Do you know/understand what a virgule is?

I feel/ suspect that you, like me till today, have no idea what a virgule is. Nor how to properly pronounce it (\VUR-gyool\) But while you may not know/understand what a virgule is, I believe/know that you see and use them regularly.  In fact in just reading this far, you have seen/read six of them so far and will see another five before you finish. If you finish!

So what is a virgule? According to Word of the day for July 28/2016, a virgule is 1. a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur: The defendant and his/her attorney must appear in court.
2. a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show verse division, etc.: 3/21/27;

 So a virgule is a thing most of us use regularly without knowing its name and are happy enough about that so far, not to even want to know its name. Which is fine for things I guess but not fine when we treat people like that, is it?

I wonder how many of us treat people like we treat the virgule. We see them, even use them or their services, but barely recognise them, let alone know their names. Maybe you are even being treated like a virgule yourself. What say you from your perspective and what can you do about it. Wood love to hear from you on this subject. TOWPG.

Aspidistras Again.

 Here is something  I wrote about 18 months ago but obviously forgot to post then:

 About five years ago now I wrote a Blog called, “Aspidistras making a comeback again”, describing how a plant once very, very popular in the early part of the 20^th Century but then had gone out of favour by the late 20^th Century, only to come back into fashion again this century.

Lately I have seen how these once out of date plants come back into popularity with my own eyes. In my previous Blog I mentioned that although my mother grew it, it wasn’t particularly a favourite of mine. However when 3 years ago, when cleaning out the long overgrown ivy in our block of units I found a clump of Aspidistras that someone had dumped there. Loathe to let any, even if only semi desirable, plants die, I transplanted it into a 12 inch pot and more or less forgot about it until early this year when I decided it badly needed repotting as it was already splitting the plastic pots sides.

For the past 3 years my wife and I have been volunteering at a nearby Brotherhood of Saint Lawrence Opportunity Shop,; and knowing my intrest in plants and having some old pots they deemed unsaleable, they were given to me to use if I could. So I took these 3 unsaleable pots and divided up the Aspidistras into them, but also keeping a small clump for myself. I then took the other 3 pots of Aspidistras up to the Op shop where they sold within a week and brought in over $50 for Charity work.

So inspired by this, when my daughter asked me to dig out and throw away most of the Aspidistras in her Garden I brought them home, divided them up into 10 large old unused pots I had lying around and grew them on for a little while, before taking a couple at a time up to the Op shop to sell. A few weeks later I have 3 pots left that I still deem too small to sell, but the other seven have all been quicly sold and raised over $130 for Charity.

Not too bad an effort for some old pots, a bit of soil and some plants not wanted by one person but obviously still desired by others; many others it seems!

But enough of me, what about you? What things or plants do you have lying around that you don’t really want but don’t really want to throw away either? Perhaps, with a little effort on your part, you can clean or fix them up a little, or like with plants, pot and grow them on a little and then donate them to a local Charity, school or Church Fete etc?

 Over to you now for your thoughts on the matter. TOWGP.

Have you got the right Person?

My wife and I went up to the Polling Booth in our local Primary school this morning to Vote in Australia's Federal Election.  We went early to avoid any long queues and although I had no problem, the poor lady  handing out the voting forms, just could not get it through her head that  my wife was not our daughter. (They have the same two Christian names but in reverse order.) Even though our daughter has a different address and voting I.D. Number to what my wife showed the lady , it took her nearly 5 minutes to finally work it out despite a bit of urging from us.

 As an appendix, when our daughter went to vote at her local school, she was asked, not if she was her mother, but whether she was another person with the same two christian names (albeit with different spellings for both names) who it turns out was registered in the very next line to our daughter's name!

Moral to the Story? Not sure there is one; but it is a good reminder to us all, I think, to thoroughly check our facts and not just go with the first thing/name we see and assume it is the only one of that name etc.

What about you? Do you have any stories of mix ups with names?

Jacks Got A New Master

 Jacks got a new master, albeit only for a little while longer hopefully.  You may not know, but I have been walking the dogs (now dog) around  our area for the past 4 years now and in that time, have gotten to know a few of the other dogs and their walkers. Some, I have learnt the names of; others I only know in relation to their dog's names. Such as Ricky's mum & Jack's Master etc.

 Since our last dog has passed on, I have changed my then regular route and  so don't see some of them as much as I used to. Jack was one I used to see a lot of; and often even when driving would often see them.  Today I went to take CoCo for a walk, she stopped at the end of our drive looking at the Water Easement  exit across the road. Eventually I saw Jack come out of the bushes now growing there. As I hadn't seen him or his master for a little while, even though I was heading in the other direction, I decided to wait till his master appeared and say hello. 

Eventually a young lady appeared with jack's lead in her hand. A bit confused I called out and asked if that was indeed Jack. When she said it was I said I often saw him and his Master but hadn't for a while. She said that he was her father; and when I asked how he was, she said He was okay now and able to walk a little bit now. Turns out he climbed up a ladder to get onto the roof and the ladder went with him on it and he did his knee/leg in.

 Another reason why I won't get up on to the roof, (even though I do want to check it and the spouting) unless someone is around in case I too fall; and the weather/roof is a lot drier than it is now.

What about you now? Is there something you really would like to do now, but for health and/or safety reasons, really should leave for a better time?  Better to do so than pay the price like Jack's master is currently, don't you think?

How carefully do you check important things?

 After our Phone Interviews yesterday, we went to the Centrelink  office inn Ringwood today to prove my Identity. Along with my ATM Card, I took my driver’s Licence as the second identity item, to make up the required 100 points needed, to prove my identity.

  For a while it didn’t look like she was going to accept my driver’s licence as it turns out it expired in the first week in February this year.

 As I was wondering to myself why I hadn’t received a renewal notice, I turned it over to make sure that I had our Currant address on it, when  it was pointed  out to me that when I had it changed about 14 months ago, a major mistake had been made with the address. Whilst they got the unit number and street number, and even the suburb and post code right, they had only put down half of the street name.  Thus they only had on my licences all the other information, but where the street name was required, all they had down was: “The”. Instead of; “The Pass”.

 So after finishing with Centrelink, I then had to go over to Burwood and get it both renewed and the address corrected. I know that a lot of people complain about the delays and service at Government offices etc these days, but I only have praise for Vic Roads on today’s experience.

 Although there were a lot of people there, I was served very quickly and pleasantly. The Lady also laughed when she saw the partial address, and upon checking her computer remarked that the Renewal notice had been returned, and laughing and with a grin "a mile wide" asked, “I wonder why?”  Anyway to cut a long story short, I paid my money, had my photo taken, and in around 10-days, will get my new driver’s Licence e for the next 10 years.

So all is right again and I am again driving legally, but it just made me wonder though how carefully we all check things, as I have had that Change of address sticker on my Licence for over a year now and never picked up the mistake till now. What important things do  you now need to check that all the details are correct?

What is your perspective?

Warmest greetings to you there for the New Year from Martha and myself. We trust and pray that you had a very blessed Christmas time with family and friends. 

Talking of Christmas, I was just reflecting on the difference between the Christmas seasons here in Australia and the one in the CIS countries where the  Slavic Gospel Association ministers. Here, we will have been complaining about the heat, but over there, many will have been struggling with the snow and intense cold. Something most of us here in Australia have no real understanding of the difficulties and dangers such extreme cold conditions can wreak, because we have never personally experienced it as an “insider”.

 This insider understanding reminded me a little of one occasion in South Africa, (whose climate was not that dissimilar to Australia’s), when we were in this remote rocky, hilly but otherwise very beautiful, valley, and I remarked to one of the locals on how beautiful it was, only to have him remark that it may be beautiful to visit, but it was not so beautiful if you had to live there and to try and grow crops and graze livestock for a living.

So here he was, seeing things as a resident and Insider, while I was seeing things as an outsider and visitor: Both of us were seeing the same thing, but from different perspectives. In truth, what we were both seeing, was only a part of the wider picture and neither of us saw, or even cared about, the perspective of anyone else. With both views being equally one-sided and incorrect!

What about you when you see this world in which we all live today? Do you see it as a resident and are simply trying to make a living and not worrying about anyone else?  Or perhaps, you see it just as a visitor and just seeing the beauty and ignoring the hardships of others? Again: Both ways of viewing things is not how God would have us as His Children behave. So, as we enter into this New Year, let us again be thankful for all that the Lord has given us and share our blessings with others, wherever and whenever God shows us how. 

 Practically, there are many ways that you can do that and only you can know how to do that best, so I will leave that decision with you, but one way all of us can do something worthy for God, is to Pray. So again I would like to humbly encourage you to again spend time in prayer for those less fortunate than yourself, whether in other countries, or just here in Australia and in your own community.

 Thank you and have a blessed New Year: Walter

Looking for neighbours with a sense of Humour.

Was out in the back yard between showers this morning tidying things up a bit and the little fella next door was also out in his yard with his nan who was child minding as she does a couple of times each week. Anyway, I was chiacking the young fellow as I usually do when I heard his Nan say to him, that he was lucky to have a neighbour with a sense of humour. “Unlike Nan”. This last statement made me think, because although I don’t know Nan well enough to know what her humour is like, I do know that the Tradesmen who were working on our kitchen renovations for a few weeks a little while back, had a low opinion of her. Which made me wonder if the reason that “Nan” doesn’t get on with her neighbours may have as much to do with her attitude to them, as it does with theirs to her. But that’s enough about “Nan”. How about you? Are you getting on with your neighbours and work mates? Or do you too think that “THEY” need a major attitude adjustment? Maybe they do, I really can’t say, but maybe, just maybe, it may just be that they think the same thing about you, and again just maybe they are thinking that it is you and not they who really needs an attitude adjustment? So! The next time you are tempted to rail against your neighbour or workmates, or whoever, just check, and maybe even adjust your own attitude first, before you act or speak. What do you say? Will you give it a go? Or will you simply carry on as now and continue to blame everyone else? Yes: if you really want a neighbour with a sense of humour, start being one yourself! Over to you now.