There are two events that I count as the most significant historical events in my life. One is the bringing down of the Berlin Wall and the other is Man walking on the Moon. If I had to rank them, there is no doubt that Man walking on the Moon in July 1969 is the one I would rank highest.
In 1969, I was in Year 6 and like so many school age children I was captivated by the voyage of Apollo 11, in fact the whole space program.
I have a basic rule for my blog. I won’t post or comment on politics. I learnt with one tweet very early in that this was a very bad idea and I continue to confine my tweets and posts to things non-political.
This post is to say thank you to all of those paid or unpaid who are working tirelessly to save property and life during this bushfire season.
I have seen firsthand the damage that these fires can do. I am not posting photos because I didn’t take any as we went to visit my sister and her partner at their hills property for a belated Christmas celebration. Her house only exists care of the brave efforts of their neighbours. To them, I say a special thank you.
As the bushfire crisis continues we seem so pre-occupied with political point-scoring. Until so recently, as a country when disasters hit we banded together and got on with it and let the politicians deal with it at some point in the future.
In my lifetime there have been many such occasions, Cyclone Tracey, Ash Wednesday Bushfires, Floods and more Bushfires. Until recently it was how can we help? Now its who can we blame?
I’m sad.
Following an email this morning that my website had been the subject of some form of attack I thought it might be worth reposting this post from 2014. I am pleased to report that with a further upgrade to my security package the threat is now resolved.
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A couple of nights ago I received an email from Sitelock telling me of a critical vulnerability at my website.
I only had a vague idea of what that meant although I was sure it wasn’t good!
After a chat with Sitelock who are webcow, my webpage host’s security provider it was clear that it wasn’t good, in fact it was very bad. Apparently, I had inadvertently linked to something nasty and if I didn’t fix it my blog would be blacklisted by search engines.
After more than a year of posting and a month spent on seriously building www.browney237.com web presence, this sounded disastrous. What did I need to do? Who could help? I was in a mild (actually not so mild) panic.
As someone not the slightest bit tech savvy, I knew it wasn’t going to be the one who was going to be able to fix this problem. The good news is that in the words of every boat owner a “cheque will fix it”, although in my case it’s a Visa Card! The security provider was able to remove the malicious links and then for a further modest fee I was able to buy annual protection so that this never happens again. What a relief!
It’s a valuable, albeit scary lesson.
I’m protected, are you?
In the last few weeks, I have just been writing for fun. Four published blog posts and a couple of drafts for future reference.
It’s been nice to just free write after spending most of the last year working on my PhD thesis. Over the last twelve months, pretty much every time I have thought about just writing, I have had a sense of guilt that I should be working my thesis. However, across the Christmas New Year period, I made the decision to put the thesis away and have a break. Continue reading
Black Point, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
The Christmas New Year period provides a time for relaxing and resetting. Work, or in my case my PhD, is the last thing on people’s minds and it’s usually hot!
It’s a time to go to the beach and we were very lucky this year to be invited by our daughter, her partner and our new grandson to spend New Year with them at my daughter’s partner’s family shack at Black Point on the Yorke Peninsula.
Black Point is about a two-hour drive from Adelaide if the traffic isn’t too bad. We were lucky and the traffic was light.
Although Yorke Peninsula is one of South Australia’s favourite summer holiday spots, we don’t visit often. So it was delightful to be invited.
As kids, my favourite person and I had trips to Yorke Peninsula and my favourite person had lived there for a short time when she was little – the joys of being a minister’s daughter. In my case, my last visit was to James Well for a Partner Retreat which proved to be the catalyst for a move to the firm that sustained me for the remainder of my working life, although through the raging argument that ensued at the retreat I certainly couldn’t have foreseen it.
The drive out of Adelaide took us through North Adelaide and onto Port Wakefield Road. The terrain is so different from our usual drive to our holiday house on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It’s a straight drive just a couple of turns at the top of the peninsula and then we were there. It’s flat and dry, quintessential Australian countryside.
Port Wakefield
Following the rule of not driving for too long in any one stint, we stopped at Port Wakefield to stretch our legs. It’s a typical country town. It’s just the right distance from Adelaide to stop and refuel both yourself and the car. It’s the staging point for trips north or west in the state and the turnoff to Yorke Peninsula just out of the town can bottleneck but we weren’t held up at all.
Through Port Wakefield, we headed down the other side of Yorke Peninsula past Ardrossan and then onto Black Point, which for most of the year would be described as sleepy. At this time of the year it’s a lively delightful little beachside town.
As we pulled into our accommodation we were greeted by the neighbours apologising for the noise they’d planned to make for New Year, and our daughter’s partner setting up the boiler so he could cook ups the crabs he’d caught in the morning.
Black Point used to just be shacks on the beachfront but today there is a little more development with more modern beach house built behind. Our daughter’s partner’s family shack fronts straight onto the beach. It was once just one room and a verandah although today it’s been made a little more modern with separate bedrooms and an indoor bathroom and loo! It is the verandah that is the focal point. It’s right on the beach. I have photos of my daughter’s partner fishing off the verandah but the tide was out so there was no chance of that on this occasion.
What could be better for enjoying this lovely location?
Our view from the verandah
The beach and the ocean are the focus here. Continue reading