For the past two weeks I have been immersed in sorting stuff, packing stuff and throwing out stuff. Quite frankly, I’m stuffed.

Yep, we are in the process of moving to another city. The cartons arrived about a week ago and I’ve had to decide how to fill them. This has to be one of the most excruciating experiences in life. I keep on complaining that I’m not good at this sort of thing. It’s killing me!

My laconic husband makes an entrance. He is calm and patronising… so annoying. He can’t see what the problem is. Why don’t I just decide what I want to keep and where I want to pack it?

He’s full of useless advice like that. If I could decide what I want to keep and if I knew where to pack it, there wouldn’t be a problem, would there?

I probably won’t post anything for a few days because my precious computer will be packed away tomorrow and who knows when Telstra will connect broadband at the other end?

Shouldn’t take me too long to unpack, I imagine. All I have to know is where I want to store all that stuff. How hard can that be?

After spending a fortune bringing back Dr Jayant Patel back to Australia to face several charges including manslaughter, he has now been granted bail on a surety of $20,000. What a joke! Is he actually going to sit around waiting for the trial?

I have already said that Patel will never be convicted for his alleged crimes and I reiterate my views. If it can be claimed that the paedophile, Dennis Ferguson, cannot get a fair trial in Queensland, then surely the same excuse can be made for Patel not being brought to court.

With a nickname like Dr Death how can he be given a fair trial here?

Let’s face it, if Jayant Patel did a runner while out on bail, Anna Bligh and the culpable Queensland Health Department would heave a sigh of relief. All they ever wanted was to look as if they were trying to bring Patel to justice.

The last thing the government of Queensland really need is to bring to light the terrible situation in Bundaberg and in other regional hospitals which encouraged doctors like Patel to perform surgery beyond their ability. But then the government is also guilty of that same fault as Patel and has been shown to be quite inept at providing adequate health care for the people of Queensland.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Queensland Health provides Patel with another business class ticket out of the state just as it did the first time that Patel left Australia.

I have always believed that if you negotiate with kidnappers and terrorists then you are asking for trouble. You are guaranteeing that there will be more kidnappings in the future and you are encouraging further acts of terrorism. Continue reading →

In 2001 I discovered the Suzanne Grae label. I wear very simple, casual clothes and found that the chain of stores called “Suzanne Grae” had quite a good selection of clothes at a reasonable price.

I chose a few items and was so impressed by the quality and style that I decided to write to Naomi Milgrom, the owner of the stores. I raved on about the colour range and the ease of care of the garments.

Yes, I probably went overboard with my praise because I must have jinxed the buyers at Suzanne Grae.

Since then I have had to admit that the quality has declined. It was so disappointing to find that there were hardly any co-ordinating outfits and I deplored the trailer trash fashion that was all the rage.

This happened all those years ago and I believe that the quality has consistently become worse. The stores sell stuff that I can’t possibly wear. In my view, the fabrics are cheaper and nastier with each passing year. Styles seem tarty and so I have had to reluctantly abandon Suzanne Grae.

Having come to the realisation that if I praise something then I can be guaranteed that my praise will be the kiss of death, I wonder if I could apply this same tactic to our Arab friends?

In my opinion, therefore, Arabs are the most wonderful, ethical, brave, intelligent people that I know and I wish them all the best!

Today, Samir Qantar is to receive a hero’s welcome when he is handed back to the Lebanese in a prisoner swap. So what makes him a hero to the Lebanese?

Well, thirty years ago he broke into the home of an Israeli in northern Israel, killed a couple of Israelis and then slammed the head of a four year old girl against a rock and killed her. Another young child who was two years old and being hidden in a closet accidentally suffocated to death when her mother was trying to tried to stifle her cries. This reminds me of a neighbour of mine who told me that when they were hiding from the Nazis her mother accidentally stifled her own child. Can you imagine the horror of such an experience?

The animal responsible for this outrage is now feted as a hero in Lebanon.

This is the sort of scum whose return makes the Lebanese celebrate. A vicious child murderer!

No doubt there will be dancing in the streets, that shrill shrieking that Arab women do and even a Bank Holiday has been declared. When a nation has nothing really to be proud of then the return of a vile monster like Samir Qantar has to do.

By contrast, on the Israeli side, where the two coffins containing the alleged bodies of the two soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in 2006, there is solemn and respectful silence. After all, they are receiving the dead bodies of Israelis who will now be buried in Israel.

I am in awe of the dignity of the Israelis and marvel at this essential difference between Jews and Arabs.

Lebanon will receive the bodies of 199 dead Lebanese militants but that apparently is not a solemn occasion for Arabs. No need for mourning in Lebanon where life is so worthless that not even dead bodies are received with dignified respect. There will be a hoopin’ and a hollerin’ and partying in Lebanon but it won’t fool anybody in the civilised world.

The truth is that two dead Israelis are worth more than one vicious convicted child murderer and almost two hundred dead Arabs. Hard to understand really what the celebration is all about on the Lebanese side. I would have thought that the dead deserve less partying and more respect, but then I’ll never fathom the mind of Arabs.

I’ve developed quite a passion for real estate shows because they deal with the everyday life of everyday people. Celebrities don’t appeal to me at all. I couldn’t care less what they wear or whom they snog and what their babies look like. Continue reading →

Funny how some ideas sound good at first and then are shown to be self-defeating. Take maternity leave, for example Continue reading →

I wonder why U.S news channels never mention that Australian and New Zealand firefighters are on their way to help Americans fight the fires on the West Coast of the U.S?

Some 40 or so of our guys are headed for the U.S fires and it would be gratifying if the U.S media mentioned their contribution in the past and right now.

We are a small nation with a big heart and it wouldn’t hurt to express appreciation for our help, would it?

It’s what ‘mates’ do, help one another, and acknowledge that help.

Oh, how I wish I had thought of this idea! It’s so brilliant!

That nasty paedophile, Dennis Ferguson, is out of jail waiting on the results of the government’s appeal.

Nobody wants him as a neighbour and there have been constant demonstrations against him wherever he is placed.

The Police Minister says she doesn’t know what to do with him and I did offer a suggestion in a previous blog. Graham Egan in today’s “Courier-Mail” has a better idea, though. He suggests that Dennis be put in the Big Brother house. That way we can save the $1000 per day it costs to protect him and, besides, we can all keep an eye on him. It should also dampen down the sexual improprieties going on in the Big Brother house.

I love that sort of lateral thinking!