From my listserv posts in 2000:
All events are finals now - Cameroon has just beaten Spain in a playoff after extra time in Football(Soccer) - can't wait to witness the 9 athletics finals I'll see tonight from Row 61!
The last big track and field session - was very exciting - nine athletics finals punctuated by medal presentations with new and old anthems. We were seated in the northern stand about ten rows below the Olympic cauldron. Whenever the crowd went quiet (not very often) the phoosh of the cauldron reminded us where we were. The sight of the Olympic flame helped warm us as the evening was cold and blustery.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Australian Red Cross
Anyone with a personal story to tell about the humanitarian work of Red Cross is being asked to contribute to a new book to coincide with the forthcoming centenary of Red Cross in Australia.
For more details take a look at this page
Australian Red Cross
For more details take a look at this page
Australian Red Cross
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Ten years ago - 29 September 2000
What's fresh in my mind is this morning's expedition to the Sydney Regatta Centre at Penrith. As this is on the western edge of Sydney (we live on the northern edge) we chose to drive and use the park and ride facility - in just over an hour we were in our seats ready for action but the Gods were not ready. The area was enveloped in a heavy fog and we couldn't see over to the other side of the water. When the first kayaking semi-final started half an hour late the fog had morphed into a light mist, by the time we left Penrith the sun was shining.
We got away just in time as a temp. of 34 C. was forecast. We saw a range of 1 and 2 person kayak and canoe semi-finals. As one who can't maintain her balance on anything I was so impressed by the canoeists who rowed on bended knee - a sight we don't see in Australia. I'm fascinated by how the single canoeists stay straight when they're only paddling on one side - I guess they set their rudder to counter this. I was not looking forward to this session at all - there was an article in the newspaper yesterday which nominated it as the most boring set of events.
It didn't have the excitement of a close basketball match or the grace of rhythmic gymnastics but the combination of a beautiful venue, shimmering water, shining sun, a backdrop of our unique Blue Mountains (they look blue from a distance due to foliage of gum trees) together with brunch lovingly prepared by my son and a series of short but close races gave us a morning to remember.
The night belonged to nations who don't figure highly in the medal count. The long, lithe Kenyans with their beaming smiles won two golds (and 1 silver and 1 bronze)- in the 3000m steeplechase and the 1500m race. Morococan - Hicham El Guerrouj, favourite in the 1500m, was sandwiched between 2 Kenyans at the finish. Someone near me commented that he'd better wait a while before returning to Morocco. A 17 year old Polish hammer thrower won the women's event whilst Polish Robert Korzen........ won gold in the 50km walk (a week after winning gold in the 20km) so we stood twice for the Polish anthem. I was annoyed and embarrassed for Australia when the young woman did not stand for the national anthems. My son pointed out that she had been knocking back beers all night and was probably incapable of standing. Warm nights and warm beers do not promote sobriety.
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| Olympic action at the Regatta Centre |
It didn't have the excitement of a close basketball match or the grace of rhythmic gymnastics but the combination of a beautiful venue, shimmering water, shining sun, a backdrop of our unique Blue Mountains (they look blue from a distance due to foliage of gum trees) together with brunch lovingly prepared by my son and a series of short but close races gave us a morning to remember.
The night belonged to nations who don't figure highly in the medal count. The long, lithe Kenyans with their beaming smiles won two golds (and 1 silver and 1 bronze)- in the 3000m steeplechase and the 1500m race. Morococan - Hicham El Guerrouj, favourite in the 1500m, was sandwiched between 2 Kenyans at the finish. Someone near me commented that he'd better wait a while before returning to Morocco. A 17 year old Polish hammer thrower won the women's event whilst Polish Robert Korzen........ won gold in the 50km walk (a week after winning gold in the 20km) so we stood twice for the Polish anthem. I was annoyed and embarrassed for Australia when the young woman did not stand for the national anthems. My son pointed out that she had been knocking back beers all night and was probably incapable of standing. Warm nights and warm beers do not promote sobriety.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Genealogy Wise - Progress?
When GenealogyWise a social networking site for genealogists, appeared on the scene I had high hopes for its usefulness to genealogists. I was similarly excited when Google announced their Wave product and set up an Australian Genealogists Wave. This product was even les popular with Australian Genealogists than GenealogyWise.
In my first post about this product in July 2009 I said "I, too, jumped on the Genealogy Wise bandwagon very early and have watched its amazing growth over the past couple of days." I took the initiative and set up a group for Australian Genealogists as I found the site very UScentric. "I did a quick search for Australians who had joined the Genealogy Wise site (found 14) and invited them to join the group. As of this morning the group has 13 members."
In a followup post 12 months later I wrote "Activity from the 263 members of the Australian Genealogists Group is patchy. Some days there will be a few posts and sometimes a couple of weeks go by without any activity."
Since July only 8 more Australians have joined our group and only a handful of the 271 members have posted anything to the site. Is this because others, unlike me, have no resources or news of events to share with others and have no brickwalls that they want to demolish?
There are a number of products that enable genealogists to connect with others via the internet. These include the wonderful free Rootsweb Lists and subscription sites such as Ancestry and Genes Reunited, general products like Facebook and Twitter offer further free opportunities for communication and collaboration.
Australian Family History Societies and genealogy groups could use GenealogyWise to promote their events and organisations. In this post http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/07/genealogy-wise-first-twelve-months.html I discussed how individuals can benefit from membership.
Membership of this group need not be onerous - one can set the preference to have no notifications sent; one can just log in whenever one has a few spare minutes.
I believe that having an online presence pays off so would encourage all genealogists with internet access to join GenealogyWise.
In my first post about this product in July 2009 I said "I, too, jumped on the Genealogy Wise bandwagon very early and have watched its amazing growth over the past couple of days." I took the initiative and set up a group for Australian Genealogists as I found the site very UScentric. "I did a quick search for Australians who had joined the Genealogy Wise site (found 14) and invited them to join the group. As of this morning the group has 13 members."
In a followup post 12 months later I wrote "Activity from the 263 members of the Australian Genealogists Group is patchy. Some days there will be a few posts and sometimes a couple of weeks go by without any activity."
Since July only 8 more Australians have joined our group and only a handful of the 271 members have posted anything to the site. Is this because others, unlike me, have no resources or news of events to share with others and have no brickwalls that they want to demolish?
There are a number of products that enable genealogists to connect with others via the internet. These include the wonderful free Rootsweb Lists and subscription sites such as Ancestry and Genes Reunited, general products like Facebook and Twitter offer further free opportunities for communication and collaboration.
Australian Family History Societies and genealogy groups could use GenealogyWise to promote their events and organisations. In this post http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2010/07/genealogy-wise-first-twelve-months.html I discussed how individuals can benefit from membership.
Membership of this group need not be onerous - one can set the preference to have no notifications sent; one can just log in whenever one has a few spare minutes.
I believe that having an online presence pays off so would encourage all genealogists with internet access to join GenealogyWise.
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