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Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has been labelled a traitor by the media and the hierarchy of the Australian Rugby Union, most notably John O'Neill all because he has been working with the South African Springboks coach Jake White and Springboks team and is about sign a deal with them as the Daily Telegraph reports today.
As far as I can tell, Eddie Jones is in no way a traitor to the Wallabies or to the ARU as he was sacked and replaced by the current Wallabies coach John Connolly and he quit his job as the coach of the Queensland Reds, all Jones is doing by helping coach the Springboks is earning a wage to support his family like everyone else is entitled to and for that I don’t think it is appropriate or fair to label a coach, who got the Wallabies to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final, a traitor just because he has found another job in a sport he loves, only it is in a different country
We don't hear the same whinging about our Australian cricket coaches coaching other international sides like Geoff Lawson who was just recently given the job of coaching the Pakistan side, another Aussie, Dav Whatmore coaches the Bangladesh cricket team etc and do they get labelled 'traitors'? I wouldn't think so, so it is certainly hypocritical of the media to label Eddie Jones a traitor when all he is doing is ensuring that he and his family have food on the table every night and a roof over their heads.
All the media and others are doing by calling Eddie Jones a traitor is showing their hypocrisy and conveniently forgetting that Australia have coaches in all sports coaching other countries so why shouldn't rugby be any different?
Although I am in a steady relationship with a guy who I absolutely adore, I sometimes miss the benefits of being a single girl while it's great to have someone who I can cuddle, kiss and spoon with, there is just something about being single which spells freedom to me.
I will now list why sometimes I feel it's better to be single:
Being able to chat to guys/ girls without worrying that your boyfriend or girlfriend is going to be jealous
Perving on that hot hunk/girl on the beach without the guilt
Being able to go out with friends with worrying that your boyfriend or girlfriend is going to ring you
That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when your crush actually smiles at you
You don't have to put up with pressure from his/ her friends to have sex with boyfriend or girlfriend (That is something I hate, it's another form of bullying in my opinion)
You don't have the constant worrying about whether he/she trusts you.
More time to spend with other friends and your family.
I am sure I could go and on about the relative benefits of being single and boy, sometimes I wish I could go back to my school days where I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend because it'd affect my school work (according to my parents) because somehow being a young teenager seemed a lot more fun then being an adult with a boyfriend.
Gimme some of that FREEDOM! LOL!
I don't know how many of you are aware of a national survey that was done of 8,900 teenage girls between the ages of 12 to 18 has revealed that 1 in 5 either starve or vomit up their food.
The study also cited a dramatic rise in the number of girls resorting to smoking and laxative abuse.
The results of the study, collated from 57 schools, showed that 18% of girls had starved themselves for two days stretches hoping to lose weight, this increased 9.9% from the study done in 2000.
It was revealed that 11% of girls used vomitting for weight loss, up from 3.4% while 8% of girls said that they had delibrately used cigarettes to suppress their appetite and control weight, up from just 2.4%.
University of Sydney research Jenny O'Dea said that the findings represented a depressing new trend. "The constant publicity surrounding Australia's obesity epidemic may be driving more girls to take more drastic measures to slim down" she said "The slim ideal has become slimmer since the year 2000, and I think girls are still under a lot of pressure to get there quickly using these dangerous methods,"
O'Dea also said that the methods girls are using to control their weight don't work as fasting was ineffective and unhealthy but other methods such as vomitting and laxative abuse were life threatening because they could induce a heart attack and smoking was a dreadful weight loss tool as it carried a whole new set of dangers.
"Females have known for decades that smoking gives an `oral fix', but what an awful way to control weight."
Dr O'Dea said the trend was occurring across all social classes, not only in wealthier white girls as was widely believed.
Affected girls also tend to be healthy weight or slightly overweight, but not obese.
Dr O'Dea said the findings showed the need for sensible, balanced weight messages in schools. "We need to be very careful with the weight messages we give our girls because we can't have them going to these extremes," she said
I find these results extremely disturbing, I don't believe it's just from hearing all the news surrounding obesity, I believe it's also pressure from other sources such as boyfriend, friends (ever heard of something called competitive dieting?), multi media (Magazines like Girlfriend and Dolly and also TV constantly showing images of these extremely skinny models walking along catwalks in Milan and Paris and images of skinny celebrities like Nicole Ritchie and Angelina Jolie) and just in general the pressure of society who expects every girl to now look like they've just come out of a photo shoot.
We really do need to start encouraging girls that if they eat healthily and eat 3 decent meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner), a healthy and reasonable amount of excerise will help keep the weight off and discouraging these dangerous methods of losing weight.
Also educating people on what an eating disorder is because it is bound to happen to you or one of your friends or guys, it could be YOUR girlfriend.
The media show also shun extremely skinny celebrities because I think it's time that teenage girls realized that just because Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton are extremely skinny doesn't mean that they have to be just like them as I believe a lot of celebrities portray having a negative body image as OK.
I sat down to watch and listen to the third State of Origin rugby league match last night and I got to say that while it was a fantastic game, I haven't been captivated by the aura of Origin like I have been when the likes of Harragon, Daley and Ettinghausen took the field for NSW and Meninga (the now Queensland coach) Allan Langer and Gorden Tallis did the same for Queensland, being a massive Blues supporter, there was someone in the Queensland side I hated and wanted the NSW boys to belt but for the last couple of years I haven't felt that way, there was no one in that Queensland side that I really hated all that much, is there anyone else who felt the same way when they watched the game last night.
Also I think maybe some of the magic of State of Origin has disappeared, I used remember singing along, as an Origin coverage began, to Queen's "We will rock you" as footage of previous Origin matches were shown eg: Wally Lewis and Mark Geyer having a bit to say to each other one night and some of the big fights that occurred etc and looking forward to seeing another fight during the game (Admittedly that's what I always watch Origin for...the all in brawls) but in the last couple of years I haven't felt any sort of magic surrounding State of Origin
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I spent a lot of last night listening to albums that I have bought and haven't had the chance to listen to or haven't listened to in a while and I have to admit there was one album that really disappointed me in all of the albuma I listened to. I listened to Time On Earth by Crowded House, My December by Kelly Clarkson, The Best Damn Thing by Avril Lavigne, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence by Powderfinger and Won't Be Soon Before Long by Maroon 5.
The new Crowded House album was what I expected it to be, quite dark and strangely beautiful. The track Even A Child is one of those songs that gets stuck in your head, it is extremely catchy. Neil Finn's voice continues to amaze me. I have no doubt that Time On Earth will debut at No 1 on the ARIA charts next week
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I am not going to go into one of those "when I was a child" rants but yesterday I found something that I didn't realize I still had, you see my parents bought me these two albums The Beatles Red Album and The Beatles 1962 -1966 and the Beatles Blue Album 1967 -1970 as a young girl of about eight or nine years old who knew the words to songs like "Eight Days A Week", "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Hello Goodbye" off by heart (thanks largely to a tape called "Beatles Hits for Kids"). I would walk around the streets of Broadbeach on the Gold Coast while on holiday singing "Eight days a week, I loooovveee you!" and annoy the hell out of my sister and parents because I wouldn't shut up (they managed to though with ice cream) and stop singing high pitched (my singing voice is high pitched and not that good).
Anyway I cleaned the dust off both CD sets and decided to write down my favourite Beatles tunes from these two albums, I thought I might share them with you (You might find there are a few classic songs missing from my list of favourites):
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Just as I suspected it would, the plans for a national history curriculum in schools across Australia have hit a snag, it's been revealed that high school students could be able to pass without learning about the ANZACS or Gallipoli under a draft of the new curriculum obtained by The Australian newspaper. Here is the article from the Australian:
History students may skip Gallipoli
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The Australian producers of Big Brother Australia have been forced to apologise to the people of Mexico after authorities became angry about the use of the Mexican flag during an episode of 'Friday Night Live' where contestants were made to dress in giant Mexican sombreros and droopy moustaches played musical chairs and ate chilli con carne to win points in the June 19 'FNL' show which was labelled as 'Mexican night'
Later, they played a game in which one team protected the Mexican flag against slime-filled balloons thrown by a rival team which obviously upset the Mexican Department of Foreign Relations, who said the event was 'offensive'. "The Mexican national flag has a long and proud history and it stands as a powerful symbol that identifies and unites Mexican citizens wherever they live," it said. "Both the [Mexican] embassy and the Mexican community in Australia are dismayed to know the insensitive and inappropriate manner in which it was presented."
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A new Aboriginal Health Emergency policy has been announced by the Prime Minister, John Howard and the Indigenious Affairs Minister, Mal Brough, the policy includes medical checks for children under the age of 16, a ban on the sale of alcohol in Aboriginal communities, and school checks (ensuring all Aboriginal children are attending school on a day to day basis). These moves are included in order to stop wide spread child abuse in Aboriginal communities.
"We regard this as akin to a national emergency," Mr Howard said in Canberra. Detailing measures to be taken, he said: "In relation to alcohol the intention is to introduce widespread alcohol restrictions on Northern Territory Aboriginal land for six months. We will ban the sale, the possession, the transportation, the consumption and (introduce the) broader monitoring of takeaway sales across the Northern Territory." The federal government would legislate to intervene in the territory to enact measures to combat child abuse, Mr Howard said. He said 50 per cent of welfare payments through Centrelink to parents of children in affected areas would be quarantined to prevent all their money being spent on alcohol. "The obligation in relation to that will follow the parent wherever that parent may go so the obligation cannot be avoided simply by moving to another part of Australia. Effectively, the arrangements will be that that 50 per cent can only be used for the purchase of food and other essentials."
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Well as you all know by now that there was major carnage around the NSW Coast especially around Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Hunter Valley and around the Central Coast during the June Long Weekend due to all the storm carnage.
I got to say that I was lucky, apart from my shoes, socks and the legs of my trousers getting wet in water that was covering the main road at Mayfield (an inner suburb of Newcastle) on Friday) I was extremely lucky, I didn't lose electricity, my house wasn't flooded or anything else like that because my house is located on the side of a hill so no floodwater can get in and compared to the stories I have heard from some of my friends and others in worse affected areas, one friend I spoke to, the bottom level of her two level house had water go through it while another friend had gone shopping at Jesmond, caught the bus, the bus couldn't go along it's original route because of flash flooding, got off the bus, hitched a ride with a couple in order to get home but couldn't so she spent the night at this couple's house...it has been quite an extraodinary weekend for so many reasons but i have to say compared with my friends and hearing other stories on the radio over the long weekend, my story is quite boring, Basically what happened to me is that I was at work and that my boss sent me home early from work but I had to walk through a car park of ankle deep water (which is nothing compared to swimming through neck deep water), I had to walk over and get something at Woolworths which is across the other side of the road meaning that I had to walk through another lot of ankle deep water just to get across the road.
Anyway I got home safely but as you can see my story is pretty tame
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Comment by Julie Keast
on Whose Band Tour Bus Would You Like to See Going Over a Cliff
World Where You Live