Mayor4Unley

Bravo Butcher 👍 On Friday I went to the local butcher at Goodwood; BTW it's one of the best butcher shops in SA! Anyway, I went to collect the Christmas order; before the rush on Saturday. I thought, as a treat I would get the dog a couple bones; some nice beef rib bones; the safest type for dogs. I was staggered to learn that the butcher had no bones; not a single bone. However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the entire stock of bones had been donated to the RSPCA/AWL. What a nice Christmas gesture. It reflects the general goodwill that pervades the shopping strip @ Goodwood. My dog gets no bone for Christmas, but the dogs at the animal shelters will have a nice treat 👍 When next considering making a donation to charity, why not send a few dollars to the Animal Welfare League. They do so much with so little. It's a great cause!

The semicolon tattoo is all the rage. It can be tiny or large. I've seen quite a few, in a few odd body locations and wondered what it means. The selling point of the semicolon tat is that it is supposedly for a good cause and can be small and discreet; or as large as you like. There is a social organisation called Project Semicolon and it aims to raise awareness for mental health issues. This is the origin of the semicolon tattoo. According to the organisation’s official website, “a semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life;”. People all over the world are getting semicolons tattooed on themselves to signify their battle with mental illness or show support for those who need it. I'm tempted to get a tat, but may defer for a few years; instead, I'll make a donation to Beyond Blue.

Thank you for the Christmas and New Year cards. This year I received 31 cards. Not a bad effort for someone who does not send cards. Why bother? It costs 70c postage + the card and it gets quickly scanned and hung on a string across the window or placed on a shelf and never really looked at again. It's sort of a boast thing; to show off your cards. It's not that I don't care, because I do. True friends will take no offence when I don't reciprocate with a card. However, it is strange they they do keep persisting year after year. They always have and they always will. The cards will continue arriving year after year. Giving to my favourite charities is more meaningful than sending Christmas cards. The cost of 31 cards = 31 x (0.70 + 4.00) = $145 Isn't it a more worthwhile outcome to send no cards and save $145 to give to a charity?

We are the lucky country. But our luck and good lifestyle comes at the expense of, or is in stark contrast to those less well off; those who are disadvantaged. It’s Christmas and our thoughts turn to those who won’t have a very merry Christmas. I was reading the back of a Christmas card sent to me. The purchase of the card provided a donation to the Salvation Army. I was staggered to read: The Salvation Army helps more than one million disadvantaged Australians each year without discrimination; this includes people who are hungry, homeless, abandoned or abused; that's one person helped every 30 seconds. One million people (out of a population of 23 million) need help from the Salvos each year. In NZ, the Salvos help 120,000 people. Each week in Australia the Salvos provide: ·          100,000 meals for the hungry ·          2,000 beds for the homeless ·     ...

Today is Friday and it’s Casual Day at work. It is customary to have a charity donation tin to collect for the privilege of wearing jeans and casual clothes to work. Earlier in the year, a female colleague visited Laos and was shocked by the stories about the impact of unexploded cluster bombs scattered across that country. During the Vietnam War, Laos became the most bombed country on the globe with the USA dropping (amongst other ordnance) 270 million cluster bombs on the country. Many remain unexploded. They continue to maim and kill. Often the result is loss of limbs. There has been a recent documentary about the efforts being made to find and destroy the cluster bombs. It has been estimated that at the current rate of progress due to a lack of substantial funding, it will take another 30-50 years. At work, our Casual Day charity is COPE - Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise which provides prosthetics and mobility devices for people who require them ...