Our local weather

Pretty 'ordinary' at present - cold, windy, rain squalls accompanied by gusty winds up to 80kph. The official forecast was:

Southern Tablelands area:
Severe Weather Warning :
for Snowy Mountains, Metropolitan, Australian Capital Territory, South Coast, Illawarra, Hunter, Southern Tablelands and Central Tablelands forecast districts,



Warning to Sheep Graziers:
for Snowy Mountains, Australian Capital Territory, Riverina, Northern Tablelands, South Coast, Illawarra, Central West Slopes & Plains, South West Slopes, Hunter, North West Slopes & Plains, Lower Western, Southern Tablelands and Central Tablelands forecast districts,

Weather Situation

A deep low-pressure system to the south, coupled with a ridge developing to the north produced, a strong pressure gradient across the region. Blizzard conditions of snow, reduced visibility, strong gale force winds, temperatures of zero or below could be expected across the ACT at 1000m. ACT State Emergency Service chief officer Tony Graham warned there was likely to be damage and advised people to protect themselves around their homes.

A deep low west of Tasmania with an associated cold front moving into Victoria. A high pressure system to the southwest of WA. The high is expected to remain stationary for most of the week, with a series of cold fronts moving through southeast Australia from the Southern Ocean. These fronts will maintain cold conditions and strong to gale force winds through much of central and southern New South Wales through the week.

Today’s weather:
Max 9C
Shower or two. Very windy.

Partly cloudy. Isolated showers, more frequent in the west. Winds westerly averaging 50 to 65 km/h. Daytime maximum temperatures around 9C.


Wednesday 6 July
Min 3C Max 9 C
Shower or two. Windy.

Cloudy. Areas of frost in the southeast in the morning. Isolated showers, falling as snow above 1200 metres. Winds westerly averaging 40 to 55 km/h tending west to northwesterly 45 to 60 km/h during the morning. Overnight temperatures falling to around 1C with daytime temperatures reaching around 9C.

Thursday 7 July
Min 3C Max 8C
Shower or two. Wind easing.

Cloudy. Areas of frost in the southeast early in the morning. Isolated showers until afternoon, falling as snow above 800 metres. Winds west to southwesterly averaging 40 to 55 km/h decreasing below 35 km/h during the afternoon. Overnight temperatures falling to 1C with daytime temperatures reaching around 8C.

Friday 8 July
Min -2C Max 8C
Becoming windy. Partly cloudy.

Partly cloudy. Areas of morning frost. Winds westerly averaging 15 to 30 km/h increasing to up to 55 km/h around midday. Overnight temperatures falling to minus 2 with daytime temperatures reaching around 8C.

D & D of Cambridge at P E I

Hi Jim,

I hope you and your fellow residents on Prince Edward Island are taking good care of Wills and Katie as they tour your homeland!

Back in the saddle again.

After a break of nearly 12 months, while I had total replacements of both knees, today I returned to Volunteer Community Driver duties for our council's Home Living Support Services.

Had an old mental health patient who had to be taken to a nearby regional centre for some specialist X-Ray imagery. I thing the HLSS managers must have gone through their list of drivers and culled them down to me. I must make a note in my diary and next time I must remember to take along a can of car air freshener - Phew-eeee!!!!! LOL!

Still, it was good to get that first 'drive' done, amazing how it all just comes back to you!

Have another 'drive' booked for Friday - an elderly man going to the eye hospital with his wife accompanying him. I'm to wait and bring them back, so it could be a long day - I'll take a sandwich and a flask of hot water to make a cup of tea and a good book to read!

Diet advice

I recently received an email from someone who had read my blog. They were putting together a 'diet program' and wanted my advice.

The email went something like this:

Hi Johnd,


I bumped into your blog today and was wondering if I could get your opinion on a diet/fitness app I am working on right now.

Basically, the main problem with being fit and eating healthy is motivation and willpower. It's such an abstract goal that seems overwhelming. It seems the best way to counter this is to make it into smaller, winnable games.

So my app makes living healthy, eating healthy, and fitness into a RPG game, where users earn points, "level up', and earn badges as they accomplish their health goals. Everytime they add something healthy like a fruit to their food log, they earn points. Everytime they complete a workout, they earn points. As they achieve more and more, they'll level up and unlock badges...

Of course, to appeal to people's need for achievements/progress, I'm also adding charts, and graphs to show their progress... I think people love that sorta stuff. The whole idea is to shift people's attitude towards healthy living as fun, and enjoyable. And there's gonna be a web version for those that don't own smartphones.

What's your opinion on this idea? Would you want to know when I'm done with it?

Without meaning to rude I sent the enquirer this response:

 I am not a fan of 'diet programs'. I believe that there are four elements to dieting:

1. Keep your mouth closed - don't put any food in it between meals
2. Hi-protein, Lo-fat, Lo-carbohydrate intake - small portion meals three to four times a day
3. Keep hydrated through regular sips of water - no soft drinks, energy drinks or fruit juices (includes natural juice).
4. Lots of healthy walking exercise - buy a dog and walk it twice a day.

I do not think I could be of any other assistance to you, tho' I wish you good luck with your project

 

Regards

 

JohnD

Well?  What do people think? Was that a fair and polite response to an unsolicited email from an anonymous person?

Saturday's Scribe - Small communities and bureaucracy

Rhonda and I and our fellow lessees up at Wyangala Dam - where "The Camp" is situated, - are having trouble with a 'New Broom' management that are behaving in a very draconian fashion in their administration of the park.

Houseboat Anchorage at Wyangala

owned and operated by a member of the Board of Trustees

The two new managers come from commercial tourist park backgrounds and are seeking to re-organise our public (State) park along the lines of the big commercial camping and holiday parks.

Sunrise over Wyangala Dam

For example, this year we got an 18 page lease renewal document full of regulations, some of which are quite ridiculous for a holiday park area - e.g. children not allowed to ride skateboards or roller skates, no parking on the roadways (despite the fact that most sites are sorely pressed for parking areas) not being allowed to walk around with an alcoholic beverage in one's hand (many of us move from site to site at sundown, enjoying a drink with friends and neighbours and we take some 'supplies' with us), etc. Each page had to be initialed by each person whose name appeared on the annual lease document and they also had to sign the document and have their signature’s witnessed. We will need to repeat this exercise every year.

Native parrots come in to feed around leasehold sites

where food is provided for them by residents.

On top of that our annual rates were increased to a rather substantial AUD$1,660.00, plus AUD$40.00 for each electronic gate pass as an annual fee and electricity charges were also increased and are to be paid on a half-yearly basis.

If we breach their rules we face eviction and will be required to vacate the park within 30 days. This despite the fact that we have all invested significantly in developing our residential accommodations and also many of us have carried out private garden and small shrub plantings to add to the aesthetics of the park.

A typical annual lease site showing the

substantial development of the site

More so, We are not being told who the members of the Board of Trustees are, how they are appointed, by whom they are appointed and for what is their length of tenure. We are also being denied access to the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Trustees as management claim these are ‘private’. An application for access to the Trustee’s meeting minutes and policies is being made under the “Freedom of Information” Act.

Some of the native wildlife at Wyangala Dam

In the meantime the water slide facility, a significant summer recreational facility for children, has been closed down because management claim they have no funds to re-seal the joins in the slide chutes or to upgrade the water filtration system for the swimming pool. They claim that they have advertised for a contractor to operate the facility but there were no takers from the advertisements, especially as the advertisement stated that any contracted operator would be responsible for carrying out repairs to bring the slides and swimming pool up to operating standard. They have roped off an area of the dam, a small cove adjacent to the kiosk, for swimming but will not accept that the dam water is frequently contaminated with fecal run-off from adjoining sheep and cattle properties, the water temperature is very low and likely to cause hypothermia with extended immersion and that farm fertiliser material leaching into the dam results in algae blooms that can cause skin diseases.

Children at play in summer at Wyangala Dam.

Camping area in background

Revolt is simmering among a usually placid bunch of 'happy little campers' who, to date, have mostly 'self-regulated' behaviour within the park area fairly effectively and even handed. Most annoying of all the changes is a 'three strikes and you are out' policy that can lead to the eviction of a lessee for the most trivial of breaches of the "New Rules" as exercised by management at their discretion with no pre-warning.

One of the many native flowers that bloom  at Wyangala Dam

One resident received their ‘First written warning’ last week for an incident they had no knowledge off that, reportedly by management, occurred when their 25 year old son, his wife and neighbours son and partner where occupying their lease site late last summer. They had a verbal altercation with some nearby casual campers. Apparently the campers came onto the site at night where the lessee’s son and friends were having a private party and the intruders demanded alcohol. They were refused and told (in no uncertain terms) to depart. Some loud argument ensued before they left, firing off some crude and offensive remarks as they left. The mother of the campers wrote a letter of complaint to management FIVE WEEKS after the incident and management acted upon her complaint with an unheralded letter of ‘First Warning’ to the two lessees of the appropriate site. The fact that the mother played the ‘racial card’ in her complaint was considered to be the provocative lever for management’s ‘First Warning’. There was no prior indication to the lessee of any complaint, nor, any investigation into the complainants accusations. They were acted upon and treated as if they were substantial and undeniable fact.

Water skier at Wyangala Dam

Things are brewing. A meeting of residents was held yesterday (we could not attend but sent our apologies and our vote of support) and it is quite possible that a Residents Action Group may be formed.

The appropriate parliamentary minister responsible for State Water and State Parks (who also happens to be our local member of parliament) has been informed of the resident’s disquiet and a list of questions as to the manner in which the community is being governed by state park employees are being asked.

A secluded summer campsite at Wyangala Dam

The minister has been informed by letter that the park is administered by a Board of Trustees and therein lies the problem. Park users are unable to find out much more information about the Board, other than some ad hoc references to it by other yearly lease holders and a reference to it by the Park management as the authority for making any rules that apply to park use. Park management say they are merely following the rules set by the Board that govern the action and behaviours of park users. They tell us that the Board are the authority for any approvals to be undertaken as improvements or renovations to any lease site and any dwelling or structure/s located on the site.

Children at play on scooters, cabins in the background and

a car parked on the last available caravan site, Christmas 2010.

The minister has been asked to answer the following questions for us?

“Can you discover and inform us as to:


1. Who are the current members of the Board?;

2. When were those members of the Board appointed?;

3. How are/were those members of the Board appointed?;

4. What are the period(s) of appointment for those members of the Board?;

5. How frequently do the Board of Trustees meet?;

6. What constitutes a quorum for a meeting of the Board?, and,

7. How does one access the minutes of the meetings of the Board?”

Many leaseholders are refusing to sign their leases but are offering to pay their fees. I have cautioned them against this and told them I am of the opinion that the office staff will not accept their fees if they do not sign their leases which will place them in 'default of payment'. They argue that signing the leases is tacitly agreeing to the regulations that are in the 18 page document. I have argued that this is not so and that their signatures merely indicate that they have read the document and they should attach a note of disagreement to their lease documents if they disagree with any or all of the new rules.

I will post progress updates to this simmering civil discontent as events unfold.

Still going

Rained all night - 15mm in rain gauge - have to leave for Canberra shortly and consult with dermatologist to have more parts scraped and burnt off.

Then home - quick visit to the supermarket - walk Denny - pack the car and off to "The Camp" to meet up with Rhonda after her two day seminar.

Rhonda rang last night, it was cold and snowing during the day, many of the nurses had to abandon the seminar and head home early. She went to the hospital in the morning and they knew nothing about any nursing seminar, eventually found out it was being held in a convention centre in the city, so she back-tracked and arrived late (but so what - Bloody Royal College of Nursing! That lot couldn't organise a free piss-up at a brewery! GRRRR!). Anyway, her accommodation is simply luxurious, hotel/motel high on a hillside overlooking a vineyard, king-sized bed all to herself.

I hope she managed to get some photos with the little Nikon pocket camera I sent her with?

Slept last night, right through except for a couple of time I woke to hear the sound of rain on the roof. The new solar panels for the generator are right above our bedroom and the 'roof noises' are quite different. The possums will have fun trying to get across the glassy surface - LOL!

Must go - cheers to all!

Chile and "The Ash"!

Qantas and Virgin have cancelled flights to and from

South Australia. (AFP: Tony Ashby, file photo)

The Ash Cloud is back!!!! (Australian Broadcasting Corporation News link)

The MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of the ash plume from the eruption of Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano chain spreading across South America on June 13 , 2011. The wind shifted from the day before and was now blowing from the west and southwest, pushing the plume east and northeast. (Reuters/NASA Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response, Jeff Schmaltz)

The travel plans of more than 10,000 people have been thrown into complete disarray as the lingering Chilean volcanic ash cloud moves over the east coast of Australia.

The ash cloud has already forced the cancellation of all domestic flights into and out of Adelaide for the day, with Sydney and Canberra flights now set to be grounded beginning from midday (AEST).

With Sydney - Australia's largest airport - now affected, a Virgin spokeswoman said the number of travellers grounded would likely be in excess of 10,000 people.

Qantas has announced all Canberra and Sydney flights will be stopped from midday (AEST) and 3:00pm respectively, as the ash from the eruption of Chile's Mt Puyehue Cordon Caulle volcano continues to push east.

A concentrated plume of ash from Chile's Puyehue volcano appears a world away (horizontal strip across middle), suspended in the atmosphere between 20,000 and 35,000 feet (6 to 11 kilometers) above above Australia and New Zealand. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite acquired this image on June 13, 2011. ASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC)

 
Ash and gases billow through low clouds after an eruption of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile, seen from Cardenal Samore, Chile, near the border with Argentina, on Wednesday June 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Alvaro Vidal)