"What subjects do I do?"

A... asked me, "I absolutely have to decide by tomorrow for next year. It's the last day we can change anything and I really don't know..."

She slumped into the chair opposite me and added, "Mum said to come and talk to you."

I groaned inwardly.  It is not the sort of conversation I enjoy having with a young person. 

A... is intelligent, indeed highly intelligent. She was the Whirlwind's closest friend and still misses her dreadfully. We have shed more than a few tears together over the past year. At the same time A....'s parents have been sensible and supportive - of both of us. I knew I needed to be supportive too.

A... still isn't quite sure what she would like to do on leaving school. It might eventually be law like her father.

"I do want to go to university but maybe not straight away," she told me some time ago.

Yesterday she told me that her parents have now suggested she spends a year in Italy at the end of her final year in school. It was where her family came from in the 1950's. Her grandparents were children then. There have been family trips back and forth to family who still live there.

"What do you think of that idea?" I asked her.

"It would be interesting but it's a bit scary," she told me.

"Well, it's two years away. It might not feel so scary when you are two years older."

She gave me a sheepish sort of grin. We both know that, like her friend, she is not particularly sophisticated yet.

"I was thinking about doing French - as well as Italian." Italian is an extra subject for her. Her mother started teaching her and now she goes to classes outside school. Her school also teaches Chinese. 

A...brought out the information from the school. We went through it together.  She now needs to specialise in one way or another. There is no doubt she is an arts rather than a science student. 

"You could do Legal Studies," I tell her, "But you don't need to do it to get into Law school later and it might be better to give yourself a chance to learn something else." I know what the curriculum contains and it won't give her any advantage.

We go on through the list of possibilities. She tells me what she has been thinking about and her reasons for doing one subject or another. I can see it is the Legal Studies or Biology, or Psychology options, all of which would fit into her timetable choices, which are bothering her. Psychology is being offered as a new subject next year.

"But I don't like Biology," is her complaint to me. I can understand this. It would not have been one of my first subject choices at her age but I am careful not to say that. 

"Well, what's wrong with Psychology?"

"It's about rats in laboratories and I would hate that."

 I couldn't help it. I laughed. 

"Do you know who will be teaching it?" I asked. I do and so did A... 

"I think you should talk to Mrs W... tomorrow. You might be very nicely surprised to find out what it is about. Didn't they tell you at school?"

"I was away...when I had Covid."

That explained it. 

"Would you like me to leave Mrs W.... an email and tell her you are going to ask?"

She nodded and put the papers back in her school back pack and left. I sent an email off to the teacher in question and had a response this morning.

"Excellent choice for her I would think. Many thanks."

I hope it is. It is hard to make life choices at that age. I thought back to my own school days. We had no choice at all. If you were in the "academic" stream in a rural school you did English, Maths I, Maths II, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, History and the girls did Sewing and the boys did Woodwork. Now they have all sorts of much more interesting choices - and perhaps that makes it even harder.  

"Vote for me and you will get free..."

Elections for our local council are taking place at present. Unlike state and federal elections it is not compulsory to vote  in these elections so the candidates have to work a little harder.

Our council has two distinct areas. There is the plains area on which I live and the hills area behind me. There are differing needs in the two areas and there are always complaints that one area or another is getting more than their fair share. The reality is that services are reasonably evenly divided between the two areas.

At the last election we lost a very good mayor. He had actually been getting things done. He had started to clear out some of "dead wood" and make the relationship between rate payers and the council simpler. He  cut back on some of the unnecessary "perks" of being a councillor and refused to be swayed by party politics. The council was, in his view, there to provide some essential services. It was not about politics, gender, race or any other woke issues. It was there to provide rubbish collection, roads, footpaths, the library, the community centres with programs for all ages and the like. In other words it was there to do exactly what councils are expected to do.

He lost the election to a woman who told people, "I'll provide free solar panels and a battery to everyone. We will fly the rainbow and indigenous flags rather than the national or state flag. We will make the council the cleanest, greenest one in the state...and more." 

She has proven herself to be a divisive figure. She used her position as mayor to unsuccessfully run for state parliament. The "free" solar panels of course have not happened. The cost of doing it would be far beyond the state's budget let alone the council budget. The annual Christmas carols (a fund raiser attended by all faiths, not only Christians) were cut but they still had an "end of year" event for council workers which was far more expensive than any previous one.

And yes, she plans to run again. So does the former mayor. He has been in the local shopping centre talking to all comers. He has been out door knocking. I chatted to his wife in the library (where she volunteers) and she sighed, "I hope he makes it but it is exhausting."

I hope he is returned too. I have no idea whether he will be successful or not. There are still people who believe they will get "free" solar panels by voting for someone else. I have tried to explain that there is no such thing as "free solar panels" but not everyone is listening.

It is like the present federal government which is still spruiking the idea that they have given everyone "cheaper childcare". No, they have done nothing of the sort. All they have done is shift the cost around and, in doing so, increased the cost of providing it. 

There really is no such thing as "free". I have voted for the man who did not mention the word and has not promised to reduce the cost of anything. He is simply saying he will do his best to keep costs from rising more than absolutely necessary. 

All this may of course mean he does not succeed - and that worries me.  

Teaching St Peter to knit?

There was a question on Twitter yesterday asking people which saint they would like to have dinner with and why.

I am not at all sure about "saints".  The "it would require the patience of a saint" idea is one which rather  amuses me. When someone else said this once my friend N..., a priest, muttered to me, "Most of the saints were very impatient people."

I know very little about saints. My good friend P... (a nun) has occasionally mentioned them to me but I haven't read "The lives of the saints" and she does not expect me to read anything like that. The idea that they are "out there somewhere and perform miracles" is more than I can handle. The idea that the rest of us might learn something from some of their non-miraculous lives is something I think might be useful. There are undoubtedly a lot of people like them who led, indeed still lead, useful lives. We can and perhaps should learn by their example.

But the question was worth answering simply because I know the person who asked it is also a knitter. Many years ago now I made contact with a woman called Elizabeth Zimmermann. She is now considered the "mother of modern knitting". At the time however she had written a book called "A knitters' almanac". I found it in the local library and read it. I liked the way it was written and I liked the subject matter. I could knit but, in my mid-teens, it had not occurred to me that I could do more than alter a knitting pattern slightly. The book disabused me of that notion. It was a "go ahead and try" sort of book where things were "unvented" as well as "invented". 

At that point I stopped using other people's patterns and did my own. It suited my basic laziness. It gave me the freedom to try things out. I still look at other people's patterns but I have not started with the "cast on X stitches" since then. 

"EZ" as she is often known was kind enough to reply to me...more than once. It was intermittent sort of correspondence. Ideas came and went in both directions. She wrote more books of course and set up the now well known "Schoolhouse Press". Her daughter eventually took over and her grandson is also involved. 

When EZ died there were any number of tributes to her and I posted one on line saying that she was "up there in heaven teaching St Peter to knit". Her daughter responded laughing "teaching St Peter to knit indeed!"  It was one of those ridiculous moments which I think/hope made MZ feel a little comforted. 

Asked the question yesterday I tried to imagine it. Anyone brought up in the Christian tradition has almost certainly come across the idea of an elderly man at some "pearly gates" allowing the faithful to enter heaven. What does he do when there is nobody to be let in? Does he sit there and twiddle his thumbs? Does he need to pray when he can talk to his boss on a much more personal level? Or does he perhaps knit? 

There is a purpose to knitting. I wrote the following elsewhere but I will repeat it here. 

To knit is to meditate. Those who don’t knit cannot understand this. They can see the garment but they cannot see the individual stitches. The knits, the purls, and the knit two togethers are not there for them. There is no understanding of what it means to create the actual fabric.

 

When we knit we repair people. We pull them together into garments made one stitch at a time. We cover them inside as well as out with blankets created out of some sort of unrecognised hope and concern for humanity. Stress may tighten our tension or joy loosen it. We might abandon some fabrics for a time, pull them apart or pass them on to others. Knitting can be undone, renewed, reknitted. Each piece is different even when we tell ourselves we are repeating the act. Only the knitter can know what emotions have gone into each piece of the knitters’ art. 

 

We knit to comfort others and ourselves. We knit to mend souls.

 

 

"Do we need Halloween?"

one of the local parents sighed as she picked up sugar laden "treats" in the supermarket yesterday. 

I had just been to the dentist. While Middle Cat was at the dentist I was doing some essential shopping - and listening to the mother in question. 

My view is that we definitely do not need Halloween. The sort "celebrated" here is something that has come in like a hurricane from the United States. It is another one of those commercial nightmares - like Christmas and Easter and now some other religious festivals as well.  

The supermarket has had chocolate and other Halloween "treats" on special for weeks. There have been masks and hats and costumes and printed cardboard cups and plates and more in the local untidy "cheap" shop. There have been fences decorated with skulls, "cobwebs" and more. Most of it will come down in a few days. It will be replaced with "Christmas" decorations almost immediately.

I suppose it is fun but it is expensive. It is messy.

The parents in this street don't really approve of the Halloween bit. We have discussed it. We all agree that their children should not miss out entirely because that will simply make them want to participate even more. 

I offered to be the "local witch" but a good witch. We came up with a plan which included the breeding of "frogs which are good for the garden". We all agreed that this was the only sort of Halloween the children really needed and that it would still be fun. 

The original plan was that each child could "catch" a frog in the front garden and take it home but last night the weather was appalling. There were some phone calls backwards and forwards. We agreed that the frogs had "gone for the night but they will be back tomorrow."

So this afternoon there will be a "frog hunt" in the garden and everyone will get one small chocolate frog to care for....and the best way of doing that is to eat it of course! 

I  

The "ISIS brides" being returned

to this country are going to be a problem. That is inevitable.

Yes, they will almost certainly live off the taxpayer dollar for the rest of their lives. They almost certainly have no employment skills at present. Even if they are able to obtain some it is unlikely they will get employment. "Who on earth would employ someone who had been married to a terrorist and has probably been brainwashed by terrorists?" someone asked me. This was well before the women in question were even out of the camps.

Those "refugee camps" are brutal places. You need to be tough to survive in one. Rape occurs multiple times every day. Many men there consider it their right to have sex whenever they wish and with whomever they wish. If a woman is a widow then she is doubly vulnerable.  She will be shared around. 

Young girls are even more vulnerable. Their services will be sold for a little extra food, for the right to sleep in an actual tent rather than makeshift plastic sheeting and much more. They are betrothed and even "married" to older men.

Bringing them back here and providing them with housing, food, health services and much more however is not going to make them "grateful". These women and children have been brainwashed.  Wear the hijab? That's not enough. Wear a burqa? That's more like it.

Those who arrived over the weekend have "apologised". Yes, they may well mean it too. They may be relieved too. 

At the same time these women are used to doing just as they are told. Their husbands told them to go with them. They did just that. Some of the more dominant women will be used to ordering other women around but they will still allow men to order them around. They did that here before they left. Many of the women would have had marriages arranged for them. That complicates family relationships, notions of family "honour" and much more.

These women will be at risk for the rest of their lives. There will always be others who believe that a caliphate is the only answer. Even if the women themselves eventually believe something different this is a religion which requires active participation. It requires far more than attendance at the mosque once a week. There will be expectations of them. 

Their children are at risk too. They have been living in places no child should have to live, experienced things no child should have to live.  They will need a lot of support. They will need watching closely because even the youngest of them will have been indoctrinated by example as well as teaching. Where will they go to school?

And are the rest of us at risk? Will some of these returnees be so radicalised that they pose a risk to the rest of us? What about the young boy who stood there holding a human head? How is he going to grow up. What about the children for whom I provided communication boards - children too afraid to make eye contact or utter a word - what about them? Will they ever approach anything like normal or will they one day lash out and harm not just themselves but others? We have no way of knowing. It does not mean we must not try.

We have been told we should not speculate or discuss their return in the media but this will happen. I have my own views about how those who return should be helped. I know others would disagree with those views. Trying to prevent discussion is just going to encourage it. We are all going to need educating too.

"Argued fiercely, swore often,

worked tirelessly, sang beautifully, laughed loudly, danced magnificently, and loved us endlessly" was how her daughter acknowledged her in the death notices. 

P... was 92. She had an aggressive form of cancer. The last time I spoke to her was at the beginning of the month. She was "cleaning up the mess" left by the council workers who had not cleared the weeds in the street to her satisfaction and wanted me to come in and help her move the television set. "Because that b.... daughter of mine shifted it to what she says is a better position but I know where I like it."

Yes, P.... was definitely a "character". At 92 she still wore very high heels. She would go to the shopping centre in bright (and I mean bright) yellow trousers and a skimpy top over which she would wear a large cardigan she had made for herself with my help. "Of course I know how to knit. They don't know how to write instructions." (A fair assessment.)

P.... "never (drank) anything but champagne". We first met over her words, "Did you make that? Good. If you know how to knit then you can tell me how to do something. No, I don't drink coffee or tea. Disgusting stuff."  I saw inside her fridge later and yes, it was stocked with champagne. 

I was invited to visit. Others who knew her told me it was a great honour. They had never been invited. "I don't care much for visitors. I shut the place up, turn on some music and dance and sing. When I get tired I sit down with a glass of champagne and knit. Knitting is clean and tidy and you are making something useful."

She cleaned houses as a profession rather than a job. Her house was absolutely immaculate. Her garden was equally immaculate. She did it all herself. Nobody else would even have dared to offer. Last summer she pruned a tree - climbing a ladder to do it. Her daughter went spare but P... just swore at her and went on working.  I queried the wisdom of climbing ladders at the age of 91 and got told, "Now don't you start. I don't tell you what to do and get that look off your face. I'm not going to die yet."

When she found she had cancer she informed me bluntly. "And don't start feeling sorry for me. I can't abide sympathy. I just want you to read this and tell me what you think the fools are trying to say." She then brandished election material in front of me and let me know exactly what she thought of all the candidates. 

A little while ago now her photograph appeared on a calendar. She was 90 and wore nothing apart from some carefully arranged "fur". "Why not? I've still got a good body...better than a lot of people." Her daughter was appalled of course. So were many other people. Secretly though I had to admire her. She managed to get away with so much.

Of course part of it was an act. She knew exactly what she was doing and the effect it had on others. She did not suffer fools gladly.

Underneath it all though I think she was lonely. She would order me to stop and talk to her if I passed when she was out gardening. She really did like me to take an interest in her garden and her knitting. I often felt irritated by her but I put up with it because, in her own way, I think she was fond of me. "You're a good girl. I don't like many people but I don't mind you at all." I think I will miss her.

"Our car was broken into last night"

Middle Cat informed me. 

I was not surprised and neither was Middle Cat or her husband. They had in fact been leaving the car unlocked expecting it to happen. As they never leave anything of value in the car and it is impossible to start without the requisite object it was actually safer to do this. The car does not get damaged.

Middle Cat heard the noise about 1am. Her husband went to investigate but did not manage to get a glimpse of the offenders. He would not have approached them but any description might have helped the police working on the problem. 

Yes, there has been a big spike in break-ins recently. Not so long ago three young offenders were caught in a neighbouring suburb - but not before they stabbed a mother and her young son. Two of those offenders were already out on bail - at the tender ages of thirteen and fourteen. The third was only twelve. They were out and about at four in the morning.  

Two of them are back in custody so the police know there are more offenders out there doing the same thing. No doubt that peculiar and highly successful communication network between offenders has been working many hours of overtime. 

After Middle Cat told me this one of the local dog walkers told me the same thing had happened to him earlier in the week. He was not quite so fortunate. The car lock will need to be replaced and a golf club from the back seat was taken. "I hope the little b.... doesn't use it as a weapon," he told me furiously, "And where in the hell are the parents?"

I hope the offenders don't use the golf club that way either. I too wonder about the parenting. Is it really that easy to sneak out without a parent knowing? I suppose it must be but none of us could have done that. The probable consequences would have been enough to stop us anyway.

"Twocking" is the act of taking a car belonging to someone else and driving it away without their consent. It used to be a rite of passage among the criminal class.  It still is. 

I worked in a school where a boy in another class had to appear in court because he was with three other lads who did just that. He was just twelve at the time and it was considered unusual and a very serious offence. His class mates treated him with contempt.

I wonder now how they would react. Children, particularly male children, seem to be able to "drive" at earlier and earlier ages. These are not rural children who learn to drive on the farm and are expected to help once they can. Those children do not leave the farm premises and they are breaking no laws provided they stay there. These are city children who should never have been behind the wheel of a car at all and yet they seem able to "twock" and break the speed limit from the time they can barely see over the wheel. One recently caught young offender was barely eight years of age. A few weeks earlier and the police could have done nothing at all apart from take him home and issue a few stern words. 

The dog walker is opposed to raising the age of criminal responsibility. As juvenile records are closed I am inclined to agree. Age is not the issue here, the offending is - and how we deal with that offending. Cars are potentially lethal weapons. Those using them can kill.  The young twockers cannot be allowed to simply get a telling off.