Today is the Senior Cat's

90th birthday party. There is much to be done.
I will report back later - if we are not all 'magicked' away by his conjuring friend who is coming to entertain us...

The Prime Minister has announced

that Australians will go to the polls on September 14th. We are, it seems, set for an eight month election campaign.
The date, announced yesterday, was apparently set "in accordance with the agreement with the independents". It is the last possible Saturday for the government to go to the polls. There were at least two other late dates on which the election could have been held. 
Going on the last possible date has its risks - but why announce it now?
One suggestion is that it puts more pressure on the Opposition Leader - but it also gives him more time to plan and plot and perform. He will.
Another suggestion is that it will stop the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, from making another tilt at the job. (There is also a belief it will lock the unpopular Opposition Leader in place - to the government's advantage.)
The government also hopes to put in place a range of 'popular' but unfunded legislation, particularly in the area of disability services and education. The proposed National Disability Scheme is not even costed (because the details are not even decided on) and the funds are not there for the sort of scheme that people with disabilities have been hoping for. The Gonski proposals with respect to education are not fully costed either and rely more on state funding than federal funding. Cutting funds to private schools will actually cost more. (It costs the government less to subsidise a place in private education than it does to pay for a child in a state school.)
The government also hopes to show that the so-called 'carbon tax' is working the way it intended and is not a burden on the taxpayer. They are apparently refusing to recognise that many businesses are currently trying not to raise prices in the hope of increased market share when others go under.
But perhaps all this does not matter very much. The government will stay as long as possible. The independents will continue to support them (and thus retain their pay packets) and even believe that they have managed to do so much for their election (in the way of government funded bribes) they will be returned. We could, some say, be set for another hung parliament. I hope not.
The electorate I live in is on a knife-edge. I have no doubt at all there will be some major announcements that say, "Vote for us and we will reward you with this."
Polibribery is about to begin.

It is comforting to discover

that even though I am only blogging in the most awkward sort of way there are still lovely people like Donna, Judy, Jean and Miriam who leave comments and let me know that someone is reading this - and yes, I am reading you too.
I wonder what would happen if we suddenly had a world without the internet? How would people manage?
We have become very dependent on the internet and the amount of information it provides - and yet we can also forget it might provide information. It can also provide false information.
The Senior Cat tends to forget it might provide information. He bought some clear lacquer the other day. The assistant at the hardware store assured him that the new brand on the shelf, about the same price as the other brand (out of stock) was just as good. It was not. He needed to apply a further coat and it ended up costing more than the other brand.
When he told me this I said, "Look it up on the 'net and see what they have to say."
It had not occurred to him but I am sure there will be a site where brands of paint are discussed, possibly in a very professional sort of way.
He also has problems with many  of the abbreviations and terms in common use. They are a foreign language to him. The word (if it is a word) "apps" really irritates him. I have tried to explain "blog" more than once. He does not read this blog or any other blog. For him the internet is there to provide him with information if he wants it. He does not want it for any other purpose. He refuses to use e-mail - ("How do you know the person at the other end is going to get it?" - a fair question I suppose.)
My nephew, his grandson, turned up the other day to show him some photographs he had taken on a trip to Tanzania.
      "I thought you were going to show me some photographs," the Senior Cat protested.
      "Yes, we can look at them on your i-pad," my nephew told him, "It's better that way - we can zoom in on some of the animals Isaw."
        It was, the Senior Cat, almost as good as going on safari himself but he is still puzzled by how these things "get there" and "stay there". We tell him not to worry about it. Just enjoy it.
After all, I tell him, I have absolutely no idea how it is I can press buttons and have words appear on a screen and then save them and publish them so other people can read them. That is for people with other expertise.

The ongoing discussion about

the selection of Nova Peris as a Senate candidate for the Northern Territory at the next election will probably continue right up until her election - or otherwise. If she does get elected it wil be because most people will vote "above" rather than "below" the line for the Senate.
It is one of those peculiarities of our electoral system. It has many but this is one of the strangest.  In order for your vote to be valid you must fill in all the boxes in order of preference in our preferential voting system  - unless you are voting "above" the line for the Senate.
If you do that then you can mark in a one above the line and leave the boxes below the line blank. That way you will give your preferences according to the preferences of the party of your choice.
For the record, I vote below the line. I prefer to make up my own mind about whre my preferences are going. I would, almost always, prefer not to have to fill in all the blanks.
There is, of course, a danger in voting below the line. You have to be very careful about filling out the ballot paper. It can have a great many names on it and the list of numbers can be long.
It is not such a problem in the Northern Territory, or it should not be. The number of voters is less there and the number of candidates for election tends to be smaller. The problem will be that people are encouraged to vote above the line. It suits the main parties. People will vote in a way that will give the main parties the preferences they want - and often depend on.
This time around the ALP is going to be particularly anxious for that to happen....even if they are unhappy with the Prime Minister's autocratic behaviour.
All this has made me acutely aware that governments of all persuasions would really prefer that at least some Australians do not understand the voting process and, more especially, the preferential system.
If they did then some of our more high profile candidates may not be able to rely on their names and popularity in other areas to "win" a seat.

I have just copied

a page from our old street directory for a friend who is coming to the Senior Cat's 90th birthday party. (He was not going to have a party but then he had to invite....you know how it goes.)
This friend drives an elderly car, has no idea how to use a computer and the idea of using a GPS device is completely foreign to her.
Can she read a map? I wonder. She often gets lost. I plan on making it as simple as possible. Fortunately she knows how to get to our local library. Although she lives on the other side of the city she likes our library knitting group, She says it is friendly - and we like to think it is.
After the library it is simple - yes, really. But will it be simple for her? I hope so.
This friend is Italian. She had to leave school at the age of 13. Her reading confidence is not high - but it is very adequate and she does read books. She went to English classes at her local TAFE (technical and further education) college to improve her English and tells me it helped. If she runs into trouble she will ask her granddaughters or, at a meeting, quietly ask me. I admire her for her determination to do so well and continue learning after years of many things going wrong in her life.
And, she knits socks.
She knits socks for the Senior Cat. Every year on his birthday he gets two pairs of the most beautifully crafted woollen socks. I will never be able to knit socks as well as she does. The ribbing is perfectly even, the heels are expertly turned and the toes are so smooth you could skate on them.
She does not knit just socks of course. Other things fly off her needles. She reads patterns and then improves the design. She looks at a picture, consults her technical knitting books and comes up with a smooth, sleek fashion item.
I know she watches more television than I do - most people do - but she knits while she does it. She goes to craft groups and knits. She shares her skills and expertise with other people too.
       "You do it this way," she tells people and she shows them. She is, despite her sometimes ungrammatical English, a very good teacher.
The Senior Cat is very fond of her - and she of him. She had, he tells me, better be able to read a map. He wants her at his party. She wants to be there. She has two pairs of socks - even though he has asked "no presents please". It is, she tells me, her right to ignore that request.

I had better make sure I write some very good instructions to go with the map.

"I am not sure you will remember me.."

the voice at the other end says hesitantly, "but I won the blanket you made."
"The blanket?"
I have made more than one blanket. I have put together more blanket squares than I care to think about. 
But this is not the blanket she is talking about, She is talking about the "Peace Blanket" - the small blanket I made in one piece. It had the word for 'peace' in twenty different languages with rows of the Blissymbol for peace in between. (If you Google "Peace Blanket"  you can find the pattern on the internet - and a picture and link under "patterns" in Ravelry.)
But, to get back to the story, the owner was asking me whether I would like to have it back - to pass on to someone else.
          "I have had it and loved it for more than ten years. I have used it in schools and in other places to tell people how it was made and what it means. Now I am retiring and moving to a much smaller place. There will be no room to hang it and I would rather someone used it."
I do not feel insulted by her inquiry in the least. I think I feel honoured that she thinks do much of it that she wants it to go on being used.
I have said she can return it to me. I do not know what sort of condition it is in but I think she must have taken good care of it or she would not want me to see it again or suggest that it could be used in other places.
But I also wonder now... what has happened to the other people who helped me make the blanket? What has happened to the people who added stitches? There were all sorts of people in all sorts of places. I travelled all over the city knitting it on public transport. I worked on it during a big craft fair where there were people from all over Australia and even from overseas. Some of them were very old and are almost certainly no longer alive. Others were very young and will now be in their teens.
It would be interesting to know.
Do any of them remember adding a stitch to the Peace Blanket?

I have been clearing

out two cupboards. It is the sort of thing one does when one is sans computer I suppose...or the sort of thing one should do when one is sans computer...or perhaps just should do occasionally.
We seem to collect things that "might be useful" but really should be passed on to other people much sooner.
The charity shop can use all those bags we seem to have collected or been given - you know the sort of thing. The bags in which the Senior Cat's new shoes came. The bag that came with a birthday present. The bag the Senior Cat collected at a gardening show and the one I collected at a craft show. There is a shoe box filled with rubber bands and used twist ties. There is another box filled with pens and pencils. (Yes, I went through those and yes I have thrown out all the pens that do not work and made the Senior Cat sharpen the pencils so we can use them again.)
There were almost two hundred plastic milk bottle tops. (When did we drink so much milk?) The Senior Cat was saving those because "they might be useful". I have put them in for recycling.
There were business cards and old bills (paid) and  a "dental reminder" notice.
The other cupboard had cleaning things in it. I am pretty good about using things to the end and then throwing them out but there are always things that do get kept. There was an empty bottle which had once held disinfectant, some worn out scrubbers, a half used tin of "light tan" shoe polish. My mother had shoes that colour but the Senior Cat and I do not. It was hard and useless but I suspect he had kept it because it had been my mother's. I quietly threw it out. He will not notice because he uses a different icecream box (in which he stores the shoe cleaning brushes and cloths and polish). There was an almost empty box of cheap washing powder. (I had thought it was full.) I quietly removed that too. It cannot be used in our current washing machine.
I  will prowl through the food cupboards too. Perhaps there is something to be said for computer down time...but I will have to catch up on work that is waiting. This is being written at the library and scheduled for later.
I have brought some magazines to the library. They belonged to my mother. The staff will put them on the "free" trolley. Someone will use them.
We do not need these things. I do need some space.