We're home safely from a very water-logged Canberra and Southern NSW. It rained the entire time and there is more rain coming so it was good to get home safely. Even the main highway was covered by water between Wangaratta and Albury. The traffic was held up for miles.We were lucky enough to see the Changi quilt again and I found this trip to be very emotional when we also took a guided tour and hearing the stories of privation is very sad. One of my father's brothers died in WW2 and was shot down over Germany. He was in the Australian Airforce and only did two missions from Britain before he died. We really enjoyed all the new exhibits and there was even one detailing the role of nurses in each of the overseas deployments of our armed forces.
There was a lone piper who played at the closing ceremony of the War Memorial and it was a fitting end to the day.
The following day we attended a sitting of our Members of Parliament and had tickets to observe question time. It was an undignified rabble at times and it's hard to see how they manage to achieve anything worthwhile- perhaps more happens behind the scenes! A lot of the time was spent in apparent time-wasting events.
I was also lucky enough to be able to attend a a rally outside Parliament House, held by the Save Murray-Darling Basin, and organizes by the group- Women for a Living Basin. I'm grateful to Shona from Coleambally for alerting me to this rally and very supportive of the women from the Riverina for fighting to save their livelihoods. Sadly the decisions being made for our rural areas are made by people who have little connection and understanding of our communities.
We saw a lot of heavy rain and flooded paddocks on our way home and even had to drive through water so it's ironic that our MPs are making decisions to change our water supply based on the belief that drought will continue to be a problem.
Sorry this is so long but the poor internet speed in Canberra meant that I couldn't load photos or blog reports while we were away. If you're still reading then I appreciate your effort. LOL
PS I'm thinking about whether or not I should change my blog to just JanMac to make it easier to type when searching for blogs- I'd appreciate any thoughts you may have. I had failed to consider how annoying it is to be constantly typing long blog addresses. My other blog Oz Comfort Quilts will still remain for the donation quilts.
Hugs, Jan Mac
3 comments:
What a lovely post Jan! Thankyou for sharing such wonderful photos, not just of the Changi quilt, but the Memorial and oh! my! those roads, how scarry to have to drive through so much water, I'm afraid things are not looking too good for a lot of small communities cut off during this flood event! Glad you got home safely!
Re: your considering changing the name of your blog, I have set up Google Reader where new blog posts (of the blogs I follow) come up as they are posted, so I don't have to type anything in, I think quite a few people use Google Reader, but see what people have to say, it's not a problem for me personally, if you need to change it I'll just add you in my 'new subscriptions' box and I'll read you regularly as I always have!!! Have a great weekend!
hi Jan, there's certainly water everywhere right now, Bathurst was cut in half last night and the river has turned into a fast moving lake.
re changing your blog name - don't do it - most people don't type in blog names they just either copy and paste the link or have you added bookmarked in some way.
cheers,
Can anyone tell me where the Changi Quilt was displayed in Canberra around 17 years ago, other than the Australian War Memorial??. I thought there was another aviation display in Canberra years ago where the quilt was originally displayed.
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