General Chat

Good morning all:)

Linda..So glad you Mum is on the mend, I hope she continues to improve.
Take care xx

Well, we are all OK and survived the wild weather. Looking around outside this morning I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about cos usually we are always hit pretty bad here!
The only thing I found out of place was the recycle bin, it was lying on its side.
We are expecting more bad weather over the next couple of days.
We have had some good rains, so I'm expecting Spring is going to be beautiful here once all the trees and flowers start to blossom:))

Have a great day Aussies:))
Sleep peacefully pommies:))

Regards
Carole xx

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I was last on here. Linda, I do hope your Mum is continuing to improve and that the Ward she's in isn't too busy to see to her needs.

I've read some of the other threads that have been mentioned on here. I find it amazing how some people just "attack" when someone offers an opinion. I don't understand the reason for such aggression (can you tell I'm a Pisces?!!)

I hope everyone is well or if sick, improving. We actually have some clouds about, I'm washing towels in the hopes that it will rain.

I find I'm having to do shorter posts also, as after a while the site starts jumping. Grrrr

I'm hoping to track down a receipt my grandmother's brother brought over from Kent of my great grandfather's funeral. It mentions his blue satin lined coffin. Alas, I suspect my cousin has thrown it out - she whose mother was mad keen on family history but unfortunately due to a brain disease, now has very little memory. Fingers crossed.

Have a great 24 hours!!!!
Al

Hello, everyone:))

Carole I'm glad you survived the bad weather. The winds were very strong through the night but, as I said earlier, we're ok too.

Alison nice to see you again and I hope you are well.

Hopefully I will talk to some of you later this evening/morning:)

Sue xx

Tec - I have given the matter a lot of thought and decided that I want the half of the cruiser which has the most lifeboats on it.

Er, Berona...

...that was the half that sank before people got a chance to use the lifeboats!

Fortunately, all the passengers and crew got off safely but it was very crowded in the boats that did get away :)

(my first smiley face)

Allan

Good morning to all of the windy Aussies and to the soggy Brits.

I feel strange this morning because normally on a Wednesday I am rushing off to mums to do her housework etc. I shall be visiting her in hospital this afternoon of course, but that gives me an unexpected morning at home. It is simply not right to be here on Wednesday morning, obviuosly must be far more of a creature of habit than I thought.

So what to do? Well I have decided to indulge myself and fritter it away by playing with my family tree,how decadent of me.

Linda, a morning to yourself:)) Glad you're not going to wash floors or anything silly like that. Enjoy the unexpected morning off:)

Sue xx

Good evening Aussies, good morning Brits- I few weeks ago I lost my wallet. 10 minutes of panic before I found it where it had fallen out of my trouser pocket.
Allan, how long ago was your incident? Then again, how long has Virgin Blue been flying here?
Tec, wonder also how long ago since you've been here. If its more tahn 30 years you probably wouldn't know the place, although the Bridge (1932) is still there. Looks ugly at the moment with maintenance gantries. Someone mentioned Darling Harbour. The old railway goods yards are now a showpiece. The Opera House would have been started, as you are not that old and was opened in 1973. The old girl is showing her age. Trust me, I know, as in my job I have been in the underbelly of the building.
This site is beginning to jump abouty on me and as I don't want to cut and past from an Office doc I will go now. I find it very annoying. Colin.

Hi everyone - whatever time it is,

Today has been a horrible day - weather wise - it rained heavily here for 14 hours. The wind was not as bad as we anticipated, but bad enough.
That was the passing of the nearly spent Hurricane Bill. There are still many tourists here, they deserve better weather.

Berona........We need not concern ourselves with lifeboats. We will have a Heli-pad, with the last word in helicopters, and a skilled pilot. First sign of trouble and we'll be up and away.

Colin.........I first visited your amazing country as a wide eyed, fresh faced youth of 18, in 1959. Having left college prematurely, infuriated my father, I decided that I had to see the world. The only way for me to do this, at that time, was to go to sea. I have never regretted that descision.
I was thereafter in and out of Australia for the next 16 years. My last visit was in 1975. I watched the construction of the Sydney Opera House in phases - I remember being fascinated by the revolutionery design, as it was in those days. I am saddened to hear that she is showing her age -
but so am I - the difference being she can probably be repaired.
As you say, if I were to visit Sydney now, or any Australian city, then I probably wouldn't recognise it.

Tec.

Good morning/evening all:)) I hope everyone is well.

Tec, did you ever leave Sydney area and head south? I live only an hour or so south from Sydney in the Illawarra region. You would see enormous changes in Sydney now. I think it's an exciting city and I love the Darling Harbour, Circular Quay and Taronga Park Zoo in Mosman. A cruise on Sydney Harbour is always enjoyable no matter how many times you do it. We had visitors from England stay with us and the first time we took them to the city they couldn't believe how close the Bridge and the Opera House are to each other.

I'm chairing a meeting today to try and get some "honest" answers as to whether the Cancer Council is intending to do a take-over of our organization. We are not getting any answers to our questions so it seemed the best thing to do was to call a meeting and put our questions to these people face to face. We will also have the head of the cancer services at the meeting to see if we can determine whose “side” she is on. She is contradicting most of what I’m hearing from the Cancer Council people. Isn’t life supposed to get easier as we get older? I’m more busy now than I was as a young mother bringing up 3 children:))

I’m sure I’ll talk to some of you later in the morning. Enjoy the rest of your evening Poms and have a good day Aussies.

Sue xx

Good evening/morning all

Tec, I hope that the bad weather has now passed.

Alison, we share the same star sign!

Colin, I'm not sure how long ago it was that I lost my wallet. I seem to be losing track of time these days, but it was probably six or seven years ago as I have been semi retired for three years now and it happened whilst I was in full time employment.

Linda, I hope that your mum continues to make progress with regards to her health.

Carole, glad you escaped the wind with the only damage being to your recycling bin.

I got some good news yesterday....I passed the Food Safety Auditing course and am now a qualified Food Safety Auditor. On the down side the qualification is not worth the paper it's printed on. We had two major assignments to submit at the end of the course and I sweated to get mine in on time. I know of at least one person on the course who did not bother submitting any assignments, and guess what? Yep he has also qualified!

Allan

I received the following in an email from my daughter:

A four year old girl was curious as to her origins so she asked her mother where she came from.

Her mother explained that God made Adam and Eve and that people were descended form them.

Not being satisfied with this, the youn girl then posed the same question to her father.

He explained that people were descended from monkeys.

By now thoroughly confused, the young lass went back to her mother and told her what her father had said.

The mother explained, "Ah! I was talking about my side of the family. Your father was talking about his side!"

Allan

Good morning Allan - looks like we're the only two around:))

How frustrating to work so hard and find that people who haven't done the hard work still have the same piece of paper. Will you be working in that area now or did you need it to continue doing what you have been. My OH was doing a job for quite a few years before being told that he and others would now have to be trained and be qualified. The whole process was silly but it made the company happy.

Sue xx

Edit - I like that one, Allan:))

Evening :-))))


Regarding silly ideas by those who should know better, I've been told by two taxi drivers that, despite having been driving for a living for approx 15 years each, they now have to do an NVQ to qualify as a taxi driver.

Btw can anyone tell me where Inner Mongolia is and what time it is there please???

(You can blame Daff for this last question, she's got me wondering pmsl)

Good morning Sue,

Basically I will still be doing the same work. The legislation relating to food hygiene has now gone from an enforcement type of environment to an auditing one.

Currently Premises preparing food for 'At Risk' groups eg the elderly, young children (pre-schoolers) hospitals now have to have food safety plans which are developed on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points principles.

This concept will soon be introduced into all premises preparing food for sale and it is those plans that we will now have to critique, firstly to see if they are adequate and if they are then are they being applied correctly.

Most of the legislation is now based on Australian Standards and it is that organisation (SAI ) that approves auditors. The legislaion is now uniform throughout Australia.

I would add that reall p*ssed me off with the Guy who didn't submit his assignments was that he works for the Shire in which I live and as the course cost over $1000.00 that came out of the ratepayers money. I had to pay out of my own pocket!

Glad you liked the joke: it seemed appropriate for this site:)

Allan

Good evening Cat

What???

Inner Mongolia is inside Outer Mongolia and I think about an hour behind!!

In other word, I haven't a flaming clue. But welcome anyway

Regards

Allan

Good morning/evening all. Sue, I hope your meeting goes well for you. Good luck!

Tec - your mention of the Opera House construction brought back memories of a day when my family and I attended a medals award ceremony in the grounds of Government House which is within Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens. I arrived late and had to park almost into the gardens, then when leaving, my two older children went with their grandparents whilst I pushed a stroller and walked with my 4 y.o. back to my car.

By the time I got the two little ones settled and drove back to the entrance to the gardens, all other cars had gone and the gates were closed and locked, so , with no other way to go, I turned the car around and went forward into the gardens, noticing that the 'road' seemed to get very narrow - just wide enough for the car. Gardeners were busy and looked up, but seemed unconcerned and looked back at their work, so I continued, looking for a way out. I seemed to drive for ages (around quite a few sharp bends) before I came out at the construction site of the Opera House - but I was on the side of a 'hill' and nearly down to the street level. The site was fenced all around, so I could still only go forward towards the keyside buildings (and traffic).
I decided to 'bump' down the gutter - until I saw how deep it was! No other choice but to put the car into reverse - and drive all the way back up the pathway and through the gardens (backwards!) until I was back up at Government House, where I noticed the garage doors were open and no Rolls there! The Governor had gone out - so I was able to turn around there, and luckily, the gates were open this time - and I made my way out onto the busy street - and headed for home!

Of course, this made me arrive home about an hour later than expected and my parents were getting worried - but I learned that I had driven where no vehicles were allowed to drive. To this day, I wonder why one of the gardeners didn't give me some kind of signal to let me know I couldn't drive there. Some of that pathway has now disappeared with re-construction of the area and some people don't know how I could have driven a car there. When I think about it, I don't know either!!!

Good morning Berona,

I am still having a laugh at your driving experience. I suppose that if you did that these days you'd have to explain yourself to a squad of SAS officers!

Allan

Hi Folks,
I have sat here for ages writing a long post to you all, answering something Sue asked me, and other things
With difficulty because the cursor kept skiping about jumbling the letters up (still doing it.t)
Then, just about to submit when page went blank informing me
Web Page could not be found ??????????
Then had to sign in again - lost long post

Fed up
Tec.