(*) Kangaroo

I painted this "Sidney Nolan"-inspired Kangaroo when I was in about First Class at school, aged about 6-ish...

These days it's framed and sitting on display on the side of my bookcase... one of the first things you see as you go to enter my bedroom here :)

I say Sidney Nolan-inspired, because I dunno why but it makes me think of Nolan's work somehow... especially the interesting tones... and the orange glowing eyes! oooohhh!!! The bush theme, the dark, sombre tones... kinda weiird for a kid to paint? Or perhaps I'm just trying to read too much into it...? yes yes, that's it...

(*) Remember

Not to be goulish. Not at all.

I've been reading a book called "Auschwitz" by Laurence Rees (BBC Books, 2005). It's a very detailed, balanced and human account of the insanity that prevailed in and around this notorius place during the Nazi's twisted reign in WWII.
http://remember.org/jacobs

Lesser know but just as deadly was a death camp factory at Treblinka, which murdered over 700,000 innocent Poles and Jews in 1942 alone...

NEVER FORGET.

(*) My Nan was a hero

My Nan (my dads' mum) has been gone for about ten years now, but she was a hero. Not just in my mind - a real-life hero. She saved someone's life.

Nan used to babysit three kids for a well-to-do family that lived in one of the more exclusive parts on the northern side of Sydney in the 1970's. I remember visiting two of that familys' houses - virtual palaces to my young eyes. I would have been about 11-12-13 at the time. Waterfront, own private wharf, motor launch, swimming pools, a gardener... I'm sure these people had worked hard for what they'd got, but this was kinda almost *obscene* whay they had, to my lower-middle-class way of thought!

Anyways, Nan was a good friend of the family, and as she got older she had the time to be able to babysit and be like a part-time "Nanny" for this family of three kids, a girl and two boys. I don't remember the parents at all, altho I'm sure I would have met them at one point. Nan would pick me up somedays and we'd hang out at this place while she was looking after the kids sometimes. Must have been during the school holidays, I guess.

Anyways... she was a hero because - she saved the life of one of those kids. It was just one normal day with just Nan and the three kids. It was one of those split-second things... apparently the youngest daughter, aged about 3-ish, snuck out and somehow got into the enclosed swimming pool area. Nan noticed that she was 'missing,' and yes, a quick search found Nan gazing down beside the pool... the girl was laying face-down in the bottom of the pool!!!

Now, Nan was no small, petite lady, given to graceful feats of physicality. But she lept in, grabbed the girl and dragged her to the surface and the side if the pool in almost one swift motion. Using a clear head (that years of Scout training had instilled in her... (Nan was my "Akala" as a cub-scout as well! heh heh), he gave the girl mouth-to-mouth - she wasn't breathing. Sure enough, the kid coughed up some water, started breathing - and started to cry!

Apparently Nan burst into tears she was so relieved! That was the best sound she could have hoped to hear - the child crying... she was breathing! And yes, the child was fine fine fine, but the paramedics who arrived soon after said that if she'd been laying on the bottom of the pool for only a few more seconds...

Nan didn't think when it happened - she didn't have time to, she just did what her instincts told her to. It was only afterwards that she became very upset and emotional. At the time, I remember her telling me, it was all very clear, precise, almost in slow motion when it happened. She knew what she had to do, so she just did it! It didn't matter than Nan hadn't been in a pool herself for like ten years or something! Whoo hoo for my Nan!

Yeah, my Nan was a hero.

I love her still anyways. But it's not everyday you remember how heroic your Nan was in a moment of crisis. Yay for 'random thoughts' at 3 in the morning! heh heh


(Nan in c.1985)

Cyalayta
Mallard d'Quackers

It's official - PM Harold Holt drowned!

Mystery of lost prime minister put to rest at last

By James Grubel Fri Sep 2,12:20 PM ET

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's most enduring political mystery came to an end Friday when authorities ruled that the prime minister who disappeared almost 40 years ago had drowned and was not assassinated or taken by a Chinese submarine.

Harold Holt disappeared while swimming in heavy seas at a surf beach in the southern state of Victoria on December 17, 1967, after serving almost two years as prime minister.

His body was never found, sparking a wave of rumors and often crackpot theories about his fate, including that he was killed by American assassins.

A book on 59-year-old Holt's disappearance even said he had been a spy and was picked up by a Chinese submarine and taken to Beijing.

But Victorian state coroner Graeme Johnstone said in a formal ruling Friday that Holt had drowned in rough seas at Cheviot Beach, south of Melbourne.

"Simply put, Mr. Holt took an unnecessary risk and drowned in rough water off Cheviot Beach," Johnstone ruled.

Johnstone's finding came after inquiries with Australia's chief spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), and after reviewing evidence and witness statements from those at the beach when Holt disappeared.

Until 1985, the coroner was not allowed to hold inquests in cases when a body was not found. Johnstone's belated finding came as part of a wider investigation into 85 drownings in Victoria where bodies were not found.

CHARISMATIC LEADER

Holt, a charismatic politician who loved sport and outdoor activities and who was popular with women, became leader of the conservative government in January 1966 after the retirement of his Liberal Party founder, Sir Robert Menzies.

Holt's government oversaw an historic referendum in 1967 which resulted in indigenous Aborigines being counted in the national population census for the first time.

But he drew criticism for his close ties with the United States, which sparked violent protests during a visit by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and his decision to increase Australia's military commitment to the Vietnam war.

Johnstone's inquiry examined a range of theories surrounding Holt's death, including suggestions he had been taken by a shark, that he had been a paid Chinese spy since 1929 and that he committed suicide.

Another theory suggested he had been picked up in a boat by his bodyguard and went to live in Geneva with his lover.

It was also suggested that Holt had wanted to pull Australian troops out of Vietnam, prompting American secret agents to go to Australia to assassinate him or force him to commit suicide.

But Johnstone said all those theories were "fanciful."

"It is sad that, over the years, all of these fanciful or unusual theories about Mr. Holt's disappearance should receive public ventilation, overshadow his life and require an explanation," Johnstone said.

(Source)

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'Bout bloody time they made a decision about Holt, eh? pmsl! Who says there's anything wrong living in a beurecratic society, eh? farking hell!!! What a joke...