Australians Under Fire Intro Pt 1

 

So, after going through some stuff, I found this book called Australians Under Fire 1942 and have decoded to use it for my Wednesday posts.  We will start with the introduction that is in the book because the start of the book is the best place to start if you don’t want to be all over the damn place, which I do not. As the title says this book is focused mostly on the year 1942.

It seems like the year 1942 was a dark, uncertain, and crucial one for Australia, with several events taking place such as the bombing of Darwin, the battle of the Coral Sea, Milne Bay, Kokoda and El Alamein these where all major events Australia played a part in.

Since the start of hostilities in September 1939 us Aussies had fought bravely on distant battlefields in Greece, Crete and the Middle East.

Then at the end on 1941 the Japanese joined the war, and, on the 7 December 1941, they bombed Pearl Harbour bringing the USA into the war.  Till this time the war seemed far away to Aussies, however these events frightened many Aussies.

As the Japanese steadily advanced against the British on the island fortress of Singapore it became obvious that Britain wouldn’t be able to defend Australia.

Ironically during the first World War Japan’s navy acted as one of Australia’s protectors and was now a feared enemy.

Japan was in an ideal position to launch an attack on the northern part of Australia.

More next week.

Time for another creature

 

Hello Tuesday, you are day for another freaky creature, this week it is the Common Basilisk, have you heard of it? I have not but it is a lizard that has been nicknamed the Jesus Christ lizard.

It received this nickname because of its ability to run on water. When it’s threatened it can escape by sprinting towards any water. When they reach the edge of the water they just keep going.

They run on their back legs with their body upright and arm by its side. They have been clocked at 8km/h on water and 11km/h on land.

The reason it’s so good on water is its feet, it has big feet with flaps of scaly skin along the toes which create air bubbles which then push down which keeps it afloat.

The young can run atop water for up to 20m, but adults can only manage a quarter of that, not because they are slower just bigger. 

There is little chance of them drowning as they are great swimmers and can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes.

More Facts Because it's Monday

 

Monday again, so time for some more facts, still about sea creatures.

There are a million known species of plants and animals living in the world’s oceans, with many more to be discovered.

There are around 65,000 newly discovered species of yet given formal names.

Coral reefs cover less than 1 per cent of the ocean floor, but support around 25 per cent of all marine life.

A female octopus is called hen, The Giant Pacific Octopus lays around 100,000 eggs at a time.

Most of the octopus’s body is spongy and flexible, but its eyes are more solid. Ost spies can squeeze through tight spaces that are only slightly larger than their eyes.

An octopus’s eyes remain at the same orientation regardless of its position, so if it is on its side or even upside now its gaze doesn’t change.

 

 

 

Week 16 of 2024

 

Another good night, slept till the alarm went off but I did get up once to pee. Temp is 15 degrees at 5am.

There was an incident in Sydney were a man entered a shopping centre and stabbed and killing up to 6 people including a 9-month-old, on the 5am news they said the baby was still alive, but the mother died. The man was shot and killed by a police officer.

Tasha came down and asked if I would like to go to Woolies myself tomorrow, I said I would.

Had a really good night, woke at 4.50am with at temp of 12 degrees according to the laptop or 15 degrees according to my phone.

Tasha took me out shopping but after half an hour, I start to sweat a lot it was dripping off me and I felt I was going to collapse.

The rest of the day has been good.

It is 10.30pm and I can’t settle down, I am drenched in sweat and my body will not stop moving.

Sam just walked in and is concerned that I am awake and that I am moving so much.

When I went back to bed last night Sam sat with me holing my hand and talking in a soft voice till, I started to relax. I then went back to sleep and slept through to 5am. It was 14 degrees when I got up but reached a top of 25 degrees.

Kathy dropped the girls off, they have spent a lot of time with Tasha, Tim bought Hungry Jacks for lunch.

Just before 11am I went for a nap slept for an hour and 15 minutes, could have slept longer but didn’t that would be a good idea.

The girls spent a far bit of time with Tasha.

Had a better night, although it did take me a while to fully settle.

Temp this morning is 16 degrees, I do have both front and back doors open but will close one shortly, I expect.

By 11am it is 23 degrees.

Tim rang to see how we go about arranging for a bulk waste collection, as I thought the Dept of Housing needs to arrange it. I thought Tim was somewhat rude on the phone but he didn’t.

It is chilly Thursday morning here in my part of Newie, a decent enough sleep after a restless start to the night. It is 15 degrees at 5.30am, by midday it was 24 degrees.

Tim went and brought fresh bread a couple of snags and a bit of bacon and made snags, bacon & cheese sandwiches for lunch.

It started to rain at 3pm, the temp was still 22 degrees. The rain was pissing down but didn’t last long.

It is cold this morning with a temp of 13 degrees, too cold now to open the doors. I had a good night better than the last few as I settled down much faster.

Kathy rang as she usually does on a Friday, but she was in a right mood so didn’t talk, instead I said we will talk on Monday.

Sam came down this morning to just chill with me for a while and was here over an hour maybe longer.

I am having trouble settling again so I got up for a bit, spent 45 minutes talking to Tim, now I am back to bed.

After returning to bed last night I settled without issue, I slept till the alarm went at 5am. It is a wet morning with a temp of 15 degrees, I think we are in for a wet day.

Jess came down to tell me about an issue she had with her dad last night concerning Sam‘s medication and how she doesn’t keep track of it.

When he got up Tim showed me the messages from Jess, they were not bad messages and a couple of his replies seemed childish to me and uncalled for and I said so. I know he was pissed that I didn’t agree 100% with him but I don’t have to.

It has rained on and off all day getting to a top temp of 17 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Borderline Personality Disorder

 

Have you heard of borderline personality disorder?

Do you know what it is?

Well, I am going to tell you.

Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness that severely impacts a person's ability to manage their emotions. This loss of emotional control can increase impulsivity, affect how a person feels about themselves, and negatively impact their relationships with others.

There are nine signs of the condition.

·         Fear of Abandonment. You're going to leave me

·         Intense Interpersonal Relationships

·         Identity Disturbance

·         Impulsivity

·         Recurrent Self-Harm/Suicidal Behaviour

·         Affective Instability

·         Chronic Emptiness

·         Inappropriate Anger

·         Psychotic Symptoms

 

This isn’t a condition I suffer from, but I do have a sister who does. Over the next few Saturdays, I will be writing more about this condition. Explaining a little more about each of the nine signs.

Parkinson's and walking

 

Well, here we are at another Friday so here is a bit more about Parkinson’s Disease, this week we are looking a bit more at walking with Parkinson’s.

There are a number of very specific and somewhat strange symptoms that can affect one’s walking.  The most common would be what is called start hesitancy, this is when someone with Parkinson’s goes to take a step and can’t, this is because the automatic movement of lifting one foot off the ground doesn’t happen.  The reason for this seems to be that the disease makes it difficult to induce the reflex reaction to shift the centre of gravity on to one foot so the other can be lifted and moved forward.

This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it becomes near impossible to walk, because it comes and goes some family, or friends may think the person isn’t trying but the fact is the more we try to move the more difficult it is to do so.

Oddly many will find using stairs not as difficult as walking on flat ground.

Sometimes if the sufferer is given a little push to try and get them moving, they will stumble then start to walk with small steps often becoming faster an unable to stop till they either fall or run into a wall or other obstruction. Trust me this is frightening and embarrassing and so hard for people to understand. It is called retropulsion or propulsion and in a crowded place can be dangerous.

If someone has this problem often, they should always at least have a walking stick with them which brings attention to the fact they have walking issues, making it less likely that other people will bump into them, as well as the fact having a stick will go a long way in preventing this symptom from raising its damn head.

Working Life in 1890's Australia

 

Throughout the 1890’s conferences had been held about the six colonies forming a federation, workers formed a large part of those who voted yes to the idea in the referendums held about it, the federation was formed on 1 January 1901.

Changes in Australian import and export affected waterside workers, as in they had more work.

As local manufacturing of clothing increased many women found work in factories.

The blacksmith was a familiar figure in city and towns when the horse was the main means of transport.

Women’s domestic work whether as a paid servant or a wife, mother or daughter was seen as a basic occupation. The telephonist back before it all went automatic was a new job mainly held by women.

Bread was known as the “staff of life” and during the 1890’s it was considered an important trade.

The increase in building work made trades such as carpentry and stonemasonry so important. Carpentry was used not only in the building of buildings but also in the creating of bridges, and fine furniture.

That is done with this series of post, there will be something different next Thursday.