To all those who knew and "loved" the old curmudgeon Brian aka Lord Beari, this popped up in my email in box the other day. I thought you might like to revisit this wonderful slide show, Garrulous Gwendoline
Stuff
Miscellaneous Observations on life, love, family, retirement, Australian politics, philosophical musings, and all that other stuff you shove in a cupboard because you don’t know where else to put it.
My Woolly Memory
For reasons best known to the Happiness Engineers at WordPress, Paol Soren’s most recent post threw up a link to an older one of mine. Some of the links were broken and I updated them with alternatives, so if the wording does not make complete sense, that is the reason. Also a couple of the links appear beyond redemption, but I guess the gist of it still makes sense. Be warned – This post is heavy on detail, which may not suit all readers.
There was a time when Australia’s economy “rode the sheep’s back”.
The selective breeding of Merino ewes resulted in sheep that adapted well to the arid interior of Australia and produced wool that appealed to the mills of England.
(Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia)
This post, about wool, has been inspired by Paol Soren’s recent story titled “The Sale”. Without his encouragement I would never have thought to have written it. He feels my time in the wool industry is an experience worth sharing . . . I hope some of you agree . . . so here goes.
It has been many decades since England was the main customer for Australian merino wool. These days, the major markets are China – which bought $2.417 billionin 2015/16 – followed by India ($216 million) and Italy ($160 million). Other players include Thailand, Malaysia, and the…
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Whoops! A Political Essay
I wrote this post WAAAY back in 2013 when the Coalition government of the Liberal/National Party were just on their way in. We then had a succession of Prime Ministers: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and finally, Scott Morrison. None of them visionary. One of them downright misogynist, two of them climate deniers and incredibly right wing. I could go on…
As I wait to learn what will be the final composition of the Lower House, I thought it useful to return to what it all looked like 9 years ago, ‘cos I can tell you now – it’s gunna’ look a heck of a lot different.
And another BIG difference. This time, even though the Senate ballot paper was still as long as a table runner, we could vote below the line with only our first 12 choices of the actual CANDIDATES (instead of having to number the all). Which opened up a great opportunity for me to skirt around the parties I did not support.
Bill and I went to the theatre through the week. Every year we look forward to seeing The Wharf Revue, an all-singing, all-slinging group of political satirists. Every political personality and event is fair game for this mob, and they keep it up to date, even writing new sketches as fresh stories come to light over the course of their theatre season. There is always material to be mined in the Australian political landscape, and this year, they were obliged even further by our going to the polls on September 7th.
We met many people in our recent travels who are intrigued to know that voting is compulsory in Australia for any person aged 18 or older. You have to have a very good reason for failing to vote, otherwise you risk a penalty of A$170 plus court costs. So this post, a short political essay, is really aimed at my readers from outside Australia.
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GWEN WILSON, Author, aka The Reluctant Retiree 