Happy Australia Day

To all the Australians out there, no matter where in the world you may be situated,

Happy Australia Day!

Movies and the like

On a rare trip into Brisbane today, I had the chance to wander around a DVD shop, and it got me thinking about movies I've seen, TV shows I've loved, and ones of each that I have yet to see.

So what do you do in that situation? Apparently you wait until you get home, then 'google' for classic movies. And what do you get when you do such a thing? A list of 100 movies you just HAVE to see before you die. 

Given I've been around now for awhile (I'm officially reaching that age when perhaps I could be considered 'middle aged', though given the people in my family live well into their 80s and 90s, I've a ways to go yet before I reach that particular 'title'), I thought I would have a go at their '100 movies' lists and see how I am going :-)

When looking at the lists, I realise that I've seen nearly all of them, and that quite a few are ones best left forgotten, rather than made to be repeatable viewing!

Others are films your English teacher would expect you to watch for School, and if you didn't, then you feel as an adult that perhaps you are missing out on something, so you included it in a list of films you should watch before you die. 

Then I start to wonder where the really good ones are. You know, cult classics like "Donny Darko" (he of the giant scary rabbit) and "Storm Boy" (an Australian classic, and worth watching whenever it's broadcast, or picking it up on DVD now that it's been released), also "Howl's Moving Castle" (a Studio Ghibli film). Or the original version (1949) of "The Secret Garden". Getting on to films most people would know (my tastes are rather eclectic, and not for everyone, I know that), how about Alfred Hitchcock's rather stunning "Rope", with Jimmy Stewart, or Danny Kaye in "The Five Pennies"?

Other classics, perhaps more well known to the Australian market, are things like "Breaker Morant", "Gallipoli", "Sirens", "Picnic at Hanging Rock", even "The Delinquents" (with a young Kylie Minogue in it - filmed mostly in Brisbane).

I agree that films like "Seven Samurai" should be included - it is indeed a classic, and one I well remember from my childhood. For me, it is right up there with Godzilla, as it was another film that Dad would get me up for in the middle of the night just to watch!

And yes, "Citizen Kane", "Rear Window", "Casablanca", "Metropolis' (1927), "Psycho", "Gone With The Wind" etc are all very much films to see, but where is "All Quiet On The Western Front"? What about "Ivanhoe", or "The Sea Chase" (a little known, but very good, John Wayne film that isn't a Western, and actually starts in Sydney Harbour aboard an old Steam Ship)?

I do not think things like "Ace Ventura - Pet Detective" have any place on a top 100 list of films you must see before you die, however, but perhaps that is just my taste not being the same as everyone else.

Ho hum.

I do know that most of my tastes are either going to be of the 'seriously classic' (ie, anything from pre-talkies up to probably the 1960s), foreign (include films like "Chocolat", "Delicatessan" and "Peculiarities of the National Hunt (a very good Russian film about a black bear who likes his beer a bit too much), also "Amelie" in this), anime (anything from the people at Studio Ghibli, pretty much), or monster movies (gotta love King Kong, Godzilla, Gamera and the rest of the bunch), though I do watch modern movies too.

I just happen to like films that leave me thinking, rather than films that make my head hurt, or leave me reeling from the blood, guts and gore within the first two minutes of the film.

One day I will compile my top 100 films to see, I think, and perhaps publish it here on my blog, but that is for another day.

Birth of a Federation

Today, 113 years ago, Australia became a Federation. While our States still disagree on a lot of things, we are more combined than we were pre-Federation day, in 1901.

Happy Federation Day, Australia.

The Vet Shed

Having a dalmatian with medical issues, I have found that the Vet Shed at Sumner Park has ended up being kind of my new 'best friend', when it comes to finding the special food my dog needs just to survive, plus the chewable wormer tablets for him, and the spot-on flea and worm things that go on the back of the neck for the cats. Thank God someone finally created spot-on wormers for cats! I have far too many injuries and scars from 17 years of worming my four little twerps (three now), to ever want to do it the old way again.

Anyway, I get a newsletter from The Vet Shed once a month, and having just received this month's today, it reminded me that last month's had a rather cool poem in it, that I thought I would share, given we are now in the Christmas period.

Copyright goes to the author and the Vet Shed, I believe.

A Doggy Wonderland (by Jo. Magargan)
     

    Dog tags ring, are you listenin'? 
    In the lane, snow is glistenin'. 
    It's yellow, NOT white - I've been there tonight, 
    Marking up my winter wonderland. 
     
    Smell that tree? That's my fragrance. 
    It's a sign for wand'ring vagrants; 
    "Avoid where I pee, it's MY pro-per-ty! 
    Marked up as my winter wonderland." 
     
    In the meadow dad will build a snowman, 
    following the classical design. 
    Then I'll lift my leg and let it go Man, 
    So all the world will know it's 
    mine-mine-mine! 
     
    Straight from me to the fencepost, 
    flows my natural incense boast; 
    "Stay off of my TURF, this small piece of earth, 
    I mark it as my winter wonderland

"Furious riding" is against the law.....apparently

One thing I hate the most is those idiots who drive around at night at great speeds, with nary a care to anyone around them. Most of them end up dead in a ditch soon after, but I still hate the sounds of them drag-racing up and down the long stretch of road outside my house at all hours of the night.

I've been doing some genealogical work today, which has involved many (MANY) hours going through the newspaper archives for Queensland, and getting side-tracked as I am often wont to do, I came across many instances of people being arrested, fined, gaoled, or, in some cases, sent to the local insane asylum, for offences listed as "furious riding". 

This is the 1860s version of the idiots in fast cars, apparently. Silly people riding very quickly down (then unpaved) roads with no thoughts to those people within the vicinity of said speeding horse.

Some things never change, apparently.

The dark can be a scary place....

We had one hell of a storm yesterday. Hail, thunder, lightning, pelting rain going in all directions, and gale-force winds - all at the same time. 

One of those "once in a lifetime" kind of storms.

The results for Dad and I were that we both lost power in our respective houses for about 14 hours, which has meant some chucking out of foodstuffs today that obviously completely defrosted but seem not to have refrozen completely today, despite having power since 3am.

It's very odd to find yourself without power for a night, when you are used to having it. It is one thing to choose to have a candle night, because you know if it gets too much, a quick flick of a light switch will solve all your problems. It's a whole other thing when you walk into a room, fall over something (swear), flick the light switch, then remember that there is no power (and swear again), backtrack into the other room where your torch is, and fall over something else on the way - because even though you happily walk through your house late at night with all the lights off, to go from the bedroom to the loo, and never fall over anything, suddenly when you have no choice of lights, you find every little thing to possibly fall over!

I have to admit I found it frustrating, because normally I am fairly organised for black-outs, as we have them a great deal in the country during storm season. But storm season shouldn't really start for a few more weeks yet, and I thought I had a bit more time.

So yesterday saw me scurrying around in the middle of the day (when it was almost pitch-black outside during the storm) looking for candles, matches, and a torch, because I couldn't see where I was going!

I am going to have to do a bit of shopping for food that needs no heating (or only hot water), some reliable lanterns, that last longer than half an hour on batteries, and some proper hurricane lantern cases for my tea-lights, as it looks very much like it might yet be another summer like the last few, with storms and power outages an almost daily occurrence.

Other damage from yesterday's storm included a few trees down on our dog track that took out the fences between us and the neighbours. No home trials for us anytime soon, it seems.

The storm itself lasted all of about 45 minutes, if that. But at its worst, my entire yard, the paddock between me and my Dad's house, the front paddock between me and the road, the back sheep paddock behind my house, and Dad's little house yard, plus the kennel yard were all under flood, or covered in a fair amount of hail - so much so that it looked like snow in places. Dad had the woofy one, (because the woofy one is frightened of storms), so I was left on my tod with just Mr Vampire Teeth and the Velcro Twins to worry about outside in their enclosure.

At one point I had to race outside and rescue various cat litter trays, bowls, and bedding that were flying around the yard from where they are normally stored on a table near the cat enclosure. The poor cats were soaked through (with the exception of one of the Velcro Twins, who slept through the whole thing, inside a wet cat hutch), as was the floor and all the bedding inside the cage. They were not happy little vegemites!

They now have a large dog bed in their enclosure, as it was the only thing I could find after the storm that wasn't soaked through, to put in their cage that would be off the ground. Somehow I think my woofy one has lost his outdoor bed to the cats, good and proper. :-)

Ho hum. The weather gods are telling us to expect more storms this week, and that this is the beginning of the usual doom and gloom that we get every year at this time. We are, afterall, going into storm season, so the odd thunderstorm or five is to be expected, surely?

On a somewhat brighter note, we've had new babies born down here on the farm. Our Khaki Campbell (that's a variety of duck) has finally managed to hatch some eggs. She's only been trying for about five or so years....

So now we have a Khaki Campbell Mother Duck, who is followed around by five golden ducklings, and two khaki campbell-coloured ducklings (ie. brown). The other grown up ducks that she live with are of the white variety, which the five little golden ones will turn out to look like. 

Dad tells me one of the white ducks is also a girl, and the boy ducks, having seen that their "endevours" with Miss Khaki were evidently successful, are trying their luck with the poor white girl now :-)

Also, Dad's little pet hen has also delivered up some babies for Dad. They aren't actually hers, as she won't let any boy near her, but she's very broody, so when she went out for a forage one day, Dad got rid of her dud eggs, and replaced them with fertilised eggs from some of the other hens, which she dutifully sat on, and whaddayaknow? She hatched a bunch of babies that look absolutely nothing like her, but she was happy. Now she's in a strop with Dad because Dad has locked her out of the pen where the chicks are, because she kept turfing them out of the cage at night so that she could sleep in the warm!

We've not had any more lambs this season, but the ones we do have are coming on nicely. We are finally starting to build up some numbers, after losing many of them to wild dogs, floods, worms etc, over the past few years since the Jan 2011 floods.

Our greys are doing well now too, with two teams of dogs on the go at any time. Team 1 is the good team - two girls and two boys - and they will be racing early next year with any luck. Team 2 is made up of one boy and three girls. This lot is the injured, the sooky, the insane, and the frenetic, pretty much in that order. They have a long way to go before they come close to getting to Team 1's standards, but we are working on them. :-)

Afterall, they are only 17 month old pups, so basically kidlets still. Their mother is on season at the moment, so she has been sent to no-man's land (i.e the animal shed that is used for sick sheep, ewes and lambs, new puppies, scared horses, etc) until she comes off season, but when you go to visit her, she acts a little nuts, because it is quite clear she's a little lonely in there by herself. It's as if she is saying "Oh my god! It's a person! I have company! Oh wow! Will you play with me? Can we go for a walk? Can we go for a drive? Can we run around? I feel fantastic!" She'll calm down soon enough.

Anyway, storms are predicted again, so I'd best be off.

The Great Pumpkin is coming.....

I'm not into Halloween as such, as we don't tend to celebrate it here in Australia, but I do love to sit down to this Peanuts classic every 31st of October. My one and only contribution to the whole Halloween thing.

Wherever you are in the world, if you celebrate Halloween, enjoy it. If you don't, enjoy whatever you might be doing instead.