R U OK?
Posted: September 13, 2012 Filed under: AUSTRALIA, LOVE, Self improvement, Thought For the Day | Tags: Gavin Larkin, Gavin Larkin legacy, important events on September 15, National RU OK day, Notable Australians, RU OK, suicide prevention 1 CommentToday is National RU OK? day. Please check on your friends, family, neighbours, loved ones and ask them: Are you OK? Let’s reach out to each other. We are so busy and so disconnected in our modern world. Together we can prevent suicide. If you have a neighbour who lives on their own, a smile and a chat could be what someone needs. I have rung Lifeline in my darkest hour and the woman who answered the phone was brilliant. May the legacy of Gavin Larkin live on and on and spread across the world.
If you need help call Lifeline in Australia: 131144
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Farewell Dame Diller
Posted: August 21, 2012 Filed under: COMEDY, Thought For the Day | Tags: 12th Street Rag, Fang, female comedians, funny ladies, Liberace, Liberace Show 1969 Duet, Phyllis Diller, Phyllis' Fugue, RIP Phyllis Diller, stand up comedy Leave a commentThank you Phyllis Diller for paving the way for us gals to stand up and be funny. You were one of a kind, thanks for the laughs
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Imagine
Posted: August 9, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Thought For the Day | Tags: Enola Gay, hibakusha, hiroshima, Imagine, John Lennon, Lest we Forget, Los Alamos, Nagasaki atomic bomb, Peace on earth, US Airforce, Word War II, world peace 1 Comment67 years ago today American soldiers dropped ‘Fat Man’ on Nagasaki, having dropped ‘Little Boy’ from Enola Gay on the city of Hiroshima three days before. Approximately 250,000 people were killed by the two bombs. Truman said at the time,”the United States and its allies had spent two billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history-and won.” The Hibakusha, (literally explosion-affected people) now number over 600, 000, living and dead.
A few months after the bombs dropped, my dad was stationed in Japan and visited Hiroshima with other reporters, a cartoonist and photographers. My dad and his friends all contracted some form of cancer in the years since.
67 years later the world is still fighting for peace. Have we learnt nothing?
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That Old Black Magic
Posted: July 31, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Parents, Self improvement, SONGS, Theme Songs, Thought For the Day | Tags: family, Frank Sinatra, Jack Pollard, love, My Dad, That Old Black Magic Leave a commentMy Dad used to take his teeth out and scare my sister and I by singing this song in the dark when we were growing up. I loved it and my sister hated it. Today would have been my Dad’s 86th birthday. Love you Dad.
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The Divorced Lady’s Companion to Living in Italy
Posted: July 23, 2012 Filed under: Self improvement, Thought For the Day, TRAVEL, WRITERS | Tags: Catherine McNamara Writer, http://thedivorcedladyscompaniontoitaly.blogspot.com.au/, Indigo Dreams Publishing UK, The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy 3 CommentsI just read a funny book and I think you should buy it. It’s Eat, Pray, Love without the whinging for smart women who’ve had a life or children or both, and are looking for an escape route. This is the fabulous first paragraph:
An old friend of mine named Jean fell through a tear in her marriage and landed on her feet. Jean met a solicitor from Milan on a singles trekking tour in Peru and packed her bags one autumn. She sold the house with its clutch of hydrangeas. Her adolescent children learnt Italian with ease. It was reported that at forty-four, Jean gave the Milanese man a chubby male love-child.
The author takes her heroine Marilyn on a journey through Italy after Marilyn discovers her husband is leaving her for a younger work colleague. Marilyn cuts loose, having fun away from her husband and children and re-discovering what Marilyn wants.
Definitely a witty book to read in bed!
Lungo Vive Uomini Italiani!
Catherine McNamara is originally from Sydney. You can read more about the author here:
http://thedivorcedladyscompaniontoitaly.blogspot.com.au/
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Computer says
Posted: July 18, 2012 Filed under: Self improvement, Thought For the Day | Tags: cheap and nasty PC's, geeks, HTML code, iMac, iPad, iPhone, Macbook, Steve Jobs, Technology 2 CommentsMy 10 Commandments of computers – (C) Lou Pollard 2012
1. Thou shalt back up
2. If thou dost not back up thou shalt mortgage thy house to pay a young geek for data recovery when your work is due
3. Thou shalt not take Steve Jobs name in vain
4. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors more expensive technology
5. Cherish your iPad and honour your laptop. Your forefathers worked on a machine the size of your car
6. Deliver us from the Mac store Genius bar the day a new iPhone goes on sale
7. Lead us not into the temptation of cut price PCs
8. The geeks shall inherit the earth
9. Thou shalt back up
10. Thou shalt not click on dodgy links
HTML code without end
Amen
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Ne me quitte pas
Posted: July 14, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, SONGS, Thought For the Day | Tags: 14 July 1789, Bastille Day, France, French National Holiday, Jacques Brel, le quatorze juillet, Ne Me quitte Pas Leave a commentAujourd’hui, c’est jour de la Bastille. Jacques Brel is my favourite French singer
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Ham with extra cheesiness
Posted: June 17, 2012 Filed under: Birthdays, SONGS, Theme Songs, Thought For the Day | Tags: BARRY MANILOW, beautiful 90s fashion, Can't Smile Without You, cheesy singers, June 17 birthdays, singalongs Leave a commentHappy Birthday Barry, wish I could find a copy of this shirt in an op shop
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You better sober up for just a second
Posted: June 13, 2012 Filed under: LOVE, Self improvement, SONGS, Thought For the Day | Tags: 7 seconds, charity work, Julie Burchill quotes, Neneh Cherry, Our Big Kitchen, Plan Australia, The Humour Foundation, The Humpty Dumpty Foundation, therapy culture, Tony Lucas Research Grant, World Vision Australia, Youssou N'Dour 1 CommentI read this in Julie Burchill’s column (Times Online before the pay wall!).
“Therapy just makes you think pointlessly and start to analyse, and before you know it, you need therapy to help you get over therapy, like a really bad holiday. Working voluntarily with people in a less fortunate position is uplifting and fulfilling, and you come home with a sense of achievement rather than a hole in your bank account and/or feeling sorry for yourself. Therapy culture has brainwashed us into thinking we need help, when if we got off our arses and helped others, we would be helping ourselves, too.”
I know some great therapists who’ve helped a lot of people but she’s right about getting off our arses. There comes a point where you have to build a bridge and get over yourself and doing volunteer work is a shortcut to feeling grateful for life’s blessings. Here endeth the lesson.
J’aimerais qu’on oublie leur couleur pour qu’ils esperent
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Finding it hard to get off the couch?
Posted: June 1, 2012 Filed under: ART, Self improvement, Thought For the Day, WRITERS | Tags: Annabelle Drumm, creative thinkers, Get off the couch, getting organised, kick up the bum, life coaching, procrastination, self help Leave a commentCan’t find your trackie dacks? Lost the remote? You’ve spent all day sitting in a milk bar and no famous Hollywood agents have discovered you?
I usually have a million things going on in my head, and creatively I’m the sort of person who has 47 projects on the go at any given moment. If I’d lived 100 years ago I would have needed a butler and a maid just to get me to the breakfast table.
I’m a single mother of three kids (driver, maid, washerwoman, servant) professional fool, speaker, writer and stilt walker and I wanted to finish writing my book, go overseas and get back to performing stand up comedy this year. I do not have a sherpa or a chauffeur (yet), so I went to see a life coach. A good one. One who helped me get my shit together (yes, it’s very technical this stuff). We set goals and worked out how I could possibly achieve them in the spare five minutes I have each day. And I now have a mentor for my book, I’m booked to speak at engagements this year and I’ve just been overseas.
So as Molly Meldrum would say, do yourself a favour. If you live in Sydney you can give her a call. If you don’t live in Sydney she’s on Skype. It makes sense to get someone who is very organised help you arrange the mad thoughts in your head (just me?). Especially if you’re a creative type. This is not an ad, it’s a recommendation.
loupollard 