Happy Anniversary to us but what of Ranjini
Today is our third wedding anniversary. As it is mid-week and we have things like footy team photos and a student free day at Miss O 1′s school, we aren’t out celebrating. However WE are TOGETHER.
I was reminded today of another couple who are not together. Ranjini and her husband. I have written about Ranjini several times before, just use the site search if you wish to read past articles.
Today though, let us look at the latest updates in this case, provided by Letters for Ranjini.
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Ranjini’s case has now been heard by Margaret Stone, the independent reviewer charged with looking over ASIO’s evidence. We, along with the Commonwealth ombudsman, have concerns regarding the lack of clarity regarding what happens next. What we do know is that the Stone review’s findings will be received by ASIO and the Minister for Immigration, and we hope that they will come to a common sense decision.
There is still some remarkable holes in the Government’s policy here – and we are yet to hear anyone from the Government explain why indefinite detention is the only option here. A point that has been echoed many times in the media this month.
I am a woman of calibre
Well, well, well: I’m a woman of calibre. How nice for me! I don’t earn that much, but the rest of it fits!
I never got a cent of paid parental leave. I didn’t get a baby bonus either, or a first home owners’ grant. I did earn a degree and damn hard work it was too. Readers of my memoir already know my parents both committed suicide when I was 15. I left school. I earned my degree working full-time, studying part-time and raising two kids. It was bloody hard work. I did Year 12 part-time over two years before I started the degree and missed medicine by 3 marks. I never did Year 11 at all.
Melanie
Personally I have never believed in paid parental leave, but I’ll come to that. The baby bonus was just stupid. Here we are with a massively over-populated planet and we started paying people a bonus to have a baby while China has a one baby policy. W. T. F.? Billions of us on this planet and we started encouraging people to produce MORE of us? Not only encouraging, but PAYING! The mind boggles.
Paid parental leave? No. I believe in parental leave, most definitely. I think it is a wonderful thing if companies incorporate child care in their employment policies, as a number of companies do. I support flexible hours for parents and working from home.
ME time! Lovely nail polish!
Everyone needs “me time” and today after the shopping I took some!
I lined up some new nail polishes which a very generous supporter has sent me as a gift! A much appreciated gift!
Nail Polish
Now I agree, maybe nail polish and laptops are not the best combination in the world – can you imagine nail polish spilt into the keyboard? Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? Read more 
As I was saying…..
There are some past articles that I’ve not really closed off. I really should! 
Each heading below links to the appropriate original article.
This was finally satisfactorily resolved. YAY! The electricity company removed the default after receiving the letter from the Red Cross outlining the events of 2010 and DIAC reimbursed most, but not all, of the $208. A good result!
Unfortunately, this has not been resolved quite as satisfactorily. In fact, it has not been resolved AT ALL. The offending website still has my work up there. I have reported the problem again – that makes five times now. I don’t expect a quick remedy any time soon. I wouldn’t be quite so offended if the original was not a very, very serious article that has been used to advertise travel. Clearly the thief never actually read the content, they just grabbed the text.
We are seeing some action. I’ve had lengthy discussions with English Co-ordinators and we have various people working towards finding some solutions to things like applying for special consideration for Miss 18 given the short time she has had available to her in our education system. This is ongoing for each child, but we are making progress.
Fourteen eggs for lunch
Lunch for six needed but Mum wants something quick. Luckily a favourite with my lot is bread and eggs.
This starts with frying up some taste enhancers. Onion, red capsicum and tomato.
Taste Enhancers
The defector to AFL
This weekend Mr O Jnr 1 committed THE cardinal sin! He played his first official game of Australian Rules Football instead of playing the game that Mr O says is “in his blood”, soccer. Kids want to try new things, so it is only natural that Mr O Jnr 1 would want to try out the local sport! Mr O did make an effort to understand the scoring and asked questions about frees and penalties, so he is learning…. Mr O tells the story of when he was first in detention here another detainee said “Come and watch the football” so he naturally assumed soccer. He couldn’t understand what on earth the game on the TV was at all!
Before the Game
Womanhood: from menstruation to menopause
Being a woman is a bit weird at times. We are the gender that gives birth to the next generation and we have all this complicated plumbing to enable us to give the miracle of life. To the men who are brave enough to read on, hopefully I’ve written this is such a way that you won’t be left feeling “yucky” and might give your wife, sister, mother or female co-workers a little consideration!
I am not alone:
The importance of the menopause can best be comprehended when it is realised that there are over 2 million post-menopausal women in Australia, and that every year about 80,000 new women join this group.
These women constitute 40% of all health care visits in Australia.
The female journey starts off around the time we become a teenager (which seems to be getting younger and younger). We develop breasts and grow hair in places we’re not used to having hair and worst of all we start menstruating. Yuck! Most of us, aside from brief respite periods (no pun intended) due to pregnancy, put up with the monthly inconvenience for forty plus years. A man did once say to me, “Don’t know what you women are complaining about, men have to shave every day.” I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now, but that was his view on life.
So we put up with this for forty or so years and then if we are unlucky, the plumbing starts to get a bit rusty. Maybe we get fibroids, a prolapse, clotting, etc etc etc. The list of possible issues is quite long!
