Another weekend is upon us, we have another ACT Brumbies game at the stadium in Bruced, hopefully without the rain. The National Arboretum is having their open day (so you can see where all the money is going), plus the Canberra Balloon Spectacular finishes up this weekend at Old Parliament House, but we’re sure there is much more going on in Canberra, so let us know in the comments.

Wollemia Pine growing in the Arboretum

I recently saw that Andrew Stoner and Melidna Pavey from the NSW National Party – the “Party for Regional NSW” are holding a function to introduce their candidate for Monaro in Late March.

You would think they would hold this function in Monaro right?

You know, in “Regional NSW” .. say in Cooma, Jindabyne, Braidwood or .. Queanbeyan – but no, where is it going to be held??  In Manuka in the ACT – nothing wrong with Manuka, but to introduce a candidate for Regional NSW?

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Deja vu. Yet another DA for the Giralang Shops.

The first DA completely dispensed with the pretence of a local centre and consisted mostly of housing. It was not popular, and was shot down.

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Just got myself a new Toyota Camry Hybrid in Sydney and finding that I’m doing 1,072km on one tank of fuel – honest truth! Amazing.

Need to know if anyone has a strong recommendation about any of the (few) Toyota dealerships in Canberra for their service ability.

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I’ll be retiring from the paid workforce at the end of April and I’ve been thinking for a while about what I could do in retirement to help the community in some volunteer capacity, however as the date looms large on the horizon I have realised that due to other things occupying my time I haven’t come up with any answers!

I’m male and reasonably fit for my age (70) and still have all my mental faculties, in fact they are in pretty good shape – even if I say so myself.

I’m going along to the Tuggeranong Mens’ Shed at the first opportunity (they meet on Tuesdays during the day) to see what they get up to, I have a lot of skills in mechanical engineering, electronics and computing that I might be able to help somebody with.

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[ED - The contents of this piece should be taken as no more than rumour]

The ACT Greens continue to be in disarray this week following the shock departure last Friday of their most senior and competent staffer, Meredith Hunter’s Chief of Staff, Louise O’Donnell.

It is understood that Ms O’Donnell was forced to resign with 12 hours notice following a bitter confrontation in the Greens caucus last Thursday afternoon.

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Hi All

As you may or may not be aware, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship have created Harmony Day, a celebration of our cultural, racial and religious diversity to be held March 21 each year.

I volunteer for a group called PANDSI, Post and Ante Natal Depression Support and Information and I am organising a Harmony Day event to be held on March 28 from 10-12 in the PANDSI grounds, 20 Stokes St Griffith ACT. The aim of the event is to share our cultural diversity for example by coming in cultural dress (or a bright colour) and having games for children with a multicultural theme and multicultural snacks and activities for adults.

I am looking for stall holders who wish to be a part of this event and promote their wares/brands/services for a small fee of $10. If anyone is interested in being a stall holder or has some suggestions of stall holders they can contact me via a comment on this thread or at emma@pandis.org.

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Federal Senator Kate Lundy has  added her support to fixing Gungahlin’s Broadband performance issues and will represent the issue to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

Yesterday Senator Kate Lundy published a media release and video of an interview she had with me concerning Broadband performance issues in Gungahlin. It is with this video and information on my website, http://www.actbroadband.net which I will use in a submission to request priority roll-out of the NBN in Gungahlin.

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Hi, I want to get some information on how to go about petitioning for full time care for disabled children and a care center for carers with burnout.

My sister and her husband have three children two who are disabled, wheelchair bound and at 14 and 9 still need nappy changes and feeding / bathing / dressing etc.

My brother in-law who was a strong, beautiful, happy man has broken over the last 18 months. Four months ago he was put on suicide watch due to his depression over the boys and the demands placed on him. A few weeks later when he was with the boys for all of ten minutes he made a call to 000 saying “come get the boys or I will kill them”. The police came and this broken man a shell of his former self was placed in Woden Psych center with drug attics and mentally ill people far from what he was suffering.

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Freedom is not a word. Freedom is not a lifestyle that can be bought and sold. Freedom is an action. Freedom is the wind in your hair. Where ever than hair may be. Freedom is a bicycle and the open road stretching out into the horizon. Freedom is not needing permission. Or oil. Or clothes. Freedom is the craziest, wildest thing you’ll do all year. Freedom is just around the corner.

World Naked Bike Ride.
March 21, 2010
Kuttabul Place, Acton
Bodypainting starts at 10:30am.
Ride leaves at noon.

Peacefully expose the vulnerability of cyclists, humanity and nature in the face of cars, aggression, consumerism and non-renewable energy.

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Sad news about a crash on Kuringa Drive just after 4am this morning.

Seems that the driver strayed onto the north-bound lane and slammed into another vehicle. (2 cars on the road at 4am? Unlucky)

From what I’ve heard, the crash was up near the Barton Highway turnoff.

Over-tired perhaps?

It brings the road toll for the year to 4.

ABC News story here

Don’t give up if you haven’t yet managed to get to the NGA Paris Masterpieces exhibition. It’s so popular the NGA has decided to extend it by two weeks to now cover the school holidays.

They’re also planning to put a limit on how many people can go in at a time – so if you do get there you’ll actually get to see something.

We’ve been hoping for a quiet day for our visit. Are we the only ones in town with such false hopes. Is half of Canberrra there waiting with us, so we can all descend on the gallery on the same ‘quiet’ day? Not likely, so it seems our ‘quiet day’ may never arrive, and we’ll have to line up like everyone else.

The Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club – Federal chapter are raffling a new 2010 Honda VT1300cx factory built chopper.  The prize includes 12 months ACT rego and all on road costs. 

The raffle is approved by ACT Racing and Gaming permit ACT R10/00035.1.

Details of the raffle and ticket purchase options are on the club website: www.vvmcfederal.com.au or available directly from club members (if you know any).  As of 15 March tickets will be available from the Canberra Motorcyle Centre (both stores) and from the Multiple Sclerosis ACT office at 117 Dennison Street, Deakin. 
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The Village Building Company, North Canberra Community Council, Friends of Mount Majura, Watson Community Association and The Conservation Council ACT Region have reached an agreement on additional conservation and traffic measures to mitigate impacts to areas around the proposed North Watson Heritage Village estate.

This has removed the necessity for an appeal of ACTPLA’s Development Approval for 316 homes in the estate. The development was approved by ACTPLA on February 4 subject to third party appeal.
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