Month: January 2011

It was time to get rid of Bearsy (sob!).   It’s Boadicea’s site, so it deserved her name in the address bar.

While we were at it, it seemed sensible to drop the ‘WordPress’ bit as well.   So Boadicea’s Chariot now has its own domain – charioteers.org

Now, don’t worry about it if you don’t understand.   You can still access The Chariot by typing ‘boadiceaschariot.wordpress.com’ into your browser, or by clicking on a ‘bookmark’ or ‘favourite’ or ‘shortcut’ that contains that link/url.   But the easiest way now is to type ‘charioteers.org‘ and if you tell anyone new about the site, or want to give them a link to Boadicea’s place, that’s what you should tell them.

It still is a WordPress site, exactly the same as before, with exactly the same facilities, but it now appears in Boadicea’s name, on her domain.   That’s better, isn’t it? 😀

Hackers please note – it’s a privately registered domain, so you can’t access any personal details.

In Homebase again this afternoon, continuing my attempts to find a pot plant holder that actually fits one of the pot plants I want to buy, I heard an announcement over the PA system. This was pushing all their sale lines, including what was described as “an organic bath” reduced to a price just over £1,000. What on earth is an organic bath?  I’d be very worried that while I was sitting in it it might disintegrate into neat biodegradable pieces.  Seems quite pricey too.

It is fairly common to to see the ECHR blamed for some decision or other taken in a British court. So, my interest was roused when I saw an item in ‘French Week’, an English language weekly newspaper published in France. I quote “…the Justice Ministry has reminded magistrates that decisions by the European Court of Human Rights do not change French laws. Only parliament can do that. Certain courts had started to follow the ECHR ruling that an avocat should be present right from the beginning of an interrogation of a suspect, even though French law has not been changed.”

So, what is the problem in Britain?

“His ignorance is encyclopedic”
– Abba Eban (1915-2002)

Goodnight everyone, sleep well.

A letter from an Australian poster on James Delingpole’s blog.

>I am sitting here in my home in South East Queensland, watching the news come in about the flooding everywhere. Entire suburbs around Brisbane and several smaller towns are either isolated by flood-waters or have been evacuated. Highways are cut everywhere.
People have been dying. So far about 20 people have died in the past week – nine just this morning when a deluge went through the Lockyer Valley. Most of them children. Another 70 are missing. One could put it all down to “just” weather.
Except EXACTLY the same floods occurred in EXACTLY the same places back in 1974, with much the same tragic loss of life and destruction of property. Continue reading “Could the floods have been prevented?”

Thelma Houston – Don’t leave me this way

They are evacuating Strathpine, which is our nearest large shopping centre, and the local radio was also telling us of several major roads being closed in our vicinity.   The back-road that I mentioned in an earlier comment, on which I returned from the Doctor’s, was closed hours ago.   So we thought we’d do a little rubber-necking and have a look at the overflow from our local reservoir, Lake Samsonvale.

Not a hope, all the small roads leading to the dam were waterlogged and we had to make do with a car park on the edge of the lake.   Those trees are usually 20 – 30 metres from the water – it’s pretty full.   There were flocks of pelicans enjoying themselves, and three black swans were out of the lake asking people to feed them.   No pictures, because I wasn’t going to get out of the car.

It’s still coming down by the bucket-load; the Bureau of Meteorology is on overtime trying to expand its computer models to predict where and how large the floods will be.

While we were lakeside, #1 daughter phoned to say she was home because the CBD has been closed down, and that her eldest step-daughter (18) was stranded in the next suburb, which is cut off.

Noah’s second coming?   Feels like it!

There are too many articles, videos and photos to link – just have a look at the front page of the Brisbane Times.