Well actually, it’s Terrigal, but the name stuck in our mouths as we motored around this beautiful place, so the name ‘Terrible’ is ironic.

This really is (or probably was if you are reading this in the future) an idyllic spot.

I first visited Terrigal about ten years ago.  It was a small coastal town, largely undiscovered though the Crowne Plaza Resort had just recently been completed.  Since then the property values have soared as it’s only an hour from Sydney by train, three days by road (Sydney traffic is like visiting a car park).

My beloved and I were there last in September 2008 for my grandson’s 1st birthday.  He had a party and for some reason he wanted it to be a cowboys and indians theme.  His mum and dad didn’t get a say, they went along for the donkey ride . . .

   He wasn’t at his best

   for his birthday,

   he may have got in a fight

   at the saloon;

   he had a thick lip and

   someone must have

   knocked out the rest of

   his teeth, he only had a couple.

   And he was dealing with a cold.

   But his cheeks were rosy,

   like all cowboys.

He did OK for himself though.  He won the heart of a squaw and he pulled her plaits like all heroes do.

Apart from listening to his wisdom, we went a few places around Terrible.  They even have a place they named after a very good friend of mine, possibly my favourite.  It’s called Erina.  Then there’s a place called Avocado, Cucumber and there really is a place called Copacabana where music and passion are always in fashion.

A beautiful spot we went for lunch one day is Patonga Beach.  If ever you are near Terrible, go there.

I recommend the fish and chips at the Patonga Beach Hotel.

We also went looking for a dandelion one day.  I wrote about that.  While doing that though we found this beautiful thistle, a sight to warm a Scotsman’s heart, though I didn’t have one with me.

And, I don’t know about you but, whenever we find a lot of rocks we build tiny cairns.  We did, down near The Haven.

It really is a beautiful part of the country.  It isn’t terrible at all.  One last image.

My beloved is the funniest woman I know.  Just as well really, I need someone to entertain me as I get bored easily.  She isn’t always deliberately funny though, sometimes it is just the way she thinks.

For example, she’s chauffeuring me someplace one day and she tells me that she likes to keep the car’s petrol tank topped up.  She knows I like to live dangerously to see how far I can get on empty.  

She reckons its one less thing to worry about.

“Really?”

“So you are free to worry about more important things?  World peace?  Starving Zimbabweans?”

I’m not really sure, though I do feel sure that once she reads this she will tell me in no uncertain terms what she means.

But it got me to worry about worry.  What does it achieve?  How can we alleviate it?  Should we adopt Alfred E Neumann’s motto?  ”What, me worry?”

Worrying doesn’t achieve much, in fact all it does is hasten you to your grave.  Whatever is coming to pass, will.  You won’t alter your future by worrying, though some planning can help (like topping up the car’s tank before you run out rather than after) and then once the plan is in place forget it.  

She’s right, that girlfriend of mine.  It is one less thing to worry about if the car is not about to run out of fuel.  What she means, and I feel sure she will tell me in no uncertain terms whether I am right in this, is that it does not free you up to worry about other stuff.  It will just free you up to live in the moment.

We don’t often do that, live in the moment.  We do worry about the past, what we said, who we said it to, who we threw up on, who we disappointed.  And we worry about all that happening again in the future.  Though, if you are like me your days of throwing up are over.  If not, don’t drive and throw up, the stuff is hard to get off the car door.

Today, join with me in living in the moment.  The past already happened and it’s too late to go back and wipe up.  The future will arrive in its own good time.  Enjoy your day.  And top up the car, it’s one less thing to worry about.

Yesterday my beloved and I stopped to pick up a few Australia Day (happy Australia Day to you by the way) supplies from the supermarket.  We negotiated the abandoned trolleys in the underground car park and parked in a relatively trolley free spot.  We shopped.

When we returned to the car, the trolleys had advanced and now were to the left of us and dead ahead, as well as being partially in the lane reserved for the fools who actually drove.

The funny thing is the trolleys carelessly abandoned in the lanes must have been dumped by other fools who drove; why else be in the car park with a trolley?

Yet after unloading their Australia Day supplies into their cars, these fools just roar off leaving the trolley wherever it happened to be.

The trolley corral (my beloved assured me those little enclosures are called trolley corrals) is only a few metres away so why couldn’t the self-absorbed walk a few extra paces to put the trolley out of the way?

I get the impression they must think they are either the only person who matters, or there are teams of slaves rushing around after them collecting their abandoned detritus.

Aldi may have got it right, I believe you have to pay a refundable deposit and their trolleys are not all over the car park.  It’s the free trolleys that people seem to have no incentive to do anything with once they have finished with them.

Maybe a car park cowboy, a Trolley Sheriff is what’s needed.  He (or she) can corral the trolleys while putting a warning shot through the head of offenders.  They won’t do it again if there is likely to be the disagreeable outcome of a head wound.

A few days ago a video appeared on YouTube and a whole lot of hooplalalala (or whatever that is) erupted about the video.  It wasn’t a rude jobby.  It was a cute fairy story kinda like Cinderella.

I was going to write about it the other day but the lunch with mates was so enervating I have been resting for the last couple of days.

This ‘event’ became known as ‘The Man In The Jacket’.  And it became clear from the outset, as cynicism in cyber space is very healthy indeed, that it was likely a hoax.

The original video as it appeared on YouTube can be downloaded from my server here.

Click save to save it to your machine or run to have it load into your media player. This is a large 10 mb mp4 file so if you prefer to watch it streaming click on the video.

Here’s the story as it unfolded.  From The Sunday Telegraph:

 
Sydney woman makes YouTube clip to find man in the jacket

By Marnie O’Neill

The Sunday Telegraph

January 18, 2009

YouTube hit … Sydney woman, Heidi, believes she has found the love of her life in a cafe - but doesn’t know who the man is

 

THEIR eyes met over scrambled eggs and a laptop in a half-empty cafe in the heart of Sydney last Monday.

The waiter had mixed up their orders. Smiling, the young woman walked over to the man’s table and swapped her meal for his ham croissant.

Now their encounter - and the jacket he left behind - has become the subject of one of the most popular and controversial Sydney YouTube clips, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

But is it a hoax? Or is it an internet love story to match the tale of New York-based Australian Camille Hayton, who found fame, but not love, as “the girl on the subway”?
 

You can read the whole news article by following the link.  I was curious and pledged to do some digging but the hoax was revealed before I got a chance to.  Thank God, because I’m awesomely lazy.

Heidi Clark is a hoaxer, she was paid to do it to generate interest in a new line of men’s wear.  You can read the latest episode in the fake Cinderella story in the Sydney Morning Herald:

YouTube jacket hoaxer unveils the truth

Asher Moses

January 21, 2009 - 2:00PM

 

 

Hoax … Heidi Clarke poses with the jacket, and inset left, the ad she put on her website. Inset right, TV presenter Jonathan Pease.

The jacket spruiker who tried to trick Australians into believing she was on a romantic quest to find a mystery man she met in a Sydney cafe has made a full confession on YouTube.

After going to ground yesterday, “Heidi Clarke”, who launched a YouTube appeal to find a man who apparently left his jacket at Jet Cafe Bar in the city, posted a new video last night in which she admitted she was an actress hired to promote a new menswear line from a fashion company.

“Why did I do it? Well, to be honest I’m a hopeless romantic and like a lot of you guys I love a good love story,” she said, adding that her real name was Lily.

You can see her confession, and advert for the jacket, here:

It is revealed.  There are no such things as fairy stories.

Ever since the movie of that name sharks have occupied a special place in some people’s minds.  The place where great fear is harboured.  We have had a few shark attacks over the last few weeks and look at the news  headlines.

Australia on shark alert

Australia is on shark alert after three attacks in two days.

Shark nets ‘no barrier’

Shark nets are effective but they are not an absolute barrier between swimmers and the ocean predators, SeaWorld shark expert Trevor Long says.  Two shark attacks on Sunday have caused a flurry of concern about swimmer safety.

Suspected third shark attack in two days

A bull shark is suspected of a third shark attack on Australia’s east coast in just two days.  A snorkeller is believed to be the third shark attack victim off the east coast of Australia in two days.

Suspected?  

“What to you reckon bit you mate?”

“A shark”

“Looks more like a guppy bite to me”

How can it be suspected?  Unless of course there are larger carp or guppies in that area that are known to be aggressive.

However this tale is about the victim of one of those recent shark attack.  A youngster name of Hannah Mighall.

This post is dedicated to her.  From ABC News:

Leave shark alone, young victim says

 

Authorities conducted a search for the shark, but its young victim says she wants it left alone (ABC)

The teenager who was attacked by a shark in waters off Tasmania’s north east coast says she does not want the five-metre white pointer to be caught and killed.

Hannah Mighall was surfing at Bailey’s Rocks off Binalong Bay last Sunday when the shark bit her leg.  She was dragged through the water for several metres.

Authorities conducted a search for the shark, but its young victim says she wants it left alone.  

“I don’t want them to kill the shark, I want the shark to live,” she said.   ”I was in its territory so it’s not really it’s fault and it didn’t really kill me or anything. I still wouldn’t want it killed though.”

Hannah is amazing.  She is attacked by a shark, manages to get away and get to safety and in the midst of what must be terrific shock takes the view that the shark did nothing wrong.  That the shark was just doing what sharks do and accidents happen if you wander into a predator’s territory.

There is a lesson in life there for all of us, and it comes from a 13 year old.  This week’s hero is Hannah Mighall of Tasmania.   But she’s not, in her eyes, a hero.  And she still sounds just like a teenage kid. This is like Hannah:

“In my head, I was just like, ‘Oh my God, it’s a shark’. 

“It was massive. Its head was like 2 metres wide. It just seemed so big,” she said. 

“The shark deserves to live like any other creature. I was in its territory, it’s not its fault,” she said.

That’s humility and courage.

I reckon she’s a hero.