Tag Archives: community

Baked Relief – love to the west from Brisbane

07 Saturday Feb 2015

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Baked Relief is a call to arms that was born from the Brisbane floods. It started as a rallying cry from Digella’s blog across twitter and Facebook for those who still had power connected to put it to good use and bake some food for those out helping sandbagging or cleaning flood effected properties. Those that could drive, collected and delivered food to SES crews whenever and wherever they could.

Baked Relief continues to coordinate the spread of a little thoughtful kindness and support to those not expecting anything from anyone.

If you’re in Brisbane, and you are in a position to participate – putting together a box of essentials for a farming family out west to have an old fashioned smoko (that’s aussie slang for a morning or arvo tea break), then I’d encourage you to follow the link to see the particulars.

In my experience, good people don’t ask for help- they just get on with it. Farmers are doing it tough with the drought and a box of comfort from a city slicker shows we are thinking of them.

http://www.bakedrelief.org/news-1/

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it’s voting day in Queensland

31 Saturday Jan 2015

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I’m off for my Sausage of Democracy at my local voting location. I never look forward to running the gauntlet of pamphlet pushers and assorted delusional manipulators that stretch from the carpark to the booths. I swear some of the zealots think their Jedi mind tricks will work on me. As if. You can’t kid a cynic, Sweetie.

Just as a general shot across the bow, I publish my daily horoscope. Take it how you will.

Aries horoscope for Jan, 31, 2015

You may be feeling the need to get something off your chest, perhaps to tell someone what you think of them. This could be cathartic, Aries, if you go about it in the right way. If your goal is to repair a relationship or to stand up for yourself, then you need to be clear and also compassionate in the delivery of your message. If you are angry, hostile, or resentful, your words will only be met with defensiveness. If you reach out with the goal of a positive outcome, you can have a positive impact.

—
Copyright (c) The DailyHoroscope by FortunesFoundry
http://frtns.com/horoscope

is there something missing?

29 Friday Nov 2013

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You know that feeling of something missing in your life/an emptiness of real purpose that the day to day chore-fest doesn’t seem to answer? I’ve never heard it explained like this before and it makes sense.

Everyone is busy, and there never seems to be enough time in the day to do what you want to do, let alone need to do. Still most people I know spread themselves thinner to put some time and energy into “their Calcutta” – and some even spread themselves across a few causes. This is why.

an approach to filling that empty feeling

twitter’s recipe collective – chocolate & beetroot cake

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

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It seemed simple – a general tweet out to the twitterverse asking if anyone knew a chocolate beetroot cake recipe…

I figured I’d at least get some suggestions on where else to look.  All my recipe books had buttermilk in the ingredients and that’s just plain wrong.  And google keeps failing me.

I’d always depended on my Mum’s recipe – and I’d lost it.  Funny thing was, so had she!  So Mum started calling her friends, and I turned to the biggest hivemind I know and tweeted.  I follow quite a few foodies – funny that! – who retweeted my request a few times to spread the question a little wider.

My tweep-in-shining-armour was an English gent who thought his Mum might be able to help and he offered to add my request to his email home.  Well, bless her if she didn’t come through!  Awesome.  A lovely lady called Shelagh on the far side of the world has shared her recipe with a complete stranger in Australia.  And I hope she doesn’t mind, but I’m giving a copy to my Mum in case she never finds where she’s written hers! 😉

I made muffins instead of a cake, as I took it to work for my team to taste.  They never believed me that you can’t taste the beetroot.  Thanks to Shelagh and her travelling son Omar, that’s a save for my recipe collection.

I’m very very grateful.

The cleansing

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

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I’ve not seen Brisbane CBD quite this bad before. Certainly public servants ‘network’ over coffee, but the groups are smaller this time. Real small.

If it wasn’t so serious, it’d be funny how close this is to fiction – everyone whispering “He’s back. Voldemort’s back”, but no-one’s laughing. There are a lot of pale faces.

I don’t think it’s started to sink in that professional workers, good people, efficient teams doing valuable projects are being sacked to meet a number pulled from Costello’s report. It’s sickening.

market day

01 Friday Jun 2012

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Wednesday is market day in Brisbane City – Reddacliff Place next to the “lego block building” that houses the Brisbane City Council allow farmers markets to set up.  It’s an interesting mix of stalls – a lot focused on the single/professionals living in the inner city.  Not sure it’s “straight from the farm” prices, but it’s a nice wander through of a lunch hour. $2 for a macaron, $5 for a bunch of gerberas, $4 for a large bag of lollies and fresh honey, fruit, vege and herbs.

if you’re happy and you know it …

26 Saturday May 2012

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A salute to Jeremy Piven for this photo.  Ain’t it the truth though?  “Oh woe is me” has never been so prevalent…First World Problems they’re called.  Where’s our sense of perspective gone?  Have we forgotten where we come from?  We grew up in houses – not in mud huts.  We were dry and clean and warm.  Do we not look at those around us – all struggling with problems of their own – or do we look straight through them?

I refuse to believe Australia is getting to the point where everyone who has more “haves” than “nots” doesn’t give a stuff until it’s them that loses out.  There’s a lot of community spirit around, I see it everyday.  I’ve been in workplaces where it’s the lowest paid members of staff who always “bring a plate” to celebrate life’s milestones.  I’ve been in workplaces where the top dog earning nearly $200k a year can’t put a bottle of plonk on the table – because the tank in his beemer is nearly empty.

What’s the minimum you need?  A roof, a job to pay for it and you and your family healthy. Period.

TGIF

04 Friday May 2012

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It’s been a long week.  I didn’t even realise until yesterday that this weekend is a long with the Monday a public holiday for … Labor Day?  Ironic really, given the result of the state election held last month.  Labor Day reminds me of the story of the traveller who stopped at the tree in the outback – the one with the $5m art installation and shed build around it.  $5m for that but the locals don’t have a dentist.  Says everything really.

Kiva

20 Friday Jan 2012

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Contributing to the greater good is an extraordinary gift to give yourself.  How would we ever have known about someone struggling to get through school in Jordan or a woman trying to start a small business in Mali without organisations like Kiva.  A very small risk for me, but a huge amount of good for someone I’ll never meet.

the mud army

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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This is the 12 month anniversary of the floods that immersed Queensland, NSW and Victoria. Closest to home, water thundered through Toowoomba, Murphy’s Creek, Grantham, Ipswich and Brisbane.

Our home wasn’t inundated, we didn’t lose anyone we knew. But we watched and waited. We hugged and prayed. We stayed up on vigil, and sent phone bills through the roof. We tweeted and facebooked to connect and to help. We collected and donated. We dug and we scraped. We washed and we dried.

And we’d do it all again.