Diana Kupke's 3rd archive

Third Archive
Items from 16 February to 15 June 2009

June 8 to June 15, 2009

Heather and Dale might as well give up all ideas of reclining on their couch. This time it has been taken over by Champagne, whose catmate, Thor, is pictured below. Champagne has requested a larger photograph than Thor, and I have acceded to her wishes.

Censorship

Ever since I saw the film, Fahrenheit 64, many years ago, I have been horrified by most forms of censorship. Burning books is something that has also happened in real life, and of course, hundreds of books have been banned by a variety of churches. I do have an exception to my loathing of censorship, and that is child pornography which I totally deplore. With the Australian Government planning to ban certain sites it has now become clear that only 32% of those sites are related to child pornography. One of the sites to be banned is Wikileaks and there
is a full story here at this link. Apparently WikiLeaks is also on the banned list, probably
because it earlier leaked the full list of sites which were to be banned.

Below, the old ABC flag sort of flies again in Darwin

Thirty-five years ago, when I lived in Darwin, at the same time as Cyclone Tracy swept through, the ABC flag, which flew from the rooftop flagpole, was rescued and a few weeks ago was added as a feature to the foyer. The elderly and tattered flag was ceremoniously unveiled with special guests including Dick Muddimer (far left), Richard Creswick (middle) and Bill Fletcher (far right) in attendance. Dick, Richard and Bill were all journalists at the ABC at the time of the cyclone. They have continued to live in Darwin and it is always enjoyable to hear the latest news from Richard and from Bill.

June 6 to June 7, 2009

Yeti has a comfortable rest

My cousin, Nina, who runs Bulltacho Bull Terriers has sent me this photograph of one of her puppies, Yeti. He slept soundly on two of his siblings.

If I am back to posting on this blog fairly frequently, it must mean this is a university break. I hope all of you readers have a truly sarsaprididious Sunday. I do not have to do anything so I will float around the house and answer some of the many e-mails that are awaiting my attention.

When I began using e-mail, more than a decade ago now, I always used the spelling 'e-mail' but these days I am almost alone. I looked it up and both e-mail and email are okay but I will stick with e-mail. The hyphen has it.

And my cousin, Ellen, pictured above with her sons, these days lives near Camden in NSW. For her mother's day gift, her husband, Jeff, gave her a trip to Brisbane, to see her sons Matt and Brodie.

Pussycat Thor has taken over the couch. No room for Dale nor for Heather

I have been fascinated by alzheimers for many years as my mother, her two sisters, and their mother were all afflicted with it. Males in the family don't appear to suffer any problems so that leaves myself, and my cousin, Judy, as next in line. I try to use my brain in as many ways as possible and constantly set myself challenges. My university studies have certainly sent my thinking in many new directions. I also exercise by dancing and walking my dog, and by parking my car far away from where I am going. Living in a highset house means I constantly do stair exercises.

Today's Sunday Courier Mail ran a story about footwear being developed which has a built in GPS device which enables 'wanderers' to be tracked. Apparently up to 60 percent of those who have Alzheimer's disease will have a 'critical wandering incident'. I must tell my children to put in an order.

I love mushrooms and eat them often, both raw and in soup, and apparently I am on the right track here as the niacin in mushrooms is believed to have a beneficial effect, providing a certain amount of protection against Alzheimer's disease The World's Healthiest Foods has very interesting information about mushrooms if you would like to read more.

June 3 to June 5, 2009

I only read a few catalogues and recently a new shop, which has opened in Mackay, has begun putting their catalogues in the local newspaper. I am often surprised at the items which are available for sale, but one in particular has me wondering about the thinking behind the invention. This is an alarm clock, which gives a shock to the person who turns it off! Would it be bought for a joke, and after being turned off once, never used again? I can't believe anyone would buy it for themselves. What a shocking thought.

My photographer brother, Dale Mann, who lives in Melbourne, has a number of photographs displayed in the Mapping Ballarat project. Many beautiful photographs are on this site provided by a number of photographers.

Gold stars for Owen at Harvey Norman and for NRG

Owen, who works at the computer section of Harvey Norman, is a very personable young man who deserves to go far. He provides excellent customer service and his recent kindness is much appreciated. And many thanks to NRG whose incredibly fast response to an e-mail shows large companies do have a heart.

Forever Seekiing these Mann relations

Many years ago I saw a great deal of my cousins, twins Glenis and Joy, and Ian Mann. Their parents were Jim and Grace Mann. I would love to catch up with them again.

May 27 to June 2, 2009

While indulging in waterplay, otherwise known as doing the dishes, a soap bubble jumped up from the sink and landed on the hairs on my arm. I took that arm out into the study where my cat, Snoopy, kindly sat still while I took the photograph. Which reminded me, of course, of Adam Lindsay Gordon's poem
Life is mostly froth and bubble;
Two things stand like stone:
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in our own.
I've often thought of these lines since I was a schoolgirl at Brighton High School in the late 50's when I also discovered the poet had killed himself not far from the school.

And here is a belated mother's day photograph of my daughter, Suzanne, with her daughters, Isabella and Tahlia. The photograph was taken outside the Magpie Sporting Club. And you thought I had got over my oval obsession!

More fascinating photos of Froggie's adventures in Cairns.

While Froggie was in Cairns, with Christian, Liz and Carmel, he visited many people manning a variety of stands where he was read another story and later, after vanishing for a time was discovered in a nest of chocolates. He also made friends with a mouse, but the mouse wouldn't play.

May 16 to May 26, 2009

My office at work is home to a variety of items including a croaking frog, two quacking ducks, a metal cat with a wiggly head, lotus blossoms, a Buddha...just your normal office really. There is even a computer and a filing cabinet.

Recently I went to work to discover Froggie had gone! Before I shouted frognap! I realised there was a note from him to tell me he had joined Lizzie and Carmel for a conference/trade fair in Cairns. It was his turn because some years ago I had taken Duck to Bribie Island.

Froggie had a wonderful time dining out in Greek and Chinese restaurants, visiting everyone at the other trade displays and being told stories. Elaine from NACCHO (below) told Froggie an amazing story which Carmel videod and which had everyone at Mackay Division of General Practice laughing so hard we were crying...until the end of the story which had a savage twist.

Visit to the Ballet

I had an enjoyable visit to the Mackay Entertainment Centre on May 23 to see the Queensland Ballet perform Midsummer Night's Dream. I was impressed with the excellence of the dancers. I later discovered one of the dancers was a Mackay lad.

I also had an interesting experience while online with a university group on a Blackboard chat page. My large white cat, Queenie, pictured down below, was lonely and jumped up onto my desk to keep me company and then sat down on my mouse which promptly cut me off the chat page.

May 10 to May 15, 2009

The past week has vanished in a blur of work, meetings and university assignments with the highlight being Mother's Day. I always tell my children that every day is mother's day for me, in spite of which my children and their families continue to ignore me, and give me a lovely day. The photograph above is of my son-in-law Michael showing us the delights of the 'hot rock' meal when we went to the Magpie Sporting Club to celebrate Mother's Day.

Apart from myself there were three other mothers enjoying the evening, my daughter, Suzanne, who is married to Michael (above), Michael's mother, Pauline, and her daughter, Jenny.

Workers at the Mackay Division of General Practice said goodbye to numerous employees recently but both Heleen and Sarah have returned for a visit with their new babies, Rein and Tim. Apologies to Heleen, can't change the spelling of her name on the photograph.

The Excellent Economist

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading The Economist for the past few months which have been provided by Mark from MDGP. I not only enjoy the information but also the sense of humour. The journalist's use of some words stumps me at times such as "The chief executive of PSA Peugeot Citroen was also defenestrated, but by his board." I have always understood defenestrated, which is one of my favourite words - to mean that a person died by being thrown through a window. However it means "to throw out a window".

Wikipedia says 'Although defenestrations can be fatal depending on the height of the window through which a person is thrown, or lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent or result of death.'

In my searching I discovered there is a blog called Defenestrate and the writer of which had just discovered his own blog had been "thrown out the window" when he did an upgrade. And for more humour I found at Wiktionary the following example of the word to defenestrate, 'To stop using the Windows operating system', in other words to throw Windows out of the window.

This site cites numerous examples of people who died because they were thrown out of a window. I also visualise an old fashioned sash window falling down suddenly upon a person and breaking their neck which would also be defenestration.

May 5 to May 9, 2009

Queenie

I've been deeply involved in an assignment for one of my university subjects, Web Application Development. I'm now learning MySQL and have entered the world of databases. My only contact with this area before has been Access which is a very different kettle of fish. SQL stands for structured query language which is understood by all relational databases. I'm using it in this subject along with PHP and once my degree is finished I will have the fun of recoding all the pages on my site and adding many more.

Above is a photograph of friend Aileen, taken in my office at work, soon after we had met for the first time in about 22 years. Aileen and I last saw each other when we worked for Endeavour in Mackay. We've been in touch for a few months now and were able to meet as Aileen is in Townsville on secondment and was in Mackay for work.

Comics

I belong to a number of forums, most of them either computer oriented (html, css etc.) or relating to genealogy, but during my years with university I have somehow joined an academic list which provides information about conferences and often calls for papers. The latest e-mail discusses a forthcoming new international academic journal, published by Intellect Books which is totally devoted to comics. It is fascinating to read the word 'comics' in the same sentence as 'established theoretical model', and 'formal properties'. Anyway the call is out there to any semioticians, philosophers, scientists, literary critics and even enthusiasts to send in manuscripts. One of the suggested topics is the grammar of comics which could be limiting as I seem to recall many pows! take that! ugh!

April 29 to May 4, 2009

Anna with friend, and guest speaker, Ysanne Chapman

I'm not a nurse but I've thoroughly enjoyed being involved in our Rural Palliative Care project which, at Mackay Division of General Practice, includes a section for link nurses and therefore a breadth of education. Above is link nurse Anna, from Good Shepherd Lodge, with her friend, Ysanne Chapman, who was our guest speaker at the end of April.

Ysanne, known as Izzie, came to Mackay for a holiday with Anna but, when asked, was very happy to talk to the link nurses who represent Francis of Assisi Home, Good Shepherd Lodge, Homefield, Nanyima (in Mirani), Northview, Resthaven, and Sarina Home for the Aged.

Izzie's talk was fascinating and initiated many comments from the floor. Unfortunately the data projector misbehaved and although Carmel came back to work to try and sort things out, the sound remained silent.

The link nurses have an integral role to play to assist communication with and between palliative patients, their family members, other nurses and aides, gps and the hospitals.

All about Izzie

As associate professor at Monash University Izzie's home base is the campus of the Gippsland Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.

Izzie trained as a nurse in London and has worked within the whole spectrum of nursing including coronary care, accident and emergency, operating theatres and in community nursing. She moved to Australia almost 40 years ago and in 1989 she left the clinical field for academe. Since then she has worked at the universities of New England, Tasmania, Adelaide, Flinders, and Tasmania. Prior to joining Monash University, she worked in Saudi Arabia where she headed the Department of Nursing.

In 1999 her PhD was completed examining the sadness of community health nurses who deliver palliative care. Izzie has written and co-edited numerous books and articles and has been involved in studies around her areas of interest, palliative care and rural nursing. She is one of the editors of the book "Images of Death and Dying" which was published by the University of New England Press.

Smell the roses

Life is meant to be about balance but it is all to easy to allow various areas to expand until all sense of balance is gone. Some time ago I bought an awful print at a garage sale and put it on a wall of my study simply to remind me, not that many prints are awful, but to smell the roses. I don't have any roses in my garden but now I have some on a wall. While the perfume is lacking, the reminder is a strong one.

April 24 to April 28, 2009

Happy birthday to my dear sister-in-law, Heather, and to a dear friend, Phyl. Because they share birthdays, April 28, I have given them shared space. Heather lives far away in Melbourne with my brother Dale and Phyl was my next-door-neighbour in Mackay for many many years.

I have been busy as usual with work and with university where I am now learning about php and also about MySQL which is a database. And now, for the first time since February last year, I will be able to relax next time it rains as a large amount of flood-proofing has gone on here thanks to handyman Stan.

A few weeks ago I was maundering on about a $3 million grant for a three year study to investigate cutting back methane production by livestock. I have just been reading the Autumn issue of one of my favourite magazines Earth Garden which has a story by Jill Redwood highlighting the fact that in Australia livestock emissions (flatulence and burping), account for 66 percent of all agricultural emissions. Jill goes on to say that Australia's per capita emissions from agriculture are more than six times the world average. The reason for the study is now well and truly understood however I continue to be perplexed about the solution. The only one I can think of, and that Jill mentions, is for the populace to become vegetarian.

One is of Ros' grandson, Riley, with a cache of baby easter eggs which probably no longer exist, and a special cake made by Bronwyn to celebrate her father's 90th birthday.

April 21 to April 23, 2009

High time for a photograph of a kitten and this time it is to welcome Sally Sunshine, (dark brown) pictured above with sibling Rocha. Sally, who was born in December, is a very welcome addition to Marg's family.

Great Great Grandparents

John Montgomery and Elizabeth Sandilands

New found cousins, Nell and Rosie, sent me the photograph above of the gravestone of my great great grandparents, John Montgomery and Elizabeth Anne Sandilands.

John, whose parents came from Aberdeen, Scotland, was born in Downpatrick, Ireland, in 1815 or 1816. Elizabeth was born in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex in 1829. They died in Tallygaroopna, Victoria (near Shepparton) in 1892 (John) and 1903 (Elizabeth).

It is a wonder I have any imagination at all as Elizabeth Anne named a daughter Elizabeth Anne (Montgomery) who named a daughter Elizabeth Anne (Canet). Happily Elizabeth Canet, who married William Dudley, broke this chain and called my mother Merlyn.

April 13 to April 20, 2009

Not only can an octopus squeeze through an opening the size of its eyeball but it has three hearts. Information like that absolutely delights me and where I would once inflict such information on my family now I have a larger audience and can do the same to all of you. Two of the hearts pump blood through the gills while the other heart pumps the blue blood (the colour is caused by lack of oxygen) through the body.

The octopus is very intelligent but due to the fact it has a short lifespan it is unable to progress far. Males die soon after mating (within a few months) and the females die soon after their eggs hatch. The deaths are genetically programmed.

If a dog is going to be a passenger on a motorbike he has to wear glasses

I am very wary of motorbikes (mainly because of the safety aspect) but was interested to hear of a group called the Ulysses Club which has, for a motto, 'Grow Old Disgracefully'. The photograph above was taken by Carmel's parents, Ann and Col, who live down south and who belong to the group. Members, who are likened to 'geriatric children' (quotes from their website) want to do all they can before they fall off the perch, which is often the motorbike on which they ride. Rather like the Purple Hats but noisier.

The club, which began in Sydney in 1983, now has 138 branches in Australia and there are also clubs overseas. The name was chosen because the Greek king, Ulysses, in old age, went adventuring. With a hand drawn logo of an old man, and with the motto of 'grow old disgracefully' there is something quite appealing about the Ulysses Club.

April 8 to April 12, 2009

Mark and Helen discuss the PIK project

Mark and Helen are working on the PIK project which will be launched in the Whitsundays this coming week and in Mackay in May. PIK stands for podiatry, insulin initiation and kidneys, and it is the insulin initiation segment which will be available. The Mackay Primary Health Care Partnership has developed this diabetes management project to improve the coordination between health care providers.

The project aims to improve the quality of life for people with Type 2 diabetes. A diabetes educator and a dietitian will provide support for patients who would benefit from the initiation of insulin.

On Thursday I went to collect my mail at South Mackay Post Office and when I opened my mailbox there were two baby easter eggs! What a lovely thought. I then went over to the South Mackay Newsagency to buy an extra newspaper. The days before Good Friday and Xmas Day I always buy a second paper which I then hide in my garden and 'find' in the morning. This should work for a few more years until my memory starts to go, which might make the hunt more exciting. At the newsagency with Julia and Julie in attendance I mentioned my plans and Julie took off with my paper and returned with it fully plastic wrapped so it wouldn't get wet. I drove to work and a rainbow crossed the sky. I took a photograph but the rainbow is very faded.

So much for any dieting - we might not have had a server but we had lots of baby easter eggs brought in by Christian and Mandy's daughter supplied us with iced cakes. I added tuna to the mix for balance. If you're wonderiing about the bright red light in the photograph of Carmel and Val it is to alert people that the vault is open. The building used to be a bank and I check out the vault every now and then when I think about cyclones. Sadly when the bank left the building (just like Elvis) they took all the money with them.

Life at work, when the server goes down, down, down, is always interesting. I took the opportunity to take some photographs of Mackay Division of General Practice staff.

April 5 to April 7, 2009

There've been quite a few birthday greetings on this site lately, and today it's David's turn. May your year be a healthy one. A story in the Daily Mercury this morning reminded me of many many years ago when I inadequately assisted David and Peggy to move sheep from one paddock to another. The ewes, whom had lambs at foot, went in all directions.

The story this morning came from Wellington (which reminded me of a freezing cold year of my life) and described an extremely strange New Zealandish idea of having a Running of the Sheep. Apparently more than 1000 of the sheep ignored the planned route! (mind boggling) and took off. Clearly this event was not planned by a sheep farmer.

Somewhere I read that a three year study is to begin into cutting back methane production by livestock. Change diet? Not easy when you're talking about cattle. Some sort of stopper? Could this be a way of increasing employment? My mind has been boggling over this all day. Or perhaps it is an early sign of a breakdown because I cannot track the story down.

The other day was almost a 'cat'astrophe when Snoopy took my chair, Stampy took my printer and Queenie queened it over us all. Move your mouse across the thumbnail below to give the cats a thrill.

March 31 to April 4, 2009

The fountain, above, is close by the Mackay City Library in Gordon Street.

I enjoyed a quote from the Weekend Australian Review contributing editor Judith Elen today from her review of a newly published book by Marcella Hazan, called Amarcord: Marcella Remembers. Marcella Hazan describes supermarket frozen food refrigerators as "cemeteries of food whose contents are sealed up in waxed boxes marked, like some tombstones, with photographs of the departed".

Also in The Australian was an amazing story from Kate Castine, head of Principals Australia who suggests toddlers should be provided with career counselliing! I try not to use too many exclamation marks, but Castine's suggestion is so bizarre it warrants one. I doubt toddlers understand the concept of work, and even if they did, they would certainly not comprehend the actual ingredients of each job. I wanted to be a journalist from the age of eight and, although I started reading newspapers before that age, I have no idea how I knew about such people as journalists. At the age of six I knew my father drove trams, but as a toddler I would certainly not have understood this was his job, or indeed, what a job was.

For a recent university subject, myself and two others designed and coded a website for the Mackay North Lions Club. Until today it has been attached to this website, however it now has a site of its own. The club is very active in Mackay and undertakes a number of public service projects in the areas of community service, environment, fundraising, health and youth.

March 29 to March 30, 2009

The Sunday Courier Mail ran an interesting story which suggested every human should be punished. The story was really about corporal punishment in schools but the word used was corporeal which means relating to a physical body. Spell checkers have a lot to answer for. These days, with a variety of dictionaries available online, words can easily be looked up. I have seen stories in which fence 'steaks' are mentioned. I'm pleased to see the spelling has been corrected in the online story.

Mental Health Nurses at MDGP

Mental health problems effect an enormous number of people and last year the Mackay Division of General Practice employed Scott (above) as a mental health nurse. Since then more mental health nurses have come on board and Scott is now the team leader.

People who have acute or chronic mental health problems and are at risk of hospitalisation, or who have already been in hospital and require further maintenance care, can be referred to the mental health nurses. A great deal of help is available including a mental health assessment, medication education and administration, lifestyle, relationship or family counselling, crisis intervention or help with accessing other resources.

March 28, 2009

The clock, pictured above with Peggy, was made by English clockmaker Thomas Gorsuch, who lived from 1683 to 1727. The clock has been in Victoria for many years but now, restored, is at home in Port Douglas. Below are photographs of the clockface, before and after restoration.

March 25 March 27, 2009

Happy birthday to my brother, Dale Mann who lives in far off Melbourne with his wife, Heather, and their two sons, Hamish and Murdoch. Murdoch's dog, Major, appears on these pages fairly frequently.

Dale, who is a photographer, took the photographs (below) of my children, Nick, Suzanne and Amanda when we visited Melbourne about 25 years ago. They remain some of my favourite photographs.

March 24 to March 25, 2009

March 18 to March 23, 2009

I am fairly conservative when it comes to art although I love the Impressionists and "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali, first seen when I was a teenager, made a lasting impression on me. It was therefore with great delight that I found the bookmark below which is for sale at designboom.

I have been deep into learning php through one of my university subjects. I think it has already become an obsession. The textbook is "PHP with MySQL" and the author, Nat McBride, describes PHP as "a server-side scripting language designed specifically for use with HTML to create more advanced web pages".

We haven't had a photo of a cat for a while so here is one of Queenie, in her new place, on a round table in the middle of my library. This table once had a yellow tablecloth on it but after picking it up off the floor for the sixth time (following great crashes), I have now given up putting it back.

My garden continues to grow wildly, without, thank heavens, any new floods to help it along. Below are a collection of photographs which, without the aid of water, grow as you run your mouse across them.

March 12 to March 17, 2009

Happy birthday to my elder daughter, Suzanne, our recent hostess when Cyclone Hamish gave me my latest cyclone scare.

It has been an interesting few days with our server at work doing its own thing, which is, sadly, not our thing. St Patrick's Day was celebrated with many people wearing green and Carmel got up early to make a collection of green cupcakes covered with green icing. Reminded me of when I once made blue mashed potato for David which was not my most successful culinary effort. At least I didn't put hundreds and thousands on it. And talking of mashed potato, with winter coming, I can look forward to it at some of our meetings.

Below is a lovely photograph of friend, Jill, from my Kewarra Special School days. She is pictured with John, far left, and with their daughter, Kate.

March 10 and March 11, 2009

This time the spotlight is on Joh and Rob, wife and husband entertainers who perform under the name of Raw Jam. They first appeared some six to seven years ago when Joh's boss at the Northern Beaches Bowls Club dared them to appear. They were given two bookings and had two months in which to learn forty songs.

Since then they have entertained fairly consistently at both public and private functions and at charity events including Kids for Cancer which involved a pirate gig at Mackay's Marina.

Their repertoire includes classic rock, rock 'n' roll and Aussie rock and they are now working on an accoustics range. Both Joh and Rob come from musical backgrounds and their three children are also musical.

March 3 to March 9, 2009

I think it is time I got over being terrified of cyclones. Thirty-four years ago I was unlucky enough to be caught in Cyclone Tracey in Darwin and it has had a lasting effect on me, but then I'm not alone, just about everyone else I know who went through it is still fairly traumatised too.

So with Hamish taking his time to totter down our Queensland coastline, my nerves were stretched increasingly tight and as it seemed Mackay was in his sights, and upon my daughter Suzanne's suggestion, I firstly moved most of the furniture from my deck to inside the house, took down far too many windchimes, and, together with my dog Willow, and cats Snoopy and Queenie, went to stay with Suzanne, her husband, Michael, and their children Isabella and Tahlia.

Suzanne and Michael also gave houseroom to my son, Nick and his family and my daughter, Amanda, and her family. All up the house accommodated 13 humans, three dogs, six cats and three rats. Many thanks indeed to Suzanne and Michael.

And to change the subject, here are some photos of Major, the dog owned by my nephew whose name happens to be Hamish.

March 2, 2009

And now for more happy news for the family, many congratulations to Imogen and Nick on the occasion of their engagement. Imogen and Nick, who live in Melbourne, plan to marry next year.

March 1, 2009

With one-sixth of the year gone, it is time to welcome in the month of March and to say an especial happy birthday to my daughter-in-law, Denese. May you have a very happy day.

February 28, 2009

So that is it for February. I was rather saddened to discover that while I was in Brisbane earlier this week, my brother, Dale Mann, was also there a few days earlier. Dale comes from Melbourne and was amazed at the greenness. He took the photograph below.

February 27, 2009

Above is an 'experimental urban vision' designed by 11 young international architects for the Huaxi City Centre of Gulyang in south western China. A group called MAD invited each of the architects to design a single part of a masterplan developed by Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute, Studio 6, together with MAD.

To read more about this city, designboom has more information and is an excellent site if you are interested in design.

February 25 to February 26, 2009

Many congratulations to MDGP's Nicole Porter, who has been awarded $500 for the most academic key person in commercial law. Nicole is studying accountancy through Central Queensland University

And happy birthday to Ros - who no doubt thought she had escaped this notice. I'm not much of a sweet eater these days, but the cheesecake Ros brought in to work yesterday was amazing.

February 19 to February 24, 2009

Fiona (speaker), Liz, Liz (speaker) and Linda

I spent Monday in Brisbane at the Queensland network meeting of the Rural Palliative Care Project which was run by Debbie Bampton from the Australian General Practice Network.

Liz Reymond and Fiona Israel, from the Brisbane South Palliative Care Service were two of the speakers at the workshop. Just a few weeks ago, not knowing I was going to hear Professor Reymond speak, I had been researching her on the internet and had saved great quantities of information, all of which vanished without trace when the computers at Mackay Division died so effectively - and where was the palliative care for them?

Kathy Laurent also spoke at the workshop and discussed the work of PEPA, the Program of Experience for the Palliative Approach. Kathy will be coming to Mackay next month when PEPA provides education for our new link nurses and for GPs.

February 16 to February 18, 2009

Life is certainly interesting when work computers have major conniptions. One learns the meaning of patience and perseverance. Or not. The joys of discovering files on the server turns to despair when those files come up corrupted. I spent an hour at work today recreating the ribbon in Word 2007 and it certainly wasn't wasted time as now I can zoom along instead of biting my nails trying to remember where the various commands are situated..

And our Bianca has moved to a new job at TAFE - good luck and may you have as much fun, and may it be as creative an experience, as your time with Mackay Division of General Practice.

Bianca has been a brilliant social organiser at work and although I am anti social and don't attend any of the events, it is fascinating to hear about them later! (Dreaded exclamation mark). Pictured below is Bianca at Carmel's hen's night. A male from work said he was glad he was safely at home on that occasion.

And for all the coding purists, I know oval and circle shapes for photographs is dated, but I like those shapes and I can do what I like on this site.

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Diana Kupke Writes

Third Archive Items from 16 February to 15 June 2009