Things that make me angry

Well, it is funny, last week at work we were discussing the shift to private responsibility, particularly in the area of the environment. The focus is continually being pushed down to the individual – what kind of light bulbs we use, what car we drive, how we need to abide by water restrictions – when in reality if big business and mining industries and so on continue to abuse the environment in the way they currently do, it will make bugger all difference how much we do as individuals.

So you can imagein how annoying I found the banner headline on the Sydney Morning Herald today: Power shift: it's up to you. Oh yes, excellent to see that once again it is the individual who has to make the effort. Now as someone who collects water from the shower to put on the garden and who rides a bike or walks to work at least half the time and who uses energy efficient bulbs etc etc it absolutely drives me nuts to see this abdication of governmental responsibility in continually pushing the requirements back on the individual. Obviously, it is a good plan – the public has showed that climate change is one of its key concerns and thus is willing to make the effort – but it is totally bogus as far as responsible and sustainable public policy is concerned. if we want to affect real solutions to environmental problems, it is business who have to make the changes and it is government that has to take control and show some leadership. once again the failure of leadership in public life disappoints me. new office buidlings need to be made energy smart. Mines and agriculture needs to engage in sustainable use of water, rather than taking whatever they need and making everyone else pay. We need to restructure our thinking to ensure that the way businesses and the economy operates is sustainable for the long term. And bugger off with your nuclear power Bob Geldorf. Until someone is willing to store the waste in an environmentally safe and generally secure manner, it is a solution which just causes more and bigger environmental problems.

In Palmerston North we got to see the majesty of a wind farm – it looked spectacular against the mountain side and  was all the more heart-warming to know it was environmentally sustainable power.  So stop making  the individual feel guilty (though awareness of our own environmental footprints is not a bad thing) and start focusing on  business and  industry!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tannenbaum

So the on-going onslaught of Christmas continues…. We bought and decorated the tree on Sunday. Jude, Sebastian and I went to the Belconnen markets and found a cute little one which, after much musing by the boys about how we would fit it in the car, actually managed to go in the boot. It was raining constantly, so we all got a little dranched in the process. James came and sawed off the bottom branches in order to fit it in our bucket, and then we had to leave it for a while as we went off to lunch.

The boys enjoyed the decorating, even if Zac did think that taking the decorations off was part of the process. Jude also managed to knock the entire container of baubles off the table, but fortunately only smashed two in the process. What is Christmas without some broken glass!

We can't get away without a tree for the small boys – they were crestfallen when James joked we might not get one. And I must admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for Christmas – New Year has never done much for me, but I can't resist a Christmas tree!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Training Pathways Branch Christmas Festivities

On Friday we celebrated Christmas at work in numerous entertaining ways.

Our day began with lessons in gingerbread piping so we could attain a Skill Set as Santa's Little Helper (vocational education in-jokes there).

Here we struggle initially with the making of piping bags, despite Juanita's expert tutellage. And then the decoration began…

Many of the results were quite impressive:

Note the poor headless victim of Jenny's and the elaborate Christmas decorations care of Catherine

Here we have my family – all three boys included, and Janine's lovely pearl wearing lady

Bianca shows us her excellent piping skills – then spoils it all by completing failing the "food hygiene" section of the Santa's Helper Skill Set.

Craig created a skeleton! Who knew gingerbread people had bone structures

Following various other morning activities (and bits of pieces of work…) we headed off for our lunch.

We enjoyed the very excellent food of Barocca and a number of bottles of wine, exchanged Secret Santa gifts and were presented a range of awards by Chris and Aimee. All was convivial and entertaining – there were no huffy storming outs, no shouting and no drunken snogging (thank goodness really). All very civilised and enjoyable.

And for those of you thinking "slack public servants", it was just one day – and now we are back to the grind of implementing election commitments and keeping the vocational education system (well, our bits of it) , ticking over!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend