his work appointment changed from today till Wednesday at 2.30pm. His physio went well as far as I know and yes I was sitting within feet of him but I put my headphones on and watch my tablet while his appointment is going on.
Damn it has turned out hot really hot and I am feeling drained.
What a morning, I woke up at 6am over sleeping by an hour and I feel rushed, so rushed I skipped my morning wash.
I then realised I took the wrong mediation last night taking my morning tablets instead of my night time meds. Explains why I had a hard time settling last night.
Then my mouse wouldn’t work I tried to change the battery didn’t help. After some fiddling around I got it working.
Tim went to the chemist I was expecting the meds to cost around $180 it cost $230, either prices have risen a lot or this chemist is just more expensive.
Had a better night sleep woke and got up at 4.50am it is suppose to be only around 21 degrees to much cooler then the last week.
Tim has gone to his doctors appointment then he has to go into work for the meeting about him returning to work.
Tim arrived home at 3.30pm and he was in a right mood, the meeting was cancelled and he was told they want a full clearance for him to work full time, damn if his doctor thought that was possible he would have done so already. They just want an excuse to sack him and as Tim finally said screw them and the job he doesn’t need this added stress in his life. I have been saying for a while if they sack him it will not be the end of the world.
Had a good nights sleep woke at 4.20am and after peeing I went back to bed for halfa getting up at 4.50am.
Sam told me about how his girlfriend had issues last night and ended up walking her to Sam’s place and how he was upset and worried about her, this caused him to have a bad night.
Tim drove me to the post office so I could buy a pre-paid satchel to send something to Kelli for Thea’s birthday. He was shocked at the cost, I wasn’t, it cost $30.
A new day has arrived after another good nights sleep.
When I got dressed this morning my shorts are very loose won’t be long before they will be falling off me if this continues. This as in me having bugga all appetite.
Managed a banana sandwich for breakie and a glass of chocolate milk.
I have been looking for Thea’s birthday present all day I know I have something, I just can’t find it.
I have felt ok most of the day but by around 2pm I started to feel restless, I ended up going to have a shower and it kinda helped.
Woke to a wet day and a cool day as well but I don’t need to leave the house today so it’s all cool.
Ok I remembered that Tim and I were talking about the electricity bill and how it hadn’t arrived, so this morning I went online to check it out for some reason our e-billing wasn’t in place I fixed that and the bill was due on the 1st February so I paid that. Later I will go back and set up direct debit payment again.
This afternoon I was shaking a lot, I looked like a fish out of water. Both Tim and Tasha want me to go back earlier to see the neurologist which means going to the GP to get a new referral then going to Sydney to see her, I am not so keen on the idea.
Do you know how Parkinson’s Disease get its name? Well it was down to a doctor named James Parkinson’s back in 1817. He noted what has became known as the classic symptoms of the condition tremor, rigidity, slow movements. Now days balance problems have been added to this list. There are other not so common symptoms.
Dr Parkinson first name for the condition was “shaking palsy”, I don’t know when it became more commonly referred to as Parkinson’s Disease.
Someone with Parkinson’s may not have all four of the main symptoms in fact some don’t have a tremor. However, from what I have read everyone with Parkinson’s has bradykinesia which is the slowness of movements. Generally speaking a person will not be diagnosed with Parkinson’s if they do not show signs of bradykinesia that said a person needs to have other symptoms in order to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
As mentioned not all suffers have a tremor and a tremor on it’s own could be something else. Tremors can be difficult to treat and may be disabling, even though usually the tremor can be treated with medication that either controls the tremor or eliminating it but of course they don’t always work. Around one in five Parkinson’s suffers have a treatment resistant tremor.
Then we have the issue with slow movements and smaller movements when being examined the doctor will have the patient tap the middle finger against the thumb so the doctor can see how big the movements are as well as how fast the movement is done.
Some other examples of this is small handwriting and taking more time to write the words from experience when saying handwriting they mean cursive writing not printing. Suffers also often find that their arms may stop swinging when they walk.
Then there is the problems with facial expressions which includes less blinking and have a mask like expression or may look like they are angry or upset when they are not either. They can have slurred speech spoken in a soft voice. Overtime they may find it hard to get out of a low chair and walk in a shuffling way.
Also under the umbrella of Bradykinesia comes a slowness in reaction time which is one reason why people with Parkinson’s fall over, as if they trip they cannot react fast enough to prevent a fall. It can also affect how someone gets in and out of bed, in and out of low chairs, and in and out of a car. Medication is good for this in the early stages of the disease.
Hello all time to step back till the late 1800’s and what the working life of people in Australia was like. According to a Victorian year book of 1894 something like 200,000 people were engaged in manufacturing work in the Aussie Colonies.
Items that started being made in commercial quantities such as biscuits and confectionery had been made in small workshops but slowly that faded out and the big manufacturing companies started to take over.
In the days before Australian factories things like boots, shoes, clothing and even cigarettes were imported from Britain or made in small local workshops. By the end of the 1800’s Australian factories would be competing with imported items.
In Melbourne boot and shoe factories were established in the inner city suburbs of Collingwood and Fitzroy. As I said earlier these items would have been made by a small family run business in which the man would cut, join and shape the leather.. His wife would have done the sewing while the children or another apprentice will do other tasks.
Even after the invention of the treadle sewing machine many still like to do the finishing work by hand.
Time for another creature and this week we are in South America and the creature is the Glasswinged Butterfly, I have never heard of it till I opened my book and saw it.
Unlike other butterflies which have colourful, patterned wings designed to warn off predators these ones do not. Instead they are pretty much invisible as its wings are all but transparent.
If you thought that was cool how about the fact that their 6cm wide wings can carry around 40 times it’s own weight and it is also a damn fast flyer at speeds of up to 13km an hour.
The glasswinged butterfly is most commonly found from Central to South America as far south as Chile, with appearances as north as Mexico and Texas. This butterfly thrives in the tropical conditions of the rainforests in the Central and South American countries.
The adult glasswinged butterfly can be identified by its transparent wings with opaque, dark brown borders tinted with red or orange. Their bodies are a dark brown colour. The butterflies are 2.8 to 3.0 centimetres (1.1 to 1.2 in) long and have a wingspan of 5.6 to 6.1 centimetres (2.2 to 2.4 in)
Jo-AnneRamplings 