It's been a while, but let's see if we can can get this fired up again :)

Been about 2 years since the last Post and I think I'm ready to start this up again.

The reasons for starting the Blog in the first place haven't changed and I actually find it rather therapeutic and de-stressing to source things and create the posts.

So...........................................................

This young lady deserves a BIG pat on the back.

http://www.theleader.com.au/story/3985846/ali-celebrates-20-years-of-helping-others/?cs=1003

Ali Leate has been working for 20 years in a retirement community in Sylvania. Ali has Downs Syndrome, which, I guess, makes her story even sweeter.

Frankly, I think she deserves to be recognised for 20 years working in an environment where she makes a real difference in the lives of others, many of whom would probably be aged on infirm. Her Downs Sydnrome is worth noting, I guess - but goodonya Ali and all the best for another 20 years :)

Hastings shopping centre - a snapshot of the way the world SHOULD work.

Mum and dad moved (finally!) from their house Dromana to a retirement community in Hastings in early 2012. They agreed very soon after the move that they should have done it about 5 years earlier - but better late than never.

There's no doubt that they couldn't have lived in the old house had they both been as ill as they became, so the move was timely. Mum is there on her own now and I can visit a couple of times a week, comfortable in the knowledge that she has a secure and safe home, surrounded by caring - but not interfering - neighbours. My cousin Elaine lives 10 minutes away - an extra safety-net.

Hasting could well be described as "God's Waiting Room". Go for a walk any weekday through the shopping centre and you won;t have to look our for Hoons On Skateboards - it's Seniors On Scooters you'll see weaving in and out of the pedestrians on Main Street.

Every shop or business we visit recognises this demographic bias in the area and makes sure that they are alert and empathetic to their customer base.

Cafe staff hold the door when they see mum coming (she's an a 4 wheel walker, not an electric scooter) and make sure they find her a table where she has access. They escort her through the back doorway to the WC and make sure she's OK getting back inside on her own.

Banks staff, post office personnel, the wonderful staff at the local pharmacy - all of them go out of their way to help the aging members of the local community. The average age of those in Mum's doctor's waiting room would be 70+ - and that's allowing for kids with their parents all bringing the mean average down.

It stands out to me because I see the opposite when I go to busy shopping areas, whether it be Chadstone or Prahran or the Melbourne CBD. That's why I think Hastings is, sadly, the exception and other locations, where older people receive little or no special consideration are the norm.

So hats off to Hastings!

Back (again!)

Over a year ago, back on May 2013, my last post was an "I'm back" post, recounting how 2012 and early 2013 had gone very pear-shaped for me. I then went on to post a 'Thank God for the Salvos' message.

Then the tap turned off.

From late May, Dad got very sick very quickly and passed away in August. Johnny and I accelerated our plans to move to Melbourne (back to Melbourne for me) and I left me job with Fairfax, after 34 years in the industry.

We moved in early October 2013 and Johnny found work within 2 weeks of beginning his search (after we had a short break after the move, etc).

I set up Trevor Weeding Media sales, got me an ABN and set about building my own business.

Then mum had a fall and was in hospital for 2 weeks, then rehab from November until early February. Each round trip to her home (for clean clothing, mail, check security etc) and the rehab was nearly 200klm and it was happening up to 4 days a week.  So, the business took a back-seat and that's where it's stayed, pretty much.

What's GOOD about all of this, you ask??

In the past 14 months I've had to cope with:

• the illness and death of my dad
• the stress of an interstate move
• the uncertainty of leaving a GREAT job and having no secure income at all (my total earning for the past 12 months are about 1/5th of my old salary)
• dragging my partner away from his job and family in Sydney (Thankfully, he LOVES Melbourne. Phew!)
• had to dip into my retirement savings to get by finacially
• my mum getting sicker and having a serious health issue and recovery - 

all of this plus the usual day-to-day issues everyone gets in their lives..................... and my blood pressure has come down and my medication has been reduced.

Go figure!  Just goes to shows that even a job I loved was clearly not doing my health much good, huh?

So - Post #1 for the renewed "Stuff that's good in the world" ends with the story of my hypertension:)

It's been a long time between drinks (posts) - hope it's worth the wait :)

A few weeks ago, Johnny and I did our small bit to help raise some funds at the Sutherland Relay for Life. Numbers aren't finalised yet, but they'll raise over $500K for sure. This is Year 8 for me with this Relay event, being directly involved, and 11 years with RFL overall. I'm pleased and proud to have had a significant and real impact on the $$ raised in that time.

This weekend is the Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal. In the past, I've happily gone out door knocking for them.Not much raised and negligible influence.

Why am I so supporting of this event?

It's not because of the good works they do with the money raised. It's not necessarily because I agree with the Salvos religious convictions ( I did the doorknock about 10 times and I'm still an agnostic).

One recent anecdote sums up what  makes me feel good and supportive about this appeal.

While I've been to regional launches, especially Western Sydney, in the past, this year was the first time I was invited to the NSW Appeal launch event. Held at the Westin Sydney, with Andrew and Nicola Forrest as 'special guests'. Andrew and Nicola pledged $1M at the event and I believe that the 1,000 or so people in the room matched that.

At the event,  I saw a Salvo officer who looked familiar. I couldn't remember where I knew him from.

2 days later, I went to my local, inner suburban pub for a quiet drink after work, followed by dinner with Johnny. As always on a Friday evening, the Salvos came in to rattle the tin and collect some money. The Salvo officer was the same man I seen at the Westin event. We had a chat, I gave more money from my pocket and I wished him well.

I saw him AGAIN a week later when I attended a breakfast to launch the Red Shield Appeal in Rockdale & Kogarah.

Think about this - Wednesday lunchtime; organise an event for 1,000 attendees and raise $2,000,000. 48 hours later, do what you do every Friday night and maybe raise $50 at the local pub. 7 days later, help organise a business breakfast where a few thousand dollars are raised.

It's a single minded philosophy - NO amount is too small and the cumulative sum of many small amounts of money raised is what matters.

 Thank your God for the Salvos.

So, what happened to my Blog and self discipline etc???

Long story short - 2012 was my own annus horibilius. Carried across into 2013 to some extent as well.

Self pity etc now done with and normal posting should resume shortly.

There IS stuff that's good in the world and I've experienced some of it first hand recently, so looking forward to sharing.

PLEASE DONATE YOUR ORGANS!

Let's start with the message I hope to leave at the finish - PLEASE do not take your organs to heaven or the grave or wherever you believe you go when you die.

Every day of every week in every country on Earth, someone is dying because they need an organ transplant. Often, the transplant only buys them a few years or even months, but imagine what they can do or achieve in that time.

What did you do in the past two months that made you feel good or made others' lives better or happier? How about in the past year? The past 5 years?

Here's some inspiration, if you need it:

When Tianna was 18 months old doctors found two holes in her heart and two blocked arteries, faults that left her breathless and with a blue tinge to her skin. Over the years the condition worsened, leading to an ever-lengthening list of symptoms.

''Walking is really hard,'' Tianna said 18 months ago. ''I get heart palpitations, chest pains, nose bleeds. I get light-headed and get leg cramps and back pain. I'm in and out of hospital. I don't have much of an immune system.''

The illness had affected her social life, as it became hard to keep up with her friends.

''Sometimes, they end up carrying me,'' she said. ''I feel like I drag them back a bit because they have to walk slowly with me. I tell them to walk on and I'll walk just behind them at the back of the pack. It takes a toll on your self-esteem, trying to keep up with them and seeing everyone do stuff that you can't.''

Major surgery was necessary and the Ingleburn teenager became one of the 1700 Australians on waiting lists for organ and tissue transplants. She also became a face of the Journey of Hope campaign, aimed at getting Australians to discuss the issue and to encourage more people to register as organ donors. The campaign by Transplant Australia endeavours also to attract more funding to support people who are on waiting lists, organ recipients and their families.

Here's what I think is the saddest part of the donor/transplant story. According to this story in today's paper (I'll post the link), only 309 Australians donated organs last year. Close to 6 million Australians are on the Organ Donor Registry (in other words, they WANT to donate their organs and save lives) but only 58% of families allowed the organ and tissue donations to proceed. That means 42% of families stopped the donations from happening.

HOW DARE THEY!!!! How dare they go against their relatives wishes AND how dare they destroy what may be only possible chance another person has to have a better life  -or to have a life at all! 

HOW DARE THEY!!! If religion is the reason, then I am even angrier!

My drivers licence says I am a willing donor. My Will says I am willing donor. I have registered with the relevant web sites and organisations. And now this blog tells the world, if they care to read it, that I am a willing donor.  NO ONE has my permission to stop my organs or tissue being donated when I die.

Please, do all you can to make your wishes known. tell everyone. register with your local Transplant/Donation service or authority.

Please - don't take your organs with you when you die.

Tianna's story

Knit-wits rule!

From time to time I like to reminisce about days gone by (and, in the process, sound exactly like my parents did, thus boring the socks off of anyone under 40). Thanks to the changes I’ve seen in my lifetime – especially during my working years – I am the proud possessor of skills that are totally useless in 2012.

The short list is:

• I can (safely) tap a beer keg. Not the new ones, but the old fashioned type. These are the ones that, if badly managed, can result in injury or even death as the rod flies up and into your head (usually entering the head or, at best striking you very hard under the chin).
• I can change a ribbon on a manual typewriter.
• With a little bit of refresher practice, I think i can remember my copy fitting formulas, so that I can tell you how many words at a given font size will fit a given space.
• I still remember most of my proofreaders marks (and still use them, much to the confusion of my work colleagues who wonder why I wrote # and 'stet'  on their document.)
• I (vaguely) recall how logarithms work – and I can certainly do long division without a calculator.
• Although I never learnt how to cast on or cast off, I can knit – but I forget how to do pearl stitches.

I seem to recall there was a (shot lived) fad at primary school. A lot of boys were knitting in arts and craft classes and I recall that the needles were overly thick, perhaps to make it easier for kid’s fingers. I made a longish scarf, only because knitting a big long thing was all I could do.

It’s this last, lost skill that came to mind most recently, thanks to the ABC’s annual ‘Knit In’ promotion. I was still home from work and listened to a lot more radio than I would normally be able to and so, the annual ‘Knit In’ got more of my attention than usual.

The event was, as always, remarkably successful. More than 1,000 knitters headed along to the ABC studios in Sydney and beavered away knitting squares (I think they’re around 8” square or so), which are then packed up and sent off to be sewn together to make blankets.  These are sent overseas to people in need.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2012/08/04/3560598.htm

The ABC ‘Knit In’ was launched 10 years ago, to support the main initiative program, called ‘Wrap with Love. ‘Wrap with Love’ began in 1993 and, since then, over 255,000 wraps have been knitted (square by square), sewn together and sent off overseas.  There have also been around 8,000 distributed around Australia, with over 3,000 going to victims of the Victorian bushfires in 2009.

http://www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au/Wrap.htm

Here’s another of my special ‘likes’ – a lot of people doing relatively small things to make a real difference in the world. In the first year, the founder (the late Sonia Gidley-King OAM) and 30 supporters sent 38 wraps off to Mozambique in a container of farm machinery. So, the 250,000+ total is even more impressive!

They got into the spirit in my local are as well, as reported in The Leader.

http://www.theleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/knitting-warm-gifts-for-the-needy/2646982.aspx

Time to break out the knitting needles Trev! J