There is a singer out there who is winning much acclaim called Susan Vega, who sings alternative rock, and folk music resulting in two Grammy awards nominations. However, I am going out on a limb here by saying that in my view she is one of worst singers I have ever heard. She sings in a monotonous flat voice, has no high notes, does not alternate between the ranges, thus, I fail to see what singing talents she has to justify Grammy award nominations.

One of her early successes was a song called “My name is Luka” released back in 1989.At first I was unable to understand the point of the lyrics; until one rainy afternoon when it hit me. This woman is singing a song about child abuse; check this.
                                   "My name is Luka
                                  I live on the second floor
                                  I live upstairs from you
                                  Yes I think you've seen me before
                                  If you hear something late at night
                                  Some kind of trouble some kind of

                                         fight. 
                                                  Then
          
.                                  Maybe it's because I'm crazy
                                   I try not to act too proud
                                   They only hit until you cry".

I had lunch last week with two old friends of mine (husband/wife) in a pub restaurant, which overlooks Port Phillip Bay. It must have been some 4 months since we last met, so it was good catching up with them.

Like me he retired 2 years ago, but there ends the similarity as he was a highly successful electrical retailer and unlike me  retired as a millionaire. Despite the success they kept their feet on the ground and remained just ordinary folks throughout their lives. They have lived in the same basic house, same  ordinary suburb for 30 years, and he is the type who is just as happy to drink with the guys in the public bar rather than the lounge or members bar.

Anyhow, he had just bought a new car, which he was keen to show me, and if my friend has allowed himself one luxury in life, it has always been his choice of cars, which have all been in the luxury range. This time it was the top of the range Mercedes SUV (4wd), and after lunch, we went into the car park to inspect it. It had 1,400 k’s on the clock and was still being run in, with all the latest gadgetry, gps, side mirrors that closed when ignition switched off, and a digital readout of tyre pressures by the flick of a switch and many other luxury mod cons.

But as always it was the inside smell of a new car that captivated me, the new leather  seats, oak dash board,  new carpets, the vinyl, sparkling duco, shiny hub caps, all of which hit my nostrils with that smell which  pleasantly overpowers you.. While I would not have chosen a Mercedes, nevertheless the smell of their cars is a good if not better than most others. Meanwhile I still yearn for my new Jaguar.

I had a quick nap last Sunday afternoon which is rare for me and it happened again. I don’t know when it started but over the years  there have been perhaps hundreds of times in those hazy moments when I’m floating between consciousness and unconsciousness that sometimes a girl comes to me. She’s fully clothed; she wears a loose fitting yellow colored sleeveless dress. It’s always a warm and sunny afternoon and the yellow sun is streaming through her hair from somewhere over her right shoulder. Her hair is sometimes light brown and sometimes blond but she’s always the same girl. She’s facing me and the sun is always in the same position relative to her head. I sometimes get the notion that we’re standing in a doorway or a small vestibule and other times I’m seated at a desk with her standing at the left end of the desk. If ever I see the floor it’s always the same warm yellowy brown oak I remember from  school. Our interaction only lasts a few brief moments, as if it really takes place during my passing through this state of semi-consciousness. In spite of the fleeting nature of our encounters she’s in no hurry and she’s always playfully teasing me about something I’m taking too seriously. I can tell by the effortless way she plays with me that she loves me. Just before she disappears she laughs and throws her head back to clear her hair from her face. She has a beautiful long sensual neck begging to be kissed, which matches her very pretty face, and I know I love her too. But then she’s gone, and I am puzzled. Why if we love each other does she always disappear.

At this point I generally awake on the verge of panic, like I’ve just learned the limit of how long I can hold my breath at the bottom of the pool. My mind is rushing through the extensive catalog of all the women I’ve ever met, desperately trying to work out, “who is that woman!?!”, I just don’t know.

There is nothing like a good barbecue, with friends and family. I have been an advocate of the American invented Weber which I use at such gatherings, cooking either roasts, poultry, fish, veggies, and what you cook in these useful devices is only limited by the extent of your imagination. There is nothing like a good damper to eat either before or with the main meal, which must be served hot with butter dripping everywhere. Try this recipe

Mix flour & salt, rub in butter until it resembles bread crumbs.

Gradually add milk & water, mix with a knife. Add sultanas.

Gently knead, and form to required shape.

Add extra dried fruit or more butter for a richer damper.

Cook in the Weber or similar camp oven until a lovely golden brown. Maybe  check with  a skewer to ensure evenness inside. I use a tin which forms the damper like a French stick or  Baguette., thus you break it off into edible pieces...delicious

The Rudd Government will release to-morrow a paper on carbon emissions which of course they campaigned to do. This document will certainly shake the very foundations of our lifestyle, and most people will conveniently forget the 11-1/2 years of inaction by the Howard Government, and blame Rudd as the impact will now have  be greater. The Rudd Government have been unlucky, inasmuch they have been caught out in a bad economic downward cycle accentuated by rising fuel and food prices, the USA sub- prime melt down and growing demand in both China and India. If anything China itself, has a number of problems to overcome, inasmuch that its economy is traveling too fast; thus its like building a house and suddenly realizing that the foundations could have been made stronger.

Rudd himself has copped some negative flak with the way he works the Public Service, his control freak tendencies, his wife’s business and a few other issues. I think a lot of this is due that Rudd is his own person, and is different to Howard and people simply have to adjust. After 11 ½ years of Howard, who had become a routine household fixture, that you got used to it because you saw it reassuringly standing there everyday. While Rudd being 16 years younger will take a longer period of time before people adjust. Meanwhile the  Liberal Party with its born to rule mentality always take defeat very badly, thus will continue to scream at every misdemeanor even if no misdemeanor has been committed. But Kev 07 I want you to listen very carefully, I went out on a limb for you, thus:-

 Passion is reflected in their music, like flamenco dancing, the tango, and of course their guitar playing. I have a few cd’s of a Spanish couple from Mexico called Rodrigo y Gabriela who first started playing together in 2005. However the Spanish were slow to recognize their own talent and these 2 being very ambitious, could not wait so they pulled up stumps and moved to Dublin. Here they were an immediate success and started touring around the UK, where their reputation grew.

They tried to take their music to the USA but Rodrigo encountered visa problems, and for a period of time, was refused entry, but appeals from other notable musicians including Eric Clapton overcame this problem. They have since toured the US with great success, and I have my fingers crossed they will come to Oz. I just love them and here is a clip from the Dave Letterman show where they recently played. Don't let anyone tell you girls cant play guitar, this chick playing rhythm is awesome.

Click here>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPhVpIlc1vs 

Ps- If you want to get to know me, then get to get to know my taste in music, it must be passionate, and simply thump along. Anything less is nerdish.

I  worked for American Engineering & Construction company for 19 years and visited the USA many times including once living in California for 2 years thus I still retain a strong interest in that country, their politics, current affairs etc, which leads me to make the following  :-

I recently watched a Larry King interview with seven mothers whose children had been taken in the raid from that widely reported Texas polygamous ranch. Militant slogans in their defense flashed on the screen beneath them:  Mothers Speak Out!  Give Our Kids Back!  I felt for the mothers and their children.  I can imagine how terrified any toddler would be if he/she were ripped away by strangers.  I agreed that Texas authorities had no right to snatch hundreds of children wholesale without proving that each one was at risk and without considering less harmful alternatives.  The Texas Supreme Court ruled as such on 29 May and returned the traumatized children to their home. But what is not known about the USA is that they have a vigorous but unpublished “Stolen Generation” scenario practiced even today. The reason no one seems to know much about is that unlike white mothers black mothers never have a chance to air the wrongs they suffered when the state took their children on far less egregious charges! 

To listen to the media coverage on CNN etc, you would think this is the first and only case of wrongful child removal by state agents.  But the facts are that there are more than half a million children in foster care and most are from black families. In the US black children were virtually excluded from openly segregated child welfare services until the end of World War II.  As the child welfare system began to serve fewer white children and more black children, state and federal governments spent much more money on foster care and less on in-home services to families. Today, black children are grossly overrepresented in the US child welfare system; they make up about one-third of the nation’s foster care population yet represent only 15 percent of the nation’s children.  A black child is four times as likely as a white child to be in foster care. The Texas raid was extraordinary in part because it took so many White children from their homes; but in reverse removing hundreds of children from black neighborhoods is unremarkable because it is so common. 

The media seem to have realized only now – when white children are at stake – that foster care has damaging effects. Reporters rarely notice that foster care routinely tears apart black families, but they are startled when state agents haul off so many blond haired, blue eyed children. The glaring failure to value Black people’s relationships is precisely the main reason for the disproportionate placement of Black children in the first place.  When it comes to black families, the media tend to report only on the death of children at the hands of their parents, which typically sets off a foster care panic.  Fearful of bad press, state agencies start removing children on flimsier grounds and needlessly separate thousands more children from their families while overloading the social workers charged with protecting them.  Hopefully, the public awakening to the plight of the Texas children will direct attention to the child welfare system’s deeper flaws that have harmed primarily black children that racism has long obscured.   

God I hope that Australia never finds its way into a racially discriminatory mess like this. Thus I reckon that in 2008 America is still going through a stolen generation scenario.

I see Archbishop Pell is deeply embroiled in yet another apparent Catholic Church cover-up involving sexual molestation by a priest against a teenage boy, when both were swimming. This is an event which occurred back in 1982, thus am unsure why the informant chose to wait until 4 days before the arrival of the Pope to  go public. However be that as it may.

When I read theses things it reminds me of attempted molestation against myself on 3 occasions in my life, including once when I was only 4, riding a trike in a paddock with a friend. We were both approached by some sleaze, who asked we take our pants down, and I had enough warnings from my father to be aware of these perverted bastards. My friend and I got away, and the other 2 occasions (1) one in a public toilet on railway station and (2) in a cinema when some  male sleaze sat next to me  and put his hand on my bare leg.   I was about 15 to 16 on both occasions and again got away. So girls hopefully you will also see that us males also have problems with these horrible sleazes.

But it does bring me to the point that while in my teen years, a group of us guys used to go to the YMCA each Saturday morning which was then in South Melbourne. We used to catch the train, change into sporting gear and use their Gymnasium for an hour or so. We were coached of course and all this was good fun. Later we were told to strip down to nothing and use their swimming pool for another hour or so then shower and leave. At all times we were under some older supervision, and I actually enjoyed this part of the session of swimming nude with other guys, not perversely, but the sense of freedom was exhilarating.  None of my mates ever objected, and all this happened naturally without any guilt. But I now wonder why it was necessary to be under adult supervision after all we were all 14 to 16 years, and as far as I knew none of my mates were homosexual. We simply swam, played water polo, and generally had a good time. Sometimes when under the shower you might have peaked at your mates and thought gee I hope something soon happens to my development. But the point I am really trying to make is that these nude swimming sessions were under the control of the Young Mans Christian Association, and I doubt that in this homophobic world, if this would be allowed to happen to-day. But there again why did it happen then?

Yesterday I was sitting in the waiting room of the local Vet with my dog Jack who was having his annual vaccinations. In the room with me was another but older gentleman, also waiting to have his dog seen to, thus we chatted. His dog was younger than mine and was having treatment for an ailment, of some description and its owner told me that he himself was 76 and still actively worked as a plumber. He said he now did many jobs free for pensioners as they simply could not afford to pay, including at a local church where they also helped those who survived marginally above the poverty line.

While this was going on the local postman walked in with some mail for the Vet, and the  plumber then engaged the postman in conversation. He explained to the Postman that he was doing some work at the local church, where they gave free lunches to the local poor pensioners and other hard up people. The plumber noticed that the pensioners had trouble holding the big mugs of soup, as they were simply too hot. Thus the plumber had cut up pieces of towel and gave them to the pensioners to use while sipping their mugs of soup. However this was not ideal as they still had difficulty holding their mugs, so he asked the postman if he had any spare elastic bands. Just a second said the postman who walked outside to his motorbike and came back in with a huge bag of elastic bands, which he gave to the plumber. The elastic bands of course were to be used to hold the towel unto the mugs; kindness at its best by Australia Post; onya guys!

Ps- The story goes on, as the ideal solution for this church would be to serve the soup in these insulated mugs with big handles; so I plan to pop in today and see for myself, and if they agree will make a few telephone calls.

I have been cooking most of my life, and for me it is divided into 2 different styles; (A) Survival Cooking, (B) Creative Cooking. The survival is just for me when I throw a few items in the fry pan, wok , oven etc for my self just for the sake eating in order to survive. This week I am in the creative mode where I will let my head run, by preparing food for stockpiling in both pantry and freezer.

I reckon I am on top of this cake baking and this weekend made an acceptable chocolate cake which my son & I are slowly devouring, which brings me to the point of storage of the cake until it is all gone. Currently I keep it in an airtight container in the fridge, but this tends to harden the cake by making it cold and thus removing some of the flavour. Is it best to bring out of the fridge and let it stand at room temperature before eating or is it best to store the bloody thing in the same airtight container but in the pantry. All other issues I had  have been resolved with your good advice, in particular from sunflowermum and scruffysis, but girls what do you think about this one.

For the remaining part of the week I will be cooking stuff I know backwards and plan to do a heap of pickled onions using time trusted and much treasured recipe, beef curry, Hungarian goulash, and minestrone soup in my slow cookers, all of which will be stored in the freezer in meal size containers. The latter 3 dishes I started off using recipes from various cooking books, and I have over 100, but over the years I have substituted some of the ingredients and cooking style to suit myself, friends and or family. For example in the goulash I use caraway seed, bacon and sauerkraut and serve it with extra cream none of which was stipulated in the original recipe. When all done  I often take some of these containers away when on a caravan trip, while the rest are eaten at home, throughout  the rest of winter and early spring. Like “The Mole” in “Wind in the Willows”, I like to store a heap of food to last the winter.

That’s how I see my week. Shit a man’s work is never done.

I have always been an admirer of French movies and there are a couple of cinemas in Melbourne that screen  European movies including French. I would prefer a good French made movie to one out of Hollywood, why; well something seems to catch  inside me and I think it’s the way they take care of human beings and examine the psychology of characters. The other aspect about French movies that makes them different is that there are so many more French directors who are women. Thus  these female directors have a way to tell the story, and to treat relationships of the people they film. I don’t think I know one good good female director in Hollywood dominated by cigar chomping male moguls. The French make approx 200 movies per year while Hollywood produce far more, and under law 10% of each French movie ticket sold must be re-invested back into the industry, something the struggling Australian film industry could well learn from.

French movies have a lot more soul searching, frank sexuality, and longer dialogues, while I feel there is far too much violence and brutality in Hollywood movies. There is also a totally different approach to censorship between the 2 countries. Americans don’t censor super violence and its easy for kids to see these movies yet if they show a woman’s nipple then it is censored. Great French movies I have enjoyed over the years include :-

The other great difference is that the French allow their women to age gracefully, without plastic breasts, botox and other enhancements. Again if I may refer to the gorgeous Juliette, who has slammed the Hollywood-driven definition of beauty, deriding it as being a simple combination of "youth and big breasts. "In France," Binoche says "beauty is much more subtle, less emphasis on physical attributes, and there is a greater acceptance of age." She also criticizes the growth of cosmetic surgery abuse among American actresses of uncertain age: "Botox makes people look older. You look at women who have had it; you see the fear of ageing on their face." Other than the difference in the style of movie making, the greater number of French female directors, it is also the way the French allow their women to age gracefully, and to act in roles that respect their age, is another aspect that attracts me to French movies.

Yep I love them and it’s a pity there are not more. Sadly I live in an area where there is only 4 cinemas showing  Hollywood violence, thus I have to make a round trip of 78 kms by car then catch a train into Melbourne to see a good French movie.

I like most animals except rats and snakes, but despite this donkeys are a particular favorite of mine. It annoys me when I hear people say donkeys are stupid and often describe their fellow humans as “having the brains of an ass”. Neither of this is true and in fact donkeys are a clever animal and in our country they are totally misunderstood and  under utilized. They are more than just a pack animal.

Did you know that in the USA donkeys are widely used as guard animals and their main role is protecting herds of sheep. Donkeys are used in this role due to their relatively low cost, minor maintenance requirements, longevity and their compatibility with other predator control methods. Donkeys also offer the additional advantage in that they can be fed in much the same manner as sheep. The donkey's natural herding instinct means if properly bonded to the sheep, it will stay with the sheep most of the time. The donkey's herding instinct combined with its inherent dislike and aggressiveness towards wild dogs, including wolves, can make it an effective livestock guard animal.

Donkeys rely predominantly on sight and sound to detect intruders. When approached, sheep will tend to move so the guard animal is between the intruder and themselves. The donkeys' loud brays and quick pursuit will scare away predators and may also alert the sheep farmer. In most instances donkeys will confront and chase dogs or coyotes out of the pasture. If the canines do not retreat quickly the donkeys will attack them by rising up on their hind legs and striking with both front feet. A solid blow can injure, kill or at the very least discourage the predator.

Contrary of what you may have thought these lovely animals are far from stupid.

                                               

Nay Phone Latt

I am lucky enough to have a craft butcher in my neighborhood owned by  Greg who is a passionate man. Make a visit to his shop in the middle of the main Road and be prepared to learn all about his wide range of award-winning meat products. On a quick visit earlier today, I called in to pick up some of my favorite Peninsula pancetta. I was only in the door two minutes when Greg had us as a willing audience to taste his intensely savory air-dried beef. Sliced thinly like Italian Bresaola, it melts in the mouth with a silky texture similar to the finest smoked salmon, leaving a lingering flavor of the spices used in the cure. This innovative craft butcher is like a shark, never standing still – for Greg there's always something to learn or try, a new product to work on, an old one to improve.

A wide variety of sausages were just asking to be placed on a barbeque: I picked up some of the ones that he makes with local  cheese for the next outdoor meal but could easily have bought twice as much again, so intrigued I was with the flavors on offer. The shop is festooned with awards; including the 2007 Gold Great Taste Award for Greg’s spiced dry-cured back rashers, which come vacuum-packed in a striking gold foil packet with his trademark bay leaf. The same product also took the local prize for Best Specialty Product that year.

As I drove home, I started planning tomorrow night's dinner. If I can track down some Parmesan shaved cheese, I'll make a spiky salad with rocket and mustard, dressed simply with balsamic vinegar and a decent olive oil, topped with the jewel-colored slices of air-dried beef and some shavings of the cheese. But there are also rashers to try, the sausages to barbeque and the pancetta to toss with pasta or make into an excellent meal.

Not only does Greg make some superlative meats, he sponsors the local football team. His shop is always busy; there is a big television monitor inside showing recipes and ways with meats. Sometimes I have been so engrossed in these Tv recipes that I have missed my turn to be served.

Yes I have an excellent butcher shop in my area.

Today is very windy in my area and I have to go out so wont be writing anything structured, just a few random thoughts.

To me personally it is a pity to see the Australian Democrats so ingloriously exit parliament . I was a believer in Don Chipp’s famous words when he founded the Democrats and said I have formed this party to keep the “bastards honest”. Thus for years I voted for them in the Senate, and they did well in their early years. However they finished up shooting themselves in the foot over 3 major issues:-

1.      Meg Lees cuddling up to John Howard on the GST without consultation with the Democrat membership. This of course enabled the GST to pass and become law.

2.      The back stabbing of Natasha Stott Despoja when she was leader by some of her colleagues in particular Senator Don Cherry. She of course resigned in 2002 and had voted against the GST.

3.      The sudden defection of Cheryl Kernot, when she was leader to the ALP, and the subsequent breaking of her affair with Gareth Evans by Laurie Oakes. She was a good leader, widely respected, thus one must wonder the extent the affair clouded her judgment.

Time for a laugh, in the USA there is this TV show called “America’s Got Talent”. Here is a clip of a recent performer.

  Click >     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9G3TPGGomI

Ps- Good to see the Hoff making a recovery, last time I saw him he was laying dead drunk on the floor.

Have a nice day.

There are still mixed messages coming from the world of modern day feminists. It now seems that because boys are no longer required to go around running to the rescue of girls as depicted in storybooks, thus boys are running the risk of  becoming emasculated. If a young boy lives in a household with a strong father and sees the father coming to the rescue of his mother and or sisters. But if this young boy is say 30 years younger than his father he feels out of place when he tries to follow in his father’s footsteps. Thus it is now obvious we are damaging young boys-why; because books are no longer being written or published with strong male characters, because boys (and men) can only be strong, when girls (and women) are weak. It is good that girls are no longer weak, but have they gone too far, in pushing their new-found strength.

 If you do, as I often do, wander into a book shop you will see that finding books for girls is easy and that finding books for boys is hard. There are heaps more books  for girls (not all of which would fall under the "good" category) but that doesn't mean that the quality of the few  books written for boys is bad. It means that boys now read a different style of books which redefines their role in life. There is a new blog which is specifically designed to post literary news and reviews  for teen boys. Here is the link:-

             http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/

 I always taught my sons what I was taught myself; and that is too protect all women in particular your mother. In my time  that for a boy to feel heroic he must rescue a girl - and the girl also needs to be rescued. However modern day feminists and sociologists now have a field day on this antiquated thinking. 

In discussing this theory with a friend; she told me that in a book titled, Nick of Time, the little sister tells the bad guys that they better not do anything to her because her brother was going to come save her. Later in the book this girl was severely rebuked by her female peer group, for even considering that she allow any boy to rescue her. Now I have not read the book, but it goes to illustrate the confusion that must exist in a boys mind when he has a strong father. So how do we bring this baby home?

Does the current practice of raising strong independent girls mean we're raising weak boys?  I hope not but there are no longer books written about guys like Daniel Boone, Captain Marvel, Batman, Superman – remember all the times he rescued Lois Lane . If there are modern day school boy heroes then I am not sure who they are.  Maybe Harry Potter comes close, but he certainly aint no alpha male.  Somehow dads must take a different path to what I did which takes into consideration the views of the feminists and perhaps the above link will assist. But if I had to go through it again I would ease back on rescuing all damsels in distress, because as I understand modern gender roles, damsels no longer wish to be rescued by old fashioned heroes. However there will be no easing back on; in the event you see a female being physically attacked then you go and save her, and you go in hard. However you can no longer say you rescued her; all you can say, is that you came to her assistance, quietly letting her believe that she really had the situation under control. No longer can a boy pick a girl up and carry her off into the sunset, as the peer group will say that's all bullshit. Its a pity about the closing scene in the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman".

A beautiful woman died from cancer over the weekend. Not only was she beautiful by looks, but more importantly by nature, a wonderful mother to 2 children, and a shining inspiration to other women suffering from breast cancer. Her name was Jane McGrath wife of recently retired Australian fast bowler Glen McGrath; Jane twice fought cancer and beat it, only to be confronted with a brain tumour and then another bout of cancer. After her breast cancer was first detected resulting in a  mastectomy she still went ahead and had children. Jane and Glen set up a foundation (McGrath Foundation) which has raised over $10M, and  even when suffering herself Jane tramped all around the country raising money and giving strength to other women sufferers.

                     http://www.mcgrathfoundation.com.au/  

Some weeks ago I did a posting on its not the number of hits that count on your blog but the ability, to be able to unburden your inner self and express that in a lucid manner, is really where the money is. Now having written that I began to think that it would be great to cross fertilize this with people from other countries, different cultures, and to see if, on the world stage we have common ground. Thus I thought how do we do this, and I spent some time, googling my way around the net looking for the answer. There were heaps of search engine optimisers, sites where your blog could be listed, cross linking etc...all of which cost money... naah my poor old befuddled blog was not worth spending money on.

Then I remembered a posting by Girl on a Gold Mine, about something called Rss Hugger. I thought just another spam type promotional system, and dismissed it. But my idea of cross fertilization persisted, so I checked Rss Hugger out, and can now see it is a non obtrusive method of getting more readers to your site and worthy of trying. So that's what I am doing...Thanks COAGM.

Cyd Charisse the beautiful long legged dancer died this week, aged 82. She was born in an era when music was happy and joyous, and she had the ability to express this mood through dancing. Cyd was nothing short of spectacular and danced with the greatest like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. One her best movies was “Singing in the Rain” in which she danced with Kelly. Music in her time was happier, people laughed and smiled; lyrics were simpler, and the theme was invariably based on boy meeting girl, and the effect they  had on each other. Much of today’s music is drug related, people dying and in my view song writers like Bob Dylan, must share some responsibility for this. He once wrote a song about woman, sitting on his knees drinking champagne who had white skin and looked like an assassin. Australian group AC/DC sang about bullets, guns, novacaine, in their hit “Burning Alive”, and a lot of hard rock or heavy metal, from this era was much the same. There is too much violence, suicide, drugs and raw sex  It seems to me that bands today rarely smile, let alone laugh, whereas it was the opposite in the era of Cyd Charrisse.

The other aspect of today’s music is the portrayal of sex, women’s clothing is more scant, or virtually non existent. From someone who is moralistically free and lose I don't understand the need for blatant use of sex and skin, it's just not appealing and totally takes the beauty away from subtleness. Take Beyonce's compulsive shaking dancing style, makes me wonder if it really necessary for women to go that far in the portrayal of sex. Yes she is certainly bootylicious but there is no suggestiveness, no illusion, no prettiness, it’s just here I am, you wanna f--- me. This style of music totally removes the need for men to respect women, and it is little wonder rape and other sexual crimes have increased. I hear men use the word slut far too much when talking about women, and I wonder what contribution modern music plays in this.

There was another gorgeous woman from the same era as Cyd Charisse, by the name of Rita Hayworth who could exude more sex appeal by lifting her little finger, and did not have rip her clothes off. I will try and summarise the difference of sexual illusion by suggesting you check this video out.

Click here>  http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=7kKVBZUVWxQ

I have been researching my family history for 14 years, which in is  essence too late to have started, as many of the knowledgeable family members of my family, had already passed on, but nevertheless after huge research I have a respectable looking family tree. During this time I have spent hundreds of hours in research places like the Family History Centres of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and Society of Australian Genealogists in Sydney. The time spent on the Internet has also been significant much of it done prior to the broadband era.

I have also spent and inordinate amount of time walking through cemeteries taking photos of headstones of relatives all of which will be included in a book I am completing. In the beginning I had certain misgivings about these cemeteries as it is after all the resting place of those who once walked among us. The other reason is that I am a part time believer in spirits, having had this hammered into me when I was a boy by a metaphysical grandmother. Thus in my early cemetery visits I trod very carefully not wishing to disturb any slumbering ghosts or spirits. However this no longer worries me and I confidently walk around searching for a particular grave. In addition to my own relatives I try to read as many headstones as possible, like young children, who have died at a young age, and I wonder why. I read those about military personnel, the wars they served in, pioneers, the famous and the not so famous, which battled all their lives. I like country cemeteries, family plots, and notice that even after a loved may have died 30 years before, and some kind person is still laying flowers on the grave. These sort of things move me, and I admire Greek families who will sit for hours beside some loved one’s grave, even taking a picnic lunch with them, and I wonder who the person is they are paying respects to. There are photos placed on graves, headstones and ornate tombs, and many are quite busy for most of the day.

Many cemeteries now have data online which makes it easier when looking for some one in your family. I have found relatives who I did not know even existed including, many young babies who died in their infancy, obviously due to the much higher rate of child mortality existing in past times. My paternal grandparents had another baby in addition to my father and his sister, which was never spoken about when growing up, and did I not discover it until I recently stumbled across the grave in a Gippsland cemetery, and noted the baby was only a month old when buried.

Cemeteries are great learning places, even today, they still fascinate me, often giving away secrets you never knew about.

Yep I reckon cemeteries are cool places in which to chill out.