Showing posts with label This and That. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This and That. Show all posts

Monday, July 13, 2020

Packing your parachute

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, ' You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!   'How in the world did you know that?' asked Plumb.'I packed your parachute,' the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.

The man pumped his hand and said, 'I guess it worked!'  Plumb assured him, 'It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today.'

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, 'I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.' Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, 'Who's packing your parachute?' Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachutes.

I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your part in packing my parachute. And I hope you will send it on to those who have helped pack yours! Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word. Maybe this could explain it! When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do - you forward jokes. And to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get? A forwarded joke.

So, my friend, next time when you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile, just helping you pack your parachute.
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Sunday, March 4, 2018

Wedding versus Marriage

When the Civil Marriage Celebrant programme first came into existence in Australia back in 1974, it was considered more as a service to the community than anything else. A wonderful idea where couples could get married any where - their home. or beach or any public place.

At the same time, the wedding could take place on any day of the week, and any time of the day.

The cost of such a wedding was minimal. Even the celebrant's fees were set by the government.

Somewhere along the way, the bridal industry came into existence, and weddings stopped being a private affair between two people, and became big business. As someone said, mention the word Weddings, and it's like a magnet to all things that spell money.

Perhaps one of the worst things that has happened to weddings, is that couples, pressured by the  big, expensive, lavish weddings they read about on the Internet, actually borrow money from the bank in order to achieve that expensive wedding. As someone said,

'I should have invited my bank manager to my wedding – the money I borrowed for my big day stuck around longer than my husband did'.

And that's another worry. According to studies, the debts from the wedding, actually tend to undermine the marriage. So if you want a happy. long-lasting marriage a less expensive wedding is more likely to result in a happier, longer marriage.



 Know ways of saving on your wedding planning? Share it with us.






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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Life or Death

Just watched a film called ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’. Long story short, four months from the discovery, earth was going to go up in flames. Riots and demonstrations followed the announcement. A placard caught my eye.

‘Water is Life’ it proclaimed. You can’t argue with that.

Water is Life.
We have to have water to live.
Like air, we can’t live without water.

Being so essential to our very existence, one would think that water would be the one thing that our expensive government, would be responsible for.

But no. Our government has shunted off this responsibility on to private bodies. And what do private bodies care about? Well, it’s not about building dams and conserving water.

Instead, throughout the Internet you will find articles on:

how to shower so you can use less water
how to flush – or possibly not flush your toilet – to use less water
how to clean using less water
how to garden using less water

in short, do things using less water, because the water bills keep going up and up - while the water levels are going down and down. 

So, if water – without which we can’t live – is of no interest to our government, what is it that engages their concern? 

'Politicians rack up more than $101 million in expenses' says one paper in 2012. And 'The most outrageous thing pollies have spent our money on' says another in 2016. There's nothing the little people and their bills.

Serious about saving water?  Please share.

(www.fantastic.woodoworking)



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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Happiness - An Inside Job

Not as happy as you should be - or as you'd like to be. Try this for the next thirty days and give us the feedback.

1. Spend more time with family and friends.
2. Stop smoking.
3. Lose weight by eating sensibly.
4. Exercise to become fit and healthy.
5. Enjoy and celebrate life daily.
6. Start saving.
7. Get rid of your credit cards.
8. Stop spending.
9. Learn something new.
10. Take up something you loved as a child.
11. Volunteer in causes you’re interested in.
12. Organise the various parts of your life.
13. Take a trip – even if it’s just a bus trip to discover the city you live in.
14. Talk to at least one new person every day.
15. Make a phone call weekly to interact with people you’ve lost touch with.
16. If you’re a TV addict, give up the habit for one day a week, and read instead.
17. Get a decent night’s sleep.
18. Get excited about life.
19. Get rid of junk.
20. Think twice about replacing it with other junk.
21. Stop drinking.
22. If you spend too much time sitting around, start walking or gardening or anything that will move you from that chair.
23. Buy a diary and start recording your daily activity, even if it’s only a walk to the corner store. 
24. Start remembering friends’ birthdays and anniversaries.
25. Visit your parents not regularly, but unexpectedly and often.
26. Drive with care and courtesy.
27. Give away what you don’t want or need.
28. Concentrate on doing rather than buying.
29. Meet up for coffee or lunch with friends you rarely see.
30. Do one thing a month you’ve never dreamt of doing – attending a local dance, art show, school fete, theatre production, church service etc.
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Sunday, December 31, 2017

Guilty or not Guilty


Most books and films portray Nero as a monster. Margaret George in her book, ‘The Confessions of Young Nero’, appears to have gone in the opposite direction, almost suggesting that he was more sinned against that sinning.

The only thing that doesn’t jell with this is his killing his mother; and not killing her in a fit of temper or aggravation, but after a carefully devised plan that publicly would be seen as an accident and not as an attempt on a mother’s life by her loving son.

The plan failed – needless to say. So, what could a son do? You guessed it. He chose a few of his loyal, well-armed followers, to visit her and despatch her once and for all.

Of course he felt guilty (and a lot of good that did his mum) and anxious (his innocence of the crime was not as convincing as it would have been if she’d met her death on a sinking ship for all the world to see).

So, whether he was not quite as bad as history portrays him, killing off his mother, and subsequently other people as well, would suggest that he’d earned his reputation as not a very nice person.

As an administrator, on the other hand, he had much to teach. Instead of trying every case publicly, with great soul-stirring orations for and against a case, he would ask for written submission. He felt this would stop cases being tried emotionally by mob rule rather than law. He would read the case, consider it, and make his decision. This would also be sent as a written document rather than delivered publicly as an emotionally-charged speech.

Imagine the amount of time and public money saved if this were adopted by our legal process.

It is remarkable that thousands of years down the track we still cling to the juror system which had its problems even in its hay day, and even much more so today.

It is a system so slow and so ponderous that some cases take years to be heard; and sometimes years to be resolved.

While the system itself is expensive - the upkeep of the premises, the staff, the filing of the tons of evidence – it is even more expensive for the plaintiffs themselves.

And how just can a system be, when you hear that it’s clever lawyers that help you win a case. And how about the poor who have no money for lawyers - especially the clever, expensive ones who win cases. What are their chances of winning their case?

Now imagine if your submission was wholly in writing. Like a letter to a prospective employer, you’d include anything and everything necessary to make your case as clear as possible. This would be read by, say, a number of judges separately. They could ask for more information if necessary, but once they felt they had everything they needed to make a decision, they’d get together and discuss the case amongst themselves. Then together they’d make their decision which would be relayed in writing to the person concerned.

Seeing as the whole matter is one of legality, why not let judges, whose position is based on their knowledge of law, decide.

I rest my case. What do you think?



 http://www.cancerzodiacsign.net


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Saturday, October 21, 2017

What's Your Favourite Wedding Gift?

It looks like I'm coming to the end of an era.

This morning I got up, and as usual went to the kitchen to make a pot of tea. I rinsed out the teapot, picked up the tea caddy, and expertly pushing down the lever prepared to deliver three scoops of tea leaves. (Yes, I'm going ot be the last person on the planet to transfer to tea bags)

Instead of the three  measured scoops of tea leaves, the  mechanism jammed and out came a stream of tea leaves. Before I finished I had a mountain of tea leaves in the pot, on the sink and on the floor.

As I considered the possibility that the tea caddy might be ready to retire, I realised that of all the weddings gifts that I received more than fifty years ago, there are only two that are still with me; and still a meaningful part of my life.

One is a crockery biscuit barrel (I have an idea it was from my husband's Manchester-born Quaker-lady grandmother). The other is the tea caddy which was from someone's aunt.

I've always found the barrel attractive, and retain it even though it has acquired a chip. On the other hand I didn't find the tea caddy attractive on my wedding day, and I don't consider it a thing of beauty now. However, it was a very thoughtful and progressive gift. Plastic was just beginning to make it's way to the market, and look at the convenience of just pushing in the little thingy down the bottom, and out comes exactly the amount of tea you need!

At least half a house-moves later, these two gifts are still with me, prominently displayed in my kitchen, and still used regularly.

On my wedding day I would hardly have thought that they would be the most treasured and useful gifts of them all.

What's your favourite wedding gift?



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Monday, June 26, 2017

Cool Foods for Hot Lovers

I’ve been reading about healthy living and it seems that the Italians are one of the healthiest lot of people in the world. Not only are they healthy, but they are also fit. Obesity is not one of their problems. Their diet? Seafood, of course, as they’re surrounded by the sea, and fresh fruit and vegetables – often from their own garden patch. And they treat their meals not as something to be gotten out of the way as fast as possible, but something to celebrate at leisure.

 The result? Italians make the ideal lover, according to a new poll which placed Germans at the very bottom. The poll quizzed 10,000 women of 50 different nationalities and was taken for the wayn.com (where are you now) website which specialises in bringing people together who travel often.

 After Italians, the poll found the best lovers to be, respectively, the French, the Irish, South Africans, Australians, the Spanish, Danes, New Zealanders, Brazilians and Canadians. The British were next, penalised for ''not being very in good shape'', while the Turks were said to be ''sweaty,'' the Greeks ''smelly'' and the Russians ''hairy''.

 The Germans came in last because of their tendency to be ''too self-centered,'' while the ''hasty'' Swedes were just a notch above, the Dutch were ''too rough'', the Americans ''too dominating'' and the Scots ''too noisy''.

 So what's my next book going to be? ‘Cool Food for Hot Lovers’ coming soon to Amazon and Smashwords.
(Compliment flynheavan.com)


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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Different Face

It seems I have a husband with hidden talents.

I already knew that he was an intrepid bowler. According to statistics, bowling is one of the most dangerous sports around. More bowlers die on the green than any other sportsmen playing their game. More ambulances visit bowling greens than any other sporting site.

There is also another list of statistics. 75% of bowlers are married, unlike other groups of sports people. Could it be a question of the bowler trying to get away from the spouse that keeps them rolling those balls to the very last breath?

Whatever the case, the other day he took a day off to be a model for the Redcliffe artists. Neither he, nor I, knew what to expect. But it seems that when it comes to bowlers the artists have some very definite rules. The sitter gets paid only if he keeps his clothes on!

Here are some results of their effort. 


 Not his normal cheery self!





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