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Dec 2011A wonderful family celebrationFriday, 30th December 2011We are having a wonderful time in Barraba now. We had my son Iain and his partner Rachel up from Sydney on Xmas Eve and on Xmas day. They had to stay in the Playhouse Hotel because we don't have any spare rooms. They really enjoyed our entertainment and our meals on our beautiful back deck. The weather was pretty good so we all had a good time. This week we have had our daughter Rachel, or so-in-law Jeremy and our granddaughters Claire and Julia from San Francisco up from Sydney. They also had to stay in the Playhouse Hotel but we spent much time with them at our daughter Sarah's house and had some really good meals. Today our son Alain came to Barraba from Brisbane and is staying at Sarah's house until Monday morning when he is going back to work. We had wonderful xmas presents, great meals, great conversations, and good games of Mah Jong. Tomorrow some of us are planning to go to Tamworth to have a girls day out at the shops and food at the one of the good cafes. Yet Another problem in BarrabaTuesday, 20th December 2011I have been told by the Council that my back garden has risky tall stuff which could cause vermin and fire to occur. Some of the stuff is grass and some is weeds. The Council threatened to impose an order on me to get the stuff slashed. Some of the stuff is on top of a pile of old concrete slabs so couldn't be treated with a slasher or a mower. I was allowed to communicate with them why the order wasn't necessary. I told them that the stuff grew during the winter and because my machinery, the ride on mower and the brush cutter were both not working, I wasn't able to cut the stuff. I told them that I had bought a new mower and used it to cut lots of stuff on the back lawn but the repair of the brush cutter hadn't been completed yet so I would be able to do the other cutting as soon as it was back. I also told them that the back paddock which used to have a friend's sheep in it is now being used by my neighbours horses who live in a next door paddock which is very full of puddles and weeds but has very little grass. Debbie the owner was happy to let her horses feed in my back paddock and the horses have been spending a lot of time there so they are also happy. I suggested that the order the Council had proposed was un-necessary because I was working on the problem already and was preparing to complete the cleanup as soon as possible and the horses were shortening the grass in the back paddock. The fixed brush cutter came back today so I will be able to complete the cleanup as soon as the weather is OK. Revised: 30th December 2011Another Problem in BarrabaFriday, 16th December 2011I am no longer a member of Barraba Lions Club because I was concerned that the Executive of the Club were not concerned to get a consensus from the membership on any resolutions. I was not the only Lion to resign, one of my wonderful mentors resigned before I did. I am now a member of Barraba Community Incorporated which was established by a guy who came to Barraba, fell in love with the town and used his experience on the organisation of promotional activities to work on the Artisans' and Farmers' Market as a very positive promotion of Barraba. We had asked the Barraba Lions organiser of the Christmas Eve Town and District Christmas Tree event if he was happy for us to move the time of our Artisans' and Farmers' Market on Christmas Eve from the morning to the afternoon to encourage people to visit Barraba before the Christmas Tree event so that they could be encouraged to stay in town to visit the Christmas Tree event. He was happy with our suggestion and some of his colleagues were also in favour of what we were trying to do. Sadly the Barraba Lions Club at a meeting discussed the issue and didn't accept the support suggested by some of the members and they complained to us and arranged to have a lot of criticism of our proposal published in the Barraba Gazette. I read all the items in the Barraba Gazette and had to use a highlighter to mark all the bunkum in the items which were statements of errors (untruths). Every item got at least one mark. I was so upset that I thought that I would refuse to do the job I had volunteered to do at the Christmas Tree activity but I was going to help my wonderful mentors doing the job we had done previously and I didn't want to affect him so I decided to do the job even if some of the Lions were unhappy about this. They don't own the event, they simply run it, it belongs to the community who make tremendous donations to the Lions Club to enable them pay for the event. Revised: 20th December 2011My problem with unethical management of some companies, organisations, and nationsSunday, 4th December 2011I have got some new information which prompted my previous thoughts about unethical stuff. I received an email from a friend who had forwarded an email which reported that :- "all mobile phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls.YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS". I believe that releasing everyone's mobile phone number to anyone without the approval of the owner of the phone is unethical. I am frequently irritated by the news which reports unethical activities by companies or governments. One of the issues is news about governments which are using their military or police personnel to kill or harm protesters who have not necessarily been violent. I was particularly irritated by the report that a woman who was raped in Afghanistan was charged with adultery and was being told she should marry the rapist. Of course this news might not be accurate but it might be because not all news providers are committed to telling the truth. |
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