Welcome To Aussie Emus World

Been quite a while since I have posted on WordPress, many things happening during and after the Christmas season, Bush fires and Floods, drought in areas and financial ruin for many farmers. On top of that the Corona virus which has rampaged across the globe, we are no exception, our country also is in lock down with a number of our states individually locking down, we are permitted out for essentials like food, Doctors, Pharmacy’s and exercise, even that is now being closed down. Ana and I only venture out for necessities when needed with masks and gloves. I never envisaged the day I would be standing in a queue at six o’clock in the morning in drizzling rain, to get toilet paper, hand towels and tissues, but it has come to that, supermarkets then began a system of opening early for the elderly, now we are at the stage of limiting the number of people in supermarkets at any one time.

Lock down has had many effects on many people around the world in many ways, hardship and sad story’s every day, the poor, and the homeless, the disadvantaged throughout the world are suffering. One factor that I notice emerging is mental stress brought about by panic, anger, depression to resignation, this being particularly noticeable in the elderly, the rationing of foodstuffs must bring back memories to the elderly of the same rationing during the war years. I must admit stress has affected me to a certain degree, you could say it is self imposed, I follow the news daily here in Australia and globally, this has now proven to be a bad routine. The continuous bombardment on the mind is overwhelming; deciphering the news is stressful, what is fact and what is fiction, what is truth and what is false news, what is sensationalism and what is just poor journalism, and this scenario being played out on the internet the radio and television nonstop, mental overkill.

The initial proclamation of self isolation did not affect me at the start, but then I noticed a change, maybe due to my gypsy army life I felt confined, I loved the freedom of travel, of travelling whenever I wanted to, and wherever the winds took me, now I can think of a hundred things I need to do outside the house each day, purely psychological, I think it is the fact my mind is rebelling the thought of having my freedom curtailed and restricted outside my control, I am no longer master of my freedom.

Lock down has many meanings for many people, sadly it won’t change the lives of many people, the poor will still be poor, the homeless still homeless, beggars will still beg, people will still live from day to day hoping to find food. I will leave that scenario for now

Ana and I are adjusting in a number of ways, Ana has just about every film dating back over a century, even to Charlie Chaplain days, Oklahoma and Sound of Music are getting a thrashing again, my John Wayne westerns are being brushed off, Twilight Zone, Flintstones, Humphrey Bogart and all the other oldies, even Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse have been resurrected. As for me, my diverse collection of music is playing daily, my music also covers a couple of generations, think I even have the original song of Noah singing to the animals about why there were no Unicorns on the Ark.

Apart from the above distractions, Ana has been knitting profusely, her prowess is quite extraordinary, maybe her Chilean background and some wonderful training from her Aunts have contributed to her beautiful work, she knits scarves, mittens, arm warmers, shawls, caps and even socks. I leave you with some samples of her handwork.

I wish you all the best, take care each day and of each other. Be aware of mental stress and loneliness, in these times even depression in loneliness can be overlooked. This time will pass, and mankind may awaken with a better understanding of the trivialities of the material world as opposed to our spiritual existence

Emu

 

This is the latest of Ana’s work, when it was finished she could not decide how to proceed or what could be done with it, in the end I had it framed and is now hanging on our wall as a great masterpiece

 

I haven’t been around on WordPress much lately, been a busy month or so, Christmas and the start of our Bush fire summer. Bad start to Summer this year, many bush fires joining up down south of where I live, many over the two borders north and east, temps very high so I think we are heading for a hot Summer, our government banned Back burning here a few years back and that’s why we are in this predicament, nothing to do with climate change, just how our land requires yearly monitoring, our Aboriginals have been doing it for thousands of years with no problems.

 Our country is unique in many ways, can you believe it that now we have flooding in places and the Firemen have trouble to get into places to put the fires out, we cop all nature’s fury in one go. Today is cooler and with rains the fires are becoming under control, many lives lost and wildlife losses are immeasurable, there are many story’s that can be told, heartbreaking heroic losses of life, endearing stories and pictures of Koalas approaching people for water, neighbours helping neighbours as the flames rain down, compassion from around the world with donations to help rebuild our beautiful state, and the pictures that I like the most is the beautiful regrowth already spring up from the land and burnt trees.

Ironic that now outside my window I see rain falling down from an overcast sky. I was going to blog over the month but there is too much to speak of, yep I think we are in for a hot season when summer sets in. I was going to write some prose with this post until I realised I had already written prose on this subject, yes ten years ago, much like the actor Bill Murray in the movie Groundhogs Day who revisited the same day every day, I had written the same scenario back in 2010 when Australia experienced the same catastrophe. Australia is a beautiful country, very diverse in climate, very harsh and unforgiving, yet endearing in its harshness to those who appreciate its uniqueness; Australia is still a land of adventure, a land of promise and hope and unity.

Cheers and keep smiling.

 

 Demons from hell

Racing across

This harsh sunburnt country

Wreaking havoc

On our once fair land

Flames that obliterate

The eye of the burning sun

Air so dry

It sucks oxygen

From the very lungs

Of man and beast

A wall of flames

Bearing down

Destroying homes

Destroying towns

Mother Nature

Has unleashed her anger

And unbridled her power

Burnt dark eyes

Of those who try

To defeat these Tornadoes

Of flames from Hell

Eyes reflecting the Orange flow

Of impending doom

Of the deadly glow

Lives are lost

Both young and old

Fleeing these Demons

From Satan’s Soul

A Nation United

As one we pray

For all who suffer

By Night and Day

Oh Mighty Lord

Of one and all

Heed our cry

And heed our call

Release us

From these fires from Hell

Help us remain steadfast

In your Faith we dwell

And quench these Tsunamis

These Tornadoes from Hell

Dedicated to the memory of all those that have lost their lives in the fires raging across Australia,

 And to all who fight these horrendous Demons

Looking back over the years, I have posted many poetic writings in my Aussie Ian site and many stories of travels and adventure in my Aussie Emu site. I have enjoyed sharing my poetry and memories of life in both sites. On a couple of occasions I have delved into my past and written a few stories on my War time experiences in Vietnam. My writing life began many years back after a couple of personal traumas that were associated to my PTSD from war years, I was advised to write down my recollections of those war experiences as a form of therapy, there was no way I could go back into those dark days, although I did take the Psychiatrists advice on writing, I actually did the opposite, instead of War and Carnage I chose writings of love and romance, stories of adventures and travel, stories of experiences I have enjoyed traveling this beautiful world.

I would love to see my writings in book form one day, but alas publishing books is no cheap venture and well out of my future at the moment. However a few months back I was contacted by a publisher expressing an interest if I would consider submitting a couple of my war experiences for consideration in being included in an upcoming book titled Vietnam Our Story’s, I duly submitted a couple of story’s and was surprised to find they were considered valuable enough to be included in the book, what really surprised me was that my story’s were considered of a standard to be the first story in the book, the actual introduction to the contents.

To cut a long story short, the local media got notification of the book and published a story on my contribution to the book. I share with you this newspaper story, a lovely feeling to now know a piece of my past is now recorded for prosperity and history.

Do not pay too much attention to the picture of me holding the book, as it was actually photographed when I was a lot older.

Cheers.

 

My wife and I recently visited Melbourne for a four day holiday, for my overseas followers, Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria, the state or province we live in, Melbourne is a seven hour drive from Mildura and only fifty five minutes by plane. The purpose of our visit was primarily to visit a very unique South American Cafe called Neruda’s, named after the renowned Chilean poet Pablo Neruda; however I will leave that story for another post. While in Melbourne we took time out to visit the State Aquarium, one of Australia’s great Aquariums, while I would prefer to see these wonders of nature live in their own habitat, this is not always possible, and as such, society has created their environment for our perusal into their world. The displays were exceptional, depicting all the wonders of the deep; I was drawn particularly to the Penguin exhibit and was captivated by the display, so much so that I tried for the first time, to professionally record the exhibit and display of these beautiful Penguins. I share with you my efforts in recording the Penguins that illustrate their gracefulness and regal movements.

Cheers

Aussie Emu

Australia is really a young country in general, having been developed since settlement in 1788; our country has experienced numerous shipwrecks around our continent in those early days of masted schooners. Also quite a number of Gold rushes with the subsequent influx of people from foreign lands chasing their dreams, we have many early settlements left behind by settlers from those days. We had our share of Bushrangers, escaped convicts and others who chased their dreams through nefarious activities. It was back in the 1970’s that I took an interest in chasing history via a metal detector, golden nuggets were still being discovered around the old gold fields, and big nuggets worth many thousands of dollars, debris was being washed up on our shores from cyclones, bringing with it artifacts from long departed shipwrecks. With the advent of metal detectors my enthusiasm piqued, detectors were expensive I had to come up with an alternative, the light bulb lit up in my mind and I headed for the army supply store and signed out a Mine detector, well to cut a long story short, I spent the weekend searching a long Tasmanian beach, the only coin I located was a bright shiny 20 Cents piece, and to add insult to injury it was minted exactly the same year I was detecting. Well that was my detecting experience, the detector went back to the store and I realized that Mine detectors were primarily for mines, not for me chasing dreams of Cap’n Kidd’s treasure or buried treasure from pirates of the Caribbean. As the years went by my enthusiasm for history never waned, I learnt the treasures of Antique shops, and still haunt them to this day, as well as old book shops, always searching for that Adrenalin rush of history. I entered an antique store one day and discovered a colourful object on one of the shelves, it was a cast iron money box in the configuration of a soldier standing beside a cannon facing a bank, the money box was heavy and rattled, the idea was a child would place a coin in the cannon, press a lever and the soldiers arm would raise up as the cannon fired the coin into the bank, fascinated I sealed the deal on its purchase, after a few days the curiosity got the better of me, what was in the money box from around the era of The Second World War vintage, I had to open it but found that time had corroded the screw opening at the base, not wishing to damage the money box I had to come up with another idea to get to what was in the box. After a while on pondering on how to raid the money box, my memory went back to my childhood days, the answer was simple, turn the money box upside down and shake the hell out of it, worked a treat, the coins found their own equilibrium and started to fall through the slot, I was a millionaire in a child’s mind as the relics from the past began to tumble, Found I had a hand full of pre decimal coins, mainly Half pennies various dates, the money box appears to be designed specifically for coins half penny size, also couple of foreign coins, from Cayman Island, Jamaica, Barbados and Colombo, and two others, a Euro and a coin from the Isle of Man, their value lies in the hopes and dreams that little fingers had fun with firing the cannon that shoots the coin into the bank. Many years ago I found a coin on a vacant lot up in Queensland, checked around and found about fifteen altogether ranging in currency from halfpenny upwards, they were literally on top of the ground, the site had been an old Jewelers store, the coins had turned brilliant bronze from the exposure to the heat, two particular coins I found exceptional, both were three pence, one dated 1914 the other 1918, now having a military background they had much significance to me, for those who know their military history, the first coin was minted at the outbreak of the First World War 1914, the second three pence dated 1918 being the end the of the First World War, all part of history and my past,  And that Dear Friends is my adventures in chasing Black beards treasures and Captain Kidd’s hidden chests of gold.

For those who follow my posts on a regular basis, you will notice I have recently been submitting videos comprising photographs from my sojourns to Chile South America. I have had to go through the process of editing, cropping and in many instances, deleting certain pictures. In hindsight I made many errors into the world of photography, especially when contemplating an overseas visit. I did not appreciate the complexities of my camera enough, the different settings for different scenarios, indoors and outdoors scenes, low light and locations. Looking back over my photographs I see many errors, unfortunately in many cases we cannot undo the done, I am fortunate enough in being in the position to revisit and endeavour to rectify my initial mistakes. I now have a Camcorder that takes still pictures as well as record, however even this Camcorder has to be studied in all detail otherwise I will only be creating the same errors as before. In this short photographic video I share the best edited photographs of my visit to the Santiago Cathedral Chile, a Cathedral that is magnificent and awe inspiring, and demonstrates the religious fervor of this mainly Catholic South American country.

A few years back Ana and I took a trip to the outback town called Coober Pedy, known in Aboriginal language as White Man’s Hole, primarily because the town is renowned for Opals and built mainly underground, we spent a few days there exploring the town and staying in an underground motel. The distance from our hometown to Coober Pedy is a little over 11 hours, a long monotonous outback drive, scenery remote, sparse and never changing so we take along much music to while away the time, classical music, jazz music and also Australian Country music. Somewhere along the lonely desolate track I broke into song, a great song called Hey True Blue, by the Australian Country composer and singer, John Williamson. My efforts were duly recorded by the Navigator, my wife. I now present for your edification, my first singing performance and I add my last. You have been warned dear listeners. My apologies to John Williamson, the singer and songwriter.