**Apologies for no post yesterday...it got latish and I didn't have the 'energy' or 'disposition'...but that was yesterday and today is here and here we go...but even as I try to nail it shut, Council insists on opening it again...(I thought you were meant to shut the gate after the horse has bolted, not keep opening it whilst the horse dances on ya' scrotum?-Ed)...interesting but accurate observation...one refers of course to the latest Graham Greenwood effort in The Border Watch...more later...**
But seriously, there's a ton of stuff going on here so it's probably best to conclude as best I can whilst it's all together and fresh in availees minds, rather than leave it a week and have to refresh/re-iterate/dot-point/whatevs yet again...(fair enough...and where are we up to?-Ed)...I think that we'd got to last weeks mention by Mt Gambier City Council (The Border Watch Friday 5th September 2014) of the cost of replacing the roof on the Old Rail Station as being the first specific mention of any work on that actual building...(something that you have been bangin' on about for months, years even-Ed)...thankyou for noticing, yes I have...
And then Council's Michael Silvy appeared to withdraw that $100,000 for the roof in his ABC Local Radio interview on Monday 8th Sept 2014, whilst explaining that the 'Sound/Shade Structure' as pictured wasn't actually going to happen as part of current plans...then Councillors were squabbling (TBW) about things that should have been sorted before any works began, and in a manner that looks largely like vacuous self-promotion headed into the November 2014 Local Government Elections...(I concur sir, I concur-Ed)...but they calmed down just long enough to agree that they must have a big party on the Rail Lands to declare their genius...(well, Homo sapien one assumes-Ed)...no no, genius, with an 'i'...(there's no 'I' in Team Mount Gambier mister...well not 'til right near the end-Ed)...
And unfortunately my friend, I believe that may well be where we are for Mt Gambier, at the end...I don't know what any of these other clowns are looking at, but I'm watching a town in it's death stupor...it doesn't appear to even have the energy or motivation to throe...not a cough, not a splutter, not even a whimper, just a lie down and die...and while it lies there dying, it's public officials are picking it's pockets, pocketing it's jewellery, and stealing it's boots...(that's a nice belt buckle too, pass it 'ere-Ed)...anyhoos...
Wow!: just listened to yet another ABC Local Radio 'Dorothy Dixer' interview (earlier this morning-**Friday 12th) with Marie Geraghty, CEO Country Health SA, who was asked about any plans to close any of Sow Straya's Regional hospitals, and she didn't say no until having gone through a long spiel about how 'Mt Gambier and Millicent need to work together', and praising up 'all of the other community services, Mental Health Services, etc', currently available before concluding with 'no plans to close anything'...and of course there was mucho praiso for the $26.7m investment at Mt Gambier Hospital.
Penola Hospital is apparently safe, but there remains the issue of staffing levels...and the HACS (Health Advisory Council) have her support re the current Weatherill/Labor review of all committees and boards...(you mean to see which ones still don't yet have a chronically incompetent Labor stooge, former Minister, and/or their spouse, etc, appointed to the head there-of-Ed)...good call...but Ms Geraghty reckons she meets with HACS regularly and that they are critical for local input...
I don't share her enthusiasm/confidence that the 'new' 6 bed mental health specialist facility will offer 'comprehensive care in a contemporary environment', because whilst I'm sure that they are 'starting to recruit', actually attracting/luring any qualified staff to the South East has been an insurmountable problem, particularly with psychiatrists...(we're meant to have 6 psychiatrists for the population base, at least 3 for a full-time service-Ed)...indeed...(and we ain't got not one-Ed)...I know, I know...and that's why I'm so cynical...for gourd's sake, I recently had to organise my own MRI Scan in Warrnambool (albeit via Portland Health, and a big thanks to them)...but that was after 5+ years of dealing with clowns in Mt Gambier who couldn't even organise an appointment to get a scan appointment...
And I don't know how things are actually going at the other 2 'new' clinics/facilities in Whyalla and Berri, but apparently they've been "full" since opening...sorry but I lost the thread of the conversation a little here due to a phonecall so I'm not sure about the last bit about this 'new Community Mental Health service' in Mt Gambier in a home environment that builds on the current 26 staff, and the re-hab unit's 15 staff, with inpatient services and full-time psychiatry SS recruiting?...apologies, I think this was partly about the 'In-home Service' discussed several months back, but overall I find it sounds like just more 'she'll be right, everything's great' sort of discussion...(you mean one that doesn't startle the truth by actually going anywhere near it?-Ed)...yeah, something like that...
PM Tony Abbott has expressed full confidence in his Liberal Cabinet colleagues, his position as leader, and the strategies and policy objectives of the Liberal Party...(indeed, what exactly did he have to say this time?-Ed)...just heard him on the radio, "...there's no specific intelligence here..."...and I am of course trying to make light of the very concerning escalation of the fear and rhetoric around terrorism, and the raising of Australia's 'threat alert'...and it segues very unpleasantly into some very unsettling recent commentary on the likelihood of USofA ground troops returning to Iraq, namely 'not likely, it would take another atrocity like the 9/11 attacks in the USofA to get troops back in Iraq'...
I found this statement rather chilling given the unfortunate history in the USofA of unfortunate incidents that have seen them go to war as aggrieved responders, eg, Pearl Harbour, 9/11, the sinking of the Lusitania in WWI...and they're not my theories, 2 of them were 'conspiracy theories' before I was even born, eg, there's apparently good evidence that the British knew of the impending Pearl Harbour attack in 1942 but let it happen to get the USofA into WWII, and other theories that they told USofA officials who let it happen anyway because they wanted in...but I digress...
Netiquette: I recently learned is 'on-line politeness', not a state in the USofA...(perhaps 'Interweb fraudsters' are a state in the USofA-Ed)...how so?...(well, conmen on the Interweb have patterns of behaviours that could be called 'con-etiquettes'-Ed)...way to go champ, take a bad joke and make it worse...I refer to recent notifications, emails, comments, feedback, etc, and that if I don't do the right thing 'Netiquette wise' I can only apologise...I don't use Facebook nor Twitter nor Instagram, etc, and I really struggle with the idea of engaging others in any way that might tie them into the crap going on in my life...
In that context I'd like to acknowledge all the feedback I get, whatevs, howevs, and I can only apologise if I don't respond in a way that I'm 'Netiquettely' required, but I'm flat-out some days just doing this 'ere blog, and people don't seem to have a problem contacting me if they really want to anyway, so cheers and here's to further interactionings...
Why Grammars Is Important: and Grampas too...given 1) their positions as major or even primary care-givers in the fragmented social structure of modern Straya, and 2) the concerns that community organisations like Meals on Wheels, Rotary, etc, struggle to recruit younger people because of the Age of Media Distraction...but what really caught my ear today was a statement by a police officer re the drug Ice...now obviously there is clearly nothing funny about the 'Ice epidemic' that many authorities are finally recognising for what it is, but in a recent ABC interview I was 1) relatively 'pleased' to hear the SAPol officer (?-I think-sorry) make the observation that alcohol is still far and away the most problematic drug in our society, and 2) ironically amused that the interviewee described guests at an upcoming forum/workshop as being 'really high credentialled speakers'...(should that perhaps be 'highly credentialled speakers'?-Ed)...sounds a bit better, yeah...
And profuse apologies that I've yet again barely grazed what I set out to cover re the Rail Lands, but what the hey because it'll all be there tomorrow I'm sure, and with the Graham Greenwood article to cover as well it will no doubt run to several more posts yet...(looks like it's going to be a rolling maul for a while-Ed)...indeed...
Tomorrow: The Rails, The Rails
(Don't you mean 'the bells, the bells'?-Ed)...arghh, yes, that rings a rail...but this latest GG effort has earned a post all it's own...(and why not-Ed)...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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