Tag: Australia

Better Than Sliced Bread: Accessible Air Travel

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Most of us have heard the saying, “That’s the best thing since sliced bread!” What do you think is actually the best thing since sliced bread?

Live has changed dramatically since 1928 when sliced bread was first sold. However most of those changes that have affected my world have occurred since 2000’s. For me, besides the obvious—accessible internet, Google and WI-Fi hot spots—I choose increased and affordable air travel. Today, you can decide to go anywhere in the world and there would be a way to get there. Years ago, this was not the case.

I flew for the first time when I was 12. It was a school excursion so there was no choice. It has also just occurred to me that I have never flown with either parent as my next flight was to Nouméa in my twenties. During these times air travel was rare and special—something most of us saved for.

My daughter first flew at 9 to Brisbane. It was 2004.  While we were away she had her 10th birthday and a new airline was born in Australia—Jetstar Airways—bringing with them cheap flights throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia. It was fascinating, when we landed at Brisbane airport all the check-in counters were Qantas. Then six days later, when we left majority of them had turn into Jetstar check-in counters. We flew back to Sydney on one of those Jetstar flights. This changed the cost of domestic travel in Australia. Suddenly people were choosing to fly instead of drive. A revolution had started. Because of this change, by the time my daughter was 12, she had flown so often she could check herself in and knew the procedure well.

International air travel has also reduced in price over time so the world is now our oyster. We can travel everywhere and everywhere can travel to us.  Australia is now a truly multicultural country and  has opened up as a major tourist destination for the world. A lot has changed since Paul Hogan made our most successful tourist campaign for Northern America 30 years ago.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sliced-bread/

Back To Childhood

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Tell us about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.

In today’s world there are many new smells. At times, they converge together  and in some ways diffuse into each other. When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s things were different. In many ways, life was simpler but with a lot less opportunity. Smells were stronger and often less environmentally friendly. So which smells do I remember from my childhood. There are many—some memories are good, the others not so much, but they are still mine.

  •  Fresh salty sea air made complete by the smell of seaweed—growing up we lived in coastal Australia. We were never far from the beach and many holidays were spent there. They were fun times. Today as I no longer live by the ocean I receive a pleasant surprise when I return. One of my earliest blog posts,  Calm Action is on my latest trip to the beach as an adult.
  • Cherry medicine smell—made to taste like cherry to make it easier for kids to swallow medicine. I am still unable to drink Dr Pepper as it instantly takes me back to my childhood and the not so pleasant taste of this medicine—my husband is the same and our kids think we a making it up.
  • Mud—our house was on slope and not landscaped, so every time it rained we had a lot of mud, clay-like solid mud. It had a particular smell and was slippery when wet.
  • Fairy floss—as a child this had a much stronger smell than the pre-packed fairy floss you can buy today. I found that similar smell in the freshly spun fairy floss we found being sold on the street in China.
  • Aniseed lollies—I was the only child in my family who liked these licorice flavoured lollies, so I could guarantee they were not stolen. On the odd occasion as an adult I have bought these lollies I have been disappointed as the smell and flavour is not as strong as it used to be.
  • Eucalyptus smell of the Australian bush—growing up I spent many hours going for bush walks with my family exploring. It has a unique smell and these days unfortunately it is only on weekends away that I get to re-experience my memories.  Although I do live in  an area filled with individual gum trees—the Australian bush is different.
  • Mothballs—back in the day clothes were packed up at the end of the season and stored to make room in the wardrobe for the next seasons clothes. To stop moths and silverfish eating holes in the clothes, two or three balls made of naphthalene were added to the storage container. These had a strong smell and when it came time to change the clothes back again for the next season, it took a long time for the clothes to lose the smell.
  • Epoxy resin—as a child my father made many things as he is creative and talented. I loved it when he worked with epoxy resin—I loved the smell and how quickly it worked. I am sure it wasn’t good for me but as it wasn’t an everyday occurrence it wasn’t a problem.

I have enjoyed remembering my childhood smells. I will keep this post as a work in progress continue to add smells as they come back to me. If you are from a similar era—what smell do you remember? I would love to hear about them.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-transporter/

An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

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Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”

Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!

The most important offer I couldn’t refuse was my first job. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I finished high school. I was 18. I had my life in front of me and only two prerequisites for my job—I wanted to work with people and I didn’t want to be a general nurse. Th world was my oyster but I didn’t know how to open the shell to get the pearl.

At the time my mother was working in the post office in the telegram department and noticed that the delivery boys were making a lot of deliveries to the local psychiatric hospital, literally up the hill. She inquired and discovered they had advertised for six trainee psychiatric nurses. This was a job mum thought would suit me, so she was excited.

At the time I didn’t know much if anything about psychiatry, but the more I investigated the keener I was. It was a type of nursing that dealt with people not bedpans and I was encouraged to talk to patients. Yes. This was my job and now I had to get one of the positions.

After two interviews, despite my young age I was offered a place. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. My career psychiatric nursing started 34 years ago on Australia Day—what a way to celebrate. It has been the perfect job for me. Now called mental health nursing, it has many areas of expertise. It has taught me many skills and allows me to help people get through very difficult times in their lives.

I am grateful to Matron for believing in this young woman and helping me find my pearl.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/race-the-clock/

My Interesting Week

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Tell us how your week went by putting together a playlist of  five songs that represent it.

I was excited to see the topic of today’s Daily Prompt. This week for me has been varied and interesting which is unusual. My week began on Monday with Australia Day, which I celebrated with my blog post Celebrating Australia Day—an A-Z of interesting Australian information. The song I selected to represent this is “I am Australian” by The Seekers.

On Wednesday evening I participated in my Toastmaster club’s International Speech competition coming third. It as a fun night to end a particularly busy day at work. As there are no songs on speaking competitions so I choose a new song dedicated to Toastmasters International to represent this part of my week.

Friday evening saw me joining colleagues for farewell drinks with one of my staff leaving to work overseas for a few years. It is an exciting time and many memories were discussed.

On Saturday morning my husband and I attended a travel expo and began planning a trip for our 25th wedding anniversary later in the year. We haven’t made any decisions yet. However, I think a tropical holiday is in order and “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys represents that well. Unfortunately, Jamaica is a little for  us to travel for a week so won’t be the destination.

Today my husband finished putting up glass shelves above my desk. They are to  house my expanding Mickey Mouse collection in one place. We have planned this for about the last 5 years, so it is exciting. Now I just need to find everything and arrange them in a display.

This week also saw the completion of two other tasks we had planned since last year. On the public holiday Monday I did a Spring clean of all my kitchen pantry cupboards. I found things I didn’t know I had as well as made a lot of space by throwing out many bags of expired or no longer required food and containers.

Over the last two weeks we have had an opening and closing pergola build over our courtyard. On Friday after a week of rain the electrician was able to come and complete it. We are very happy with the result and look forward to using it now as an outdoor indoor living space.

In Australia we are now into February. I can’t believe how quickly this year is moving. January was a very unusual month. It was filled with many different things and many goals were completed—the question is will it continue from this week and month into this year. I hope so.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/playlist-of-the-week/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Depth

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Whether visually or emotionally, this week let’s dig (or dive) deep.

This amazing old dead tree has been turned into a work of art. It’s home is the Australian Botanical Garden Mount Annan and it adds depth and character to an otherwise ordinary field. Painting the tree bright blue allows it to be special and blend into the skyline at the same time. The animals and birds can still use it for shelter also helping to sustain the environment.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/depth/

Fire Beware

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Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?

In the Sydney bush fires of 1994 I had to do consider this in real life. All main highways into Sydney were cut off by bush fires and we lived on the northern end of the city. We overlooked a major bush gully that hadn’t had a bush fire through in 30 years so officials were very worried about what would happen if it caught alight.

My life has changed greatly since 1994 so what I would pack today is different to what I packed them although core items are the same. In 2015 my choices are:

  1. Formal documents that are difficult/unable to be replaced including passports, insurances, special awards, medical information.
  2. Camera bag which includes the USB’s of digital photos.
  3. My handbag which contains mobile phone, wallet, keys and other everyday essentials.
  4. My prepacked overnight bag containing a change of clothes, toiletries and sleeping device to make a difficult situation easier.
  5. My laptop and associated hard drives which hopefully will give me access to everything I want.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/burning-down-the-house/

Working The Soil

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Write down the first words that comes to mind when we say . . .

. . . home.

. . . soil.

. . . rain.

Use those words in the title of your post.

I have lived in many homes with poor to medium quality soil. And while rain makes things grow it is not the only element required. Without care and nutrients, the soil is not fertilised and plants don’t grow. When we have live in  the property long enough, we are usually able to work the soil adding mulch, worms, fertiliser, nutrients and better quality soil, to make the original soil grow plants.

The other option with poor soil is to change the type of plants required. When we lived in country New South Wales, the soil held a lot of salt, so we needed to plant salt-resistant plants—Australian natives—there was no choice. Everything else would die. They also don’t need a lot of rain, which is another problem out west. However, as there are many Australian natives to choose from, outsiders never knew there was a problem with the soil. All the gardens looked beautiful, despite the problems.

When we aren’t happy with the soil of our life or home—we have options.

  • Adapt
  • Change
  • Work

Whatever we choose—nothing will improve, if we choose to do nothing.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/free-association/

Celebrating Australia—Songs

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This long weekend Australians celebrate our nation’s birthday. The 26th January was chosen from the date from which we were settled—January 26th, 1788. Over the years we have developed into a multicultural nation. Because of this the 26th January,sees people from all nations gather to celebrate being and living in Australia. Today I would like to share with you three songs that make me proud to be Australian. They stir emotion in me wherever I am.

 

 

John Williamson is an Australian icon and this song reminds me of my time living in country New South Wales connecting with the land and its people.

 

 

This song describes the development of our multicultural nation. I remember it being acted out as a play when my children were in kindergarten and it was even more powerful.

 

I can still remember clearly 30 years ago when we were arriving back to Sydney from a South Pacific cruise, how stirring it was when “I still call Australia home” played through the air—bringing a smile to everyone’s face.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Express Yourself

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We can’t wait to see what you do with the theme: “express yourself!”

A few years ago we had this beautiful fruit “cake” delivered to work. I was so inspired by the idea I thought I could express myself by creating my own for my daughters up coming birthday.

 

I was pleased with my results and it tasted yummy. I used white, milk and dark chocolate to coat the apple, marshmallow, pineapple and strawberries.

To my surprise, the fruit kept for several days without deteriorating. While I don’t think I’ll give up my day job yet, the love and caring was there.

Next time I will plan it better and see if I too can create the floral fruit display made by the professionals.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/express-yourself/

 

 

 

Changing Christmas

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The holiday season: can’t get enough of it, or can’t wait for it all to be over already? Has your attitude toward the end-of-year holidays changed over the years?

Christmas is a special time of year. For me, it usually involves a glass of champagne while opening presents with my family in Sydney. We all then travel to spend the rest of the day with our extended family. On occasions we are lucky enough to see all members of both sides of our family in the one day.

In Australia, Christmastime is usually hot. The question on everyone’s lips is will the bush fires stay away long enough for the volunteers to celebrate and enjoy a lunch with family and friends.

This year I get to learn about and love Christmas in a new way. All my life I have dreamt of  a white Christmas. So we have left sunny Sydney and are heading to hopefully snowy Quebec. Google tells us it is one of the few places in the world that has the best chance of snow on the ground as well as falling on Christmas day.

It will be very different for me only having my husband around on Christmas day. I will miss the rest of my family, but I am loving the build up to Christmas in Canada. Christmas traditions I am experiencing include:

  • The cold
  • The fires
  • Hot chocolate
  • Snow
  • Christmas parades
  • Ugly sweaters
  • Mulled wine
  • Hot toddies
  • Hat, gloves and coats
  • Snowmen
  • Snow shoveling
  • Snowflakes
  • Christmas markets
  • Christmas tree shopping
  • Christmas movie marathons daily
  • The smell of Christmas
  • Sugar cookies
  • Street Carolers
  • The weather report
  • Flights cancelled due to bad weather

I was surprised to see everything that I had seen on television happens in everyday life. And I love it. It’s great to see how the other half of the world lives during this special time.

148 - The Parade - Santa Arrives

St John’s Newfoundland’s Christmas Parade

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/getting-seasonal/