Heads and shoulders, knees and toes....

It's been a mad few weeks in the Jones household.  Last week I found myself on a plane headed for Christchurch, New Zealand.  I was shitting myself on the plane convinced we were going to die but here I am, safe and back in one piece.  The days before I fly I always have dreams of getting on planes which fall out of the sky and I view these as premonitions.  Christchurch is a strange place, totally unlike Oz and funnily enough, more like England ... in feel at least.  I saw The Wizard , a loony who drives two VW Beetles welded together so the vehicle looks the same forwards as backwards.  He stands in the city centre next to a wooden step ladder and pontificates on a whole range of issues.  He's one of the characters that most big cities have.  He has his own website.  He was born 'Brian' in London back in 1932!

1932 was the year my Mother was born.  She is due here in early March, she will hate the fact I still have a paunch and that in my left ear is an earring.  I was bitten by a redback spider a couple of weeks ago and ended up at the local hospital with an icepack clutched to the bite site!  That wasn't a pleasant experience.  Still, I didn't vomit or convulse though I did have an horrendous headache and felt like shit for a couple of days.  Just after that, Kim was down by the carport when she felt something against her skin only to discover it was a fucking huge spider.  It was so large that even as we backed the car out into the road, it could quite clearly be seen walking across the grass some 30 feet away!  It had a real tarantula vibe about it.  Australia is a wonderful country in so many ways but it has an excess of nasty creepy crawlies which I could quite happily do without.

I'm sitting here working my way through a box of Throaties because I have a mother of a sore throat and I've also hurt my back from taking too many leaflets in my arms so as not to have to make too many trips back here when out delivering our round.  We've already completed one round today (well yesterday now) and have packed up another and that will be ready to go in the morning leaving us with just one more to pack up and ship out.  Then we're free until Friday when we pick up the next lot.  It's all go round here.  I'm going through an Eric Clapton phase at the moment where all I seem to want to listen to is old Slowhand ... nothing for years and then a whole load at once.  That and Classical music.  It's a funny old thing this life but I love it, even when everything seems to be going awry.

Oh ... I changed to Firefox as my new internet browser.  Well we both did, Kim and I.  I can't tell any of you what to do but it's far faster and more secure than Internet Explorer.  Mark aka Longrider told me about Mozilla Firefox and uses it and well, we decided to give it a whirl and we much prefer it so we're keeping it.  The download is FREE and takes hardly any time at all but with it comes peace of mind.  It can be easily configured so it's far more personal than IE.  I should have done it a lot sooner than I have done.  Thanks Mark!  I got hold of Ben Elton's latest book for Kim who's a fan and also Christopher Hitchens new book, God is Not Great .  It's a good read.

Later today, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a formal apology to the "stolen generations" - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who were taken from their families and placed in orphanages and with foster families, often not seeing their parents and siblings again.  The apology will feature the word 'sorry' and the exact wording can be read here.  Sorry isn't a word that's often heard in politics and certainly not a word that Tony BLIAR was ever familiar with because that would mean accepting responsibility and culpability.  The 'S' word carries with it a chance for healing and forgiveness and when has that ever been a bad thing?  Good on you Kev!