Hervey Bay Gossip

Ok it is the beginning of the silly season but this one might be really beat everything that is yet to come.

If you’re a little cramped for space in your home but you still want to put up a nice big Christmas Tree then perhaps you really should put it up … literally … upside down on the ceiling.

A number of retailers are offering Christmas trees designed to be mounted on the ceiling. As I write this Christmastreeforme.com has several models for sale.

It’s not even December and the silly season is already in full swing.

Stilton chees and mincemeat pies are almost synonomous with England and probably helped to make England conquer the empire but who would have thought that they could ever be icecream flavours?

Yes, that’s right, Churchfield Farm is now offering Stilton cheese as an icrecream flavour. Llanfaes Dairy in Wales is offering mince icecream in addition to their popular Christmas pudding flavour.

And it you should want to try making your own Stilton flavoured icecream you can find a recipe here.

At least Wallace and his nice littel bit of Wensley Vale cheese is still safe … for the moment.

For many Australians Black Friday brings back memories of savage bushfires that swept through Victoria many years ago. But if you’re an American Black Friday means something althogether different.

Black Friday is the day that many US retailers have all the red ink in their ledgers turned to black as thousands of shoppers surge through malls and shopping areas in search of bargains.

It’s a post Thanksgivving tradition and this year this year has been no different. Across America shoppers and bargain hunters gathered before dawn in the hope of grabbing that special bargain.

For example one major retailer was offering a 60 percent discount on seasonal clothing a some expensive jewellery while others were offering similar specials and discounts that expire at noon.

Now I know why I like living in Hervey Bay

Entries for the Hervey Bay Light Up Our City competition closed yesterday and judging will take place between December 1 and 14.

A number of houses around Scarness and Kawungan have already begun to display their lights and decorations and from December 1 the town should really come alive after dark.

All entrants will have their lights on between 7pm and 9pm

Whatever it was that once made America great seems to have faded away in the last couple of years and all that remains is an ever increasing tide of rampant silliness.

The latest crazy idea comes from the US Chamber of Commerce who have suggested that the federal government should now begin to tax hybrid and other fuel efficient cars.

At a time when the US and the world desperately need more cars like that an important body, that you would think contained some intelligent people, wants fuel efficient vehicles to be taxed.

What a great idea, instead of encouraging the further development of these vehicles and giving people incentives to buy them let’s tax ‘em out of existence.

The World Health Organisation reports that 1 in 6 women suffers domestic violence and every 18 seconds somewhere a woman suffers domestic violence. Other official bodies suggest that the figure is even worse than that. In this article Toni Livesey gives some background.

Domestic Violence IT’S NOT ON!

It’s time to take a stand against domestic violence and it is also the time for men to take that stand also. One in four women will experience a violent relationship at some time in their lives. When you consider how many women there are in the world today that number is frightening.

On 17th December 1999 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that designated the 25th November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This resolution was supported by Australia and since that date the Australian Government has marked the event with a range of community activities alongside the rest of the international community.

The White Ribbon Campaign is the largest effort in the world where men are working together to end men’s violence against women. Wearing a white ribbon is seen as a personal pledge to never commit, never to condone or remain silent about violence against women.

Domestic violence affects the whole family, women and children especially. It can sometimes be fatal and it is often ignored. Quite often the men who take control of their partner’s lives, see it as their right to do so. They show their power with their fists; their body blows hurt and can kill, but so does the emotional blackmail.

When the beatings stop, the emotional and mental anguish continues. Many women in these situations are desperate to leave but they stay because they believe that they cannot be loved by others. It is beaten into them that they are worthless and no one else would ever want them.

Unfortunately many women believe that they are not worthy and the abuse goes on…

Domestic violence isn’t just physical hitting.

It includes threatened violence and intimidation, the control of finances and emotional abuse or violence.

Domestic violence is all about one person using physical force and emotional abuse to control another.

Sexual abuse is when a husband pushes his wife into having sex without her wishes.

A man who shouts and who intimidates with his voice… puts his wife down, criticises every move that she makes and threatens her; is being emotionally abusive.

Financial abuse is the withholding of money, the husband decides to control his wife or partner’s spending unfairly and prevents her from accessing their accounts.

For free confidential advice (24 hours) call the Violence Against Women Helpline on 1800 200 526.

For details on White Ribbon Day events or where to buy a ribbon visit http://www.whiteribbonday.org.au

Thanks to the civic mindedness and the generosity of the Hervey Bay Boat Club our local police now have two new vehicles to add to their fleet.

The Boat Club recently handed over two new 360cc Kawasaki quad bikes for the police to use in beach patrols and in the Esplanade precinct as well as along the Links Mobility Corridor.

Sunstate Motorcycles are also to be commended for providing maintenance sponsorship for the new bikes.

I was surprised to see figures recently that show that sales of camera phones are booming around the world. If the current trend continues manufacturers will be shipping around 847 million camera phones a year by 2009.

Here in Hervey Bay a camera phone that has a 1.3 megapixel capacity is considered big news and finding someone at one of the phone stores who has much of a clue about camera phones can be difficult. But out there in the wider world it is possible to pick up a camera phone with an 8 megapixel capacity and that figure could well increase in the near future.

Camera phones that pack that much punch have a better resolution than many consumer-level digital cameras and many American households are opting for a camera phone instead of a straight digital camera.

But don’t be fooled, a camera that takes pictures is not the same as a phone that takes pictures. You may think that a camera phone offers a level of convenience that is missing from a digital camera but that may not be the case.

Perhaps all that makes me sound like a Luddite but I’m not. I have a camera phone and I have a digital camera and the phone is great for phone calls while the camera is great for photographs.

One of the more important things to think about when making the purchase is what you have to do to transfer the images from the phone to your computer. Is it as simple as plugging it into your computer or do you actually have to email the photos to yourself?

Battery life is another important factor. It’s great to be able to take heaps of photos with a digital camera but the battery size and life of a camera phone may severely limit the numbers of photos you can take before you need a recharge.

You don’t want to be in the position of having to decide whether to grab that last great snap or retaining enough battery life in your phone so that you can be available for that important phone call that could arrive at any time.

Also compare the cost – is your camera phone going to be used predominantly for phone calls? If it is going to be used for that purpose is the added convenience of being able to take photos worth the extra price

Finally, analysts believe that despite such big megapixel numbers industry analysts think that ultimately the biggest demand will come down to cameras in the 3 megapixel range. Is the quality going to be the same from a low megapixel phone camera as it would be from a consumer-level digital camera?

With the rising cost of fuel every car owner has begun to look at just how much fuel goes into the tanks of our cars. Fuel economy has become very important to most of us.

Here in Australia we have recently seen the introduction of labelling on new vehicles that is supposed to show the fuel consumption of that vehicle. On the surface that seems like a really good idea but are those figures genuine?

In the US a recent study has found that the posted fuel consumption figures in 90 percent of the 303 vehicles tested was inaccurate. In some cases the discrepancy between claimed fuel consumption and real fuel consumption was as much as 30 percent.

In the United States the worst discrepancies came in the fuel consumption claimed for city driving compared to what the genuine consumption was for the same conditions. Some models tested had variations of between 35 and 50 percent.

Are we looking at a similar situation here in Australia?

Few people realise just how fragile a computer can be and if you want your machine to last then you really must look after it.

Taking care of your computer can extend its life by quite a considerable margin and one of the simplest things you can do to look after your computer is to turn it off and unplug it from the wall socket any time an electrical storm is in the area.

Another important time to unplug it from the wall socket is if there is a blackout or if the power has been turned off by the electricity company. On Wednesday Ergon disconnected the power to parts of Kawungan for five hours and at least one person found that simply switching the machine off prior to the power cut was not enough to protect it from the surge that came when the power was restored.

Here at the Hervey Bay Gossip’s office we always turn off and disconnect whenever a storm is around and whenever there is a power cut.