Consequences: Mechanics, Shorts and A Lack of Underwear...

There is always the odd "funny" that wends its way into my inbox. This is one of those. I had a little chuckle and thought it was worth sharing.Always wear clean underwear in public, especially when working under your vehicle. From the Daily Telegraph comes this story of a Sydney couplewho drove their car to Westfield Blacktown, only to have their car break down in thecar park.The man told his

Australian Tourists in Bali...

Australians love Bali! There seems to be very little doubt in that. Latest figures suggest that almost 1 in 4 visitors to Bali are now Australian. Australia has overtaken the Japanese as the most devoted travelers to the paradise that is Bali. in number terms, there are some 600,000 Australians visiting Bali out of a total of 2.53 million visitors.The bombings of 2002 and 2005 are fading and as

People Smuggling: Indonesians Jailed in Australia...

People smuggling is a crime, perhaps a heinous crime. It is one that does not pay, particularly if you get caught in Australian waters. Australia has pretty serious consequences for those that are caught and successfully prosecuted. The minimum mandatory sentence for those convicted of people smuggling is five years. However, non-parole periods can be set, and this seems to be in the range of

Australian Aboriginal Proverb...

"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home."It is important to learn something new every single day. It keeps the mind fresh and active. I found this proverb on a bookmark. I post it here because it says a lot about how I want to live my life "to observe, to grow, to love" and

Indonesian Nationals and Foreign Spouses...

Whenever I have had an extended break from posting I always feel the need to apologise for my absence. I am not sure why that is. Maybe it is that I really enjoy posting odds and ends on my blog, and the fact that I have been way so irregular in doing that probably bothers me more than it bothers anyone else. But hey, duty or work calls and I have been busy doing the thing that pays my

California to Collect Sales Tax on Medical Marijuana...

The latest figures that are circulating suggest that the State of California is collecting somewhere between USD 58 million and USD 105 million in tax revenue on medical marijuana sales of between USD 700 million to USD 1.3 billion. First things first, USD 1.3 billion in retail sales of medical marijuana is a whole stack of wacky weed being smoked to ease and alleviate the pain and trauma

Late Night Collarenebri...

OK, so the hazy moon was bothering me. So, I went out and took a few more photos. I am not sure that this is much better. Although, confession time, I did do a few things different. The first one was a "portrait" shot with some flash involved. The second one was done at a much slower shutter speed and with the use of a tripod.The third one is my study at 10.45pm. This was taken from the road. If

Collarenebri Central School -- Generation One -- Closing the Gap...

If you watch one thing today, then watch this.This is why I came back to teaching.This is a rap that Collarenebri school students put together. It has become a very highly acclaimed piece of art. They performed it last year at the ARIA ceremony at the Opera House down in the 'Big Smoke' (aka Sydney). They have received numerous requests to perform it elsewhere.My personal view is that these

New Moon...

More from Collarenebri.This is from a little earlier this evening. There is a fair bit of cloud in the sky at the moment. At least this is my excuse, and I am sticking to it, for the hazy looking new moon. It is already 9.30pm here and it is still a little humid and still pretty warm. It has cooled off a little from the peaks earlier in the day though.My second week at Collarenebri Central School

Collarenebri Sunrise...

I have been thinking of converting my blog into nothing but education related posts and the places I work. This has more to do with the enjoyment of what I am currently doing and where I am currently living. Collarenebri, or Colly to those who are more local than I, is a pretty small town.It has been mainly hot weather of late. However, the past week or so has seen the temperature very pleasant

Populist Politics At Its Worst: Tony Abbott, Foreign Aid, Islamic Schools...

Tony Abbott has shown his true colours while simultaneously showing why he is unfit to be Prime Minister of Australia; he simply does not have Australia's long-term and strategic interests at heart. The man who wants to become the man who makes "shit happen" rather than just talking about when and why "shit happens" has decided that an easy and populist target for cuts to the foreign aid budget

The 1965 Freedom Ride...

It is hard to believe that it is 46 years this month that the Freedom Ride of a group of young activists brought the cold, hard reality of racism, segregation, and the poor state of Aboriginal / Indigenous health, housing and education into the living rooms of ordinary Australians who had consciously or sub-consciously turned a blind eye to the challenges facing our indigenous brothers and

"No Baby" Campaign...

If this is not an advertisement for finding an effective way to provide sexual health and reproduction lessons in school, then it is hard to work out exactly what would be. In one Memphis, Tennessee, high school there have been 86 teenage pregnancies within the last 12 months. Some of those young women, 15 - 19-years-old have given birth and the others will soon do so. Reports suggest that

Foreign Sex Tourism to Bali..

I read this the other day and sort of pondered whether to write about it or not. I pondered because writing about how the system fails so enormously might encourage pedophiles to chance their hand in the wild frontiers of child sex tourism that are the poor provinces of Eastern Bali. The most impoverished of the provinces; Singaraja, Buleleng, and Karangasem, are those that are most at risk.Sadly

Schapelle Corby and 12,000 Indonesians?

VIVAnews is reporting that the Australian Attorney General has made an offer to the Indonesian Attorney General that is essence goes along these lines:"There are 12,000 Indonesians in Australian prisons with an average sentence of five years, we will trade those 12,000 for Schapelle Corby". At least this is the understanding of Babul Khoir Harahap, the Head of the Information Center at the Office

Toowoomba Flood: 10 January 2011

The power of nature and the heroics of a few. This is Toowoomba yesterday. Queensland is suffering.No other commentary necessary!

Happy New Year...

To one and all...Happy New Year 2011!I trust that the coming year will be a most excellent one. I hope that it is one that sees all your dreams come to fruition. May the year be one that is happy and rewarding, both personally and professionally, an that you get to share all of those moments with family and friends.For us, the "adventure" will soon begin. We will be off to Collarenebri. I was

Australian Cricket: A Dilemma?

The posts have been few and far between the second half of December. I guess there has been too much going on with staff development days in Moree and holidays in Fingal Bay. And, of course watching the Ashes.I have always been a cricket fan. Perhaps that is because of the traditions and importance of the game to a great many Australians. Or perhaps because I played as a youngster and was pretty

Power Balance: Where's The Science?

Funnily enough I was looking at a "Power Balance: bracelet the other day in a sports apparel shop. I was having a little chuckle to myself as I was thinking about how much of a killing the makers were making when retailing these things for AUD 60 a bracelet. I saw some young bloke wearing two of them, on each arm! To be honest the chuckling was because I had not seen any "science" that backed up

Miley Cyrus and the Salvia Sessions...

I have to offer my sincere thanks to Ms. Miley Cyrus for reminding me of this interesting Mexican herb with the hallucinogenic properties. I wrote a couple of blog posts on Salvia way back when. Salvia is illegal in Australia with respect to possession for the purposes of smoking it and getting stoned. Australia was one of the first, if not the first, countries to ban salvia. However, my