Reasons to be very cross - Part 1 ( No Ian Drury though)

I expect people expected a diatribe today, in fact over the last few weeks, but here are things I am too cross to discuss :
The Industrial Reform announced yesterday
The new Tasmanian Forestry Agreement
Mandatory Detention
DIMIA
Re the whole Corby affair, I heard a similar story on Radio National, except the woman was Japanese and the country prosecuting and gaoling was Australia :
Chika
Chika is the story of a Japanese tourist who lost ten years of her life in Australian prisons for a crime many people believe she never committed. What started out as the holiday of a lifetime nearly became a death sentence, after Chika was accused of involvement in one of Australia's biggest heroin smuggling cases.The documentary explores the deep cultural misunderstandings and mistranslations responsible for Chika’s imprisonment, and the friendships in jail that kept her going after she tried to kill herself. Chika’s story is narrated by Mayu Kanamori, a Sydney-based Japanese-born documentary maker, and features original music recorded in a collaboration between Australian composer Tom Fitzgerald and Japanese-born koto virtuoso Satsuki Odamura.

This is exactly the same situation as Corby’s. I don’t know where you can hear it now, but it was repeated this year.

I am doing weird sleeping again. Yesterday I slept in the afternoon from 4 – 6pm ( Dr Who!!) then I slept again from just after 6 till 7-30. I woke up this morning at about 7 am and gave up trying to sleep. I watched Stargate: Atlantis and then cooked the Labradors’ breakfast and knitted. I did 40 rows of the Fibonacci Jumper last night, all with the correct colours too. Quelle surprise ! I feel I am on the homeward run now, half way across the front, with only one more section of patterning to think of. I shall have to think long and hard as I don’t want to have to undo anything again. I have two sleeves to knit and a bazillion ends to sew in. The sleeves should be OK. I knitted 1/3 of my cardigan sleeve quite quickly. I am jumpering in earnest now though…..
I have a tiny paper cut on my thumb at the base and it really hurts. If I was being snarky I would say that I thought Bush was refining paper cuts as a new torture instrument.
Oh there is another thing I am too cross to talk about. He said this ( more or less) : The trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur. I shake my head in dismay. This is the man who – NO I am too cross to talk about it.
Today is the last day of school. Hurray. Lots of my friends will be available for brunch, lunch or afternoon tea on a weekday!! I will have to do a lot of sleeping and napping so I have some stamina and not collapse in a social heap.
Today I am making poached pears to take to Di’s for tea, so here is the recipe.
Poached Pears
Beurre bosc pears ( 6 for this amount) peeled but leave the stalk on
500 ml red wine
l water
180 g sugar
1 cinnamon stick
orange or lemon rind – ¼ of the orange or ½ of the lemon
Place all ingredients except the pears into a medium to large pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pears ( you might need to slice the bottoms off to make them sit flat) and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn the pears if needed. Cool in the pan and then refrigerate the pears. Boil the syrup for as long as it takes to thicken. BE CAREFUL as it turns to toffee really quickly!!!