FRIDAY'S HISTORY LESSON:The City of Geelong.

Geelong is the second largest city in the state of Victoria, Australia and is the largest regional centre in the state. It is a port city with an urban population of approximately 161,000 people. Also it is one of the largest provincial cities in Australia. Geelong is located on Corio Bay, 75 kilometres south-west of the state's capital, Melbourne.
The city is a gateway to many renowned tourist attractions, namely the scenic Great Ocean Road, the Shipwreck Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula.
The explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell. They reached Corio Bay - the area of Port Phillip Bay that Geelong now fronts - on 16 December 1824, and it was at this time they reported that the Aborigines called the area Corayo, the bay being called Jillong (Hence the places now known as Cario and Geelong). Hume and Hovell had been contracted to travel overland from Sydney to Port Phillip, and having achieved this they stayed the night and begun their return journey the following day. William Buckley, an escaped convict from the Sullivan Bay settlement, lived among the Wautharong people for 32 years in the Bellarine Peninsula. Sighting of an old ship on Cario Bay.

1840 saw the first issue of The Geelong Advertisor Newspaper which still runs print today. 1850's saw the Goldrush increase population in Geelong from 8,000 to approximately 22,000. The port access a clear advantage.

The town of Geelong officially became a city on 8 December 1910. Electric trams began operation in 1912, travelling along Pakington St, Geelong West and the city centre until their demise in 1956.

Electric Car TRam Geelong 1912.

Between 1922 and 1925 Geelong's industrial growth began: three woollen mills, fertilizer plants and the Ford Motor Company's vehicle plant at Norlane. The Corio whiskey distillery (1928) and the Geelong Advertiser's radio station 3GL (now K-Rock) (1930) were opened.

Now Geelong is a popular Summer vacation spot and has everything you would wish for as a couple or as a family. Theme parks, the waters edge, carnivals, restaurants, museums and, if you don't fancy driving to Geelong there is a V-Line train service that can get you there from Melbourne. Remember our family train trip to Geelong recently?

Fond memories of wading in the water at Eastern Beach and eating ice cream and riding the old carousel ( manufactured in 1892) are mine to keep and yours to make!

Yayyy an Eclipse..

See all about it here :)

Hurstbridge Wattle Festival

Image of school grounds where festival was held. Wattle tree in yellow blaze to the right of image.
Sarah was about to leave the Baby Animal Nursery and she still had some feed left for the animals in a small cup. We sugested she give the feed to the little cherub in the red top. Wishing I had the camera at the ready for the gorgeous look the little girl gave Sarah when she handed the cup over and motioned for the cherub to feed the kid there. Her eyes were incredulous at the feeding of the baby goat from said cup. Her Dad was so pleased...he snapped alot of photos of it :)

The Hurstbridge Wattle festival is a significant cultural event for Melbournians that has its roots firmly planted in our early rail history. It’s a joyous celebration of our heritage, environment and community.
This festival has been going on for three years now. Festival goers got to view the wattles in a blaze of glory along the Diamond Creek as they approached the township of Hurstbridge. We were greeted by a choir and a fabulous and extensive array of activities, food and entertainment. The list included: vintage cars and motorcycles, vintage fire truck, Cobb & Co coach rides, heritage displays and sites,roving entertainment, live stages.

The very confident man with bare feet and handling a Coastal Taipan. It had just lost its skin the day before so the colors of its scales shon through in the nice sunlight. Yes, it was very very venemous!!
Smiling Tomas and new friend snake.

Miaand Sarah with a Python.
Rest time with some coloring in at one of the play grounds.

The Steam Train

Steamrail Victoria were appointed to supply the K class steam locomotive and carriages to make the historic journey from Flinders Street to Hurstbridge laden with eager festival goers.
The train commenced its journey from Flinders Street at 9.00am and arrived at the historic Hurstbridge Township at 10.24am. Where we alighted and found all sorts of wonderful things going on. People in costume of days gone by, riding old bicycles and handing out brochures of the map of events for the day. As lined out above, the list of activities was large, and our senses were in hyper mode all day....although, it was also relaxing at the same time. Just lovely. :)

FRIDAY'S HISTORY LESSON: DAME NELLIE MELBA 1861-1931

Helen Porter Mitchell adopted the professional name "Melba" to acknowledge her birthplace, Melbourne. Melba was the eldest of 10 children. Although she first sang in public when 6, forming a lifelong attachment to 'Comin' thro' the Rye', it was her humming that visitors noticed. Unwittingly she had hit upon what she would later describe as an effective vocal exercise. She also whistled, and generally behaved like a tomboy.

Melba began to study and singing seriously after her marriage in 1882. Following appearances in Sydney and London, she made her operatic debut in Brussels in 1887. It was the start of a phenomenal 38-year career on the World stage.
Melba won acclaim at Covent Garden, London, and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and then in most of the leading opera houses of the world until her retirement. Divorced in 1900, she could be forthright, vain and scandalous, so the papers said. Australians saw her living a gilded lifestyle among the best of international society, and she became the epitome of glamour and fame. She was mobbed on her return home in 1902.
In 1909 Melba undertook a sentimental tour of Australia, and was greeted with adulation wherever she went. During the war, international travel was restricted, but she was energetic in her war work. Melba was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 1918 and elevated to Dame Grand Cross in the order in 1927. It was as 'the Voice' that Melba sometimes chose to describe herself. "Good singing", she stated, "is easy singing"; nature had given her an almost perfect larynx and vocal cords. Her range was fully three octaves, while her registers were so well blended that even an eminent throat specialist thought they were one. A scientific measurement of her trill produced twenty feet of undulations between perfectly parallel lines. Instrumentalists admired her, not least for the way that, despite her imperious temperament, she scrupulously sought to realize the composer's intentions.

From 1904 Melba began recording, she issued over one hundred records and helped to establish the gramophone. In 1920 she also became the first artist of international standing to participate in direct radio broadcasts.
In 1928 Melba performed in Geelong where she was to sing in her last Australian concert. Feeling that she had been away too long, Melba left for Europe for two years, and sang in Brighton before moving on to Paris and Egypt, where she developed a fever. She never quite shook it off, however, she did manage to sing one last time at a charity entertainment at the Hyde Park Hotel, London.

Dreading another Northern winter, Melba decided to return to Melbourne, but her health grew worse on board ship. Partly in the hope of getting better medical care, she later went to Sydney where, in St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst, she died on 23 February 1931 of septicaemia, which had developed from facial surgery in Europe some weeks before. Dame Nellie Melba was aged 69.

I could not leave you without having a link to have a listen to Dame Nellie Melba's voice could I? Nope..so HERE it is..enjoy! Oh, and one more HERE.

Seizures...

The Human Brain and Seizures
The human brain is the most complex organ in the body. It is made up almost entirely of nerve cells.
At any given moment there are millions of electrical impulses running through the brain. The brain is constantly receiving and responding to hundreds of messages from the environment and the internal organs of our body.
A seizure is a disruption in the normal pattern of these electrical impulses in the brain, caused by the brain cells firing simultaneously at a much faster rate.
Depending on where a seizure starts and spreads in the brain, they can result in changes in:
Sensation,
Awareness or consciousness,
Behaviour,
or Movement
Some seizures are severe and recognised as a seizure, whilst others are subtle and may not be noticed by most people.

All these things I know. Some people have seizures that are just a simple stare..you know, like a vacant gaze at nothing in particular in front of them. No recall of the event, others can remember everything their nurse is saying to them during the event.

Such a complex problem....aren't humans just so...so...THAT! Complex.

So, what has the wonder dog got to do with it I hear you asking? It has been found that Dogs can predict when a child will have an epileptic seizure up to several hours in advance, according to new Canadian research.While not all dogs can do this, those that do tend to lick the child's face, slow down, act protectively or whimper. One dog even pushed a young girl away from the stairs 15 minutes before an attack, the researchers reported in the latest issue of the journal Neurology. Wonder dog, you betcha.

FRIDAY'S HISTORY POST: A Few Things I know...

This is an image of the White City Dog Track that my nan and pop were caretakers of back in their day. I cannot safely say what years they were caretakers there, or if it was pre or post WW2. I do know my mum was little and she has happy memories of living in a house right next to the dog track. It was weatherboard and had a big verandah right around it which was great on hot dry days of Summer. Nan was a wizz with picking dogs for a win..well, that was her story and she was sticking to it right!

UDL - The Original Aussie Mix

Variants:Can: Vodka Lemon, Lime and Soda, Vodka Lime and Soda, Vodka and Raspberry, Vodka and Orange, Vodka and Passionfruit, Gin and Tonic, Gin and Bitter Lemon, Scotch and Cola, Ouzo and Cola( That's my favourite right there!), Sambuca and Cola.
Did you know?UDL was invented by two Aussie mates playing golf together. One would bring a bottle of spirits – the other would bring the mixer and they would mix their drinks on the course. However, one day they had a brainwave – why not sell it pre-mixed in a can? Anyway, it is a nice way to have a drink at a BBQ or down at the beach after a hot Summers Day... consuming responsibly of course!

Lithium was revolutionised here in Melbourne Australia post WW2 by Doctor John Cade. He was living in the grounds of Royal Park Hospital where many a war neurotic patient was being treated....well, treated as best they could be with what was known at the time. At the time, electroconvulsive therapy and the radical lobotomy were all that was known to try to stem the manic episodes patients were experiencing. Dr Cade dug into his own pocket and got some guinea pigs and rabbits and had the nurses obtain urine samples from patients...one was a control patient, one was a schizophrenic patient, one bi-polar or manic depressive as it was known then and the other was from a patient with complete mania. Dr Cade then injected the animals with the urine and recorded some remarkable findings. The animal that had the urine of the bipolar patient died alot earlier. It was found that the urine had concentrated amounts of the compound Urea in it. Through his own findings, it was devised that Lithium Carbonate was the only way to decrease the amount of Urea in the blood of a patient/animal and therefore decrease the amount of psychotic behaviour. Side effects of vomiting and diarrhea and resultant deaths of some patients made this treatment difficult for some medical fraternities to adopt. With careful monitoring of blood levels of patients on this medicine, the patients soon turned from mania or depression to convalescence and out to the real world with family and working. So was born the age of psycho generic medication. A wing of the royal Melbourne Hospital is named after Doctor John Cade...a wonderful attribute to a man that tried to do his best to relive such malaise in those afflicted with psychological problems.

"I believe the brain, like any other organ, can get sick and it can also heal." Dr John Cade.

Cobbledicks Ford was the place I most loved to ride my horse Mabel to. It took about 2 hours to ride there from home and I would take my lunch and a drink of cordial or water with me. There was a steep hill to go down to get to the waters edge there and Mabel would gallop all the way down it to get to the water. She may have been an old mare but she had alot of go in her that's for sure! Once we got to the water she would have a guzzle of it but then she would not set foot in the water. I would go for a swim and have a swing off of the fallen tree you can see there in the image. There was a big old rope to swing off of...like in the movie Bridge to Terabithia..have you seen that movie yet? If not you should, it was great.

I remember as a kid there were a few years in a row that the motorbike gangs would get together and have some sort of major meet over the weekend. Thousands of bikes would take the backroads past our place to get to the Ford and bands were set up and the noise from their loud speakers could be heard all week end. Mum thought it was a bad thing..we thought it was awesome!! They had signs at the front gate "Onions FREE ENTRY"...that meant girls, haha.

The Ford is one of the historic crossing sites along the River built during the 1850's of bluestone. The name Cobbledicks is from the family name of the tenant farmers of the area. Anyway, now I believe the place has "gone to the dogs". People have taken cars there and burnt them out and made a right old mess of it..sad...I hope someone one day could restore it as a great picnic place to go to.

A lovely find... The Orchid Mantis

This is an Orchid Mantis...isn't it pretty? It looks as though it is dancing to some sort of ballet symphony. They are called Orchid Mantises because they mimic orchid flowers. They originate in Malaysia and other parts of Asia.
They are different colors at different ages. As 1st instar hatchlings, they resemble ants with black bodies and red legs. After they shed their skin one time (2nd instar), they become white. After a few molts (sheds), males gradually gain a brownish-purple "necklace", while females' necklaces turn green. Other than that, sexing Orchid Mantises is the same as for all mantids...females have six abdominal segments; males eight.
Most Orchid Mantises are white, but sometimes you'll get one with tints of pink. Males fly well and mature far more quickly than females. This makes the Orchid Mantis a little more challenging to breed, as you have to have males and females maturing at about the same time.

I love Orchids, they are my most favourite flower...and this little creature is just amazing..dont you think?

Sarah had a loose tooth...

Look at my loose tooth I played with all day long at school!
Here it is..see, in my hand?
I can whistle twice as loud and twice as long than ever before!
We want some of the action too!!

Take my own advice already...

I spent all day in hospital yesterday in the Emergency Department. Not a stranger to hospital or having been a patient before but this time was different to the other times. This time I thought it was my heart. History of this in my family etc etc...and feeling that if I didn't get it looked at then I would be very silly...you know, being a nurse and all.
Luckily everything is okay cardiac wise. CK and Troponin levels all ok.
I have spend a good part of today meditating...and also, because it is so lovely in the sun outside, I have been out in the garden too. I might not post for a few days now as I need to get back on top of this thing..whatever it is. Take care..and just playanother of my favourite songs if you want to :)

John Butler Trio..."Better Than"...

I so love this group...and their tunes are so relaxing, groovy and they all have such great messages behind them too. It makes me think, my glass is not half empty, it is only half full. All the bad news we hear about the place through media and the newspapers, you know, there is always always always something good happening out there too. Have a great weekend.

FRIDAY'S HISTORY LESSON, FAIRY PARK ANAKIE..

Fairy Park is situated 60 minutes drive from the Melbourne CBD. It has taken over 45 years to create and is Australia’s first and oldest theme park. It is built on 24 acres of a rocky granite outcrop, known as "Elephant Rock", and nestled beside the extinct volcano of Mt. Anakie. The spectacular rock formations form an integral part of the entire design layout.

Here you will find Aladdin, Sinbad, Snow White, Alice, Hansel & Gretel, the 3 Bears and many more. There is an adventure playground appropriately named 'Camelot' with every facility a child could want, and just enough excitement. There are towers to climb, dungeons to visit, and a damsel who has lost her head!!!

As you can see, the area is just lovely. If you aren't interested in the lovely things set out for you to see and hear (most of the things on display have music and movement to them), then you can just enjoy the clean air and the lovely foliage that surrounds fairy park.
If you put aside two hours or more you will be able to see everything that Fairy Park has to offer. Make it a leisurely day and take along a picnic or use the BBQ areas provided. There is also a kiosk and you can plan ahead and book a function too.

There are over 20 animated hand crafted scenes that will come to life at the push of a button, all with digitised sound and lighting.

For train enthusiasts, the Hilltop Castle incorporates a huge model train set and a Train Museum housing a rare collection of Markilin (guage1) model trains.

Fairy Park has been transformed into an amazing place that will have you return time after time and from generation to generation.

Love this song....

The Pretenders..Brass In Pocket..

In the history of rock, there is no better example of how a female singer can be pretty, sexy, and talented without being overly glamorous and flamboyant than Chrissy Hynde! So, what does maketh the woman? I don't reckon it is her clothes or her makeup..I think it is her un spoken style and witt...her aura...yep, that is it. What sayeth you?