The ambulance service is

something for which I have a great deal of respect - at least at the face to face level. I am less sure about the administration of it.

My first encounter with the ambulance service that I am aware of was as a very small child. Along with another child I was taken away in one with a kangaroo on the side. It was dim inside and I remember the officer trying to keep me calm. Why I was there is a mystery because there had not been an accident and I was not critically ill. It was alarming for a small child but I remember kindness.

I have gone on to seeing children under my care in a special school being taken away in an ambulance on more than one occasion. As staff we never knew whether we would see them again. The ambulance staff were kind and caring and competent.

I have been in an ambulance tearing down the wrong side of the road in peak hour traffic with the siren going. It was terrifying but the driver kept telling me, "It will be all right."  Much, much later the one dealing with the Senior Cat stopped me in the local shopping centre and asked how he was doing. (He recovered.)

I have had the ambulance service pick me up on their way through to a hospital when I was needed there to act as "communication assist" for someone who was not able to speak.  I have always been treated with courtesy. 

There was only one I felt was not professional. Many of them were volunteers because that is the way the system works. 

Management apparently does not like this. There is word currently going around that one of the volunteers has been stripped of his duties not because he had done anything professionally wrong but because he failed to call the ambulance service by that name rather than the district it works out of and failed to provide a vegan meal for an officer from another district. There were complaints he failed to find cover for all the rosters he was responsible for too. That those who do it are a small team of volunteers apparently was not taken into account. 

If the complaints are true then they are administrative rather than ability complaints. The local people would refer to the service by the name of the town or the district. It is what happens out there. How on earth was he supposed to know about a vegan coming in? He might well not know what "vegan" means - many people do not. If there are not enough staff to cover a volunteer roster is that his fault? 

I suspect those higher up the ladder, those paid to do their jobs, are unhappy with his criticism of their roles. He might be outspoken but I suspect it might well be with good cause.

What has happened however is alarming. You do not bar a volunteer who is doing a good job and who is respected and supported in the community simply because he criticises the management - a management which should be supporting you. We need volunteers. This country would not run without them, particularly in rural areas.  

  

So we are "nutcases" in a country filled with

"white supremacist institutions" which are driven by "hypocrisy and cowardice"?  If this is what you believe then why would you accept an invitation to speak at Writers' Week...unless you plan on using the occasion to say more along those lines?

I still believe this state's Writers' Week should be about writing. It was about writing once. I looked forward to that biennial event, to meeting friends, listening to writers talking about writing, publishers talking about publishing, people asking questions, discussions about the development of plot or character and any number of other issues related to the art and craft of writing. I was fortunate and I know it. I managed to learn a great deal about writing. My failure to apply it all is entirely my own fault. I still have the bad habit of simply diving in and then paddling like crazy until I hit the end. The result is often a mess but I still do it.

What I no longer do is go to Writers' Week. I have occasionally slipped in to the live-stream of a session at the local library but I have not been to the many open air events. They may be free to attend but, if I am to spend time there, they must be potentially worth my time.

The problem? These events are almost always not about writing. The week has gone from being about writing to being about "issues". The sessions are about social issues, woke issues, political issues. Some of those who appear as "writers" have not actually written the books themselves. The hard work has been done by others. The writing may be grammatically correct but it often lacks style or life. There are not many "issues" writers or politicians who can write in such a way I will remember their words.

I try to read a diverse range of material but when someone is being deliberately provocative and holds views that are potentially harmful then why should I use my limited time to read that writing? This is how I feel about the person who has apparently said we are "nutcases" and that the country is filled with "white supremacist institutions". Even the editorial in this morning's paper is calling for her removal from next year's program. Her inclusion in this year's program caused the week to be cancelled altogether. It says something about the line up that so many "writers" withdrew in support of her. The first to do so were likely those who had not written the books they were there to promote. 

A little controversy is a good thing. It can stimulate ideas and add to the discussion. I see no harm in that at all. I would, and still will, encourage it. I will not encourage someone who uses an event like a week supposedly about writing as an event to call for harm to others. I will not encourage someone who deliberately repeats propaganda designed to do that harm. 

How is it that someone who apparently holds these views is able to retain a Research Council grant and a position as a "Fellow" and "Researcher" at a university? There are people who have lost their positions for holding far less controversial views. There are people who have not been able to obtain research funding because they have not supported the "correct" thinking on unrelated woke issues. How can this happen and yet someone who holds views many find offensive and distressing is able to obtain not only research funds but be invited to speak?

Research funding comes with responsibilities. Freedom of speech comes with responsibilities too. Failure to acknowledge those things will cause harm. We all need to take responsibility for that.    

Driving without a licence

is something you expect young fools and drunken idiots to do. You do not expect people in their eighties who have been told they are unfit to drive to do.

I know someone who recently lost her licence to drive. It was not unexpected and should have come much earlier than it did. She is not willing to accept the decision and is currently attempting to demand the return of it "at least for the local area". She tells me, "I know I can do it. I know I am safe." 

She tells me this although the last "accident" she had was backing out of her own driveway into the car of the neighbour across the street. I have seen her back into a tree. She is not safe on the road.

Yesterday she phoned me ostensibly about something else. I listened, heard the undertone and wondered what she had done.

"Oh and I needed a couple of things from the supermarket so I got the car out and went. I needed to prove I can still do it. It was perfectly safe."

I tried reasoning with her. I pointed out all the potential consequences. She disagreed. She was "safe" and, if anything had happened, "It would not have been my fault. I was being very careful."

To say that I was appalled would be an understatement. To say I am worried would be an understatement too. What really alarms me is that she has a gopher she will not use. It would be the answer to her local appointments. She has reduced taxi fares for those further away appointments. It would all be cheaper. Yes. it is not as convenient but she has nothing else to do with her time. Other people do her cleaning and essential gardening. She spends her days watching television and doing jigsaw puzzles.

There is nothing I can do. I know she is not "my responsibility" but it does worry me when she tells me these things. Why does she do it?

I hope I can be sensible when I get to the "I cannot do this safely" point...but losing your independence is infuriating.   

Selling things on the internet

is not something I do. I am not one of those people who takes photographs, writes glowing descriptions of "almost new", "never been used", "no longer wanted", "only used once" items and places them none too gently on a website where people might find a "bargain".

As such I am more than grateful to my good friend S... who arrived fully equipped with the tools and the knowledge to do this. S...came yesterday afternoon and we began the task of, hopefully, moving the craft materials which have been left with me. Let me explain.

Last year I was left a large quantity of craft materials. The woman who left them with me no longer runs the business she once ran. She is dying and, with her husband, has moved interstate to be closer to their daughter. Rather than simply pass on the remainder of her materials to a local charity shop, places she does not care for, she told me, "I am giving these things to you. You can sell them for your Africans. I know what it is like there. Most people here don't really need it the way they do." 

It was typical of her attitude towards many things. K... told people rather than asked people. Indeed the first load arrived via her husband who asked me, "Do you know about this?" I did not. We looked at what he was delivering and decided not to upset her. I had vague ideas about parting with it all by delivering quietly to the local charity shop but of course she wants to know what I am actually doing with it.  

I put it off for months, went away, came back and let Christmas slide into Easter. S... offered to help as she is very experienced but she was also unwell. It was not until yesterday we started to deal with it. S... amazed me. I am in awe of her skills. She photographed. She wrote descriptions. She priced things. She was even kind enough to ask my opinion as she went ahead. 

After almost three hours we had made a start. S... went away with three boxes of things like metal bookmark findings, hair clip findings, wreath bases and beads. There are still things like unclothed dolls, paper patterns, acrylic blanks and bag making materials to go but we have started. I may once again be able to move safely around my little space. 

I hope people will want to buy these things, especially at those greatly reduced prices. K...will tell me we did not charge enough but people expect a "bargain" and it will simply be good to be rid of some of it at least. 

The best part for me will be seeing some money in the "school" account for the girls. An extra year or two of schooling can make a huge difference there. I am not sure I will ever understand how big the difference is but I will keep trying.  

Writing an essay without using AI

is apparently "difficult". I am not sure how else to put it but the two boys talking about it assured me this was actually true.

I was in the local "cheap" shop - the sort of place which sells the sort of things you can buy from companies like Temu or Shein but are there for you to actually see and feel before you buy. For me it is a useful source of things like glue and rubber bands and refills for the stapler. 

It is also full of "keen young people" who need part-time employment. This has been more so recently as the place changed hands. Currently it is a good deal tidier and, in some ways, useful than it was. As I was looking for what I needed I overheard the two boys stacking the shelf in the next aisle and talking. It was clear they were students.

"You know I could just have put some terms in and come up with an answer..."

"Same here..."

"And I reckon some of the others did. They all came up with the same sort of arguments."

"Same in my group..."

"Did you try asking..."

And so the conversation went on. I stopped trying to pretend I was not listening because these two boys really are very nice lads indeed. One of them told me to stay where I was and fetched me a trolley the other day. The other asked if I would like him to reach something from the top shelf. 

They saw me and guessed I had been listening. Then they told me they had both been in groups which had been set the same question. They had written answers without consulting AI and then by consulting AI. The differences were obvious. It is clear both boys are very intelligent and one of them in particular had tried testing AI to see how far he or it could go. 

"It looks like it's thinking but it isn't thinking. It sounded a bit weird ...if you know what I mean? one of them told me.

I think I do know what he means. I had to come up with a way of putting a counter-argument last week. In order to do it I had written notes and put them into a Venn like diagram. Then I wrote what needed to be written. It worked for me. Out of curiosity I then tried to see if I could get a similar result by putting the same terms into AI.  It might have been convincing if I had not known what I was doing but it did not come across in the same way.  As the boy put it, "it sounded a bit weird". It sounded artificial. It was artificial.

The problem is going to be training us to recognise the difference between the real and the artificial...and how we deal with it.  

"I  

The "Micawber rule " for financial

happiness or financial misery is one the current Prime Minister and Treasurer seem never to have come across.

For the few among you who did not study David Copperfield at school and have not come across the often quoted words here they are, 

 "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."

Or perhaps they have come across the rule and refuse to believe it. They believe, again Micawber style, "something will turn up". I am not sure what that "something" could possibly be but perhaps they believe it.

I doubt anyone else believes either man is the little eccentric but kindly man that Micawber is portrayed as being. Both men are politicians and power is important to them. They want to stay in power. They both have a lot to lose. 

The way the Labor Party works it is now difficult to dislodge a Prime Minister they have chosen. It would not be impossible but it would be difficult. That he needs to be removed must be becoming increasingly obvious. We are not due to have an election before May 2028 but another interest rate rise has not helped the slump in popularity. If, although this now seems less likely, there was another rate rise before Christmas it would cause even more problems. Add in a long hot summer with high power and fuel prices and the problems for the government could get even more serious. The popularity of a certain fire brand red head would not help.

It was therefore interesting to see that the other minor and more far left party has just chosen someone who appears to be more moderate when facing the media. His manner is less controversial and less emotional than that of two colleagues who put their hands up in hope of taking on the role. Clearly there is a belief this might work in their favour. The party is saying the "right" things about "climate change" and "global warming". It is all some people want to hear. At very least it means they are likely to retain their voter base. 

Daylight saving starts this Sunday. Parliament will not be sitting over summer. If there is another rise in conflict or a natural disaster somewhere else in the world and blame for that sixpence extra in expenditure can be placed on that the government may yet get another term. We will get more financial misery.  

I neither liked or disliked him or

considered him to be a "friend". He was simply someone I knew. I also knew he was lonely so I would listen when he spoke to me.

I had not seen J... around for several weeks. The thought passed through my mind that he had, despite the football season still going, headed off to spend some time in the country community where he and his partner had a house. I was not too concerned. The owners of the cafe where he would eat a sort of brunch did not mention him. They are used to people like J...  

People like J... are generally male. They have lost their partners. The shopping centre is where they eat if they are not comfortable eating in the pub. At least three places will give them a meal for about the same price as the pub. It saves them having to put something in the microwave at "home". One small cafe is particularly good. Without being told or being intrusive the owners somehow know there are people who need support. The should be paid them for it. They are performing a social service.

That is how it was with J... If he saw me he would comment about something which was going on. He would read the state newspaper and ask what I thought about something written there. He would spend four or five hours a day in the shopping centre. Brunch at the cafe would be followed by time sitting on a seat nearby or another coffee at the cafe at the other end of the building.

He was a football fanatic and a cricket tragic. When his partner was alive he would sometimes stay behind in the tiny unit they owned in the city just so as to attend matches. He would tell me, "You really don't understand that do you Cat? It's important."

Yes, it was important to him. Although he had been a teacher reading, apart from the paper, was not important to him.  His partner had been a school librarian for many years. She had been on the Senior Cat's staff at one time and he had always spoken highly of her. The Senior Cat shared my views about J... and, like me, would let J... talk. It was all we could do.

I suppose the death notice in this morning's paper should not have come as a shock but it was...shall I say a surprise. Here is another person I will not see in that sort of "casual but important" way. I will not have another conversation with him, the sort of conversation which is important. 

Too many of us can go through the local shopping centre and forget there are people who seek company there. Too often I have been guilty of hoping I can rush in and out without seeing someone I know, someone who needs to chat for just a few minutes. I am thankful I did stop for a few minutes on that last occasion - but did I do it often enough?