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2210

Poor Brendan, I think any other Nelson will do.

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Copied from gairid

I am the sonnet, never quickly thrilled; Not prone to overstated gushing praise Nor yet to seething rants and anger, filled With overstretched opinions to rephrase; But on the other hand, not fond of fools, And thus, not fond of people, on the whole; And holding to the sound and useful rules, Not those that seek unjustified control. I’m balanced, measured, sensible (at least, I think I am, and usually I’m right); And when more ostentatious types have ceased, I’m still around, and doing, still, alright. In short, I’m calm and rational and stable – Or, well, I am, as much as I am able. What Poetry Form Are You?

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Copied from <lj user = “gairid”>

I am the sonnet, never quickly thrilled; Not prone to overstated gushing praise Nor yet to seething rants and anger, filled With overstretched opinions to rephrase; But on the other hand, not fond of fools, And thus, not fond of people, on the whole; And holding to the sound and useful rules, Not those that seek unjustified control. I’m balanced, measured, sensible (at least, I think I am, and usually I’m right); And when more ostentatious types have ceased, I’m still around, and doing, still, alright. In short, I’m calm and rational and stable – Or, well, I am, as much as I am able. What Poetry Form Are You?

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2208

I watched two documentaries last night, generally on an Anzac theme because today is Anzac Day here. The first one was called the Gallipoli Submarine. It was about what was widely believed to be a suicide mission of the Australian submarine, AE2, commanded by an Irishman, Henry Stoker, the cousin of the author of Dracula, Bram Stoker.  Here is an article in the UK paper printed a few months ago –

Henry Stoker: sailor,sportsman, actor, hero

and here is a link to a page which gives details about the role of Australian and British submarines in the Dardanelles –

Henry Stoker, DSO and the AE2

Henry Stoker sounds quite a character.

The second documentary was called Missing:Presumed Dead. It was about a wallet that belonged to a German soldier from World War I that somehow found its way to a curio shop in Adelaide, Australia where Gerard Reed (the maker of the documentary) discovered it.  The wallet contained the personal papers of Heinrich Bornkamp and these included photos and letters from a young woman. On the presumption that the young farm worker had been killed Reed then set out to find any descendents or relatives of the young German soldier. He also explores a matching story of his own great-uncle, Pat Murphy (an airman in the Royal Air Force in WWI) who had also disappeared. Sad story really in that Pat Murphy’s family never truly accepted had died and always left a door unlocked, so when Pat found his way home he could get in.  

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I enjoyed Bill Leake’s cartoons this week.

The spineless book is so descriptive of the ex-Treasurer.

and Lord Downer is definitely a tool.

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2207

I enjoyed Bill Leake’s cartoons this week.

The spineless book is so descriptive of the ex-Treasurer.

and Lord Downer is definitely a tool.

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2206

I went to the casualty section of the local hospital to get my knee x-rayed, arrived 9:00 am left 6:20 pm. It took that long. I think originally they didn’t see it as that serious and so I had a relatively low priority. Once I did have an x-ray and they found a break in the knee joint itself. I then had to wait around for a CT scan of the knee and have an ECG because they were more worried that I didn’t really remember clearly how I fell down the stairs and thought there was some heart problem. Eventually about 5 pm I got to see an orthopedic specialist who gave me the option of having an operation or let it heal itself. I went with the latter, as in both cases I’m stuck with a zimmer splint and crutches for the next six weeks. The zimmer splint is a pain in the butt. I shall try to be good and wear it when out but won’t when I’m at home.

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Ow!!!

Fell down a flight of stairs today when I was walking down the stairs in my apartment block to go to work. I lay on the ground at the bottom for a while, shaking with shock and then got myself together and clawed myself upright. My right leg was sore and stiff but could support my weight so decided to continue on to work. But by the time the bus got into town, the right knee had swollen and my leg was really stiff and sore. Got some painkillers but decided to drop in to one of those bulk-billing medical clinics where they churn the patients through just to have the knee checked out. The old grumpy looking individual who saw me did not inspire confidence but believed I probably hadn’t done anything more than strain some ligaments and suggested I go home and rest the leg for the next two days and wrote a medical certificate for me, suggesting that if the leg was still extremely painful tomorrow morning to go to the nearest hospital and get an x-ray. I rang work to tell them I wouldn’t be in and got the bus home. That last walk from the bus stop and then up the flights of stairs to my place was a real killer. My knee is even more swollen and the pain killers only partially work. It takes all my effort just to go to the bathroom. I’m hoping that after resting it today and tonight the swelling will have gone down tomorrow.

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2204

I have been watching a program about the kidnap and sale of children in China. It’s absolutely appalling. They filmed this poor family whose little boy was kidnapped and I assume sold to the highest bidder by traffickers and another family who were luckier and had their child rescued. They interviewed the little boy and the poor little thing had thought his parents had sold him and was threatened with being bashed if he didn’t behave. 

There were other parents who had an “illegal” child and were desperate enough to sell her. They were introduced to a guy whose business is buying and selling people. He started by selling his girlfriend to someone but now he told the interviewer he’s mainly into buying and selling children now. He even sold his youngest son when his wife died and the elder son knows about it. What a horrible thing for the little boy to know. The strangest thing was the guy felt no guilt about what he did, blaming the people who bought and sold the children, saying he wasn’t the bad guy and then near the end of the show he said something like, “I think there must be something wrong with treating children as goods, but I can’t figure out what it is.” And he really did seem confused. Is there such a lack moral values within Chinese society that he can’t see what is wrong with what he does?

Here is a link to the ABC 4 Corners site where the documentary was screened –

China’s Stolen Children

There are links to the UK’s Channel 4 who actually produced the documentary last year. It seems the Chinese Government tried very hard to get the screening of the documentary stopped in the UK.

 

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