At Last A Break Away In The Caravan

Hello everyone here I am starting a post on Saturday no hang on it is Friday not Saturday why do I think it is Saturday well because I am away on a short break we are at the Forest Holiday Park which as you may guess is in Foster. We arrived her yesterday afternoon and guess what it was raining in fact by 3.30pm it was pissing down.

Forster is a 3 hour drive north of where we live yes we have at last managed to get away in our caravan, and the first thing we did after Tim set the van up was go to the shops to get things such as a broom drinking glasses and a TV also got a clock for the van.

This morning we have to go the shops again for more things we need such as a kettle, washing up things and some things Tim want.

Our first night was good we both slept on but you know what at 3am yes bloody 3am my alarm went off and I had to get up to turn it off, that is your fault Natasha, the 3am alarm is for her when she works anyway because I was up I pulled on some long pants slipped on my slippers and went to the toilet, it was fine not raining hadn’t rained in a while as the ground was dry. Thankfully we are located close to the amenities block only a short work thing 30 seconds so when I say close I mean close.

This park has free wifi but only 100mb but that is enough for me to post a blog post check Facebook and such I am not going to be online the whole time, other things to do.

Oh yeah last night Tim said he was glad we went and bought a telly as if he didn’t have it he would be bored, I of course wouldn’t be but I am a reader and when I have a book I am not bored. Although what is with Tim leaving the door and windows open it is pretty damn cold here at the moment I am sure it may warm up but right now it is cold.

One thing I am finding slightly annoying is that the seats at the table are either too low or the table is too high, I am coping but it is annoying. Remember I am on 4′ 11” tall or should that read short……………lol

Took a while to get the fridge working Tim had it set wrong and he went to check how much water was in the tank and he can’t get the tank open which is annoy at the moment there is water in the tank but we will need to add to it at some point.

Ok that is all from me for this Friday morning.

NSW Police History Pt 2

Here we are at part two of my history of New South Wales Police Force we start at 1894 when as a result of the Bridge Street Affray saw a number of the Police in Sydney were injured while attempting to arrest a group of safe-breakers, subsequently saw Parliament pass legislation allowing members of the New South Wales Police Force to carry firearms and they have carried them ever since.

The following year the Police Band was formed and it continues to perform and entertain throughout the state just thought I would throw that in here. It will be 1933 when the Police Choir will be formed.

Let us move forward a bit to 1903 which saw the Fingerprint Section being formed, it became the Central Fingerprint Bureau of Australia in 1941 maintaining a nationwide manual collection of fingerprints and criminal records right up till 1986 when it reverted to a state-based role. It now forms part of the Forensic Services Group.

1906 saw the Police Headquarters relocate to the corner of Phillip and Hunter Streets in Sydney and the Police Depot was relocated from the inner city to Redfern in 1907 and the Mounted Police have been located there ever since. Between 1953-1984 it was the main centre for education and training in its role as the first Police Training Centre and later the Police Academy.

1911 was the year, the first Police Prosecutors were appointed to the Force and appeared in the courts.

The first motor vehicle was bought by the NSW Police Force in 1912 it was a Sunbeam roadster and was for the exclusive use of the Inspector General the following year a Douglas motorcycle was bought and commenced special traffic duties and in 1915 a Renault was modified for use as a motorised patrol van.

1915 was also the year that Lillian Armfield and Maude Rhodes were appointed as Special Constables and became the first women in the NSW Police Force, they were not allowed to wear a uniform or to carry firearms though. It would be 1948 before women were allowed to wear a uniform and not till 1965 before they were sworn in as Constables like male offices and not till 1979 before they were routinely allowed to carry firearms.

Members of the Force who volunteered to serve in the Great War were commemorated on the Honour Roll at the Sydney Police Centre and on the Wall of Remembrance at the Police Chapel in Goulburn. The war saw the first major change to the uniform with the military style cap replacing the kepi the military style cap is still in use today.

In 1924 the use of wireless with morse code was introduced as the means of communication in a number of the police vehicles the main wireless station in Sydney became known by the call sign VKG in 1927 and by 1928 all police stations were linked to the telephone network.

1925 saw the Public Safety Bureau being formed within the Traffic Branch, this later became the Highway Patrol and had the responsibility for all traffic law enforcement.

Between 1927 and 1929 saw the so called Razor Gang Wars rage in Sydney with criminals using the straight (cut throat) razor as their weapon of choice. It was in 1929 that the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) was formed from the existing Detective Branch, today it is known as the State Crime Command.

In 1933 the first Police Cadets commenced training and were sworn in as Police Officers three years later in 1936 the system of Police Cadets continued until 1980.

In 1933 the Police Association funded the original Honour Roll for Police Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, it was installed at Police Headquarters.

The first Police Citizens Boys Club was established at Woolloomooloo in 1937, this later became known as the Police and Community Youth Clubs (PCYC) and continues to this day, it was also in 1937 that radio started to replace morse code as the main form of communication.

In 1938, the NSW Police RSL sub-branch was formed to cater for returned servicemen from the Great War and of course the following year saw the Second World War and policing declared a reserved occupation as a result not many serving police officers were released for military duties. Those who did serve were commemorated on the Honour Rolls at the Sydney Police Centre and on the Wall of Remembrance at the Police Chapel in Goulburn. The threat of invasion from the Japanese saw the police undertake many internal security roles in the community and trained with rifles and bayonets.

The Police Cliff Rescue Squad was formed in 1942 it is now known as the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit it has a permanent base at Zetland and a number of part time units around the state including in the Hunter region where I live, I often see the Police Rescue truck around these parts.

That will do it for part two today more will follower next week, don’t want the post to be too long and boring.

My Saturday and Monday Morning But Mostly My Saturday

Three times yesterday I sat to write a post and each time I was interrupted and never got around to doing a post so here I am on Monday morning at last doing a post. Some of this I wrote yesterday some of it I have written today.

Do you get bored, I don’t yesterday (Saturday) when I got up all was good but between the time it took me to get dressed go to the loo an head out to the kitchen we lost power, Leo was here with me and asked if the neighbours had power I said I didn’t know he said he would go find out, so he went over and asked Kevin if he had power, he didn’t then he went up the driveway and asked a few other neighbours some had power some didn’t have power. So Kevin checked the fuse/power box and he could tell that some of the units had power some didn’t, so he went and rang the Dept of Housing who said they would report the loss of power to Ausgrid and someone would be out to check out what was going on between the time he rang which was 8am and 4pm.

So Jessica gets here at 8.30 to get Leo and she said to me what are you going to do with no power how bored are you going to be, I said I don’t get bored and would be fine and I was I wrote by hand a letter to an overseas pen pal and then read all the letters I had here from pen pals about 6 letters then I was able to use the laptop and write out a letter ready to be printed when the power came back on also d id a few other things. At 1.35 I thought well now what maybe I will have a nap while I wait for power to come back on but at 1.45 the power came back on and all was good, so didn’t fet bored at all.

Leo said when we had no power why did we have to need power to watch TV and use the internet, I said because we do it is just the way it is, he said well what I am going to do, I said ride your bike do your Lego, draw he looks at me and said yeah I will go and do some Lego but 20 minutes later his mum was here to get him so he was happy to go home which is rare he usually doesn’t want to leave when she gets here.

I was speaking to mum about how Leo was and how Jessica thought I would be bored and she said it is because we grew up in a time that didn’t have electronic devices that entertained us that we are able to find things to do to keep us busy and entertained when there is no power. She may be onto something.

Natasha turned up to have a shower at 1.15 and said could I do a load of washing for her, I said I would when the power comes back on then she said bugga, followed by do we have hot water of course we had hot water so she had a shower then left again.

Speaking of Natasha we don’t see a lot of her lately since she met a new man Steve who she says is not her boyfriend he is just a friend she has sex with at times but she is spending all her free time with him, Natasha is one of those people who when there is a new man in her life everyone and everything else falls by the way side, including at times her son although she doesn’t see it or think it but that is how it seems to others which should say something.

Now I don’t care if she wants to spend all her time with this guy if Blain is at school or at his fathers but when he is home here she needs to be spending some one on one time with Blain as he gets jealous if she isn’t spending much time with her.

Today (Monday) I am going to watch my granddaughters while their mum does something, I asked her if she will drive me to Lake Fair as Tim to the car to work and I have to go out and do a few things for mum it is annoying that he took the car as it is fine not wet or cold so he could have taken his bike I wouldn’t care if I didn’t need to go out.

Well that is enough ramblings for this post until next time stay happy and enjoy life.

32 Years

On this day 32 years ago at 4pm well it was after 4 pm as I was 10 minutes late to the church, I became Mrs Meadows wife of Tim and have to say I am lucky that after 32 years I still love Tim, I am still happy with him and my life.

Yes we have had our ups and downs as all couples have but we have had more good times then bad times.

I don’t remember a lot about my wedding I know it is strange but the wedding its self wasn’t as important to me as being married to Tim at the reception after the wedding I was busy talking to people and having photos taken with different ones.

I do remember Tim making a speech saying how lucky he was to have meet me and that I agreed to be his wife and he told my dad that he would always take care of me, which he has done.

History of New South Wales Police Pt 1

Today I am going to talk a little about the police force here in New South Wales which is of course the state of Australia that I live in and have always lived in, why this topic today well I am sitting here watching the TV show Cops so thought I would find out a bit about the cops of NSW.

Over the next few weeks I will talk about the New South Wales Police Force during the ages starting at the start of course.

The NSW Police Force is one of the largest police organisations in the English speaking world, not it the whole world as some (Tim) thought, common sense told me that would be the case as China has a bloody large police force, just saying.

NSW Police Force began as the first civilian police force in Australia, it was known as the Night Watch and was formed by Governor Phillip way back in 1789 to guard Sydney Town. It was in 1862 that all Watch Teams were combined under the Police Regulation Act of 1862 to form the NSW Police Force, that act was replaced in 1899.

When the first fleet arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788, the job of policing the colony was in the hands of the Royal Navy Marines, however, the Marines didn’t desire the job and so Governor Phillip soon appointed John Smith a free settler to the position of Constable, even though he didn’t remain in the office long he was the first recorded police officer in Australia.

The following year the Night Watch and the Row Boat Guard was appointed by the governor, these men were drawn from the ranks of the best behaved convicts. In 1790 the Night Watch was replaced by the Sydney Foot Police and continued as an organised force till 1862 with the amalgamation of the NSW colonial police forces. The Row Boat Guard was both an independent Water Police and part of the Sydney Police and was the forerunner of what is now known as the Marine Area Command.

Initially in rural areas police officers were appointed by the local Justices of the Peace and became known as Bench Police Officers or “benchers”.

It was in 1825 that the Military Mounted Police were formed following clashes between Aboriginals and settlers but they were disbanded in 1850 in favour of a civilian Mounted Police, also known as the Mounted Road Patrol, they were the forerunners of today’s Mounted Police.

There were other colonial police forces including the Board Police which was around between 1939-1846 and there was the Mounted Native Police which was around between 1848-1859 these various mounted troopers were colloquially known as “traps”.

It was in 1850 that the Parliament in Sydney legislated to amalgamate all the various colonial police forces into one force under the superintendence of and Inspector General of Police. A solicitor by the name of William Spain was appointed as the first Inspector General.

After the discovery of gold the Gold Escort was formed in 1851, it was also in that year that the Parliament in London disallowed the 1850 colonial legislation to amalgamate colonial police forces. This meant the various forces remaining as separate entities, it was during this period that police from the United Kingdom were offered free passage to NSW in return for three years service as colonial police. It was also during these years that saw the rise of bushrangers.

In 1862 there were riots on the Goldfields at Lambing Flat and the military had to be deployed to restore peace this lead to a new push for more effective policing in the colony. Also in 1862 the Police Regulation Act was passed by the colonial Parliament and on the 1^st March 1862 all existing police forces were amalgamated to establish the NSW Police Force under former Army Captain John McLerie as Inspector General.

The Police Force had its headquarters in Phillip Street Sydney, and the colony was divided into districts and sub-districts at the time there were 800 Policemen at the ranks of Superintendent, Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Sergeant, Senior Constable and Constable. The Force was divided into Foot Police, Mounted Police, Water Police and a Detective Force.

Police in Sydney at the time were not routinely armed although they had access to firearms from the Police Depot, however, police in country areas did carry firearms.

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Jo-Anne Not Joanne Just Saying

Hello everyone, as all of you know my name is Jo-Anne but how many of you if any know anything about the name Jo-Anne or Joanne so I thought I would tell you a little I have found out about the name. It is ranked 251 on a list of most used names and there is about 2382100 people in the world with the name, it is said to mean God is gracious it is of Hebrew origin and seems to be a popular name for girls.

There are a number of different spellings of the name such as Joann, JoAnn, Johanne, Joanne, and Jo-Anne which is how I spell it , I am particular and the name has to be hyphenated with a capital J and A.

It is considered a variant of Joanna, although in modern English the name is often a compound of the two names Jo and Anna thus why we get the spellings of JoAnne, Jo-Anne or Jo Anne, however, the original name Joanna in ancient Greek and Latin is a single unit name, not a compound. The name Anne or Anna means grace or to be gracious.

The name was very popular during the 1960’s and 1970’s when it was often among the top 10 names for girls, however, by the 1980’s it had fallen out of the top 10 and by 1994 it wasn’t even in the top 100. When I was at school in year 6 there were 6 girls in my class with the name Joanne although I was the only one who spelt it Jo-Anne so I felt I stood out and was a little different.

I like my name, and my eldest granddaughter has the name Joanne as her middle name yes she was named after me. I was named after my great-grandmother who was Mary Anne but mum didn’t want to call me Mary she liked the name Jo so I was named Jo-Anne, a name I have always liked unlike some people who I know who have at times not liked their name.

A Little About My Cyst

Hi everyone as pretty much everyone knows I don’t blog between Friday and Monday much, although yesterday I managed to read around 30 odd blog posts and of course comment on those blogs I am one if I visit you I comment even if the comment is only saying that I was there.

Anyway yesterday I went over to the Dr’s surgery and asked if I could have a copy of the CT Scan report and yeah no problem Sonia the receptionist printed it out for me no problem. So now I can tell all what type of cyst I have.

The report says there is a questionable a arachnoid cyst within the posterior fossa adjacent to the sigmoid sinus. So of course when I read that I turned to Dr Google to see what that meant I could find out.

What I found out was this: Arachnoid cysts are cerebrospinal fluid-filled sacs that are located between the brain or spinal cord and the arachnoid membrane, one of the three membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord

Arachnoid cysts that are not congenital, but develop later in life, are called secondary arachnoid cysts. This would be what I have as I had a brain scan way back in the 90’s and it wasn’t there then.

Non-congenital arachnoid cysts in both children and adults can have several causes. These include trauma or injury to the head, meningitis, and tumors. They may also occur as a reaction to brain surgery. Arachnoid cysts are most common in children.

They don’t usually have symptoms and most people don’t realise they have one until they say have a scan for a different reason, such as me mine was see if there was a cause for the terrible headaches I am getting each and every day.

If the cyst grows large enough or starts pressing on nerves and sensitive areas in the brain the sufferer may get some symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, seizures, problems with balance and walking, problems with seeing and hearing feeling lethargic as well as other neurological problems.

An arachnoid cyst with no symptoms or other complications may not be treated. A doctor will monitor the cyst over time to watch for growth or changes in the cyst. Which is why I have to have another CT Scan in 12 months time.

If the cyst is symptomatic, removal is common although cysts in the brain may not be taken out with surgery because of the risks.

Instead one of two procedures will be used. The first involves a small incision near the cyst and insertion of an endoscope with a small camera on the end. The endoscope is used to gently open the cyst, allowing the fluid to drain. The fluid will mix in with the cerebrospinal fluid and redistribute through the body. This procedure is called Fenestration. The other procedure includes putting a small tube or catheter into the cyst allowing the fluid to drain to another part of the body like the belly.

The cyst needs to be monitored but generally the affected person should be able to enjoy a normal life with the cyst, however, if the cyst isn’t monitored and starts to bleed or grow rapidly there could be permanent neurological damage, so it needs to be checked regularly to make sure those things are not happening.

I have a brain and Denni is 4

I have a brain, yes it is there, well that is what the doctor told me today when I saw him, he did say I have some kinda cyst he did give it a name but for the love of me I can’t remember what he said. I have to go back next week so I will ask him to print out the report from the radiologist so I can tell Tim and anyone else who cares.

I had to have another Xray done today of my left shoulder as I have had a lot of pain in it the last week or so I said I thought I must had slept wrong but he said to have an Xray anyway to make sure I haven’t done anything bad to it. So when I go back and get the results I will ask him for a print out of the results of the scan and the Xray.

Blain is home he went to school yesterday and was back here last night, both yesterday and this afternoon he walked home from school it is much better for me with him walking home from school. I like the fact that I can be there when Leo gets out, what I don’t like is that Leo always wants to come back here after school and most days Blain doesn’t want him around and will go off to his mates and leave Leo here.

Natasha has had a fair bit of work this week, today she was suppose to be off but they rang this morning and wanted her to go do a job this is ok but also annoying when she had already made other plans for the day and had to change her plans. She loves the day work but it is annoying when she has to change her plans last minute as she has to work.

In other news 4 years ago today at Denni Jean was born at 9.46pm she was 6lb 5oz funny how here in Australia it has been metric for so long but when we talk about a baby’s birth it is still pounds and ounces. Denni is the youngest daughter of my sister Sandra brother in-law Ed she has an older sister Temika 6 and older brother Zac 18, her best friend is Landon 4 who is also her cousin she calls him “My Landon”, she is the most adorable little girl.

It’s late and I have nothing for today been busy all day so this is all you get today.

Tired and Sick so Nothing Much Today

Good morning all it is another cool day here in Newie, I am not feeling well this morning started yesterday afternoon/evening just feeling tight in the chest and back and have a headache but I have headaches pretty much every day lately and for the last week or so, I have had pain in my left shoulder and neck area, I have to rub stuff into it for the pain at night in order to sleep.

Yesterday Jessica rang me to ask if I could take jump leads over so someone could jump start her car she left the interior light on over night and had a flat battery. She also wanted me to take Leo to bowling after school which I did because I do these things when I cannot get out of them, he does like bowling.

Blain is still at his fathers well he was yesterday, not sure about today as I haven’t been told where he is at his dad’s or at school, he has tonsillitis and has not been well he is on antibiotics for it, from what Natasha said his father was making out it was somehow her fault that Blain got sick, really, I don’t think so these things happen.

Just had a property inspection to check the condition of the property, not a worry for me nothing wrong here, the guy checked the smoke detectors and looked in each room and left, the whole thing took less then 20 minutes.

When I went out this morning to take Leo to school, I left the letter about the inspection taped to the glass door saying that I had to take a child to school and would be back soon, thankfully he didn’t turn up while I was out.

What gets me is that I am home I have the front sliding door open and still the guy went to the other door, makes one wonder do they not look, our wooden front door is out of use as the screen door is locked and we can’t find the key but I am going to see if I can get Tim to change the lock on the screen door so we can start using the door again.

It isn’t even 11am and I am so tired, I feel like I have been up for hours ok have been up for hours but still feeling this tired isn’t the norm, some would say go have a nap but I don’t want to do that.

Sorry I don’t have much news today, I am just too tired and not with it enough to write about anything interesting.