Happy New Year

Here it is, the second last day of the second last year of the first decade of the21st Century. Who would have thought that it would have flown by so fast. This day ten years ago everyone was wondering whether all the world’s computers would crash and send us back into the dark ages. Well, I admit I was hopeful that all would be well, so I hadn’t stocked up with cases of baked beans. Of course nothing happened and I have been a little wary of the panic merchants ever since, but it did highlight our dependence on our little machines – a dependence which has increased rather than decreased over the proceeding ten years.

As I get older the years seem to speed by faster and faster. I have a theory which I believe explains why - when we are one year old a year is all our life, when we are two it is half our life, when we are twenty it is one twentieth and so on. The percentage of life to year is constantly dropping so the years speed up accordingly. Working out why is one thing but seeing that magic date - 1st of January, rushing towards me is something else entirely. I want things to slow down a little. My life is going too fast.

This got me thinking about New Year's Day. I've always known that the calendar is a rather arbitrary thing. It has been fiddled with over the years. In fact January 1st has not always been the first day of the year. More often than not New Year started in March.  Before the British adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, they used two calendar systems. The historical year began on January 1st but the Civil year began on March 25th. It is interesting for family historians because ancestors born between January 1st and March 25th have a double year for their birth date e.g. 2nd February 1717/18 to cover this anomaly. In fact March 25th is a more sensible date as it is considered to be the beginning of Spring - and Spring is the time for renewed growth. January 1st isn't anything really. Many cultures around the world still consider the March date as the logical date for the New Year, especially in the Middle East and India.

Celebrating the New Year in whatever day it is deemed to fall, has a tradition that goes back over 4000 years to the Ancient Babylonians. They celebrated the day on the first New Moon after the Vernal or Autumn Equinox. The Romans originally celebrated the New Year in March and that is why September to December are the 7th to 10th months respectively. But the Romans liked to fiddle with their calendar and before long the calendar had no agricultural significance at all. So Julius Caesar changed the calendar, made January 1st the New Years day, and hey presto we had the Julian calendar. To bring it back into line with the seasons he had to allow that year to run for 445 days. Now the Julian calendar has 365 days but we know that the year is actually 365¼ days. As a result, every four years the calendar became one day behind. Eventually Spring was celebrated in what should have been the Autumn months and the farmers had no idea where they were. So in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that an extra day would be added to the calendar every four years and to bring the calendar back into line with the seasons he dropped ten days. People went to sleep on 4th October 1582 and woke up on 15th October 1582.  Some sleep what????

Ah time. How fleeting. How confusing. How arbitary.

Newcastle Earthquake

Twenty years ago Newcastle was shaken by an earthquake that killed twelve people and injured hundreds more.  Australia was shocked.  My parents-in-law were living in Stockton at the time so as soon as the news broke we rang to check that they were ok.  They told me that when their house started to shake and they realised it wasn't the result of workmen down on the breakwater, they had rushed outside to see what was happening.  Their neighbours joined them and one wag called out to the butcher that he'd better watch what he put in his sausages from now on, causing everyone to laugh, thus breaking the tension.  Fortunately nobody my in-laws knew was hurt, although their local church had scaffolding all around it for a long time afterwards.

Funny things go through the mind when it experiences an earth tremor.  I remember when I was in Perth a tremor struck and I thought that a heavy truck was going past my house.  Heavy trucks never went along my quiet little street so it was a silly thought.

When I was studying Geography in High School I specifically remember being taught that Australia was an old and stable continent and didn't have Earthquakes.  After the Newcastle Earthquake, I was astounded that such twaddle could have been taught, as the Daily Telegraph included a list of Earthquakes that had occurred in Australia, going back to the earliest days of European Settlement.

A few years later I was reading the account of Australia's first recorded Earthquake which struck Port Jackson (Sydney) in June 1788.  Governor Phillip wrote the following report:-

"The 22nd of this month we had a slight shock of an earthquake; it did not last more than 2 or 3 seconds. I felt the ground shake under me and heard a noise that came from the southward, which I at first took for the report of guns fired at a great distance."

Apparently a young convict had managed to escape into the bush and had not been recovered.  However, he was so frightened by the earthquake that he returned and surrendered.  He should have taken his chances in the bush because he was hung for escaping custody.

The earth is always moving along its plates and while it does so even old and stable continents like Australia can do a little dance.  Although Newcastle's earthquake was shocking for us we managed to escape the massive destruction and loss of life that has occurred in other countries and I hope we continue to do so.  Let us reflect on those who died and keep our fingers crossed for the future.

Wish I could do this

Digital Storytelling

A friend of mine spends quite a few hours converting his photographs into interactive slideshows complete with music and text. He brings the resulting disks over to show me and I must admit he does a good job for someone who is still learning the basics.  He also has a video camera with film clips which he is learning to edit.  I have always intended learning to edit all my daughter's video disks and perhaps create my own slideshows, but somehow I have never allocated the time to do it.  I have too many projects in the fire - transcribing my Gt Grandfathers diaries, writing my parents and my own biographies, finishing all those stories that just exist as outlines in folders etc etc. (playing games on the computer which takes precedence over all) - things that I had better complete before encroaching Alzheimer's or that dreaded finger of fate puts a stop to any such activities.

However, a colleague's blog has just drawn my attention to a new form of digital creativity entitled digital storytelling.  This is an enhanced programme which allows us to add photos, videos and dialogue to our own little movies.  Very interesting.  A quick Google search located free downloadable software which I will have to check out - so guess what I am going to try while I am on holidays?  Perhaps I'll be able to produce something that will make my friend jealous. Perhaps I'll be able to make so many films that everyone dives for cover when they see me approach with a disk in my hand.  Oh the power. Watch out Spielberg, move over Cameron, hide Jackson - Jen is on her way.

Do snakes drink milk?

A while ago I was browsing through an old newspaper microfilm - I am sure it was The Sydney Mail (1860) but don't quote me on that - and I found an interesting article which told the story of a mother, who had just finished feeding her baby, had laid it down to sleep and returned soon after to see a snake licking milk off her baby's lips.  Of course she freaked - as would I. Fortunately the baby was unharmed  but I'm not too sure about the snake. It was a while ago.

The same article mentioned an old bushman's tale about snakes crawling up the legs of cattle to drink from their udders.  I was intrigued and mentioned both stories to my mother - thinking I would surprise/shock or at least make her go Ugh!!!  She was neither surprised nor shocked and in fact told me that my Grandfather (her father-in-law) always put a bowl of milk out on the verandah if he thought there was a snake anywhere around the house. The milk attracted the snake and my Grandfather dealt with it.  My Grandparents lived on a grazing property 21 miles from Guyra and snakes were one of the hazards one had to be aware of.  I almost walked on one once.

I was telling my colleagues this fascinating tale and decided to do a Google search to back up my story.  Imagine my chagrin when it appeared that milk drinking snakes were considered to be myths.  How could this be true? It was in the newspaper wasn't it?  My Mum said my Grandfather trapped snakes with milk - didn't he?  Was this all a lie? Oh no!!!!!!!!!

Imagine my relief when I found some proof to back me up.  The Sydney Morning Herald on 2 Dec 1950 had an account of just such a milk drinking snake.  Phew.  I breathe again.

If anyone is interested in the article you can check it out here.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19501202&id=M44QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JZMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5909,434524

Flying Dutchman ...or stop that ship

While checking the shelves today I came across “The Flying Dutchmen and other folktales from the Netherlands” by Theo Meder. Although the brief account of the Flying Dutchmen gave one version of the legend, it made me think about this fascinating tale. Many dismiss the story of the ghostly ship, doomed to sail the waters off the Cape of Good Hope for eternity as myth, but sailors seeing the image of a sailing ship with all its sails set, sometimes in the distance and sometimes close enough that they feared a collision, don’t doubt what they have seen and are fearful of the consequences; for it is considered bad luck to cross paths with the Dutchman. There are many legends about the origin of the ghost ship and most of them involve the Devil and the selling of souls. Such beliefs are more thrilling than the more likely tale of a ship that sank with the loss of all aboard.

Regardless of the origins of the Dutchman’s legend, it is irrefutable fact that the ship has been seen by sailors sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, from the earliest recorded sighting noted in George Barrington’s book “The voyage to Botany Bay”, published in 1795, right through to the 1950’s. It was even seen by King George V, when he was serving as a Midshipman aboard the HMS Baccante in 1880. In those days the British had a Naval Base nearby, and there are numerous recordings of the Dutchman listed in their logs to complement those made by merchant sailors following the trade routes. The Naval Base has long since gone and the large modern tankers and cruise ships no longer sail those haunted waters, preferring deeper waters away from the coast, so sightings of the Dutchman are few and far between, now.

There are some who say the Dutchman is merely a mirage caused by the reflection of a ship sailing somewhere out of sight. I suppose that is possible for some of the sightings, but many of the images of the Dutchmen defy this explanation. Who could explain a sailing ship in full sail creating a mirage in the 1950’s or a mirage sailing straight towards you and disappearing when impact is imminent?

I wonder if the Dutchman is still there. Would I see it if I sailed those haunted waters? It’s something to think about.

Do you really know what you are reciting?

Ring-a-ring-a-roses a pocket full of posies: atishoo, atisho we all fall down.  What a fun little rhyme and a fun game for a group of children to play.  Very few of those children would know that their innocent little ditty had a dark and gruesome past. That it referred to one of the great pandemics to hit the world - the plague or Black Death.  The ring-a-roses was the rash on the skin which was an early sign of the disease, while the pocket full of posies referred to the herbs people carried in their pockets in a hope of warding off the disease.  Sneezing was a symptom of the plague and the victims did fall down - dead. 

So many of our treasured Nursery Rhymes have their origins in historical fact.  Many were written as satire - making fun of Political Figures, Royalty or events in a time when Freedom of the Press was not considered a universal right.  In many cases their origins have been forgotten but it is fun to track them down.

Little Jack Horner has its origins in the dissolution of the monasteries when the Abbot of Glastonbury in Somerset hoped to appease Henry VIII by sending him a pie with the deeds to 12 Somerset Mansions inside.  The task of taking the pie to the King was given to the Steward, John Horner, who was reputed to have broken the crust and removed the deeds to the Manor of Mells, which he kept for himself.  The Abbot's fears were realised when Henry confiscated the Monastery and its lands and had the poor Abbot hung, drawn and quartered.

Anyone interested in this subject might find the book by Jean Harrowven: The origins of rhymes, songs and sayings (London: Kaye and Ward, 1980) worth browsing through. 

There is also an interesting website which gives the origin of many rhymes.

http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/nursery_rhymes/nursery_rhymes_index.htm

The Library

Parramatta City Library - my home from home - began its service to the public in the Jubilee Hall 2, part of Parramatta Town Hall - on the 29th November 1958.  It soon outgrew its available space so a new Library building was opened in 1964.  A second storey was completed in 1979.  Check out the Library website at http://www.parracity.nsw.gov.au/culture__and__leisure/library

To begin

This is a project started at the request of my Library Manager, who wants her staff to be familiar with the wonderful new technology now available to the humble user on the Net.  Over the last few years technology has changed beyond anything that the Science Fiction writers of the 1950's could ever hope to imagine.  Dick Tracy's wrist watch is no longer fantasy and I suspect the writers of today, trying to imagine the world of tomorrow will fall far short of what actually will happen.  Alas, my car won't fly and we don't have colonies on other planets, but these are minor complaints compared to what we do have and what we will eventually achieve.

So, rock on Web 2.0, 4.0 and 100.0.  We'll be ready for you.