Thread: LEST WE FORGET

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I know I shouldn't ask, but why out there at 4am - insomnia?

I get up at 3.30 or 4 AM every day because that is the time I used to have to get out of bed all my working life, Just because I am now retired dosent change Anything
Besides I consider early morning to be the Best time of day to get those hard jobs out of the way

Originally Posted by trout1105

Besides I consider early morning to be the Best time of day to get those hard jobs out of the way

Normally, 2 or 3 glasses of water before bed will make them softer for you.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I did not know it, but there was a significant Chinese population is Australia in 1914, largely as a result of the goldrushes, and the Commonwealth had not got very far in enforcing the white Australia policy by then. So it is hardly surprising. Thirty years ago one of my coworkers married a Chinese man - she was the first non-Chinese to marry into the family, which had been living in Melbourne since the 1850s.

Historical links between Australia and China is a fascinating topic... If interested, have a read of "1421, the Year China Discovered The World" * by the late Gavin Menzies ... that year, 1,000 junks set sail from China. A number of them got stranded in Australia. The evidence is quite compelling in the light of later DNA population studies and artifacts discovered near Gympie Qld pertaining to 15th century China...
The 1421 Foundation | Gavin Menzies
cheers


* a summary of the book 1421 is here 1421 | The Lost Empire of Atlantis | 1421 | 1434 | Chinese Exploration | Gavin Menzies

Yes, 1421 is interesting. Enjoyed it. China has always dominated this region with its trading vessels coming way south.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Yes, 1421 is interesting. Enjoyed it. China has always dominated this region with its trading vessels coming way south.

I found it an interesting, and enjoyable piece of fiction. I "sort of" thought there might be something in it - until the author claimed that the Chinese penetrated to the goldfields in the Central West of NSW by sailing up the rivers that go through the Blue Mountains. For anyone with even a tiny bit of knowledge about the are would realise that the rivers are not navigable to any extent into the mountains - and invariably end in cliffs, as the early settlers found. The only route through is to follow the ridges.

If this sort of thing is touted as facts, it throws the whole of the rest of it into doubt, although there is no doubt that the Cinese did do some significant voyaging before they retreated into isoolation in the late fifteenth century.

Getting back on track I was disappointed that NZ's PM Jacinda Ardern only laid a wreath at her driveway mailbox, whereas the serviceman and woman being remembered travelled thousands of miles from home, often in poor conditions, without the benefit of bodyguards, armoured limo, police motorcycle cavalcade, etc.

I think she was setting a Covid example.

Two years ago ,I participated in the Dawn Service at the Cenotaph , Auckland N.Z.(I am 1/2 Kiwi ) .
So I just fall in and gradually people fall in behind me until I am about the middle of a squad of 100 , we march out the the underground park, up the slope to near the Cenotaph ,where a halt is called.
After a few minutes of disorderly chatting and shuffling ,the Officer I/C comes striding along stands beside me and orders a division from “this gentleman in the hat”, ..... calls the squad behind me to order and wheels them/it around to the far side of the Cenotaph , so I am therefore in the last rank of the original parade.
Still with me ?
All good so far, sappers like being away from sharp eyes, even after 52years, and then would you believe it , the parade boss comes back , calls “AHHHH ten hunnn “ , “ A...bout Turnn”, and so now where is this shy sapper of rural background ? flamin right marker.
😳. Lest we Forget ANZAC