Category: Share Your World

QUESTIONS:

1. Guns?   Are you pro or con?  Explain your point of view.

Definitely con. In Australia, we have stricter gun laws than the USA and I think that we are better for it.

Of course, we still have shootings from time to time, there are unstable people everywhere, but nowhere near as frequently as you do in the USA. Thank goodness we don’t yet need metal detectors in our schools and we are not dominated by the wishes of an organisation like the NRA.

I understand that some people like to shoot for sporting reasons or to hunt. Neither are my thing but I think that’s  OK as long as their weapons and ammo are properly secured when not in use; and as long as the hunters intend to eat what they shoot. I don’t believe anyone who is not in the military or possibly police needs an assault rifle. You can hardly call shooting animals with those sporting anyway. What I find disturbing about the gun culture in America is the casual way that people often seem to have guns in their homes, in handbags or drawers where a child can easily get hold of them. It disturbs me that people who are a lot like me would consider shooting another person in cold blood and if you wouldn’t do it why even have a gun? This is something I feel quite strongly about and I know that many won’t agree with me.

2. How would your country change if everyone, regardless of age, could vote?

First of all, I think that everyone eligible should vote. If you don’t vote when you have the opportunity you can’t complain about the outcome. Australians are about to vote and while it is compulsory for us I hope that people vote properly so it will count. Should everyone vote? Well, I think you have to understand what you are voting for or against. Children are more politically aware now than when I was a child and perhaps you could make an argument for the 16-18-year-old group being allowed a say but not a baby vote. That would just be a second vote for parents or other interested parties and not a true reflection of the situation. I’m also concerned that some younger people may see an election as something like a reality TV show where you vote on personalities and not on policies. Policies are dull but the results of them will be what we have to live with for the term of the next government.

I want to be careful here because I’ve recently been reading about the Women’s Vote and the attitudes of men towards the idea that we were intelligent enough and aware enough to vote a century ago. However, I don’t feel I can justify votes for very young children. I do think that if more young people voted we might elect governments who cared more about climate change but the under-thirties in this country have a poor voting record in the past decade or so and that would need to change.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/the-frant-if-you-don-t-enrol-you-can-t-complain

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/i-like-my-fries-hot-not-my-planet-the-schoolstrike4climate-signs-you-can-t-miss_1

3. What’s your cure for hiccups?

I try holding my breath but generally, I just wait for them to go away.

4. What’s the coldest you’ve ever been?

Hmm, maybe Siberia but I can remember spending a night sleeping in a sleeping bag in a train carriage in Peterborough in country South Australia when I was in my twenties and although I doubt the temperature was below freezing that must have been one of the coldest nights of my life. I was in my twenties then. Or maybe in the desert near Uluru a decade or so later when we spent a night in a cabin.

Gratitude

If you would like, share a story, a photo or some thoughts on you may be thankful for this week! 

We’re having some lovely autumn days when it’s pleasant to be out of doors.

I’m looking forward to a week’s break over Easter as our shop will be closed and tired volunteers will be enjoying some downtime.

Sharing My World This Week

What is the best pick me up that you know of?  To shake you out of the blues?

Comfort food like chocolate is good but I also find that my surroundings help a lot. When David was in the hospital for months I found that no matter how blue I was feeling the beauty around me as I travelled up to Hobart on the bus to see him lifted my spirits. Sitting in my garden enjoying the flowers, the birds and my pets makes me feel good too.

What would be the title of your memoir?

I’m not going to take this entirely seriously but perhaps “Diary of a Doll Lover” or even “Reflections of a Rail Fan” as those have been my lifelong interests.

Where do you like to go when you eat out?

I don’t have one specific place that I like to go but I like places that serve simple but tasty food. I’m not interested in restaurants where the food is pretty to look at but you are still hungry after eating it. I like a place with a nice ambience, a pretty view out the window or a fireplace or interesting decor. I don’t like restaurants that are noisy because for me going out for a meal is a social occasion and I want to be able to enjoy conversation with my companions not be straining to hear or listening to awful music. Lastly, I like places who don’t rush you out the door as soon as you have finished because they want to clear up.

Do you believe in luck?

Yes, I do believe in luck but I don’t rely on it.

Aside from necessities, what is one thing you couldn’t go a day without?

Solitude. Having to be around people all day, every day would be very stressful. I enjoy my days at the Op Shop interacting with customers and spending time with my fellow volunteers. I enjoy coffee or lunch with friends but I am always glad to get home and know I have the rest of the day to myself.

QUESTIONS

Do You Have Any Guilty Pleasures?

I guess that would probably be chocolate. I don’t buy chocolate or chocolate biscuits just for myself very often. It’s always a big temptation to eat it all at one go but I usually try to make it last if I have it. Once in a while though I will think “Darn it, I’m just going to finish it.”

What Is The Worst Pick Up Line You Ever Heard?  

            For the guys: What’s The Worst Pick Up Line You’ve Used?

I don’t believe that anyone has ever used a pickup line on me. I know David didn’t and I only went on one date before I met him.

What Slang Or Trend Makes You Feel Old?

Millennials make me feel old full stop. I don’t understand their slang half the time. I have no idea who the actors and musicians they follow are and I hate the way they write articles that begin “You have been doing …….. all wrong.” As if to say that they know best about everything.

What Do You Consider The Most Over-rated Song?

I can’t choose one song out of millions. When you hear one song on the radio all the time you can get very tired of it especially if it is not your sort of music.  For example when we were on holidays Naomi and I got very tired of the music being played on board our cruise ship. We didn’t know what most of it was but I think that the soundtrack to “The Greatest Showman” had just been released and that featured heavily. Most of the time I just don’t listen to the radio except for classical music  (except opera).

Instead of a Tender Mercies question, here’s a philosophical one instead:

You Find A Book And Begin To Read Only To Discover That It Is Your Life. You Get To The Point That You Are At Now, Do You Turn The Page Knowing That You Will Not Be Able To Change The Events To Come?

I don’t know that I’d like to be put in that position. I have been known to peek at the end of a book to see “how it comes out” but I don’t know if I want to know when or how I will die or what the end of my life might be like. I think I’d stop reading.

QUESTIONS:

What, in your opinion, is the point to life?

I am not sure why we are here but since we are I think the point of life is to live it well. I can only speak for myself but I try not to do harm to others, to be kind to animals and appreciate nature. I enjoy the good things in life, family and friends, the love of pets, good food, good conversation, hobbies, reading and experiencing things. I try to speak up when I see something happening I feel is wrong.

I don’t know what happens when we die but I’ve always thought more about the here and now than the hereafter.

What was your most recent lie?  You don’t have to get really specific obviously.

Saying thank you when someone donates another big box of books to the Op Shop when I know there is absolutely nowhere for me to put them.

What country do you consider the strangest?   (it’s all In fun folks, ALL countries may seem strange to outsiders)

I’m sure that’s true. Please take everything I’m about to say in the spirit of fun.

• Australia would probably take the prize for the strangest animals, platypus anyone?
• Japan probably has the weirdest reality TV.
• Iceland might come first for strange landscapes.

By TwoWings – Own work (NB: this is scanned photography since it had been taken with an analogue camera), CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Lots of countries elect or inherit weird leaders so America is not alone in that although I’d have to say the USA and North Korea are neck and neck for that one at present.

Although I am very fond of my American blogging friends and I’ve met some lovely people from the USA over the years I often think that America is a strange country because:

• People drive on the wrong side of the road.
• People say “Booee” and “Aloominum” instead of “Boy (for buoy)” and “Aluminium”
• American spelling is weird. Theater instead of Theatre, color instead of colour and there are zeds (zee’s to you) where I’d put the letter “S”
• Voting machines
• The Kardashians and other famous for being famous stars.
• The Jerry Springer Show

I could go on but I won’t. I’m fascinated because in a lot of ways America and Australia seem similar. We both started out as British colonies, we both have a multicultural population, we both were opened up by pioneers looking for land or gold. On the other hand, sometimes things that happen in the USA make it seem like another planet.

What’s your funniest story involving a car?

I don’t drive and since David has been gone I no longer have a car so I have to go back a bit

Once, a long time ago I was visiting Naomi at her house in Semaphore, a beachside suburb of Adelaide. We drove down to the beach for some reason and then wandered back up the main street. At that time there were some interesting second-hand shops that we loved browsing in. We ended up buying a few things and not being far from Naomi’s house we naturally just walked back there. It was only some half an hour later when we were sitting down having a cup of tea that we thought about the car which was still parked in the car park at the beach. I can’t even call that a senior moment as we were both in our thirties at the time.

GRATITUDE

Do you have something you’re very thankful for or that showed immense kindness toward yourself or someone?

There is a lady that I know who is probably one of the kindest and most generous people I know. She spends her whole life looking out for other people.  I’m grateful to know someone like that.